Thugs? Classification may be the problem

Exactly what is mental illness and more specifically, what criteria makes up its diagnoses?

Other than the obvious, who has it and what signs must a person exhibit for mental health experts to define them as suffering from a mental disorder?

And does someone have to be diagnosed early in life and currently be in therapy for experts to determine if the mental health issue is real?

These may seem like strange questions for a column but if you sat in my seat, you would be wondering the same thing too.

On a daily basis, I get press releases from local, state and federal officials about black men being charged or convicted of one crime or another. Some of these crimes are brutal and violent, and in some cases, are repeat occurrences.

I have followed the outcome of many of these crimes through trials covered by my colleague Randy Beach, who covers murder trials and trials where violence is front and center.

As a reporter with years of court experience behind him, Randy has been able to put into layman’s terms answers to many questions I have about judges’ decisions as well as possible reasons for short and long sentences, case dismissals and hung juries.

And he also has been able explain what he feels are the strategies of the prosecutor and defense to win their cases.

And I guess it is the strategies by defense attorneys that has been nagging me since I became an editor 10 years ago. In all those years, I can’t remember a single case of a black kid who shot and killed another black kid where a defense attorney has used mental illness as a defense.

I am sure there must be some cases but I can’t recall any.

My question is why and how can this be?

Why is the insanity plea not an acceptable defense for them when there is an abundance — actually, overwhelming — research that shows black urban children suffer from poor mental health?

According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, blacks are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population, particularly with posttraumatic stress disorder, because blacks are more likely to be victims of violent crime.

This column is certainly not a defense for their actions. I have zero tolerance for violent crime. If I had my way, I would reward the people who use it with an island where they can all live happily ever after shooting and running from each other.

But certainly if an insanity defense can be used for a white kid who seemingly comes from a middle class, stable background after he stabbed to death a fellow student, why isn’t it a defense for the black kid from a low-income area who is running around shooting and stabbing people? So, back to my point. Why are black men labeled thugs and not someone suffering from mental health issues?

Is there anyone who does not think shooting and stabbing people are signs of mental instability?

How can anyone think that a child who comes into this world and in many cases right out the bat is exposed to hunger and abuse, living in shelters, race-based exclusion from health, educational, social and economic resources — and that’s before they reach an age of double digits — could not be suffering from mental instability?

We have people who will jump out a 10-story window because the stock market crashed and psychologists will describe them as depressed.

But somehow, these kids, many who are being raised in corridors of gloom where the Scales of Justice and societal opinions are weighted against them, are the picture of perfect mental health.

A Norman Rockwell vision, this isn’t.

In my column last week, “Disconnected? When “we” becomes “me,” I asked a simple question and I will ask it again this week: is it because they’re black kids, many from low-income single mothers?

I don’t suggest that defense attorneys don’t offer the best defense they think will get their client the best deal. And I don’t suggest that every violent black man should be granted a defense based on mental instability. Some people are just flat out bad and are real “thugs” and nothing can be done to help them.

But I am suggesting there are too many black men in prison when mental health illness is the real culprit and that defense must be explored.

One thing is for sure, if these socalled “thugs” who are killing and shooting people and doing so seemingly without remorse are not the epitome of poor mental health and deserving a mental health defense, then the definition of what mental illness is may need to be changed.