Leave Snyder be
In an online article on the Capitol shooting, it says, “About a dozen Denver police detectives searched Aaron Snyder’s home this afternoon for clues to yesterday’s shooting at the Capitol” (“Detectives remove items from home of gunman killed at Capitol,” RockyMountainNews.com, July 17).
Why?
Aaron Snyder, may he rest in peace, is dead. No one else was harmed.
Leave it be.
Steve Read, Denver
My sincere condolences go to the family of Aaron Snyder.
Perhaps, this tragic event will convince any naysayers that mental illness is a real issue and that as a society; we have an obligation to move toward dealing with it, for the sake of those afflicted and their families.
as a society we should be shocked that his family did nothing
Posted by on July 20, 2007 04:10 AMAs a person who has worked around those with mild to sever mental illness and depression, the comments from the anon. posting at 04:10 are really offensive. Most people that suffer from any form of mental illness go to great lengths to hide that illness from those closest to them. There is also the fact that in this country, especially, most people go out of their way to avoid seeing mental illness, not only in themselves, but in others. As a society, we tend to litterally look the other way when someone's behavior is a bit odd - almost as if not looking will keep us from having to acknowledge it.
Posted by Lyle on July 20, 2007 07:00 AMAs a society, hiding our head in the sand won't make the mental health problem go away and it's getting worse each day. Politicians giving us lip service about the problem only makes it worse but makes them look good come election time. As a Vietnam vet, I've experienced PTSD up close and personal, before it was given a name besides battle fatigue and can assure it, it is real and can be devastating. But there wasn't, and still isn't, help available, even through the VA. Everyone has some form of mental illness to some degree. Saying otherwise won't make it go away.
Posted by John Shriver on July 20, 2007 07:41 AMI work with health benefits, and if you are diagnosed with a mental illness, are on anti-depressants or undergoing therapy, you cannot get an individual medical policy. No wonder many people choose not to disclose this information.
If you have insurance through your employer (the insurance company HAS to cover you then) you have very minimal access to mental health care. They don't consider mental illness to be real sickness, and limit benefits. Once you run out, that's it--whether or not you are still in need of help.
It's a shame Mr. Snyder didn't get the help he needed.
The families of mentally ill adults are almost completely helpless when it comes to getting anyone to take their concerns seriously.
A woman I know spent months trying to get someone with authority to investigate her father's peculiar behavior and increasing paranoia. (He would disappear for days in an attempt to outsmart the "spies" who were following him.) Because he did not threaten himself or others, she was repeatedly told that there was nothing that could be done. The gentleman eventually committed suicide, leaving a note that he didn't want the spies to force him to talk.
Mental illness is as dibilatating as physical illness. It's time we start treating it as aggressively as we do physical ailments.
Posted by Michael R. on July 20, 2007 12:16 PMA while back Denver cops shot and killed a Black kid with mental problems who threatened his mother. She had called the police many times. The kid was cured of his mental illness; however, tax payers had to pay mom a million dollars. Conceivably, the kid could have killed his mom. I don't opine on Snyder except to agree with Steve Read. I'll even spare you the Deicide Corner.
Posted by Richard Grimes Deicide r22037@yahoo.com (ffrf and ask for free copy of FreeThought Today) on July 20, 2007 01:34 PM4:10 am writes:
"as a society we should be shocked that his family did nothing"
That's not true. It's been widely reported that Snyder was seeing a psychiatrist in Littleton. No doubt his family urged him to seek treatment and supported his action in doing so. Littleton is a bit of drive from either the north metro suburbs or Snyder's job in Ft Collins. It's likely that the family went out of their way to locate a psychiatrist who was a specialist in treating patients like Snyder. Unfortunately the treatment was not effective, despite the existence of a wide variety of anti-psychotic and mood stabilizing drugs on the market today. Let's hope that if the psychiatrist misread the signs that he/she has learned a lesson from this tragedy.
In addition, Snyder's family "did something" to help by having him live in their home. Not all families of the mentally ill are so generous. At least they provided him with a stable home environment while he was being treated for his problem.
Posted by karen on July 20, 2007 01:44 PMWe in the Democrat party realize that the mentally ill are one of our largest voting blocks{ along with felons,perverts and child molesters} So we asked the ACLU to go to court in the 70's and make sure they could run free.Now they have plenty of time to help us in our campaigns.
Posted by True on July 20, 2007 01:50 PMSo sad that the penalty for being mentally ill is death.
When people are treated with medication, and kill someone, or themselves, the kind, considerate folks of the country blame the medicine.
Yet the same folks might rush a homosexual child off to "get help" from a psychiatrist.
A truly mentally ill person can`t care for themselves but we as a society balk at forced treatment . That may be why we have so many of these people in jail. We don`t yet know how to handle the problems they present.
One thing we could do is stop blaming the parents, friends, relatives of the ill, they often are doing all the law allows.
Posted by Sharon B. on July 20, 2007 02:00 PMI know this is stretching a point a bit,but I just want to bring to light how the press treat different people.
Mr.Snyder was very ill. His family was trying to help him. Often it takes years to find the right kind of drugs to work on a person who is mentally ill. It's a good story, " Crazy Person Tries To Kill Governor" They will tear his life apart and it will make headlines for awhile.
Then we have the missing woman Paige Birfeld. They are using alot of manpower to find her killer and rightfully so.
The keep saying she ran an escort service.This is just a name for being a prostitute with better clothes and higher prices.Yet the press has never mentioned the word prostitution. They keep portraying her as a dedicated mother to 3 children and a business woman who sold pampered chef products and sometimes they mention the escort service as if it is a legitimate business.
Has anyone looked at the person of interest? He is a mechanic at a RV place and was supposed to be her "appointment for the evening ". If she is a escort where do you think they went ? Wendy's?The drive thru is open late.
Look how the press is treading lightly around Paige Birgfeld and they go after other people with a vengence.
Posted by on July 22, 2007 07:34 AM