Tuesday 29 October 2013

Paul Boyd: The culture of death and another mental- health victim of the Police

On hands and knees, along the street in Vancouver, a young man crawled, mortally injured from multiple gun shots. A final ninth bullet killed the man. The shooting was not an altercation by gangs, but rather the mode of police response to another mentally ill person. Paul Boyd is another victim of the culture of death. THe police "officer" involved in Paul's killing will not be charged. The pretext is that there is not enough evidence to obtain a conviction, as the defense will argue his life was in danger from the seriously injured and crawling Paul. All of these arguments we have heard time and again. Our culture of death has declared open season on the mentally ill; and no one is speaking out in their defense. Pro-lifers: where are you? Please pray for the repose of Paul's soul. 

Shot, Paul Boyd crawls along a Vancouver street moments
away from being slain by Vancouver police
"...whoever suffers from mental illness "always" bears God's image and likeness in himself, as does every human being. In addition, he "always" has the inalienable right not only to be considered as an image of God and therefore as a person, but also to be treated as such". Pope John Paul II

Recommended reading: Mentally ill are also made in God's image, Pope John Paul II 

2 comments:

Freyr said...

The greatest evil we face these days is the quantification of human beings. If the number of friends you have determines your intrinsic worth then this mentally ill person had no intrinsic worth and was treated accordingly. Unborn babies have little intrinsic worth since they have by definition only one friend...their mother. If she turns away they are worthless. And so it goes. The thing that determines your net worth is your social network, the number of friends you have, the number of cards in your Rolodex or the number of followers on your twitter account. At the final judgement you will be judged, not by how many friends you have, but by how well you have reached out to these smallest and least of people.

Barona said...

A brilliant reflection.