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Kelly Thomas was a 37-year-old homeless man diagnosed with schizophrenia, living on the streets of Fullerton, California. His tragic death on July 10, 2011, five days after a violent encounter with Fullerton police officers, sparked national outrage and brought attention to the treatment of mentally ill individuals by law enforcement. Log in or sign up to view+11Wikipedia+11Medium+11Orange Coast+5Medium+5LAist+5 Born on April 5, 1974, Kelly was the son of Ron Thomas, a former Orange County Sheriff's deputy, and Cathy Thomas.In his early twenties, Kelly began exhibiting signs of schizophrenia, leading to significant behavioral changes. Despite his family's efforts to manage his...

By Dan Joyce & Bonkers Let’s not sugarcoat this.There’s a quiet war happening all around us. Not overseas. Not in some distant headline. But right here—on our streets, in our shelters, in our so-called systems of care.And the weapon?They call it tough love. You’ve heard the battle cries before: “They need to hit bottom.”“They have to want help.”“Suffering builds character.”“Let them freeze. Maybe they’ll learn.” Let me say it plain: Tough love has become a terrorist.It sneaks into policy, hides behind recovery programs, and makes martyrs out of the mentally ill, the addicted, the houseless. It tells families to abandon...

Let’s Get Real About What It’s Costing Us Once upon a time in the sun-scorched streets of California, a group called Synanon promised to help drug users “get clean.” Their method? Baseball bats. Literal ones. In the name of “tough love,” they beat people into submission. Think that’s extreme? They also put rattlesnakes in the mailboxes of their critics. Tough love wasn’t just tough—it was straight-up abusive. And it didn’t stop there. Synanon was investigated by the law, disbanded in disgrace, and yet their influence lives on like a bad tattoo. Their techniques seeped into America’s addiction recovery world, and...

No doubt about it—I still argue with my mother. And yes, I know I’m a grown man. But there’s something about our dynamic that still hits me in that raw place, like I’m a 59-year-old abused child trying to make sense of old wounds. The tough love, the brutal abandonment, the gaslighting, and those tiny strings of control she tugs on—it’s a perfect storm of triggers. Ironically, during our last call, she said, “Don’t get upset—you might smoke.” Well, guess what? She was right. I lit up two or three cigarettes right after I hung up. It wasn’t even satisfying—it...

In a move that has sent shockwaves through the public health community, President Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent figure in the anti-vaccine movement, as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on February 13, 2025. This decision has ignited intense debate, given Kennedy's controversial stance on vaccines and public health policies.Teen Vogue+2Wikipedia+2CIDRAP+2MarketWatch A Controversial Appointment Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been associated with the anti-vaccine movement, leading organizations like Children's Health Defense, which has been criticized for spreading misinformation about vaccine safety. His nomination faced significant opposition from the scientific community,...