I would argue that mental illness is only a defense for those that we fear to call “criminal.” This woman is a criminal. This woman is attacking people, yet people use the excuse of mental illness. I know mentally ill people and they don’t attack people. I don’t imagine people allowing the Oath Keepers to use mental illness as defense of them, despite mental illness likely being present. I’m tired of seeing mental illness be a defense of criminals.

As for the public mental institutions that the “government just kept diverting their funding until these places couldn’t exist anymore,” their closures stemmed from systemic abuse and isolation of patients that occurred within them. Honestly, fuck it; bring them back, but they were no better than a jail that operated on people against their wills. Stating that the government defunded what they called “lunatic asylums” to hurt those they served is simply untrue.