This just in.
Police Montréal
@SPVMD.Markuze was arrested for social media harassment (breach of probation). Thanks to those who helped with the investigation
#Mabus#SPVM
Well hallelujah.
Butterflies and Wheels
Gnu atheism, women's rights, internationalism, universalism, and gossip
Your links are broken, Ophelia.
It’s mostly just sad. I guess it’s good to see enforcement, though.
It’s Twitter. I don’t bother about links on Twitter.
James, well sure it’s sad, but we still need him to be stopped. And if he gets treatment and gets better it’s not even sad. He’s not going to be tortured.
Mabus “free” but spending his life compulsively sending out threats is pretty damn sad too.
I’m so glad! No more harassment for all of us…I hope!
Praise be to Spud!
Given that he’s been on the agenda at recent Eschaton organizer meetings, this is welcome news. Presumably, this means we won’t have to include “Watch out for this guy” handouts in the conference booklet, or notify the Ottawa cops that we have a potential issue….
Oh fiddlesticks! Now how will I get the latest Nostradamus-related news?
Mabus has been a persistent pest for a pretty long time. Having been one of his harassment victims, I am freshly out of fucks for his supposed mental condition. That excuse would have flown the first time, but not this time. I hope they either lock him up, or at least, make sure that he doesn’t lay his grubby paws on any internet-enabled technology ever.
I’m sure the History Channel will have you covered, Crom.
Thanks so much for posting this.
Those of us in Ottawa can breathe a sigh of relief.
Crommunist:
Here. Eschaton 2012 Apocalypse When
It’s about damn time.
So, does he keep telling the cops that he’s not Markuze as well, but just a huge fan of his?
Yes, it’s good news for Eschaton. I’d half forgotten about that aspect.
Every time I got a tweet in which I was singled out for criticism alongside PZ, it made me feel very important. What will I do now?
Poor man. Hope he gets some help.
If you use the “mental health” excuse one too many times, you’re suddenly well? Or do you just mean that when someone is disturbed we treat that as a health issue once but if that doesn’t cure them we just toss them in prison?
Markuze scared a lot of people, harassed a lot of people, threatened a lot of people.
It is good to stop that.
If his behavior is due to illness we must continue to see it as illness and treat it as illness while protecting anyone his illness might pose a threat to, including himself.
Anything else is barbaric.
Mental health is not a “quick-fix” situation. We as a society don’t like that, so mental health care is on average non-existent and at best bare-bones.
We might not blame mental illness on demons quite so much anymore, but we still treat sufferers as weak of character, immoral, evil. We’re still in the dark ages. We mostly don’t WANT to deal with mental health issues.
We have to acknowledge that. We have to accept that and the burden and responsibility as a society that comes with properly dealing with it.
Even if that means providing treatment for people for YEARS.
To deny that is similar to denying climate change.
We either face the PROBLEM or deny it and let it bite us in the ass.
The interesting thing to me is that according to this story in The Gazette (Montreal), one of the complainants had to first convince the Montreal police that a court order had already been issued about Markuze’s behavior last May. He did this by referencing the exact order and quoting its text to them.
Jafafa:
First, one can’t treat behaviour, one can only seek to modify it, and second, it’s quite possible that it’s not the illness, but his bad nature that motivates his behaviour.
There is no such dichotomy, as I noted above.
Quite probably Markuze has mental problems. However that doesn’t give him a free ride to harass people for years and years. He needs to be stopped. If treatment stops him then give him treatment. If jail stops him then put him in jail. He is committing crimes so jail is an appropriate remedy. He’s already been told “bad boy, don’t do it again” and he’s done it again. Perhaps jail will get his attention and convince him not to do it again.
“We either face the PROBLEM or deny it and let it bite us in the ass.”
The problem was that people were being harassed. Making excuses for this bit people in the ass.
“We mostly don’t WANT to deal with mental health issues.”
This thread is about a mental health issue being dealt with. People wanted it dealt with. It is being dealt with.
What about Pat Robertson?
He has been sending ‘social media harassment’ regular as an old dude on ex-lax for donkey years.
Talking of which that other donkey little Billy Donohue aka ‘Marion’ must be due for a pull on threatening correspondence surely?
But I suppose the Mabus bust is a good place to start as any!
Hope he gets therapy and lifelong t’internets’ ban!
What’s the difference, in the official John Morales dictionary, between treating and modifying?
Guess what, John… when someone is on psych meds you’re doing both. You’re treating illness and hopefully modifying behavior. And I can tell you from personal experience, meds modify behavior.
In fact, cognitive therapy is a treatment and the hoped for result is a modification in behavior.
Then you go on to declare “there is no such dichotomy” just after you yourself displayed it.
And Rodney, dirigible, where did I say his having been re-arrested is NOT dealing with the problem? Where did I ever say anything to give that impression?
I was responding to the thing, whatcha callit – the QUOTE, above my comment. That “the mental health excuse won’t fly.”
Doctors have determined that he is mentally ill and that contributes to his actions.
That is not an excuse, it’s just a thing that is.
Properly dealing with his mental illness might mean meds and supervision, it might mean active probation, it might mean institutionalization or incarceration.
NOWHERE did I claim that his arrest was NOT dealing with the problem, so please stop refuting an argument I never made.
NOWHERE did I say that any particular method of handling his mental illness is off-limits.
NOWHERE did I say he should not have been arrested.
I am simply pointing out that if his behavior is the result of mental illness, then that is the case whether or not you’re tired of seeing it characterized that way. There is no “well, screw the mental illness thing, he can’t use that excuse any more” statute of limitations.
There is no point where we get to say “Screw what the doctors say, I’m tired of being forced to pretend to have compassion for the mentally ill, I need to get my vengeance on.”
Markuze needs to be dealt with and people need to be protected from him.
That doesn’t mean that we get to lazily characterize mental illness as an “excuse” that we can get tired of hearing.
That doesn’t mean we get to act like creationists or and deny medical assessment as irrelevant.
It doesn’t mean we get to ignore science and declare a person’s actions the result of immorality simply because we’re tired of being compassionate or tired of letting anger take a back seat.
It doesn’t mean we get to declare that there is no dichotomy while simultaneously serving up a prime example of it like John Morales just did in his typically pompous style.
So… last time he was ill and gosh, despite all, we hope for the best for him. This time we’re sick of it, so fuck his “mental health” excuses, he deserves whatever he gets?
He’s ill. He’s in the system. That’s what should happen.
If you need someone to be demonize, make it the Montreal Police, who seem determined to ignore the situation until forced to act.
Markuze was diagnosed as bipolar and a substance abuser by a mental health professional. Fine, I accept he has mental problems. The judge ordered him to stay off the internet. He hasn’t. He’s committed crimes both before and after his trial. Apparently whatever therapy, if any, he’s been undergoing hasn’t stopped him from threatening complete strangers. So perhaps something stronger than a weekly visit to a therapist is needed to stop Markuze from threatening complete strangers.
Is this unreasonable? If so, in what way? He is an admitted criminal who keeps reoffending in the way he has been doing for years. Perhaps someone needs to get Markuze’s attention, because the judge’s order isn’t working. I’m not saying throw him in a supermax prison for the rest of his life. I do think the realization that more could happen to him than seeing a therapist on a regular basis might be enough to keep Markuze from reoffending.
I can’t be arsed to look up the old blog posts, but it was noticed and discussed at the time of his release that nothing effective and enforceable had been done about his condition. The system is failing him (and the public, specifically us) big time.
On the night before the launch When O-rings were selling at a premium because of the novelty precise these advancements are increasing the importance of O-rings The rubber industry has gone through its share of transformation after the accident FKM is not a good material for cold temperature applications backup rings