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System Breakdown in Santa Barbara Mass Murder
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
May 26, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
When 22-year-old Elliot Rodger went ballistic
May 24 killing seven, including himself, the system in California failed
miserably to protect innocent folks from an entirely preventable massacre. Santa Barbara police were warned April 30 in advance by Rodger’s mother, Lichin Rodger,
of her son’s plans to massacre innocent victims.
“I’ll take pleasure in slaughtering all of you,” said Elliot on YouTube. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill
Brown admitted that his deputies showed up at Elliot’s apartment April 30,
“interviewed” him and concluded he was “shy and polite” posing no danger to the
public. Since when do police make
any determination about potential perpetrators’ mental status? Under California’s 1976 Tarsoff law,
police aren’t mandated to evaluate the mental health of potential killers,
they’re required to “detain-and-transport” suspects to qualified mental health
facilities.
Santa Barbara police erred in turning Elliot loose once a report of
potential violence was made. Their
job was to detain-and-transport, not to make any determinations of mental
status. Santa Barbara County
Sheriff defended “deputies actions,” with spokeswoman Kelly Hoover admitting
that deputies concluded the “shy young man posed no risk.” Victims’ families have a rock-solid
case under California law to sue the Santa Barbara County Sheriff for gross
negligence for failing to operate under the State’s existing Tarasoff law. “At the time deputies interacted
with him, he was able to convince them that he was OK,” admitted Sheriff Brown
to CBS News. Failing to
detain-and-transport Elliot to a qualified mental health facility for a proper
evaluation was where the Santa Barbara Sheriff went wrong. Who told the Sheriff it was their
job to evaluate mental illness is anyone’s guess.
Well before Elliot’s divorced parents, Peter and Lichin, gave their son
his BMW and sent him off to junior college in Santa Barbara, they had plenty of
advice from the multiple therapists treating Elliot for Asperger’s disease and a
host of other mental health problems.
While his many therapists have yet to go public, it’s clear that Elliot
had serious mental health issues before sending him off to college. Why the family didn’t continue his therapy in Los Angeles, provide him more supervision
and treatment and allow him to attend one of the many community colleges closer
to home is anyone’s guess. By the
time Lichin frantically sent he husband to chase her son down in Santa Barbara
right before the May 24 massacre, it was already too late to prevent the
violence. Parents that send
mentally ill children away to college bear some responsibility for violence
episodes.
Santa Barbara authorities had plenty of probable cause to search Elliot’s
apartment April 30 and find his arsenal of three legally purchase semiautomatics
and hundreds of rounds of ammo.
Today’s focus is on Elliot’s numerous posted videos and 131-page “manifesto”
threatening to commit mass murder.
Most of this evidence was available to the police before they went to his
apartment April 30 and blew their simple task to
“detain-and-transport” a suspect for proper evaluation at a qualified
mental health facility. Law
enforcement, despite their formal police training, doesn’t have the education,
training and experience to assess complex mental health issues. Elliot’s multiple therapists were in
a far better position to assess his fragile mental state to advise his parents
about the advisability to sending him off to college. Despite privacy laws, therapists are accountable when it comes to violence.
According to press reports, Lichin called the Santa Barbara Sheriff May
23 after getting a call from Elliot’s therapist, alerting her to the videos and
manifesto threatening a deadly rampage.
Why the therapist didn’t make his or her own call to Santa Barbara
authorities remains unclear. How
long the therapist knew about Elliot’s videos, manifesto and violent plans is
anyone’s guess. “They’re in deep
grief,” said family friend Simon Astaire Sunday.
“Their grief which is nearly unbearable to be close to is a much for the
loss of their son as for the victims,” asking the press to respect the family’s
privacy. While it’s true the family
grieves, they bear some responsibility for sending their mentally ill son off to
college when he needed more supervision and treatment back at home. Buying three firearms while off at
college shows how current gun control laws fail to keep weapons from the
mentally ill.
Elliot Rodger’s May 24 Santa Barbara massacre exposes all the failures in
the current system that’s supposed to prevent the public from violence and
victimization. Parents first need
to show more responsibility when it comes to giving mentally ill children the
resources and independence to get into trouble. Law enforcement officials need to better train their deputies to understand their role to
“detain-and-transfer” suspects to qualified mental health facilities. Law enforcement personnel don’t have
the education, training and experience to assess for violence. Gun dealers operating under the
Second Amendment must be given appropriate gun control laws to check backgrounds
of mentally ill gun buyers. It goes
without saying that mental health professionals need to apply existing reporting
laws when it comes to preventing future episodes of violent behavior.
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