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mental illness
Does Trump Know the NOLA Attacker Was a US-Born Veteran?
That Mr. Trump persists in deploying the politics of hate and bigotry is a bad sign for the U.S. Even if Jabbar had been a immigrant, his actions would have said nothing about immigrants.
Jan 03, 2025
I love New Orleans, and have been known to hit the jazz clubs on Bourbon Street into the wee hours myself. So what happened there is a gut punch, and I want to express my condolences to the families of the victims and to the community there for its trauma.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump jumped to the conclusion that the New Orleans attacker, who killed 15 people and wounded three dozen more was a career criminal and recent immigrant. In fact, he was an African-American veteran, born and bred in Beaumont, Texas. His conversion to Islam must have happened before 2004, when he tried to enlist in the Navy under that name. Instead, he ended up in the army, and deployed for a year to Afghanistan (2009-2010), as well as getting the training to become an IT specialist. He remained a reservist after his honorable discharge.
He was, in short, a patriotic American who did his part in fighting the war on terror. He was not an immigrant or a member of a foreign criminal gang.
I do know that if a white guy lost his family and his business, went tens of thousands of dollars into debt, and ended up living in a trailer home with livestock in his yard, and then went postal, sympathetic white reporters would be eliciting regrets from his white parents that he was suffering from mental problems.
That Mr. Trump persists in deploying the politics of hate and bigotry is a bad sign for the U.S. Even if Jabbar had been a immigrant, his actions would have said nothing about immigrants, who have low rates of criminality compared to the native-born population and whose productivity has been one key to American economic success. They don’t take jobs from the native-born on the whole, but do jobs that the latter typically won’t do.
Nor is Jabbar’s religion a reason to engage in Muslim-hatred. The NY Post‘s insidious and Islamophobic reporting ominously says that one of his neighbors in the trailer park in which he ended up only spoke Urdu. If that were true it would be because poor people live in trailer parks, including immigrants with limited English. However, it sounds fishy to me, since even poor Pakistanis of the sort who come to the United States tend to know English. It was the colonial language and still an essential language, like French in Tunisia. Then they say ominously that there was a mosque in the area. So what? Mosques are houses of worship where people go for solace when facing rough times.
The Post says ominously that Jabbar referenced the Qur’an, the Muslim scripture. D’oh. He was a Muslim. He also referenced the Qur’an when he was in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. army’s fight against the Taliban.
The Qur’an forbids murder and urges believers to forgive and do good to their enemies. See my study of these peace themes in the Muslim holy book at academia.edu.
If this guy had been a white Proud Boy found with guns and explosives, would the newspapers imply that it is suspicious that he quoted the Bible and that there is a Baptist church near his house? It is 2024, New York Post. Islamophobia is a disgusting form of racism. (Yes, Muslims are racialized in this country.)
I admire the hell out of veterans. I grew up in an army family, just as Jabbar’s children did. Most veterans are admirable citizens who come back and contribute to their communities, building businesses and providing key services. But the job undeniably can lead to trauma and stresses that a small minority deal with in dysfunctional ways. The suicide rate is tragically high. I’ve lost people I knew that way. Some end up homeless. Some are radicalized. It is not an accident that the leadership of the Proud Boys, convicted of sedition, were disproportionately veterans.
Jacqueline Sweet was able to screenshot some of Jabbar’s postings at Twitter / X.
In the first posting, from 2021, he says that a “scarcity mindset” is unhealthy in an environment of abundance, and that if you can’t turn off that scarcity mindset it becomes a kind of trauma. In the second, from the same year, he complains about the lack of Black protagonists in films after Marvel’s The Black Panther (2018) who are not “submissive, immoral or immature/ silly.”
Then in 2022, everything went to hell. His wife divorced him, he went deeply into debt, and the Post says he ended up living in a trailer home with chickens and sheep in the lawn.
Everybody goes postal in their own way. White nationalists try to invade the capitol and hang the vice president. Kahanaist Jews in Israel shoot up mosques and commit atrocities in the Occupied Territories. A handful of Muslim Americans have declared themselves ISIL (ISIS, Daesh), even though that organization barely exists and has no command and control. It is like a white supremacist declaring that he is acting in the name of Adolf Hitler even though the Nazi army was long ago defeated and Adolf died in his bunker.
It should go without saying that the fact that a tiny number of disturbed individuals act this way does not reflect on the 4 or 5 million Muslim Americans, who are our physicians, accountants, and local business people. Tarring a whole group with the actions of a few is the definition of prejudice. Likewise, the Proud Boys don’t reflect on all white people.
I’m not a psychiatrist and don’t play one on television. I therefore cannot pronounce on Jabbar’s state of mind. But I do know that if a white guy lost his family and his business, went tens of thousands of dollars into debt, and ended up living in a trailer home with livestock in his yard, and then went postal, sympathetic white reporters would be eliciting regrets from his white parents that he was suffering from mental problems. As I pointed out over a decade ago, however, the U.S. media treat white terrorists differently.
As a reminder, here are my Top 10 Differences between White Terrorists and Others:
- White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the U.S.? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”
- White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.
- Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.
- The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.
- White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.
- White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.
- White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.
- Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.
- White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts, or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.
- There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.
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DA Says Man Who Choked Jordan Neely to Death on Subway Will Face Manslaughter Charge
"It's 10 days too late," said one protester in New York City. "Yes it's some step towards progress, but we've been waiting too long."
May 11, 2023
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed Thursday that Daniel Penny, who last week fatally choked Jordan Neely on the subway in New York City, is set to be charged Friday and could face up to 15 years behind bars.
"Daniel Penny will be arrested on a charge of manslaughter in the second degree," Bragg's office said in a statement. "We cannot provide any additional information until he has been arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, which we expect to take place tomorrow."
While riding the F train on May 1, Neely—a 30-year-old Black subway performer known for impersonating Michael Jackson—was "acting erratically," but he did not attack anyone on the train, according to witness and freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez.
Neely, who was unhoused, shouted about being "fed up and hungry" and "tired of having nothing," said Vazquez—who posted on Facebook footage of Penny putting Neely in a chokehold that the medical examiner concluded killed him.
Penny, a white 24-year-old Marine veteran, was initially questioned and then released by police; his attorneys claim he acted in self-defense.
Meanwhile, the video has spread online and sparked not only demands for justice but also national conversations about homelessness, mental illness, and racism in the United States.
According to NBC New York:
Multiple protests have taken place in Manhattan since Neely's death, with dozens arrested. Protesters again ratcheted up the volume Thursday, even after learning of the charges said to be coming.
"We need people to be held accountable for their actions, however, we don't want this just to be about the need to incarcerate this man," said Jawanza James Williams, the organizing director for Vocal NY.
Still, some said it has taken too long for the charges to come.
"It's 10 days too late," said protester Tanesha Grant. "Yes it's some step towards progress, but we've been waiting too long."
In a Wednesday speech, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams used Neely's death to promote his unpopular policy of addressing NYC's intertwined mental health and homelessness crises with forced hospitalizations.
"There is no evidence supporting Adams' harmful and dangerous rhetoric," responded New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman. "This kind of stigmatization and fearmongering contributes to the victimization of people with perceived mental illness—the same that led to the killing of Jordan Neely."
"The mayor is right that there are more Jordan Neelys in our city," Lieberman added. "They deserve housing, healthcare, and supportive services to get back on their feet, not to be controlled, criminalized, or killed."
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Targeting Mental Illness Will Not Prevent Mass Shootings
Instead of defaulting to mental illness as the reason for mass shootings, we must look at countries with far fewer gun deaths and mass shootings.
Apr 25, 2023
As the trial begins for the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 people in 2018, hearts and lives are still shattered from the recent mass shootings at an Alabama birthday party and the Louisville bank. Ongoing are calls for gun reform along with cries to “deal with mental illness” by lawmakers, as happened in Nashville. In the January California shootings, a congresswoman speculated that if older Asian Americans were able to access appropriate mental health treatment, “things could have been different.”
In my work as a psychiatrist who sees many people with serious mental illness, I know that focusing on mental health will not reduce mass shootings. It is extremely rare for a person with mental illness to kill a group of strangers.
Not all mass shootings are random acts of violence. Shooters have been provoked by racism, homophobia, homegrown terrorism and crusades against abortion providers. By definition we do not categorize these “socially deviant behaviors” motivated by political, religious, or sexual reasons as mental illness.
Research tells us that only a small portion of active shooters are diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Schizophrenia, a very debilitating mental illness, has become a symbol for aggression and unprovoked violence. However, the risk of violence in schizophrenia is mediated largely by other factors like substance use.
Risk factors for violence in severe mental illness overlap with risks in the general population. Risk levels can be estimated, but there are no tools to predict who among the higher risk people will commit violence. Nor can we predict when such violence will be triggered. In fact, many shooters were evaluated in the days preceding the incident and sent on their way.
To be sure, the mental state of a shooter is undeniably important. Common characteristics of past mass shooters are poorly controlled moods, impulsivity, poor judgment, and lack of empathy. These characteristics inform risk, irrespective of a diagnosed mental illness. A majority of shooters were reacting to grievances.
Shooters often experience a crisis and show change in their behaviors in the weeks leading to the attack - over half die at the scene of the crime, having never sought mental health treatment. An individual’s past history of violence also matters because it is a strong predictor of future violence.
Mental illness is a term used loosely in common vocabulary. Poor mental health is not the same as having a diagnosable mental disorder. Mental health is a state of mind that changes over time. People cannot be neatly divided into the mentally ill and the mentally well. About half of the U.S. population has had some mental disorder at some point in their lifetime. This means almost half of the country could be labeled as mentally ill and considered more likely to commit violent acts.
Recently, I did a risk assessment for a colleague’s patient. Instead of asking for his diagnosis, I gauged his impulsivity, anger, feelings of vengeance and suicidality, and evaluated for active use of substances that alter mood and impair judgment. Most importantly, I wanted to know if he had access to a weapon. Possessing a weapon is essential to carry a destructive plan to completion - and firearms make it easier to cause destruction on a large scale.
Instead of defaulting to mental illness as the reason for mass shootings, we can look at countries with far fewer gun deaths and mass shootings. Since Australia instituted a massive gun buyback program in the 90s, firearm deaths reduced by half, and no mass killings have occurred since then.
In addition to a buyback program, UK Parliament passed legislation to ban private ownership of certain firearms and to require owners to register their weapons. The number of gun homicides in the U.S. is now more than quadruple in comparison to the UK.
It is obvious on a global scale that more firearm ownerships closely correlate with more firearm deaths. However, there is a deeply entrenched culture of guns in the U.S. Attempts to legislate gun ownership are often noted as an infringement of rights - but reducing gun violence is not the same as promoting gun control.
Stronger firearm policies reduce firearm deaths. But since that is so challenging to implement, research can be part of the solution by engaging local communities to better understand complex gun culture and build knowledge of best practices for gun safety.
Furthermore, there needs to be more federal funds than what was allocated after a partial repeal of the Dickey Amendment. Ultimately, everyday citizens and the highest levels of government need to come together on legislation that reasonably controls gun access and ownership.
Relying on mental health professionals to prevent mass shooters is an exercise in futility that will not save lives or prevent the heartache and trauma caused by mass shootings.
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