The mental health crisis gripping America can’t be exaggerated. There is a very serious problem happening now across the country that’s impacting people of all demographics and economic classes.
Taking just antidepressants alone, 83.4 million antidepressant medications were prescribed last year alone. That’s a lot of people feeling hopeless about life and even suicidal.
Then, you get to conditions like schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, psychosis, and delusional disorders that can lead to violence; the picture becomes even more disturbing.
The system clearly isn’t working; there’s ample evidence showing a large increase in mental health disorders during and after the pandemic.
Evidence of this is everywhere, but it’s becoming especially clear in our large cities among the homeless population which includes many severely mentally ill people.
Take a recent example out of LA…
Young Lady Attacked With Gardening Shears
A young woman by the name of Kyli Watts was just strolling on the sidewalk in a safe area of LA on Oct 10. Then, a man ran behind her and stabbed her in the back of the head as hard as he could with gardening shears.
There was no known cause of the attack; the young woman was in utter shock as she fled to a restaurant in the area and dialed her mom on the phone.
Telling her mom it was very “serious” to cut through any small talk, Watts managed to continue talking as her mom pointed out that she still had a gardening tool in the back of her head.
She hadn’t even realized in the shock of the moment that shears were embedded in her skull.
Watts was rushed to the hospital where the shears were mainly removed. A small piece of the steel blade was actually left in, however, in order not to cause massive traumatic blood loss.
Thankfully Watts survived. Yet, she has a traumatic brain injury, which will be very difficult to recover from; this incident could easily have been fatal.
Amy Watts' daughter Kyli had been living in LA for just two weeks when she was stabbed in the back of the head by a homeless man. Watts called the attack an example of how the system has failed the homeless and the mentally ill. https://t.co/uHax5wyij6
— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) October 19, 2022
Who is the Suspect?
The suspect is a homeless black man by the name of Jonathan Cole. He’s 30 in age and apparently mentally ill or clearly very disturbed in some way to randomly stab an innocent young woman walking down the sidewalk.
Watts’ own mom is actually a psychiatric professional who works in a mental institution. She said they don’t blame the man because they believe he wasn’t properly taking his medications or receiving the help he needed.
That’s certainly a very forgiving attitude that not all of us could have in such a situation. However, it’s certainly true there are far too many mentally ill and potentially violent individuals wandering America’s streets without any medication or oversight.
This young woman, Kyli Watts, only moved to LA less than a month before the vicious attack and she’d actually lost her job in tech. She was looking for a job when she was brutalized on the street.
Why do black homeless men in LA hate beautiful girls?
(Left) Kyli Watts 24 suffered a traumatic brain injury after a homeless man stabbed her in the head with a pair of gardening shears
(Right) Brianna Kupfer age 24 Suffered 26 Stab Wounds at the hands of a black homeless man pic.twitter.com/maTCpsoffW
— A Very Serious Place (@SeriousPIace) October 18, 2022
The Bottom Line
Cole is potentially facing attempted murder charges, but places like LA are all too often soft on crime. Meanwhile, Watts is left on a long road to recovery without health insurance or a job. This is not how America should be!
This article appeared in StatesmanPost and has been published here with permission.
