After Irvine Killings, Focus Turns to Mental Illness and Prevention

On the morning of June 16, my husband and I met with Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell on the implementation of AB 1421. “Laura’s Law,” named after a 19-year-old who was murdered by a mentally ill person, was passed by the Legislature in 2002. It allows for mandated outpatient treatment for seriously mentally ill people.

Though it is no panacea for the many troubles of the mentally ill and homeless, it is a step in the right direction.

However, implementation is on a county-by-county basis. Orange County supervisors chose not to. We were there to advocate otherwise.

In his previous role as assemblyman, Campbell had voted in support of the bill.

On June 29, three lives were lost and many others irrevocably damaged by a mentally ill person in Irvine.

Joseph Parker is the type of person that AB 1421 is designed to help.

Orange County supervisors, please implement AB 1421. Lives are at stake.

Dr. Luette Forrest

Irvine

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On June 29, Irvine had a really bad day. Joseph Parker decided to walk into a supermarket and deal with his demons. It sounds like Parker had been dealing with demons for some time, and an abused childhood didn’t help matters. This man needed more help than he got.

Be that as it may, Parker didn’t walk into the supermarket and spray the area with bullets. No firearm was needed for the carnage he inflicted. Where are all the liberals now who should be calling for machete control?

The point I am making here is that a firearm is not required to commit the kind of mayhem that Parker unleashed. In a free society, legislation is not the be all and end all. In fact, if someone in that store had possessed a firearm, Parker’s killing spree may have ended earlier, with no innocent people hurt.

There are places in this country that have laws allowing concealed firearms so that law-abiding citizens can protect themselves.

Who knows? When faced with a firearm before availing himself of his first homicide, Parker may have even been encouraged to surrender his weapon.

We’ll never know, and now three people are dead. If California were not such a rabid anti-gun state, it is highly possible that this disaster in Irvine would never have happened.

If I were armed and had been in that store at that time, I guarantee you that Parker’s tantrum would have been very short-lived.

Chuck Sharp

San Clemente

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Letter writer Dan Shapiro states that “violent and suicidal tendencies” are listed as a side effect of all psychiatric drugs. This is utter nonsense. The antipsychotic drug that this schizophrenic patient was prescribed (Risperdal) lists no such side effects.

Shapiro further alleges that “these types of incidents” (violent assaults by deranged people) “did not occur before the widespread drugging of the mentally disturbed by psychiatrists,” another lie contradicted by all the data on the incidence of violence among the mentally ill since the introduction of antipsychotic medications in the 1950s.

This incident, the senseless slaughter of two innocent people and the serious injury of two others, was most probably the outgrowth of delusional beliefs that developed as a result of the patient not taking the prescribed medication, rather than the opposite, as Shapiro implies.

I can only wonder at the motive for Shapiro’s gross misrepresentation of the facts about psychiatric treatment.

Terrence Taylor, M.D.

Laguna Beach

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My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the two people who lost their lives, and I wish the injured victims a speedy recovery.

I visited Albertsons earlier this evening to restock my shelves, and I have to admit that I was somewhat apprehensive to do so at first, but I was overcome with emotion when I saw the way that our community had rallied to support the victims, families, and employees of Albertsons.

I applaud the management and employees for continuing to provide professional and courteous service in light of these recent events. I will continue to shop there, and I hope that others will do the same.

As a society we must ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

David Ehrlich

Irvine