"How can this be?" Judge blasts VA after Iraq vet pleads guilty.

[enough]

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2010/08/01/news/srv0000008979333.txt

Published: Sunday, August 01, 2010
WEST CHESTER, PA

The judge who oversees Chester County's treatment courts sharply criticized the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center's treatment of an Iraqi War veteran and other patients dealing with mental illness.

Judge William P. Mahon specifically questioned why the VA would pursue criminal charges against veteran Grady Lee Dixon Jr. for punching and shoving hospital staff when Dixon's anti-depression medication was apparently affecting his mood.

"How can this be?" Mahon asked Friday before accepting Dixon's guilty plea to simple assault, a move Dixon's defense attorney said was necessary to get housing and mental health assistance for the formerly homeless man. "How do you prosecute somebody for this?"

Told that Dixon had spent nine months on the 'front lines" in Iraq, Mahon said, "And this is how we treat him when he gets back?"

snip>

"I find it an abomination," Mahon said, as a representative of the VA sat in his courtroom. "You are prosecuting the people in your facility. Why are you doing that? If I set up a veteran's court, am I going to be bringing in veterans the VA is bringing charges against? This would never happen in a private facility."

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[FreakinDJ]

1. Must be 1 of the "Contracted Out" facilities

Ain't Globalization Grand

[pinboy3niner]

3. Coatesville used to have a good rep for PTSD treatment

Lord knows what's going on there now if they're pressing charges against their own patients.

Where I live, we have a contracted VA clinic that is terrible. It looks like the VA will soon dump the provider, but I don't expect much better with the next private provider. It just seems like privatization winds up costing more, and delivering less.

[hootinholler]

6. Of course it does!

But it makes the gubmint smaller.

just in case: :sarcasm:

No one can provide more for less whilst taking profit.

-Hoot

[xchrom]

2. 'how can this be?' - a good question for our times. Nt

[Submariner]

4. "How can this be?"

Think about it judge. These Iraq/Afghanistan veterans did not fight the Axis powers to rebuff Nazi fascism or Japanese Imperialism and keep the Allied Nations free, they have come to learn they were lied to by their leaders about WMD to propagate a republican teabagger party neocon oil war, that had nothing to do with national security. At base camp they have the Fox News propaganda machine 24/7 pumping out war lies.

That is how this can be that the Troops become suicidal or severely depressed.

[ET Awful]

8. I think the juge was saying "how can this be" as in how is it that we treat these men this way

instead of getting them the help they need. He wasn't criticizing the soldier, he was criticizing the fact that the soldier was being subjected to such shitty treatment.

[w8liftinglady]

5. as a nurse...a patient with a psychiatric diagnosis can not be prosecuted...or shouldn't be

any more than a patient with a neurologic disorder who performs a violent act.prior to my brain surgery,while it wasn't violent,my behavior was certainly inappropriate.this is a shitty move,imho.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. K&R

[treestar]

9. Hopefully he listened to some evidence first.

There could still be a question of whether he was responsible for his actions.

[Dystopian]

10. KandR

peace~