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You can tell from these few facts that the shooter was on legal medications, Maravilla? What are the keywords I missed?
Unless you’ve investigated a few thousand of these kinds of incidents as I have, you wouldn’t suspect legal medication. I would be very shocked if he weren’t on one of the faddy antidepressants that have suicide and homicide as listed side effects along with psychosis, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations. For no obvious reason that was stated, a guy goes to his roof with a weapon, fires it, and kills someone. What kind of crazy does that sound like to you? Oh, and he was a gringo. Good call Brad. I’ve been saying for the last three years that the more gringos who move to Costa Rica who have been medicated with a pharmacopia of psychiatric drugs, the more we can expect these kinds of incidents to happen.
Yale lecturer Charles Barber, author of ‘Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation writes about how there were 227,000,000 prescriptions for antidepressants in 2006. [ http://www.amazon.com/Comfortably-Numb-Psychiatry-Medicating-Nation/dp/0375423990/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201547260&sr=8-1%22 ]
What is the adult population of the USA?
“The number of prescriptions for antidepressants in England has hit a record high despite national guidance advocating alternative treatments.” [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6653013.stm ]
“According to Eric Harris (Columbine High School shooter) they “helped” him to feel homicidal and suicidal after only six weeks on Zoloft.” [ http://www.drugawareness.org/ ]
“Suicide is the third highest cause of death among teenagers age 15-24. Suicide rates have doubled for children of 5-14 years old in the past generation. Last year 15 million prescriptions were written for (SSRI) antidepressants for children and teenagers.” [ http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2004-09-22-suicide-rates-doubled-5-14.htm ]
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy is the leading expert in the world on serotonergic medications (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Sarafem, Fen-Phen, Redux, Meridia, Effexor, Serzone, Wellbutrin, Zyban and other SSRI antidepressants). Dr. Tracy has worked for ten years to develop a safe method for withdrawal from SSRI antidepressants, as well as for rebuilding the bodies and brains of those who have used them. See her fascinating bok at [ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/0916095592/all ] I can only assume that there are no reader reviews because of the threat of legal action.
One of my friends who is also an American calls the US “the world’s largest open air insane asylum ” Easy to why really.
The asylum is coming to Costa Rica. I’m running out of fingers to count the number of people (gringos) I’ve met in the last 6 months in CR who are on these drugs. So an act of senseless violence in Costa Rica is the beginning of what the US has witnessed as far back as the shooter in the clock tower at the UofT. I wonder if there will be any follow-up articles about the incident in San Jose.
These gringos you have met; why are they so eager to share their medical histories with you?! I thought it was 4 months, not 6?
maravilla,
I have to assume you have spent your lifetime investigating random shootings by drug crazed Americans? Surely each investigation takes time and to have investigated thousands of cases must have involved many decades?Alberto
I may be mistaken – and I am sure Maravilla will speak out if I am – but I am guessing that Maravilla would prefer to remain anonymous here however, having read her book – which is very much about how many prescription drugs are designed and how some drugs are designed to permanently control people WITHOUT THEM KNOWING – she has spent many years and done more unbiased and objective research on this topic than many of the ‘recognized’ medical experts in the field and as far as the drug companies are involved she and people like here are very, very dangerous to their business…
There are still a few people remaining that foolishly still believe in freedom of speech and think that voicing their opinions have no consequences…
Did you ever see the movie ‘The Constant Gardener’? [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Constant_Gardener ] based on John le Carré’s book?
As John le Carré writes in the book’s afterword, “By comparison with the reality, my story [is] as tame as a holiday postcard.”
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comYep, I’ve spent the last 11 years investigating school shootings, murder-suicides, infanticide, workplace shootings, and other weird incidences of violence. there is hardly a day that goes by that there isn’t some bizarre crime that involves these drugs. Here is a partial list: http://www.ssristories.com/index. And Harvey, out of the last 14 months, I’ve spent 9 of them in Costa Rica. Why do people tell me their medical histories? Most people know about my anti-psychiatric drug activism and the fact that I wrote a book about the societal problems from these drugs. And that I organized a large class action lawsuit against a leading drug company over the lies they told about the efficacy and dangers of one of their blockbusting drug.
Edited on May 25, 2008 07:51
Where do I begin? Over the decade that I lived in Costa Rica, in and around San Jose, here are all the incidents I can remember. Of course, I’ve omitted the ones I blocked out:
My car was broken into twice while on the street. Once to steal a 20 colon coin I left on the dash, another to steal the spare tire.
My car was broken into 3 additional times, while in a driveway with a locked gate, again for a few measly coins or a crappy spare tire. Obviously, the damage done to break and enter cost exponentially more than the items stolen, not to mention the time, frustration, and sense of violation and insecurity that goes along with it.
I can’t count how many times I was conned. I was swindled while exchanging money on the street twice. The third and forth time they tried it I was ready for them. Once an Attorney charged me $100 just for a notary stamp – that was theft as far as I’m concerned (this was in 1985, so $100 was worth something). I was also conned in highly inventive ways while doing business on numerous occasions.
I don’t know a single Tico who hasn’t had their house broken into. After we built our house, but before we got the window bars up (that’s how the story always goes), we went out for about 4 hours. This was the first time we left the house alone for more than 1.5 hours. When we got back it was dark, and when I opened the front door and walked into the living room, there was a stiff breeze. I turned on the lights, and saw that we had no windows. That’s right, they stole our 5 picture windows. Upon further inspection I found out they stole another $3,000 worth of equipment that I used in my business. As a result of this incident, our “dream” home became a nightmare of insecurity, and I lost my business. For us, this was the beginning of the end in CR.
I remember once I was at the beach with a Tico friend. We were in the water, and he had left his watch & towel on the beach. He was very vigilant though, as are all Ticos. There was a guy there, just sitting, that edged over to his things every time we turned around. My friend had to start walking towards him a few times before he finally went away. Talk about bold.
The items in our luggage have come up short a few times, and I was pick-pocketed twice.
These are the incidents that happened to me. Now, on to my Tico family there. A week after we visited my mother-in-law 2 years ago, her house was broken into by three armed punks while she was home. They cold-cocked my brother-in-law, and held a gun to my mother-in-law’s head. While this type of incident is much rarer, my fear was that it happened because I had been visiting previously – a gringo in a rental car. We gringos are easy marks there, but now I wonder if I put my in-laws in danger as well.
Theft is endemic in CR. Get used to it. While anecdotal, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that assault and more violent crime in CR has risen tremendously since the war in Nicaragua. After that debacle, there were a bunch of highly trained (thank you Oliver North), hungry & bored ex-contras, all armed to the teeth, leftover. What do you think they did? Well, to give you an idea, this was when the security business in CR really took off. Prior to that, I remember a huge deal being made over someone braking a window downtown during a demonstration. “What is the world coming to?” they said…
As I said, ALL of my brother & sister in-law’s homes have been broken into at least once.
“Crime is not a major problem in Costa Rica”??? Who are you kidding? It is one of three major problems which cause gringos to eventually leave (bureaucracy & poor infrastructure being the other two). Sure, I guess if you’re from some crime-ridden urban community in the U.S., you won’t be bothered by any of this. But if not, after a while you come to resent the fact that constant paranoia is mandatory if you don’t wish to be victimized, and unless you live in a condo or a TRULY gated community, you literally become a slave to your house.
There is another way to deal with this issue – don’t keep anything of value. Also, leave an easy way in and out of your house to minimize the damage when they break in to steal a fork. Use a messenger to brave the traffic, stand in lines, and complete your errands in order to minimize your exposure. A million Ticos who employ messengers can’t be wrong.
If I sound traumatized, well, I am. And yet I still dream about going back. Next time, it will be a secure condo. Too bad, I truly loved living out in the open up on the mountainside, with cloud forest trees and a bubbling brook. But in order to do that, you’re talking broken glass topped walls (which cost more than the house itself), vicious dogs trained not to take food from strangers, alarm systems and a live-in guard. Otherwise, you’ll be the easiest target on the block. Window bars? Steal doors? They’re worthless alone. Ever heard of a “pata de chancho”?. It’s essentially what the swat team uses to bust into doors, and they have them there. 3-5 seconds will do it.
While there are many things I don’t like about living in the U.S., I must admit that being able to leave my home alone whenever I want and for however long I want with no worries, is very liberating.
Do I want to scare people away from living and investing there? No. I want to help people do it with their eyes wide open, lest the same things happen to them that happened to me.
To be clear, the vast majority of Ticos are some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. It’s the few bad apples, as well as the underfunding, incompetence, and corruption of the police force, coupled with a very lax judicial system, that spoil it all. In my humble opinion, much of this is caused directly by the “War on Drugs” (remember, that was the one before the “War on Terror” – I know, it’s easy to forget, there are just so many…). The illegality makes the potential profits so enormous that whole countries are now consumed by it. Not to mention the fact that the drug trade also helps to fund the terrorists themselves…
GringoTico:
Finally a realistic view of the crime issues facing this beautiful Country. It is a shame that the Government of Costa Rica has been unable to get a grasp of crime in their Country, which at the end of the day everyone pays for. Everyone pays including the realtors this site promotes, the gringos investing in Costa Rica and most importantly the Costa Rican people. I know it’s hard to believe, but I get a kick out of the people on this site who say crime is worse in New York City, Chicago, Nicaragua etc.; they miss the point completely. Sure you can look anywhere and make ridiculous comparisons, but crime in Costa Rica is a real problem (#1 problem facing their Country according to Costa Ricans polled) and anyone who argues that point is out of touch, or has a agenda that makes acknowledging this fact in conflict with that agenda.
Again my thoughts, but I think they are right on target.
Because it just happens to agree with your point of view sjm1580 – it’s “realistic” and everybody else’s point of view is not?
My “realistic” view and my personal experience over the last nine years has been very different and I know hundreds of Ticos who’s homes have never been broken into…
But once again, I am honestly perplexed at some of these stories.
I did have my car radio stolen but my girlfriend has never had her car broken into and she is driving around and parking all over San Jose and Santa Ana six days per week.
As for being conned by someone “on the street” when you are exchanging money, why would you even think of doing that?
I have been conned but my a smooth talking Gringo scumbag who boasted of his vast experience with search engines and Google Earth but thankfully that only cost me $2,500
And why would you leave your watch on the beach anyway?
And sjm1580 – I apologize profusely for any “ridiculous comparisons” that may have been posted here on my site and in the forum but pray tell us! What comparisons would you feel are not “ridiculous” and more appropriate?
And of course you think your thoughts are “right on target”, they’re your thoughts but, which government do you think has been able to get a grasp on crime in their country?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comScott,
You think your thoughts are right on target and I think mine are. Costa Rica has a real crime problem, whether you are prepared or not to acknowledge that fact. I know this is not comfortable for you to talk about but it is a fact (by the way I am sorry about your stereo). It conflicts with you promoting Costa Rica realtors and real estate and I apologize for that, but the reality is theft is a big problem in Costa Rica.
Comparisons? Why not tells us the “hundreds” of the Tico homes that have not been broken into. I would be very interested in you producing that list….. Then we can talk about comparisons.
The Costa Rican Government is whom I speak of, that is not able to provide basic security for their citizens (by basic security I am referring to the lack of private property security, not some gringo shooting people from his rooftop).
My thoughts….
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