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the mentally ill are typically not that hot on personal responsibility.

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Indeed. If she was so mentally incapacitated that she could not be trusted with her own life, to whom does the responsibility fall? I would say not the police.

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Really? If the government is going to write laws defining who is mentally ill and granting the police the power to detain them to protect them from themselves and others (which they have) then they must also assume responsibility for the ill while their detained. They can't have it both ways.

The issue in this particular case is that it's not clear if the cops knew she was mentally ill. They detained her for being drunk and violent, and they can't be expected to either perform mental health assessments or read minds. How could they distinguish between her and someone who is just an ass?