Column-A Shooting in Somerville

On Friday, 33 year old Woman Carol Kingsley was killed by three Somerville Police Officers as they defended themselves. According to reports Ms. Kingsley suffered from grave mental health issues. Also according to reports she was admitted to Cambridge Hospital hours before the shooting. She had been brought there by Somerville Police but was let go a few short hours before her death. Now I know the liberal media and Mental Health advocacy groups are going to rail at the police for what they would call excessive force, but my beef is with whoever made the decision to release her from the hospital. Clearly if this poor woman was in enough distress that she eventually attacked several police officers and died because of it, then someone at the hospital had to notice. Someone fell asleep at the wheel over there. A spokesperson for the hospital said that due to confidentially they could not at this time discuss what led to them releasing her nearly 3 hours before she was killed. Aw come on Mr. Spokesperson, What’s with the Confidentially BS. You guys just want some time to come up with a believable excuse. Though I can’t wait to here it, the hospital isn’t the only one to blame. The whole mental health system let Carol Kingsley down. How can a person who suffered such severe mental illness slip through the cracks like this. If reports are to be believed the signs were all there. Losing a child whether by death or DSS can have a devastating impact on a parent, and according to her former boyfriend that’s when things really started to go down hill, and the fact that she was drinking heavily didn’t help. Reports also say she was seeing a therapist. Didn’t that person detect a slow deterioration, or was it one of those lay on the couch for an hour and times up sort of things. Now I know I’ll get some nasty emails or phone calls. Heck, The Cambridge Health Alliance may even drop me as a patient. But I will still sleep well at night. The bottom line is this, the system is broken and it needs to be fixed. Now I know someone will say, “Hey James it’s one incident Lighten up.” Yeah tell that to her family, or the child that will never have a chance to reconcile with her Mother when she gets older. One incident is one too many. I’m quite sure there are more people out there like Carol Kingsley, who for whatever reason are either misdiagnosed or not getting the help they need. Her death should be a wake up call to Mental Heath professionals everywhere. It should also be a wake up call to the state that the system is broken and needs to be fixed. Please do so before someone else gets killed.