Joseph Meyer<p>Mental Illness Gets One Killed in the U.S.A.</p><p>"People are fed up with the way our society fails to address mental illness and places that duty on an average citizen, which is what Penny was when he found himself confronted with Neely on that subway car. It’s a societal problem that Penny was forced to deal with, without society’s resources." -- Adanté Pointer, Civil Rights Attorney</p><p>My questions for Pointer: Did anyone really place that duty on Daniel Penny? Was Daniel Penny really forced to deal with a situation by physically confronting the late victim? Is it really a failure of our society, or a failure by us, who cheapen the lives of persons with no-fault serious mental illnesses by our attitudes?</p><p>PBS reports elsewhere that the late "Jordan Neely was unarmed, with nothing but a muffin in his pocket, and didn't touch any passengers on the train." He did not hurt anyone. He did not touch anyone. He is the only one who got hurt. So with the knowledge that Penny was killing Jordan Neely, would jurors have thought it justified self-defense if Neely had fought back and killed Penny for initiating the physical confrontation? Doubtful. </p><p>Some of my fellow citizens are willing to donate $3 million to Daniel Penny for what they must think of as heroic service in snuffing out the life of a homeless person afflicted with schizophrenia. Are they really fed up with the way we fail to address mental illness? Or would they just rather pay for vigilantism than for better mental health services? </p><p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/daniel-penny-trial-spotlighted-issues-homelessness-mental-illness/story?id=116603921" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">abcnews.go.com/US/daniel-penny</span><span class="invisible">-trial-spotlighted-issues-homelessness-mental-illness/story?id=116603921</span></a></p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/MentalIllness" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MentalIllness</span></a> <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/MentalHealth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MentalHealth</span></a> <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Schizophrenia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Schizophrenia</span></a> <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Homelessness" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Homelessness</span></a> <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Justice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Justice</span></a> <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Law" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Law</span></a> <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/NYC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NYC</span></a></p>