Concerns:The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act

The Murphy Bill (HR2646) further propels the notion that American citizens can legally be found to present a possible risk to the public, and thus be quasi-incarcerated by forced hospitalization. This is in violation of the US constitiution, in that such forced incarcerations bypass the civil rights of citizens who may be considered problematic and thus removed from the community without the application of criminal charges nor a trial by jury as are the rights of all American citizens.

The notion of "Pre-Crime" and the possiblity of forcibly dealing with the potential for causing harm is obvious in this bill, as it feeds upon the fears of the American people. I recall the Nixon/Agnew years when discussions of "preventitive detention" laws were considered in regard to those whose views could be "problematic" in a political sense.

Our nation was founded on the concept of individual liberty, and a concensus reality founded on both fear and outrage destroys our liberty. Finally, HR 2646 is in violation of several articles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations; of which Eleanor Roosevelt was chair of the drafting committee. Her husband, Franklin, is well known for the statement: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". Legislations such as the Murphy Bill play upon fear and seek to establish order under the guise of "helping", thus our trajectory is order, not liberty and opportunity.

The concept of the "individual" itself is eroded, wherein every person must either self-identify with some larger group of affiiation, or must be forced into one for their own good. The corporate groups that will benefit from this bill are the pharmaceutical companies, and the large mental health provider agencies who already are the de-facto owners of thousands of individuals forced into a herd that provide insurance company billings.

We criminalize the poor, the "different", the eccentric, the one's left behind by fate or fury... There is a bronze plaque at the statue of liberty that poetically describes what America represents; why persons continue to seek liberty here. It is well worth reading.

-Michael Saunders,  Chatham NY