Another needless death

The Washington Post’s editorial board today is up in arms about the recent tragedies in Virginia attributed to people who are psychotic – the murder of two police officers and the beating death of a woman by her own son. They say in part …

The concern for their rights, in practice, represents a cruel kind of joke: a right to exist in a delusional state and then get prosecuted severely for the damage. The cost savings are mythical, too. Society pays in so many ways for failing to take the problem of mental illness seriously. One of those ways is tragic killings, like those of Detective Armel and Officer Garbarino.