There was an unnerving news story in March about Kam Brock, a woman who was involuntarily committed to an asylum. I have no way of knowing what the reasoning was for that… her medical records have not been made public. What is public, though, is that she is now suing New York for false imprisonment.
One part of their justification for keeping her was that she made the ridiculous claim that Barack Obama followed her on twitter… ridiculous, that is, until you find out that he actually does.
It seems a little strange that something so easily refuted would be used in a case against her… did no one bother to check? If she asked to prove it to them, did they refuse her? Hopefully more news will emerge as the case progresses.
I’m getting some deja-vu this week, because something eerily similar is happening in South Africa…
Last month South African author Zainub Priya Dala stated that she liked Salman Rushdie’s novels, and was attacked by a mob in retaliation... In retaliation for stating that she liked some novels, she was attacked by a mob... There’s no way I can phrase that that makes it sound sane, is there?
Well, she has just been involuntarily committed. She went to the hospital due to trauma she suffered in the attack. But when she arrived was committed when she refused to renounce her statement, denounce Rushdie, and vow loyalty to Islam.
There is now growing outrage from all around the world. Much of it is coming from PEN, a nonprofit free-speech advocacy group, which you may remember from it’s appearance on Harper’s charity hit list last year.
There’s just no end of things to get mad about in these stories.
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