"Peter" has some thoughts regarding the mentally ill.
Many years ago there were large, fully staffed mental institutions in nearly every state. Several states had more than one mental institution. Mentally ill people were picked up off the street or from their homes at the request of a relative. They were taken to a psychiatric facility for a professional assessment of their illness and then either released or committed to a mental institution.
There were also too many lawyers for the number of available clients. Many lawyers were working in other jobs to feed their families. The lawyers got a judge to declare that mentally ill people deserved a court hearing before being assessed in a psychiatric facility, as if lawyers were more capable of assessing mental illness than psychiatric professionals. A lawyer would be appointed to represent each mentally ill person at public expense. This court decision became informally known as the Lawyer's Full Employment Act.
The result of that decision can be seen today. Politicians decided it was too expensive for the taxpayers to pay for thousands of lawyers to represent the mentally ill and it would tie up too much court time that was needed for criminal cases. The politicians ordered the police and sheriffs deputies to stop picking up the mentally ill. Most state mental institutions were forced to close for lack of patients. The mentally ill now roam the streets without much needed meds. Most are homeless. They drift from store to mall to public parks where children play. Those still living at home are a stressful burden on their family.
The lawyers didn't achieve their full employment. Thousands of psychiatric positions were eliminated. Public safety has been compromised. All because some judge legislated from the bench to help out his fellow lawyers at public expense. Walking through the trash and human feces on the streets of many of today's major cities, people should know why it is like this and demand that politicians change the system back to the way it was. Rebuild the psychiatric hospitals and staff them with professionals. Get the mentally ill the help they need instead of sacrificing them for the sake of money. Rid our streets of the homeless mentally ill people who make our city streets a dangerous mess.