Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/02/i-am-covid-man-jailed-afte.html
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Seems appropriate.
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Just to preempt any potential rule breaking, the way this guy was acting would have got him an instant psych evaluation.
He is sane, he is just an arsehole. Or maybe a gentleman.
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Many of these stories at the time of the incident say the person may have had mental health issues.
There is a wide grey line somewhere, between mental health issues and sheer fuckery.
Seems the judge in this case reckoned sheer fuckery.
I do not know enough to say I approve - but I do.
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It comes up now and again as a question but coughing on someone is definitely assault, and if anything the “everyone might already be infected with a terrible virus” situation should clarify why that is the case.
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I bet prison staff will be delighted, prisons are ideal environments for viral infection.
Booze-fueled arseholes like him are a plague on society, to be sure.
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Now authorities are charging these folks with making terroristic threats, too:
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Adam Lewis, 55, professional twat…
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See, that’s bullshit.
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With all my disdain for the police system the officers are human beings.
They might not talk about me or you that way. But they are human beings in a broken system.
The way to bring them back home is not like this.
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Personally, I think they should be very publicly and loudly charged, tried, and sentenced to decades in jail for bioterrorism.
Then quietly pardoned in a couple of years, after all this has died down.
But until then, we need to send a swift and horrible message that if you try to spread COVID-19, you will pay for the lives you take.
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“So I see you have a bioterrorism charge here on your application. How do you think that will help you here as a Walmart Associate ?”
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Then Trump needs to be in a state prison right now.
If a governor pardons him well we have another 49 to try.
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Going to acknowledge we have a lot of problems with how we treat ex-cons.
Honestly, I am more concerned about the people who have to answer the question “So, I see that you were caught with two joint’s worth of Marijuana twenty years ago. Why did you bother to apply at Walmart?”
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As long as you are moving the goalposts can you pick up some of the trash in the stadium ?
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Other than the fact that I pointed out that the individual would have had a psychiatric evaluation as part of their arrest? If anything, the Coronavirus Act has made it easier to get a diagnosis of mental illness as it reduces the requirements from the Mental Health Act 1984 (This is not a good thing BTW, a stay in Broadmoor, Rampton or Ashworth high security hospitals can end up being longer than a prison sentence).
This individual is in prison, not a psychiatric hospital, therefore they were in control of their actions.
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Christ, dude… People like him are a danger to society right now and need to be off the street. Period. Full stop. We KNOW we can’t trust the system, we know it’s fucked and unfairly punitive on those of us who are not white, male, cisgendered, and wealthy. Have you gotten the impression from your time here that most of us aren’t often PAINFULLY aware of those facts? In facts, I bet you that some people here are actually far MORE aware than you, FIRST HAND, how unfair our system of justice actually is. Some of us (like @anon73430903) has spent a good deal of our time studying these systems to better understand them.
BUT these are not normal times. AT ALL. Once this has died down, he should get a fair trial and a proper punishment, and we should completely overhaul our justice system, top to bottom.
But FFS, how about we start taking this seriously so we can MAYBE slow down the spread of this fucker so that our entire health system and society doesn’t COLLAPSE around all our ears!!! There is no point in these conversations if we don’t have a system to reform!
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You did notice the part where it’s the UK not the US system, right?
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He wouldn’t be diagnosed by a court. When he was arrested he would have been assessed by a psychiatrist under section 2 of the Mental Health Act, given the details in the article. The assessment can last for up to 28 days. If this finds they are mentally ill then it is almost always mentioned by the press as @anothernewbbaccount mentioned. After that they can be detained under section 3 for six months before reassessment, then another six months and after that they will be assessed yearly. Being diagnosed as sane may be preferable under these circumstances.
Here’s the act if you want to read through it, I misnamed it before as the Mental Health Act 1984 when it is actually the Mental Health Act 1983. It is very well tested, so bear that in mind if you try to find some loophole in it.
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