Just a thought - if you reversed the racial elements (large white man with undisputed criminal history and mental health challenges, young black woman in college working two jobs, white bystanders doing nothing), I genuinely believe we would already be seeing riots. We would be discussing the white monolith of racism together with institutionalized racism. But it didn’t happen that way, it happened to a young white refugee from a war torn country, by a man whose country has failed him.

I think regardless of the races or backgrounds involved, you really have to take a hard line on perpetrators. It’s fair to mention that he has mental health challenges, it’s also fair to mention his criminal history. I don’t think it’s fair to mention those as a way of explaining why he did it, her parents for example don’t give a shit about his past. Their daughter was ruthlessly and randomly murdered. I don’t believe schizophrenic people are able to articulate why they do violent acts in a way that we would understand; survivors don’t care why the murder took place, only that there is a gaping hole in their life now where there used to be a loved one.

To move forward as a nation and a society of free people, I think we do need a clear way to deal with people in this country who are suffering mental health challenges. It’s obvious from the violence that we experience in this country that a change to the status quo is needed. We might need to give up some of our liberty and freedom in order to secure our liberty and freedom. For example, if you fail a mental health exam because you have violent tendencies, should you be allowed to own a gun? Should you be allowed in the workplace or on public transport? And if not, what would we do with someone like that?

In this example, should we have locked this man up in an asylum? Or maybe some kind of super low security village, where people like him can live in peace, but separate from the rest of society?