On the Markuze/"Mabus" arrest
Aug. 17th, 2011 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_archfiendDennis Markuze - better know as "David Mabus" on the plethora of Usenet newsgroups and Internet atheist, skepticism and science forums that he's plagued over the years - appears to have been arrested in Montreal after a petition to have him investigated for the threats he's made on those aforementioned sites over the years. Apparently, despite the previous indifference of the Montreal police, it worked.
Keep in mind that despite the raging assholery that Markuze has engaged in over the years (a catalog of only some of it is available here), he probably is a profoundly mentally ill man who needs thorough psychiatric treatment much more than he needs prison time. As Phil Plait put it,
I don’t want to see Mabus tossed into jail. I’m not a psychiatrist, but it’s clear the man has mental problems. We tend to stigmatize mental illness, but that’s unfair and unhelpful; it’s a prejudice that may blind us to how that person’s condition can be mitigated with attention and care. My fondest and most sincere hope is that this arrest leads to an evaluation of Mabus and that he gets the help he so obviously needs.
At least it ended this way instead of how it could have; witness Anders Behring Breivik. Granted, the two incidents are far from analogous, but consider that the supposedly saner of the two was the one who actually succeeded in pulling his murderous fantasy off.
Keep in mind that despite the raging assholery that Markuze has engaged in over the years (a catalog of only some of it is available here), he probably is a profoundly mentally ill man who needs thorough psychiatric treatment much more than he needs prison time. As Phil Plait put it,
I don’t want to see Mabus tossed into jail. I’m not a psychiatrist, but it’s clear the man has mental problems. We tend to stigmatize mental illness, but that’s unfair and unhelpful; it’s a prejudice that may blind us to how that person’s condition can be mitigated with attention and care. My fondest and most sincere hope is that this arrest leads to an evaluation of Mabus and that he gets the help he so obviously needs.
At least it ended this way instead of how it could have; witness Anders Behring Breivik. Granted, the two incidents are far from analogous, but consider that the supposedly saner of the two was the one who actually succeeded in pulling his murderous fantasy off.
