The psycho firebug who tried to kill Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro last weekend is a product of the Keystone State’s broken, perverted criminal-justice and mental-health systems — which look a lot like New York’s.
Cody Balmer, the arsonist arrested for throwing two lit Molotov cocktails into the Shapiros’ living room while the family slept, had a history of violence and serious mental illness that should have seen him either in jail or getting long-term, supervised treatment.
When he carried out his sick plot to burn the Shapiros alive, Balmer was out on bail for allegedly stomping on his 10-year-old son’s broken leg and attacking his estranged wife in 2023.
But that’s not all: In the days leading up to the attack, Balmer’s mother, Christie, called Crisis Intervention and multiple police departments, desperately trying to get her son committed to a mental institution.
“He was mentally ill, went off his meds, and this is what happened,” she said.
Christie knew her son was a danger and begged for help.
Yet the authorities did zilch because Balmer “hadn’t made threats to himself or others” and thus “did not meet the threshold for an involuntary mental health evaluation,” insisted the Penbrook Borough Police Department.
Yes: The “threshold” is so high that even a violent madman whose own family is pleading for intervention doesn’t even get evaluated, let alone committed.
When Balmer was arrested for cruelly attacking his own child and wife, Pennsylvania’s lenient bail laws sent him back to the streets.
When authorities were warned that he was a ticking timebomb, wacko involuntary-commitment standards tied their hands.
Sound familiar? That’s because New York has so many similar stories of failure to put clear threats behind bars — with disastrous consequences.
Yet stubborn state legislators are holding up the budget to resist even modest improvements to involuntary-commitment laws, while no-bail is so sacred a cow in Albany that no one will touch it.
Victims should not fear that their abusers will be cut loose after an arrest; terrified families shouldn’t be left with no recourse when a loved one is losing a battle to mental illness.
And emotionally disturbed people shouldn’t be left to wreak havoc just because the state is squeamish about getting them care without their explicit consent.
New York has no shortage of maniacs running wild on our own streets, but so far, elected officials haven’t been among the victims.
What happened in Pennsylvania could easily happen here — unless Albany gets serious about protecting the public from obvious dangers like Balmer.
