Another case where, based on partisan reasons, everyone "rushes to their battle stations" and portrays one person as "the bad guy" and the other as a "hero"
Life isn't that simple sometimes...
Based on what we've seen thus far, my inclination is just to think this is an unfortunate situation all around.
Neely's family is coming out of the woodwork, hiring a lawyer, and trying to capitalize off of this is something I view as somewhat shameful. If they cared about him that much, he shouldn't been homeless and living on the streets. If my brother was mentally ill to that degree, he wouldn't be living on the streets, he'd be living with me and wouldn't be homeless.
In Perry's case, it looks like a situation where a person injected themselves in a situation that they weren't trained or equipped to handle. The right focusing on the fact that he was a Marine is just obfuscating the issue. While I'm appreciative of what Marines do and the rigorous process they have to go through, they're not mental health experts and they're not trained specifically to handle that type of situation and he probably should've just employed "watchful waiting" until Neely actually posed a tangible threat to someone else before involving himself.
Some media outlets have already employed the tired old tactic of showing the person they want you to be sympathetic towards in the form of their pictures from 5 years ago during "better times" (they did the same during the Treyvon Martin fiasco)... likewise, the right has made the predictable move of immediately trying to exonerate someone of bad decision making because they check off a box that makes them assume they're a political ally. "Oh he was a Marine, that must mean he's on our side"
Do I think that Neely was just a "happy go lucky guy who liked to do Michael Jackson impressions on the subway"?...no, his arrest record shows otherwise. Do I think his family that's decided to hire lawyers have any sincere care for their family member? That's very questionable...as I said, I can't imagine me letting my immediate family member be a homeless person, and then all of the sudden pretend to care about them when I think there's a payday around the corner.
At the same time, while people like Perry may have been well-intentioned in thinking they were "preemptively preventing a crime", if your training isn't specifically in the realm of dealing with a person who's having "a mental health episode", and isn't in "subduing in a way that doesn't cause serious damage", perhaps it's best to just sit back and observe before injecting yourself into the situation.