Bruno

Discussion (4) ¬

1. 
   Mr Lapin

   July 5, 2014 at 8:38 am | #

   Back when you drew this strip, this was a more likely outcome. With today’s over the top shoot-first swat teams and hyper-militarized police, I’m not so sure things would go as well for Matthew.
2. 
   Pete Rogan

   July 5, 2014 at 5:16 pm | #

   We institute governments to handle the matters the community must attend that we, as individuals, cannot. We individually cannot house the mentally infirm and indigent; we elect elders and electmen and representatives to provide the structures and institutions that can do so.

   Abdicating his public duty as an officer of the government we choose and which we put into power, as this official has done, is unconscionable and a slap in the face to the people. If you can’t or won’t help the indigent population, Mr. Badge, then it’s time for you to step aside and allow someone who can and will. You can join the Teabaggers and complain how you’re not being listened to if you want, but don’t you ever think you can hide behind the authority we gave you and claim it’s our problem. YOU are our problem, and eminently, easily solvable at the ballot box.
3. 
   Mr Lapin

   July 6, 2014 at 10:00 am | #

   “YOU are our problem, and eminently, easily solvable at the ballot box.”

   If only it were so. You have to find enough other voters who agree, and good luck with that.

   When I was a kid, folks with mental problems were treated at (or at least sheltered in) state mental hospitals. That may not have been an ideal solution, but at least they had a chance for treatment.

   The state hospitals have long since lost their funding and closed. Prompted by fanatical talking heads and hate-filled politicians, Americans today are conditioned to blame the victim. That lets them conveniently shake off any responsibility they might have to help. The victims end up on the street.

   And what do we do about that? Cities pass laws making it illegal to be homeless, hoping they’ll just go elsewhere. If they don’t, the cities can arrest them. The for-profit prisons stay full, their stockholders are happy, and the troubled folk are out of sight. Problem solved, no?
4. 
   Kona

   April 7, 2015 at 4:33 pm | #

   I can tell you from experience that a great many mentally ill are also substance abusers, which provides a handy pretext for life imprisonment on the installment plan in our revolving-door civil commitment “rehabilitation centers”. There but for her incredible strength and intelligence goes Bruno. I imagine she only just keeps alcoholism at bay.