Letter: Andrew Holland’s family is blaming the wrong people
To the editor,
–The death of any person is tragic, especially when the person dies young. So I can understand the despair of Mr. Hollands parents and family.
But why allow others to make a circus out of your tragedy to advance their political agenda?
If you were in charge of a jail and received any inmate who had a history of severe mental illness, refused to take his medication, beat himself about the head until he was bloody and you were not allowed to forcibly medicate him and the mental health facilities would not admit him, what would you do? Before you start agitating, answer the question what would you do?
Rather than picking an easy, though wrong, target like the sheriff or DA, if you are truly progressive why not picket the mental health department that refused to take charge of the inmate so he could receive treatment? Why not picket Sacramento to change laws so that law enforcement can mediate people in custody who need to be medicated to prevent harm to themselves and others? Why get on a soapbox and rant to people who had no choice but to follow the law? It is a bit disingenuous, if you ask me.
Dan Dow and Ian Parkinson are good people and are doing a good job for our county. They should be lauded, not lampooned. If you want to jump on a bandwagon, make sure its the right one.
Jim Merzon
Templeton
