Jared McLemore's Facebook Live video starts with him sitting cross legged in the parking lot outside Murphy's bar in Memphis, Tennessee. McLemore gets up after shortly leaving the frame and then returns to once again sit cross legged on the ground. He lifts a red jerry can and starts pouring a liquid—kerosene—on himself. The kerosene splashes around him as he shimmies over slightly.
A man, realizing what McLemore was about to do, flies into the frame in an attempt to kick the lighter out of his hand. His efforts are to no avail, the lighter goes off and the video becomes filled with flames and the screams of onlookers. McLemore, screaming, gets up and runs out of the frame. On camera, the flames from the excess kerosene continue to burn.
McLemore, 33, would die later that night from his burns.
While burning, McLemore allegedly ran into Murphy's where his ex Alyssa Moore, an audio engineer, was running the soundboard. According to WREG, McLemore had
reportedly strangled Moore last year and twice threatened to kill her. McLemore was sentenced to probation for domestic assault and ordered to do mental health therapy—Moore also obtained a restraining order against him. On social media, McLemore stated he suffered from bipolar disorder.
Man Dies After Live-Streaming Self-Immolation Outside of Ex’s Bar
I hope they keep the live streaming up because it's the only way folks are going to really see the mental health issue.
But then people will dismiss mental health issues and just demand that such people end up in prison where they rot and then get released, then use this as an example of why you shouldn't be releasing prisoners.
They are dismissing them anyway. At this point, what do we really have to lose?
I'm not really sure what your point is here.
Yes, the right will dismiss mental health issues and use them for their own political advantage. How do you change this? Well, it's hard.
The problem isn't just mental health issues, the problem is the system. Until the system changes, nothing else will change. Until there is one person, one vote, then the main two parties stay in charge and continue their partisan bullshit approach to politics.
That's why I support Proportional Representation, it's a change for real politics to come through, for those who are interested in making the country a better place to be able to get into politics and stand in a party that isn't out for its own interests.
Can you vote away mental illness?
This crazy man tried to strangle his ex girlfriend. His killing himself wasn't a bad thing. Better him instead of an innocent person.
No, you can't vote away mental illness.
However you can make mental illness less of a problem for those that have mental illnesses.
About 2.3 million people in the US are in US prisons.
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mhppji.pdf
"At midyear 2005 more than half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem,"
So that means around 1.15 million people in the US are in prison with mental health problems.
"These estimates represented 56% of State prisoners, 45% of Federal prisoners, and 64% of jail inmates."
Now, take the number of people who have been in prison and struggle to get jobs when they get out, because of their conviction, and you'll see that having a mental illness in the US isn't that easy. This is 1 in 320 people who are locked up in prison with a mental illness. Take the number of people with a mental illness at about 1/4 of the population then this is about 1 in 81 people with mental illness who are in prison. The number who have been through the prison system and come out the other side but struggling because society has branded them is going to increase the number.
Project MUSE - Homelessness and Housing Insecurity Among Former Prisoners
"Beyond the confluence of these two trends, there are strong reasons to expect a connection between incarceration and homelessness."
"They show high rates of shelter use (
Metraux and Culhane 2004) and residential insecurity (
Geller and Curtis 2011), as well as an elevated risk of recidivism for returning prisoners who do not receive housing and wraparound services upon their release (
Lutze et al. 2013)."
"A staggering 700,000 prisoners are released from federal and state prisons each year "
Now, the US has a high prisoner population compared to other countries.
The US has an incarceration rate of 693 per 100,000 people. This means that 346.5 per 100,000 are prisoners with mental health problems.
England and Wales has an incarceration rate of 146 per 100,000 people. This means that 73 per 100,000 are prisoners with mental health problems. So, in the US if you have mental illness you're FIVE TIMES more likely to be in prison.
The US spends $74 billion on its prison systems. Imagine if they transferred some of this money away from prisons and spent it on mental health, then you'd have more productive members of society, rather than people rotting away in prisons.
Another point would be that different states have different levels of prisoner populations
So, people with mental health issues in Louisiana are basically going to have a hard time, but in placed like Maine and Minnesota, they're going to have an easier time. It's not that mental health goes away, it's that it's less likely to turn into a problem.
So, is it a surprise that Louisiana is $75 or less? Is it a surprise that Main is $161 or more?
Places which spend less on mental health will probably end up spending more on their prison system.