A study of more than 300 people with mental health problems, carried out by Dublin City University (DCU), found that 95 per cent of participants had experienced some level of unfair treatment because of a mental health problem.
Launched to coincide with World Mental Health Week, starting on October 10, the report found that 86 per cent of respondents had experienced some level of distress as a result of unfair treatment, while 64 per cent of people reported unfair treatment in making or keeping friends. Some 63 per cent reported having been avoided or shunned because of a mental health problem and 61 per cent of people reported being treated unfairly by family.
The DCU study was carried out by the School of Nursing and was part of Amnesty International Ireland’s mental health and human rights campaign, ‘Hear My Voice: Challenging Prejudice and Discrimination’.
Findings also highlighted that 44 per cent of people said they were treated unfairly in terms of personal safety, 36 per cent of people reported being unfairly treated in finding a job and two thirds of the participants stopped themselves from applying for work because of the manner in which they were treated.
The new research findings highlight the need for Government action to challenge mental health prejudice and discrimination, according to Amnesty. Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty, said: “At the heart of ‘Hear My Voice’ is not statistics, but human stories. You hear about the job offer that disappeared at the mention of a mental health problem. Or someone else outlining so simply, yet so powerfully, the dramatic effect a mental health problem had on their social life. No telephone calls, no visiting, no invitations.
“In Ireland to date, there has been little research about the nature, extent and impact of discrimination that people with mental health problems face.”
The report makes a number of recommendations to Government including: Ireland should ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol without further delay; the Office for Mental Health and Disability should adopt immediate, effective and appropriate measures to combat prejudice and raise awareness of the impact of discrimination; and the Equality Authority should collect, analyse and disseminate information on the prevalence and nature of discrimination against people with mental health problems.
Amnesty also recommends the implementation of specialised education programmes targeted at key State agencies to improve attitudes and conduct of officials; to identify indirect discrimination against people with mental health problems that may be occurring as a consequence of the application of laws and policies; and to undertake measures to redress these and monitor the impact.
Irish Medical Times
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Two Hemet white supremacists guilty in 2008 attack (USA)
Two members of a Hemet white supremacist gang have been convicted of attempted murder in the 2008 beating and stabbing of a rival white supremacist gang member from the San Fernando Valley.
Timothy True, 22, and Steven Lemeur, 25, were both found guilty of attempted murder, burglary by forced entry and committing a felony to benefit a criminal street gang.
Defense attorneys could not be reached Wednesday.
Both men, who have swastikas tattooed on their heads, are members of the Hemet-based COORS Family Skins, which stands for Comrades of our Racial Struggle. They were arrested after the August 2008 attack of Cory Smith at a Yale Street apartment.
Prosecutors said Smith had shared a prison cell with Lemeur in Chino.
COORS members tried to recruit him into their gang in Hemet but he refused, saying he was trying to escape the gang lifestyle, Deputy District Attorney Sean Crandell said.
Police in that Riverside County city were called to an apartment where Smith was shooting heroin with a girlfriend. They found him stabbed about six times and beaten with a baseball bat. He had lost about six liters of blood and was within 30 minutes of dying, Crandell said.
Smith was in a coma for several weeks after undergoing surgery. He was released from Riverside County Regional Medical Center after six weeks in intensive care, according to a Hemet police affidavit. Smith did not remember the attack, but witnesses identified True and Lemeur as suspects by identifying their tattoos.
Authorities believe the men conspired to attack Smith for snitching to law enforcement about a previous crime. Lemeur had wanted to attack Smith while in prison but was stopped by gang elders.
The two men could face at least 15 years to life when they are sentenced Jan. 7 in a French Valley Courtroom, outside Murrieta.
The Press Enterprise
Timothy True, 22, and Steven Lemeur, 25, were both found guilty of attempted murder, burglary by forced entry and committing a felony to benefit a criminal street gang.Defense attorneys could not be reached Wednesday.
Both men, who have swastikas tattooed on their heads, are members of the Hemet-based COORS Family Skins, which stands for Comrades of our Racial Struggle. They were arrested after the August 2008 attack of Cory Smith at a Yale Street apartment.
Prosecutors said Smith had shared a prison cell with Lemeur in Chino.
COORS members tried to recruit him into their gang in Hemet but he refused, saying he was trying to escape the gang lifestyle, Deputy District Attorney Sean Crandell said.Police in that Riverside County city were called to an apartment where Smith was shooting heroin with a girlfriend. They found him stabbed about six times and beaten with a baseball bat. He had lost about six liters of blood and was within 30 minutes of dying, Crandell said.
Smith was in a coma for several weeks after undergoing surgery. He was released from Riverside County Regional Medical Center after six weeks in intensive care, according to a Hemet police affidavit. Smith did not remember the attack, but witnesses identified True and Lemeur as suspects by identifying their tattoos.
Authorities believe the men conspired to attack Smith for snitching to law enforcement about a previous crime. Lemeur had wanted to attack Smith while in prison but was stopped by gang elders.
The two men could face at least 15 years to life when they are sentenced Jan. 7 in a French Valley Courtroom, outside Murrieta.
The Press Enterprise
Racist 'Bandit' Obama billboard sparks storm in US city
"Certainly (it) is not designed for intelligent discourse at all," she added in Grand Junction, in the western US state of Colorado.
Beneath the cartoonish figures of Obama -- also depicted as a cigar-chomping gangster -- are rats, labeled as trial lawyers, the Inland Revenue Service (IRS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Reserve bank.
Chuck Pabst, the local Republican Party chairman, told the local paper the Grand Junction Sentinel that the billboard is in bad taste.
"It?s reprehensible and disrespectful, and that?s not what any honorable person would put forth," Pabst said. "To ridicule somebody in this manner is juvenile."
Politically, Mesa County is Republican-dominated and increasingly conservative, with several active Tea Party organizations -- which are making waves ahead of mid-term elections next month.
After two years in the White House, Obama is struggling to avoid a drubbing for his Democratic party in the November 2 ballots, and the race is getting increasingly hard-fought as the polls get nearer.
The provocative picture is the work of artist Paul Snover, who frequently posts on constitutionalist and Tea Party websites.
Snover couldn't be reached by AFP for comment, but he told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in an e-mail that he is "not allowed to say" who paid for the billboard.
Dennis Lucas, a Grand Junction businessman who owns the billboard, said, "I cannot tell you who it?s rented to," and hung up.
Doris Downey, the owner of a company whose parking lot is being invaded by people taking a closer look, is angry that her business is being disrupted.
"I have no problem with freedom of speech, but I do have a problem with causing problems for others, and this is causing problems for us on top of all this," she said.
"I don?t know who commissioned that thing, which I think is despicable, but they should own up to it," Downey said. "Anonymous opinion gets no respect from me."
AFP
Benefit plans could aid far right groups (UK)
Plans to cut housing benefit could boost support for the British National Party, according to the Labour MP who defeated the leader of the far-right group in the general election.
Margaret Hodge accused the government of deliberately forming policies to drive the poorest families from central London for political motives, and said the moves would create tensions in areas such as her Barking and Dagenham constituency.
The government is proposing a series of reforms to housing benefit, including setting limits on the maximum amount of local housing allowance that can be claimed at between £250 and £400 a week depending on property size.
Speaking in a parliamentary debate on the impact of housing benefit cuts on local authorities, Ms Hodge said the government is ‘deliberately forcing tens of thousands of families out of central London in a shameful act of social engineering and political gerrymandering which will cause irreparable damage to our communities’.
She added this would ‘inevitably reignite tensions’ that allowed far-right groups to establish a foothold in her constituency. BNP leader Nick Griffin secured 14.6 per cent of the vote in Barking and Dagenham in the general election in May.
Responding on behalf of the government, Department for Work and Pensions minister Steve Webb denied the changes would destroy settled communities.
‘The idea that there are these static communities where any sort of disruption will undermine the sense of community seems to me a parody of what is going on,’ he said.
He added that there is evidence that housing benefit is currently ‘subsidising landlords’ rather than vulnerable people.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes, the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said he was sure the government was not deliberately trying to move people from central London, but added ‘there can be unintended consequences’.
Inside Housing
Margaret Hodge accused the government of deliberately forming policies to drive the poorest families from central London for political motives, and said the moves would create tensions in areas such as her Barking and Dagenham constituency.
The government is proposing a series of reforms to housing benefit, including setting limits on the maximum amount of local housing allowance that can be claimed at between £250 and £400 a week depending on property size.
Speaking in a parliamentary debate on the impact of housing benefit cuts on local authorities, Ms Hodge said the government is ‘deliberately forcing tens of thousands of families out of central London in a shameful act of social engineering and political gerrymandering which will cause irreparable damage to our communities’.
She added this would ‘inevitably reignite tensions’ that allowed far-right groups to establish a foothold in her constituency. BNP leader Nick Griffin secured 14.6 per cent of the vote in Barking and Dagenham in the general election in May.
Responding on behalf of the government, Department for Work and Pensions minister Steve Webb denied the changes would destroy settled communities.
‘The idea that there are these static communities where any sort of disruption will undermine the sense of community seems to me a parody of what is going on,’ he said.
He added that there is evidence that housing benefit is currently ‘subsidising landlords’ rather than vulnerable people.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes, the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said he was sure the government was not deliberately trying to move people from central London, but added ‘there can be unintended consequences’.
Inside Housing
Online city Muslim group pledging death to all non-believers of Islam 'could be fake' (UK)
The group, named the Muslim Defence League – Lincoln Division, was created on September 30 of this year by a Facebook user known as Ibrahim Alauri.
In its Facebook description, the group make clear their ethos is to unite Lincoln's Muslims against the English Defence League – and pledge "death to all non-believers" of the Islamic faith.
The group has since been reported to Lincolnshire Police, who are monitoring their activity.
But Just Lincolnshire, a recently established group dedicated to preserving racial equality and promoting human rights throughout the county, warn it could be a fake group created to discredit genuine Muslim intentions.
Paul Elliott, chief executive of Just Lincolnshire, said: "It appears from reading the official Muslim Defence League (MDL) Facebook site description that it has been set up in response to the activities of the English Defence League.
"The official MDL Facebook site, which has 11,258 Facebook friends, also describes its purpose as 'wishing to defend all races and religions', which is in stark contrast to the unacceptable aggressive Facebook description of the unofficial Lincoln MDL branch, with just two friends.
"It is not clear the Lincoln Branch of MDL actually exists, or whether this may be a spoof site set up to discredit the bona fide official MDL Facebook pages which have previously been infiltrated in a similar fashion."
Alaa Alnajafi, a 20-year-old student in Lincoln and member of the Islamic faith, said that groups such as the MDL Lincoln Division in no way represented the beliefs of the Islamic faith.
She said: "We, as the Islamic community of Lincoln, disassociate ourselves from any Muslim groups or individuals who commit un-Islamic acts.
"Those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of this faith they claim to represent."
This is Lincolnshire
Recent hate crimes, suicides speak to intolerance of society (USA)
This past weekend, police arrested eight of the nine suspects who allegedly carried out what is certainly one of the worse hate crimes in recent memory. On Oct. 3, nine members of the Latin King Goonies gang (a Latin-American gang from the Bronx) abducted and tortured three men because they were gay.
The first victim was a 17-year-old the gang initially thought of as a potential recruit. They supposedly discovered the boy was gay and lured him to an abandoned apartment before severely beating and torturing him for hours.
Following this initial savagery, the gang members lured a 30-year-old man and his 17-year-old lover into the building and tortured them in a similar fashion.
Along with being beaten, slashed with box cutters and other atrocious acts, the gang members forced the 17-year-old to punch and burn the older man with cigarettes. As their bigoted cruelty wore off, the gang moved to the apartment of the older man’s brother, where they beat him, stole a TV, and took more than $1,000 in cash and debit cards.
What makes this senseless tragedy all the more terrifying is its proximity to the suicide of a homosexual Rutgers student in late September.
Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers freshman, plunged to his death off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate posted a video of him engaged in a sexual encounter.
This is, however, merely another example in a recent wave of suicides of gay children that has being sweeping across the country.
Seth Walsh and Asher Brown, both 13-year-olds, hung and shot themselves following brutal harassment by classmates for their homosexuality.
In a similar fashion, high school freshman Billy Lucas reportedly hanged himself in his grandmother’s barn following savage harassment by classmates questioning his sexual orientation.
As these cases indicate, hate crimes targeting gays are becoming a more noticeable element of the criminal activity in the United States.
The level of brutality people are able to execute against their fellow men never ceases to amaze me. We consistently reflect on the crimes of our fathers, looking into the gas chambers of Auschwitz or the slave quarters of the U.S., and we quietly state to ourselves “never again.”
We praise ourselves for our own progression and evolvement, stating pompously how far we have advanced or how tolerant of a society we now live in.
These arrogant claims crash into oblivion, however, when our society is able to produce such a level of hatred as to propel college, high school and middle school students to kill themselves because of harassment, or when three innocent men are savagely tortured because of their sexual orientation.
Bigotry and intolerance are, of course, not new phenomena. Along with all other hurdles to social greatness, such as greed and ignorance, they stalk us through our progression, mockingly glaring at our achievements as they plummet into insignificance in the face of such unbridled hatred.
We are able to conquer the air, sea, mountain ranges and deserts, yet we are not yet capable of conquering our own sadistic decadence.
We construct colossal structures and ideas as monuments to our will for success.
These structures do not serve to elate our spirit of greatness, however, but our vision may be brought above the hate and agony of our brothers suffering in the slums beneath their foundation.
We hear of the brutal attacks made against our gay brethren this past month and feel sorrow over their struggle, what they deserve is not our sympathy but our attention.
If we are to purge intolerance and hatred from our society, it will not be through an emotional sense of pity or sorrow, but through an active attention to the suffering of our fellow men.
If we are to establish our species in the plane of greatness it should be and is capable of reaching, it will only come through the abolition of social indifference.
As long as there are differences within our race, there will be antagonisms. I understand there are some who feel as though homosexuality is a sin, a cancer on our society and a force of debauchery threatening our social fabric.
But my understanding exists insofar as recognition of its existence, not understanding of how a person is even capable of thinking such disgustingly inhuman thoughts about their brothers.
Instead of stalling in incomprehension of our differences, perhaps embracing these differences as points of diversity and opportunities for learning is the best mode of bringing ourselves to our deserved greatness.
Whatever the solution may be, I hope we may at least try to see our greatest enemy is our own personal hatred and indifference.
This is a plague that has existed throughout the history of our species, and I am not so idealistic to think these recent hate crimes will bring about its eradication, but “I may be a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
Collegiate Times
The first victim was a 17-year-old the gang initially thought of as a potential recruit. They supposedly discovered the boy was gay and lured him to an abandoned apartment before severely beating and torturing him for hours.
Following this initial savagery, the gang members lured a 30-year-old man and his 17-year-old lover into the building and tortured them in a similar fashion.
Along with being beaten, slashed with box cutters and other atrocious acts, the gang members forced the 17-year-old to punch and burn the older man with cigarettes. As their bigoted cruelty wore off, the gang moved to the apartment of the older man’s brother, where they beat him, stole a TV, and took more than $1,000 in cash and debit cards.
What makes this senseless tragedy all the more terrifying is its proximity to the suicide of a homosexual Rutgers student in late September.
Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers freshman, plunged to his death off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate posted a video of him engaged in a sexual encounter.
This is, however, merely another example in a recent wave of suicides of gay children that has being sweeping across the country.
Seth Walsh and Asher Brown, both 13-year-olds, hung and shot themselves following brutal harassment by classmates for their homosexuality.
In a similar fashion, high school freshman Billy Lucas reportedly hanged himself in his grandmother’s barn following savage harassment by classmates questioning his sexual orientation.
As these cases indicate, hate crimes targeting gays are becoming a more noticeable element of the criminal activity in the United States.
The level of brutality people are able to execute against their fellow men never ceases to amaze me. We consistently reflect on the crimes of our fathers, looking into the gas chambers of Auschwitz or the slave quarters of the U.S., and we quietly state to ourselves “never again.”
We praise ourselves for our own progression and evolvement, stating pompously how far we have advanced or how tolerant of a society we now live in.
These arrogant claims crash into oblivion, however, when our society is able to produce such a level of hatred as to propel college, high school and middle school students to kill themselves because of harassment, or when three innocent men are savagely tortured because of their sexual orientation.
Bigotry and intolerance are, of course, not new phenomena. Along with all other hurdles to social greatness, such as greed and ignorance, they stalk us through our progression, mockingly glaring at our achievements as they plummet into insignificance in the face of such unbridled hatred.
We are able to conquer the air, sea, mountain ranges and deserts, yet we are not yet capable of conquering our own sadistic decadence.
We construct colossal structures and ideas as monuments to our will for success.
These structures do not serve to elate our spirit of greatness, however, but our vision may be brought above the hate and agony of our brothers suffering in the slums beneath their foundation.
We hear of the brutal attacks made against our gay brethren this past month and feel sorrow over their struggle, what they deserve is not our sympathy but our attention.
If we are to purge intolerance and hatred from our society, it will not be through an emotional sense of pity or sorrow, but through an active attention to the suffering of our fellow men.
If we are to establish our species in the plane of greatness it should be and is capable of reaching, it will only come through the abolition of social indifference.
As long as there are differences within our race, there will be antagonisms. I understand there are some who feel as though homosexuality is a sin, a cancer on our society and a force of debauchery threatening our social fabric.
But my understanding exists insofar as recognition of its existence, not understanding of how a person is even capable of thinking such disgustingly inhuman thoughts about their brothers.
Instead of stalling in incomprehension of our differences, perhaps embracing these differences as points of diversity and opportunities for learning is the best mode of bringing ourselves to our deserved greatness.
Whatever the solution may be, I hope we may at least try to see our greatest enemy is our own personal hatred and indifference.
This is a plague that has existed throughout the history of our species, and I am not so idealistic to think these recent hate crimes will bring about its eradication, but “I may be a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
Collegiate Times
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