A psychiatric inpatient kept safe in a hospital ward snapped. A dangerous implement was used. An off-duty security guard is being hailed as a "hero" for having shot the patient dead.
I work with a child who has psychotic episodes. I parent a child who has psychotic episodes. I—-and, no doubt, many others—-had thought that a psychiatric hospital ward would have procedures, screenings, and safeguards in place; that a psychiatric hospital ward would prioritize protecting patients from their own unpredictable impulses; that a psychiatric hospital ward was ultimate safekeeping for society's sometimes dangerous, but not willfully dangerous, offspring.
Remember, everyone, that there is a big difference between a convicted evildoer waiting for his moment to lash out, and a confused and terrified person subject to command hallucinations. This is frigging crazy.
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