According to medical opinions people living with
schizophrenia are usually no more violent or
dangerous than the rest of the population if they
are receiving effective treatment.

We're told that the current medical field is moving
towards tailored medicine especially as far as schizophrenia
is concerned. It's stressed that it's important to identify
vulnerable schizophrenia populations and provide efficient
treatment.

According to Joel Cauchi's parents, Joel was diagnosed with
schizophrenia when he was 17 years old. He's never displayed
any signs of violence. However, his mother explained that
because he felt good, he wanted the doctor to decrease
the dosage of his medication. His mother suspects that he
must have stopped taking his meds altogether, thinking he
was fine and no longer needed them.

She feels that as a result, he must have had a psychotic
episode and was no longer in control. She claims this would
not have happened had he still been on medication.

A tragic incident for all concerned.

I watched an interview with Joel Cauchi's parents last night, they looked to be decent Aussie folk, you could say third generation, dinky-di as good old Indy, maybe even more so. I don't think their name was ever Abdulllah and Aabidah and they changed it to Wally and Beryl, just to Anglophy themselves. Did any one else notice Cauchi was wearing the patriotic colour's of green and gold. I bet some on here have a footy jersey just like Cauchi's.

Hi Foxy,

You're right, mental illness is a shocking problem in Australia. My wife worked 10 years in NZ, in a front line institution working with people suffering from mental illness, they were very difficult to treat, two suicides in 10 years, countless attempts, arson, broken bones, fights. One poor woman jumped from the roof, she lived, 2 broken legs, she wanted to fly.

I deal with mentally ill people coming into our charity, to describe them as unpredictable is an understatement. They can be as nice as pie today, crazy as a cut snake tomorrow. We've had violence, we've had weapons in possession, we've had the police called, we've had drug dealers and one person od'd one day, ambo's called and the police. We have a book full of incident reports.

Just as a side; The guy at the local camping shop admits he makes plenty out of selling knives.

Thanks for sharing Paul.

I also have known people with mental issues.
Some as a result of what they experienced
during a war, others with bi-polar. None
though were violent on anyone else except for
self-inflicted harm.

A friend of my brother's - in his teens hung himself.
He was viciously bullied at school. His parents found him
in their garage. They were good folk, working for the
Salvation Army.

Six people were murdered by a nut job who, in the past, would have been locked away from them and everyone else. Thanks to the goody-goody bleeding heart Left, dangerous lunatics have the same "rights" as everyone else - to the detriment of everyone else.

More people were saved by a police office - with a gun. A Clock 9mm pistol, not known for its stopping power, but fortunately for the officer herself, and everyone else, it worked this time. Most of the filth shot in the chest with these weapons survive.

Hypocritical politicians, including Albanese, made the most of the opportunity to be insincere and lay flowers. The usual chatterboxes demanded immediate citizenship for a man on a working visa who fended off the murderer with a bollard.

The media referred to well-know man not as a grieving father whose daughter was murdered, but as a multi millionaire.

The 7 day news cycle over, it will be forgotten by all but the families of victims and the people who witnessed the horror.

Grasping Westfield will do nothing to improve safety (it's not a police function to guard private property) and the whole thing will be re-run sometime in the future.

The news of the stabbing of a bishop and a parish priest
at the Assyrian Church of Christ The Good Shepherd in
Wakeley (near Liverpool) in Sydney shocked many of us this
morning.

It unfortunately has been described as a "terrorist"
attack by police. Done by a 15 year old teenager.
No one has been killed. And more information needs to be
forthcoming to produce calm. Whipping things up in the media
does not help anyone.

Amid tensions in western Sydney, the Grand Imam of the
Ahmadiyya Muslim community in the area, said that the Muslim community
unequivocally condemned the attack on the Assyrian Orthodox Christian
Church - in the strongest possible terms.

The PM also stressed that there is no place for extremism in
Australia. In our communities people of different beliefs
live side by side. We need to stress what unites us and
respect should be maintained at all times.

Let us all hope that this will all calm down soon and peace
and calm shall be restored sooner rather than later.

We need to stop using dehumanizing language and try to
remain calm. Not inflate the situation.

In a video just released the 15 year old attacker
is seen being held on the ground inside the church,
surrounded by church goers.

The teenager can be heard speaking in Arabic:

" If he (the bishop) didn't get himself involved in my
religion. If he hadn't spoken about my Prophet. I
wouldn't have come here. If he just spoke about his own
religion. I wouldn't have come."

Which goes to show that we have to weigh out words and
think before we speak. There's a lesson for all of us here.