Lunatic Psychopaths

It's debatable whether psychopaths are deranged, to begin with, or whether they simply represent human beings for whom the emotions of empathy and compassion are absent from their arsenal of feelings. Are people who have an utter lack of interest in others, in whether they suffer, and whether their actions are the cause of such suffering, representative of a debased intelligence? Likely not, since it has been demonstrated in the past that mass and/or serial murderers have been possessed of intelligence while constrained of human emotion.

And what the hell do you do when you discover that there are actual raving lunatics in your midst? All the more so when faced with the reality that those who are judged to be a potential risk to the health and safety - and longevity - of their near social group are young people? We're really ill-equipped, even as a progressive, intelligent and medically-advanced society to cope with the numbers of young people who are critically alienated from society in general and their peers in particular.

The instance of two Winnipeg teens, a 17-year-old boy suffering from autism, and a 18-year-old girl, his close friend, who conspired together to inflict major harm in as wide a swath as possible among their peers in school. And once they were finished mopping up that little atrocity, they planned to move on to another location, the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus, and continue their planned killing-excursion there.

They had secured four rifles and shotguns and made careful plans. They may have been inspired by previous school massacres. They may have felt a deep and abiding revulsion for others their age who might have avoided contact with them on a social basis, instinctively feeling there was something not 'quite right' about those two with their seething animosity for others.

School authorities at the high school they attended had been given reason in the past to feel there was something dreadfully wrong with the young man. As a result he had been submitted to a psychological investigation, and its results conveyed to his father. His father had taken immediate steps to divest himself of his firearms, taking them to the home of his mother. From whence his son had availed himself of the weapons, in any event.

The two had planned to trap students and teachers in the school gym before setting a fire and shooting any of those in the gym who tried to escape the resulting fire. From there they planned to proceed to the university campus to continue their killing spree. They also planned to devote some attention to College Lorette collegiate and Church of the Rock parishioners. They obviously had a wide net of institutions and individuals whom they felt violently aversive.

Things went awry for them when they fell under suspicion after the girl had confided to a friend and that friend alerted police. Both teens attempted suicide. They since underwent tests validating their serious psychological issues: "These reports make clear that both young persons suffered from serious mental aberrations [and] disorders at the time of the offence and that both require continuing intensive psychological treatment".

The two, who had agreed to kill one another if either attempted to back away from their original plan, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder. They have since been tried and under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for such a charge amounts in total to three years behind bars and supervision. Which has resulted in two-year incarceration sentences for both.

And, dare we hope, plenty of efficacious treatment. Doubtless inclusive of a drug regimen. And what will result from that? Two young people released back into society, encouraged to remember to take their prescribed drugs to control their mental 'issues', and society hoping that their frail conditions don't deteriorate and lead them back to similar plans to exact revenge on a society they are alienated from.

How frail.