Judge: (John) Hinckley Can Drive, Take Long Trips

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

(AP) A federal judge says John Hinckley, the man who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan, can spend more time away from his psychiatric hospital and apply for a driver's license.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman says Hinckley's health will probably improve with more freedom and that he wouldn't be a danger to himself or others.

The judge ruled that Hinckley can increase the length of his visits to his mother's hometown of Williamsburg, Va., from six nights at a time to nine. He'll also be able to do volunteer work and take driver's education.

Federal prosecutors had opposed increasing the length of time Hinckley is away from Washington's St. Elizabeths Hospital.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/16/national/main5092406.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.1

[snappyturtle]

1. I have no problem with this. Good. nt

[peekaloo]

2. eventually he'll fulfill his dream of becoming a Taxi Driver.

[Javaman]

10. Oh Zing!!!

I don't think anyone else caught the reference.

Good one!

[Mari333]

12. lol

[KamaAina]

39. Did you know? Jodie Foster ended up in my class at Yale.

She had been a year ahead of me ('84), but took some time off to deal with the, ah, unpleasantness. She ended up alongside me (not literally :( ) in the Class of 1985.

This would explain why I don't go to reunions, and didn't even when I lived in New Haven. "KamaAina! How've you been? I just won another Academy Award..." "Well, Jodie, I'm a cubicle rat making nearly $40 K a year..." :eyes:

[peekaloo]

48. Boola boola you went to schoola

with Jodie Foster that's kinda coola. :dunce:

[WriteDown]

3. What a joke....

When are they going to pardon John Wilkes Boothe?

[DS1]

6. I can always count on DU to give me a day's worth of stupid before 11 am

[WriteDown]

14. Why...

because leniency to a presidential assassin is a good idea to you? Sounds like you probably need to lay off the stupid.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Does he get a discount if he stays at the "Hinckley Hilton?"

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Good. He is mentally ill

He needs treatment not imprisonment.

[FarPoint]

9. Yet, he new the difference

between right and wrong; and chose poorly. I do not give a free pass for mental illness that is not acutely psychotic.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I believe he is psychotic

And was not on the right meds when he shot Reagan. Meds have come a long way since then.

[WriteDown]

15. I said the same thing about....

Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. If only they'd been medicated properly. They probably could have been assets to society.

[Soylent Brice]

7. *grabs tinfoil hat*...

i know i'll get shit for this but i don't care.

anyone else think it's interesting that Hinckley is getting all these new outings and freedoms? for a bush family friend/attempted assassin of another president to be driving around all non-chalantly, within 2 1/2 hrs of DC...

:scared: :tinfoilhat:

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I don't think so

I believe he is psychotic and was unmedicated when he shot Reagan. I also don't think they'd give anyone a free pass for shooting St Ronnie.

[Soylent Brice]

27. depends on who is holding the leash:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Soilent%20Brice/54

[marshall]

20. Jodie Foster was actually the target of his mania

He sat in the front row of a college play she was in, with a loaded gun in his pocket. She has every reason to continue being afraid of him.

He seems to have had no political motive in shooting Reagan--he just wanted to get Foster's attention.

And she has gone on record more than once with saying she is against his being released even for a few supervised hours with family.

[Soylent Brice]

26. check this out:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Soilent%20Brice/54

[marshall]

40. What a bizarre coincidence

The next generation of the Kennedy assassination/LBJ conspiracy theories.

[Soylent Brice]

44. you can see the shine from my tinfoil hat for miles around. : P

[Algorem]

8. he's going for the record

[tomm2thumbs]

16. I may be in the minority, but I say if you try to kill a President, it's automatic Life Sentence

I'm all for 'rehabilitation' and all, but when someone tries to kill the leader of the free world, I think they should consider it a permanent feat of accomplishment, one worthy of a lifetime of jail. Of course I may be putting one life as more valuable than another, but have to have an opinion somewhere that that is the one I have.

[WriteDown]

18. Yeah...

That seems like a no-brainer.

[Xithras]

21. The game changes when you're talking about the mentally ill.

Mentally ill people are, by definition, sick. Their actions are often driven more by their illness than by personal will, and their entire perception of reality can be very off at times.

A very close friend of mine has been schizophrenic since childhood, and for a long time I really didn't understand what it meant. One day he, I, and our wives were having a movie night and were watching A Beautiful Mind at my house. After the movie ended, he looked at all of us and said, "That was my life before meds. Pretty fucking scary huh?" It opened my eyes to the insidious ways that mental illness can lead a person down the wrong path without them ever realizing they're on it.

I have no problem with locking sane people away who try and kill government leaders for political reasons, but a sane and just society HELPS the sick, it doesn't lock them away in cages for BEING sick.

[tomhayes]

22. Yeah ,but he was INSANE

Attempted murder charges would have probably gotten him life, or close enough to life - but he was insane.

I know because of T.V. shows like Law and Order we think people "get off" a crime due to insanity all the time - but it's a pretty rare circumstance. I think it's something like .25% of people are found insane.

[Iowa]

42. I understand the sentiment, but here's where we differ...

1) If someone is seriously mentally ill, commitment to a secure mental health facility is better than jail.

2) And it shouldn't be restricted to acts against political leaders. It doesn't really matter who is killed (or almost killed). The same principles apply.

How much freedom is regained by the patient who has murdered (or attempted it) is a stickier issue. I don't happen to have a lot of faith in the ability of psychiatry to predict future behavior. In fact, any competent psychiatrist will acknowledge that he/she has no way of predicting what someone will do in the future. They typically go out of their way to ensure that the court understands this. So I'm in the camp that believes that one who has been driven to murder by psychosis is best kept under VERY close supervision for the rest of his/her life. I have no problem with occasional home visits and the like, providing that sufficient time has transpired (usually years after the act) and sufficient security is in place... these types of things help with treatment and are humane. But if there are going to be errors, I would prefer to err on the side of the safety. It's best for both the patient and society if unnecessary risks are avoided.

This is the type of thing that mental health practitioners do all the time. It's really not all that difficult to protect society while also being humane. One does not preclude the other. There are judgment calls involved though, and that's why it's necessary to involve a LOT of people in such decisions.

[elocs]

17. I'm guessing that those with the judgmental and harsh opinions

do not have a friend or loved one who suffers from mental illness. Those who do have a friend or loved one who is mentally ill tend to have compassion and a hope for redemption and a chance for a newlife. I hate coming here and reading the same things that I could read at FR if I wished to wallow in that unenlightened crap.

[Abq_Sarah]

43. Okay...

I understand he has a mental illness. I also understand he crossed the line and attempted to assassinate a sitting Prez. He has already proven himself a danger to society. We can have no guarantee that he won't go off his meds or that his meds won't stop working properly. He will always be a danger to society, unlike most people with mental illnesses.

[Mrs. Overall]

19. The Hinckley family and the Bush family were (are) very close friends/associates.

[WriteDown]

24. I'd like to see some evidence of that. n/t

[Mrs. Overall]

25. From the Project Censored site:

Project Censored is not a conspiracy site--they report on the most under-reported stories each year. Walter Cronkite has endorsed them: "Project censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism." —Walter Cronkite

http://www.projectcensored.org/static/1984/1984-story24.htm

On the afternoon of March 30, 1981, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. fired six Devastator bullets at Ronald Reagan, President of the United States.

For more than two months, there was endless speculation as to why this lonely young drifter would attempt to assassinate the President. But the speculation ended in June when Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt told reporters that authorities had established a motive in the attempted assassination. Then after a series of "leaks" from anonymous sources, the waiting public was told that Hinckley "did it for" Jodie Foster, an actress who was attending Yale University at the time.

Following are some facts which the American public wasn't told:

-- The day after the assassination attempt, Scott Hinckley, John's older brother, was scheduled to have dinner at the home of Neil Bush, son of Vice President George Bush;

-- The Bush/Hinckley family connection goes back more than ten years, encompassing joint oil ventures and campaign contributions;

-- Hours before the assassination attempt, the Hinckley oil business, headquartered in Denver, learned that federal investigators had uncovered evidence of major pricing violations on crude oil sold by the Hinckley company and was warned that it might be fined a penalty of $2 million;

-- While in custody, John Hinckley wrote letters saying that he was part of a conspiracy;

-- The only piece of evidence supporting Hinckley's alleged infatuation with actress Jodie Foster as a motive for the assassination attempt was a letter that was never seen by the press or public.

This extraordinary information is the result of a well-documented research effort by Nathaniel Blumberg, a journalist, professor, lecturer, and a former Dean of the University of Montana School of Journalism as well as a Rhodes Scholar. Blumberg attributes the censorship of the information to a conspiracy on the part of the Department of Justice and other agencies in the executive branch of government to control the release of information concerning the attempted assassination; to the failure of both the Bush and Hinckley families to answer questions of legitimate public interest; and to the American press for failing to ask the questions that should have been asked rather than following the Jodie Foster red herring which was more sensational but less relevant to the attempted assassination.

Blumberg says he does not mean to say definitely that there was a conspiracy to elevate Vice President Bush to the presidency; however, he does document how the American public was systematically deprived of pertinent information about a variety of "extraordinary coincidences" connected with the events of March 30, 1981.

SOURCES:

THE AFTERNOON OF MARCH 30, by Nathaniel Blumberg, Wood/FIRE/ Ashes Press, Big Fork, Montana, 1984.

[WriteDown]

31. Meh....

There is no corroborating evidence except a tinfoil hat book from 1984. I'm going to say this is just another conspiracy theory.

[sabra]

36. here are media reports from that time...

http://www.voxfux.com/features/hinckley_bush_connection.html

[WriteDown]

38. Sounds kind of like this...

Comparison of events
The following chart compares the amazing coincidences in the deaths of Lincoln and Kennedy. Some items that are commonly listed in this comparison have been deleted as incorrect, thanks to reader feedback.

Lincoln
Kennedy

Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846
Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946

He was elected President in 1860
He was elected President in 1960

His wife lost a child while living in the White House
His wife lost a child while living in the White House

He was directly concerned with Civil Rights
He was directly concerned with Civil Rights

Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theater *1
Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who told him not to go to Dallas *2

Lincoln was shot in the back of the head in the presence of his wife
Kennedy was shot in the back of the head in the presence of his wife

Lincoln shot in the Ford Theatre
Kennedy shot in a Lincoln, made by Ford

He was shot on a Friday
He was shot on a Friday

The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was known by three names, comprised of fifteen letters
The assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was known by three names, comprised of fifteen letters

Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a warehouse *3
Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theater

Booth was killed before being brought to trial
Oswald was killed before being brought to trial

There were theories that Booth was part of a greater conspiracy
There were theories that Oswald was part of a greater conspiracy

Lincoln's successor was Andrew Johnson, born in 1808
Kennedy's successor was Lyndon Johnson, born in 1908


*1 Note: It is an urban myth that Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy. There is no record of that.

*2 Note: There is no record whether or not Kennedy's secretary warned him.

*3 Note: Booth actually fled to a farm and was killed in a tobacco barn. It might be a stretch to call it a warehouse. But two years after his death, Booth's body was temporarily moved to a warehouse. Also, after the assassination, the government closed the Ford Theatre and turned it into a warehouse.

[sofa king]

45. Well, if it said,

"Andrew Johnson's son was having dinner with John Wilkes Booth's parents the night before the shooting," then it might sound similar.

[Lost Jaguar]

23. If I was Jodie Foster...

I'd be shopping for a .44 Magnum from Easy Andy. My wife (the therapist) says, "They always go off their meds."

[TrogL]

28. I'm on my meds

[Name removed]

29. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[brooklynite]

30. Next up, a gun permit?

Can't deny anyone their Constitutional rights...

[yorgatron]

32. I guess the brainwashing is strong enough to keep him under control.

seriously,real nutjobs use large caliber weapons.
assasins employed by mobsters or spooks use .22 caliber.

[devilgrrl]

33. Does this mean that Sarah Jane Moore and "Squeaky" Fromme can spend more time away too?

As much as I hated Reagan - it so ticks me off that this spoiled little snot has been treated with kid gloves. What bullshit!

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

[shanti]

34. i know!

and wasn't she mentally ill too? whenever a bush connection is found, follow the money.

[Thothmes]

47. Sarah Jane Moore is out on parole.

[Seedersandleechers]

35. Ahhh, he was found not guilty

if I remember correctly. No?

[muriel_volestrangler]

37. Can he talk reasonably and with a recognition of what he did, and about Foster?

In April 2000 he won the right to unsupervised furloughs. The following month these rights were revoked when guards found in his room a smuggled book about Jodie Foster. (He is banned from having any material about the star.)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande02.html

Is he still banned from having material about Foster? If so, then he clearly isn't well again. He needs to be able to function as a normal, reasonable, unviolent human being who is completely cured before he's allowed to do things like drive.

[Recursion]

41. I miss Traficant's rants about this NT

[number6]

46. I Believe the Hinckleys are

freinds with Bush family, If I heard correctly