NY Times: Killer had a history of mental illness

[markpkessinger]

This supports my contention that the man was mentally ill. And in that case, one cannot have an intelligible discussion about cause and effect with regard to his motivation.

[font size=5]Officers’ Killer, Adrift and Ill, Had a Plan[/font]

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What exactly pushed Mr. Brinsley to fatally shoot two police officers before shooting himself is not clear. But by Sunday evening, several things had become obvious. He had an extensive history with the police, having been arrested 20 times — mainly for petty crimes like stealing condoms from a Rite Aid drugstore in Ohio. He spent two years in prison after firing a stolen gun near a public street in Georgia.

Mr. Brinsley had also suffered from mental problems. Relatives told the police he had taken medication at one point, and when he was asked during an August 2011 court hearing if he had ever been a patient in a mental institution or under the care of a psychiatrist or psychologist, he said yes. He had also tried to hang himself a year ago, the police said.

By this year, Mr. Brinsley had become isolated. He was estranged from his family. His on-again, off-again relationship with Shaneka Thompson, 29, who works for the Maryland Department of Welfare and serves in the Air Force Reserve, was off again. By Saturday, he had seized on the deaths at the hands of police officers of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., focusing his rage against the authorities. In his short life, during which Mr. Brinsley failed to finish high school, to hold a steady job or, seemingly, to commit even the smallest crime without being caught, thoughts of revenge seemed to be the one thing giving him purpose.

“Most of his postings and rants are on the Instagram account, and what we’re seeing from this right now is anger against the government,” Robert K. Boyce, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at a news conference on Sunday. Chief Boyce added that one of those posts showed a burning flag, and in others Mr. Brinsley talked of the anger he felt toward the police. There were, Chief Boyce said, “other postings as well, of self-despair, of anger at himself and where his life is right now.”

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[PDJane]

1. He may have been ill. However, targetting the police is, in itself, not evidence of mental illmess.

[markpkessinger]

2. I never said it was . . .

. . . but neither is the act of a single, mentally ill gunman evidence of police in general being under attack, which is how the PBA is attempting to characterize the situation. And it also refutes the notion that one can assign blame for the killings to the mayor or to the protests.

My earlier surmising stemmed not from the fact that he targeted police officers, but that he had first attempted to kill his girlfriend, and then immediately afterwards turned the gun on himself. Those two things suggested that there was a lot more going on here than an angry black man taking revenge on police.

[applegrove]

4. Right on with your first paragraph.

[Enthusiast]

16. +1 You nailed it.

[nomorenomore08]

20. "a lot more going on here than an angry black man taking revenge on police."

No shit. Not that you'd know it by the majority of online postings/media accounts on the subject.

[Cha]

3. Good. I'm glad the NYT is getting this out there.. it actually helps make Pataki and Guiliani looks

like the Ghoulish lying pols they are.

[branford]

5. Mental illness does not equal criminally insane.

Most people suffering from mental illness are not only non-violent, but more likely to actually be the victim of crime. Moreover, those suffering from mental illness are generally able to tell right from wrong, and would know that shooting one's girlfriend and killing police officers is not legally or morally acceptable. Not every individual who engages in antisocial conduct or sees a psychiatrist or psychologist suffers from a diagnosable mental pathology, particularly one that obviates self-control. Lastly, it is not unheard of for defendants to exaggerate or even invent claims of mental illness in order to seek judicial leniency.

The available evidence appears to indicate that Mr. Brinsley methodically planned his attacks in advance, including procuring the weapon, had the wherewithal to coherently post on social media concerning his political motivations, and fully understood that his actions were illegal and socially unacceptable.

The few sentences in the NYT's account are therefore interesting, but not particularly informative, no less exculpatory or mitigating the actions of Mr. Brinsley.

[markpkessinger]

9. Many criminally insane people carry out well-planned, methodical crimes . . .

. . . so planning, or lack thereof, doesn't really go to the question of cause-and-effect motivation.

[Rex]

6. Anyone that would walk up behind a cop car and kill both cops is crazy.

I think that also can be said for anyone walking up to a car and killing it's occupants. Just because they are angry. I was just thinking about all those cops along the way on his trip. How lucky they all are that he didn't stop somewhere else. No doubt NYPD is tightly wound up right now. The police union leader seems to be inciting violence with his own brand of rhetoric. Not helping at all.

And I would never expect ghouls like 9/11 Rudy to do anything but politicize the issue. That is his MO.

[Wella]

7. Not necessarily. And they would not be the bumbling fool the NY Times describes

Remember, the young man shot both cops "execution style" in their car. That takes a great deal of stealth. I am amazed there was no resistance from either cop, especially if this guy was a bumbling idiot, like the NYTimes describes.

He also had to find these cops sitting in their car--walking from whatever train or bus station he came from. He also had to get to New York from Baltimore.

There's a lot that doesn't add up in this case, but one thing I am sure of is that the New York Times' narrative is incorrect. There's a lot more to this guy than we know, than we'll possibly ever know.

[Rex]

8. Not really, think about it. That is so abnormal, cops don't usually sit in their cars

expecting at any time for someone to run up to the car and shoot them (nor should they). They don't, because it never happens. So I don't really think he needed anything at all (stealth, skill, training, etc)...I read he even told spectators to follow him and watch. Which is strange, but hey he is deranged so I guess not too strange.

[Wella]

12. Under the current circumstances, that's a ludicrous statement

You've had protestors in New York all month and all the cops were on high alert. These two were sent for something involving terrorist training, so I can't imagine them not being alert.

In other words, the shooter had to be much more capable than we are being told.

[Rex]

15. Not at all. What is ludicrous is expecting cops to be sitting in their car paranoid about getting

shot in cold blood at any given moment. Unless you know something I don't.

They were sitting in their safe car and having a safe discussion and not expecting to be gunned down in cold blood. Like all cops when they go to work. Or are you saying cops have become that paranoid?

Something is ludicrous but it is not my claim.

[Enthusiast]

17. +1

[markpkessinger]

10. There are 36,000 police officers in NYC . . .

Finding two of them sitting in a car in just about any part of the city is not exactly difficult. And here in NYC, one sees cops sitting in their cruisers all the time. It is NOT unusual or abnormal. My goodness, speaking of peddling a narrative, you sure are peddling one in your attempts to characterize the Times story as saying something it absolutely did not say.

[Wella]

14. I have been extremely polite to you, considering your accusations

Just remember, because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they are suspect or "peddling". You may just have an intellectual deficit. That's my take on you.

[Enthusiast]

18. That doesn't sound particularly polite.

[markpkessinger]

11. The Times did not describe him as a 'bumbling fool'

They mentioned that he had a history of anger problems, criminal activity and relational and social difficulties with people. That in no wise speaks to his ability to carry out a task like this.

[Wella]

13. No, those are my words, based on the description given

The Times' narrative does not go with the type of crime it was. Something is off.

We've had a long discussion about this on another thread, and we're not going to agree.

Good night.

[justiceischeap]

19. You're making assumptions based on a lack of knowledge of mental illness & on incorrect reporting

Mark David Chapman flew from Hawaii to NYC with the intention of killing John Lennon--he succeeded.

Chapman's legal team put forward an insanity defense based on expert testimony that he was in a delusional and possibly psychotic state at the time, but nearing the trial, Chapman instructed his lawyer that he wanted to plead guilty, based on what he had decided was the will of God. Judge Edwards allowed the plea change without further psychiatric assessment after Chapman denied hearing voices, and sentenced him to a prison term of twenty years to life with a stipulation that mental health treatment be provided. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_David_Chapman

John Hinckley Jr. took a bus from LA to Washington, DC so he could shoot President Reagan. I believe he's still in a mental hospital in DC and he was all too capable of the planning it took him to get from LA to DC and then find the President and shoot him--and this is a guy suffering from some very serious mental illness.

As far as walking from a train or bus station and finding these slain officers, it's not difficult to get on a subway in NYC and get somewhere. It's also not difficult to find police officers sitting in their patrol cars--it's a phenomena that happens all over this country.

The NY Times described him as being a poor criminal based on the fact that he was caught so often... this doesn't make him a bumbling idiot, it makes him bad at committing crimes. And it doesn't take a whole lot of stealth in NYC to walk up behind a police car. As a matter of fact, if he was acting "stealthy" that would have been more suspicious. As far as the shootings being "execution style" they weren't--the officers were shot in the upper body. This means the suspect walked up to an open window and opened fire. Doesn't take a master ninja to do this.

"The perp came out of the houses, walked up behind the car and lit them up," a high-ranking police official told the New York Daily News.

"It looks like they were shot in the upper body," Deputy Chief Kim Royster told the New York Times. The suspect then fled to the nearby Myrtle-Willoughby subway station where he shot himself in the head. "They were, quite simply, assassinated," police commissioner Bill Bratton said.

http://gawker.com/two-cops-killed-execution-style-in-brooklyn-1673627857

So basically, IMO, the only thing not adding up is your assertion that things aren't adding up.

[MannyGoldstein]

21. But de Blasio and other Libs need to realize

that this mental illness was caused by Libs wondering if people shouldn't be suffocated to death for selling loose cigarettes.