The Mentally Ill Slant

Up in Hanover, Germany.....we have a criminal case building up over an odd situation.

Cops were on routine patrol, and came to question some fifteen-year-old girl (dressed in Islamic clothing).  Normally, I wouldn't put the clothing description into a story, but this is a bit different. Whatever the questions were.....things didn't go well....and the young lady produces a knife.  What authorities will say....is that the knife blade was six centimeters.

In my book, it's not a big knife.

Somewhere in the course of events....this young lady wheels around and stabs the cop in the neck.  Based on the description....she didn't achieve much success.  He was hurt, but it wasn't a mortal wound.  A second cop standing there.....goes into action and disarms her....calls for help, and the wounded cop survives.  No one says much about a permanent injury or disability....but based on the description.....he's doing OK.

The young gal?  She's been drawn into court.  It's been laid out that she's been down to the Turkish border and some folks seem to think she might be ISIS-indoctrinated.  Her brother?  Well, that's another issue.....he's in some prison (not in Germany) for attempting to join ISIS.

Her nationality?  This gets brought up.....she's Moroccan-German.

Based on two news reports, you get the impression that neither kid listens much to the parents, and both this gal and her brother are fully indoctrinated into some radical tendencies.

So, we come to the problem with the German legal system and the authorities.  They'd like to just dump this episode....like they've dumped episodes in the past.  But now, most folks around the region know the story and would be awful aggravated if the judges and prosecution team just do a dumping of the case.

If this were a regular citizen....it might be easy to dump the case....but it's a cop, and the cop union will be watching the case as well.

So, there is a suggestion that the authorities want to examine the mental illness side of this fifteen-year-old gal, which means an evaluation.

Let's say that the mental health guy gets a step or two into this, and then labels her a person under some mental illness (related to religious ideology for example).....well, that's fine with the judge and would be easy to just dump the charges and require her to attend some six-month long mental health resort episode.

But if you were looking at the story, and bought off on this mental illness thing.....then why aren't the rest of the fanatics in Germany noted with a mental illness and shipped off to some six-month long episode to 'cleanse' them of the problem?  Oh.....man, did I just suggest all this radicalization could be a mental illness?

This would open up a vast gate and put political figures throughout Germany into a tough position.  Once you labeled radicals as mentally ill.....well....you could go on and on with this type of treatment plan.  I'm pretty sure that the radicals crowd would go into court and say they are perfectly fine and happy with their mental illness.

So, you might want to gaze over occasionally and see what happens to the fifteen-year-old gal.  My guess is that she's going to some mental program and will find some new reality by the time she walks out.  And if it works.....some people might suggest to broaden this.

All of this.....from a routine stop by two cops to just question someone on the street?  Yeah....that's the odd thing about this.