This woman needs to be in a mental hospital and kept there! She appears to be an extremely dangerous person!

How did she get all the way from Baltimore to the SF Bay Area in this mentally unstable condition without any peculiarities being noticed?

By car, bus, plane, or boat?

How many "incidents" does it take for the police and DAs to find there are "reasons" to get people off the street and/or issue restraining orders?

It is obvious that this is a person who should be confined on an ongoing basis. A "restraining order" would be totally ineffective. She apparently did not attempt to kill anyone when in a mental hospital, and they may have been able to ensure that she took medications that counteracted those tendencies. But once released, it is very unlikely that she was taking such medications or was under any other type of treatment. She will have to be kept in a mental hospital (conventional incarceration is not a solution) unless/until there is some other way of ensuring that she will not be a danger to anyone.

I care more about the children who will be haunted by her attack for the rest of their lives. That woman should never be let out again. Meds or no meds!!

Last week Palo Alto Online proudly trumpeted their decision to not name the accused woman who stabbed a 16 year old woman on University Avenue. This week all that is thrown out and now the name the woman. What changed...other than your very confused ethics?

Hi Ozymandias. Our policy for reporting arrests states that we will not name an arrestee until charges have been filed by the District Attorney. Web Link

The initial story was published before Thomas was charged and thus did not name her. That same story was updated with her name after her Friday court hearing, and this story with information about her criminal record was posted the following day.

Hi Ms Dong. Thanks for the clarification on the reasons for not naming an arrestee in in violent knife attack, however, as your policy states "THERE ARE SOME EXCEPTIONS...the arrest was for a major "violent" crime". Your judgement seems to be that an unprovoked knife attack on 16 year old woman does not warrant an exception. Perhaps you can address that part of your policy.

I, too, am concerned about how this criminally mentally ill person made it out of a mental hospital in MD and got to CA.

Certainly the vast majority of homeless people here are Californians. Ditto the mentally ill. But a 2019 LA survey still showed 18% of homeless here became homeless somewhere else. Why would they come to the most expensive state where people are homeless because of how unaffordable it is? If you want to show that CA is worse, though, it makes sense to help them get here. If anything like that played into how she got here, they should be held criminally liable.

It’s been hard not to notice how very political Republicans have tended to project onto Democrats anything they are guilty of—because it works, people stop talking about the Republican misdeed, e.g. Trump accusing others of trying to steal an election when he’s actively trying to steal an election. How much did that distraction and misdirection keep people from holding him to account for his misdeeds?

We're beyond imagining that political types on the right wouldn't do certain things. Republicans do regularly spread and believe lies about tragedies from Sandy Hook to the hundreds of thousands dead from Covid to Jan 6 as staged by Democrats, which seems just crazy, but then, given their habit of projection, it does make you wonder what Republicans are doing.

An LA Times article about a homeless couple to humanize the homelessness crisis, mentioned they had been enticed to come out to CA from MI with false promises yet there didn't seem to be anything in it for the person who enticed them out who subsequently disappeared. The article left me with questions about why anyone would do that, in the midst of the Trump administration trying to make a big deal out of CA and homelessness for political purposes.

Could red state politicians be facilitating their homeless and mentally ill to come here? It’s something I could never have imagined asking 4 years ago, but seems naive not to ask now.

@Citizen Cities buying the homeless a bus ticket to elsewhere is fairly common, and not particularly partisan. Web Link

Ms, Dong, thanks for your clarification. Evidently there was some hesitation in naming the person threatening City Council Lydia Kou almost a year after he was convicted and had long been part of the public record.

So I'd appreciate clarification of that since that story has so many aspects that are important to the community.

I also wonder about the closing of comments since that surprised another City Council member who'd taken the time to prepare a long thoughtful response to your story only to find he couldn't share his views with the larger community. His post would have added a unique angle not mentioned in the earlier comments and it's a shame we've lost the opportunity to discuss his post here.

Appalling crime!
While it’s sad that the alleged stabber clearly has major mental issues, society must take priority and be protected. So if she’s found responsible for this act, she must BE IN CUSTODY to protect the general public! I favor as many treatments as are feasible for her, BUT the public must be protected.
California government officials at the state and county levels have done everything possible to favor alleged criminals in the recent decade, (much less charged and convicted ones).
See: San Francisco.
See: L.A.
Both district attorneys are under possible recall efforts (very hard to do) owing to their outrageous dereliction of duty with respect to protecting the general public .
Please follow the legitimate news media reports (not Tiktok or facebook links from your pals) about crime in this state, and the choices made by elected, appointed and bureaucracy/career government officials in this state. Things are out of control now. We need more responsible DAs, judges, legislators.

Regarding the inquiries about why California, despite being as expensive as it is, seems to corner the market on transients and homelessness.
#1- Easy to obtain and keep benefits. We are compassionate and give out food and cash via transfer cards to anyone in need. I’ve spoken to homeless who’ve been in the state less than a week and already have their EBT cards. They are grateful for your tax dollars.
#2- cheap drugs with little interest in prosecuting (allegedly) illegal drug offenses. The man on the street corner with a $900 monthly Social Security check and the cash you’ve just handed him doesn’t want to spend that on a roof when he can buy methamphetamine and alcohol instead while residing in a parking garage or tent.
In the USMC we had a cadence refrain that went “This is what you asked for….”

She needs to be in a mental hospital for her own well-being, and the safety of society. This will only get worse if something isn't done.

Why do the homeless come to California? The weather, handouts, and if they do want to get their their life back on track -- higher paying jobs.

I'm not sure why some posters don't understand "sole discretion." It's comical.

I see the accused described as a "San Jose woman" but nowhere do I see her described as homeless. So why are we focusing on homelessness here?

Hi Paly02:

I would guess that she was not at an assisted facility given the reported fact that she had a warrant standing from MD.

I believe that those facilities check your background before you are admitted.

Government assistance (including access to food stamps, Medi-Cal, cash benefits, and an Obama smartphone) are there for a reason...to assist those living at or below the poverty level.

The food stamp allotment is minimal...about $200.00 per month and the Obama smartphone is not an Apple iPhone, just an inexpensive Android knock-off operating on an older OS.

Why begrudge the poor and homeless when compared to their minimal existence most of us are living high off the hog?

And someone blowing their monthly government stipend on illicit drugs is no different than a professional who spends all or most of his/her salary on cocaine.

Passing judgement on the poor is a sign of effete arrogance.

$200.00 per month in food stamps is not very much (roughly $50.00 per week or $7.00 a day for an individual to subside on).

Many people spend more than $7.00 per day on coffee alone.