Helping those who don't want your help

Should the police institute a high speed chase for no reason other than to try to help someone who doesn't want their help?

A man who appeared to be about to jump off of the Piscataqua River Bridge around 8:45 a.m. this morning ended up getting in his minivan and leading police on a high-speed chase that ended on the Spaulding Turnpike in Somersworth, according to eye-witness, police and police scanner reports.

Hampton Union reporter Susan Morse, on her way into work, said the blue van was stopped at top of the bridge in the southbound breakdown lane. The man was out of the car, and she described him as having blonde hair pulled back, as if in a pony tail.

When she looked in her rear view mirror a moment later, “much to my horror,” she saw he was on the other side of the guardrail facing the water. “I figured he was ready to jump.”

Capt. Lou Ferland said Portsmouth Police were notified about the potential jumper by State Police around 8:50 a.m. and responded to the high level bridge but the suspect had left.

Shortly after, Ferland said State Police chased the same vehicle down Market Street and on to Woodbury Avenue into Newington.

Just leave the guy alone. He already has problems, don't just create more.

Update:
The agitator has a post up today about sending a SWAT team in response to a 911 call seeking help for someone thinking about suicide.

Be careful if you don't take your meds

In Wisconsin it appears to be a felony to fail to take your meds. You must do like the doctor says or you'll go to jail. A different set of laws applies to the mentall ill.

Althouse alerted me to this news item about a homeless guy who actually defended himself and ended up in jail. He has a high bail because those mentally ill homeless vets are all a danger to society. You never can tell when they might defend themselves when some real nutcase attacks them.

Predicting Virginia Tech

When are people going to get it through their pointy little heads that we don't know how top predict violence?

The Agitator, one of my favorite bloggers, gets it right with the basic idea that if you think we can call whatever happened before the violence a predictor that's pretty much equivalent to saying you can't predict. The problem being that to many people don't realize that.

Deadmonywalking points out that just because his history of mental illness might explain his behavior doesn't mean that history could have predicted it.