I was saddened by Martinez's death, also.

I visited a female friend, a grad student at U.C.-Berkeley, in 1992. Martinez was the main topic of conversation on campus. I was eager to see him. My friend felt that his conduct was egotistical and constituted sexual harassment against women on campus.

While I consider myself pro-feminist, I felt she was being anti-nudist or perhaps anti-male in general.

It seems that as mental illness set in later, Martinez sought treatment but the prescribed drugs were ineffective or counterproductive. After he was jailed for assaulting someone at his halfway house, it seems that the jail ignored his mother's warnings that Martinez had become suicidal. I hope someone eventually considers legal action against that jail.

Mike, it's always tough for me when people talk about suing the police for the death and problems of the mentally ill. Having worked with cops for many years, these guys just don't have the training, the mindset or the mentality to deal with such things. While many officers do an excellent job in dealing with troubled people, in general, the shades of understanding needed to help out the mentally ill isn't available to them. Enforcing laws and treating illness are two different skill sets.

From the end of the Kennedy administration to the heights of the Reagan, we did everything we could to kill the mental health system across the country. The police and jails now are the places these people wind up because there simply isn't any other refuge for them -- and the debilitations of their disease puts them at odds with the law time and time again.

Instead of suing the cops, we need to demand comprehensive mental health care across the life-span, for everyone in the USA. Be it national, private or a mixture. it's the only thing that will prevent such tragedies as this from happening again.

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