Re: Outrageous mass murder in Vancouver

On 2025-04-27 9:46 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote:

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> writes:

 

[snip]

 

Police quickly ruled out terrorism. How?

 

a: he was "known to the police"

 

b: Canada isn't as facile or quick to label crimes
as "terrorist" compared to the US (which, to be sure,
often ignored/ignores that possibility when politically
inconvenient..)

 I don't see how jumping to a conclusion without investigating is
different in one country or another. It was an ethnic festival, so the
question needs to be asked, or he was targetting the politicial who had
just left.

The articles I read said the perpetrator was known to police due to "mental health issues". Of course they left it at that - they always leave things as vague as they can, ostensibly due to "privacy" - so we are left to wonder how these mental health issues manifested themselves in the past. Did he limit himself to unhinged rants? Or had he committed previous assaults?
His lawyer must be salivating at the police citing "mental health issues": now they can argue that he's not criminally responsible, send him away to a psychiatric institution for a few years, then declare him cured and let him go, which would be a better outcome (for the suspect) than having him in the slammer for 25 years. (Our Supreme Court has ruled against giving people consecutive life terms - "life" here is actually just 25 years - meaning you don't go to jail any longer for killing 11 than you do for killing 1. And that's assuming he were convicted of first degree murder. It's entirely common - but not universal - that even 1st degree murderers only get charged as 2nd degree killers in some cases.)
--
Rhino