Sexual harassment is not generally a medical condition
Almost any behavior can arise from a psychiatric condition, but Filner entering a treatment program for being an asshole is an all too common stunt-move made in hopes a scandal will die down.
Entering treatment for being grabby at the office makes little sense unless one has already made a sincere effort to not grab women and failed... that one simply cannot stop.
Say some politician calls Mexicans "beaners," thinking it okay because Carlos Mencia does it. Outrage ensues. Politician does not sensibly go into a prestigious "slur" clinic. Rather, he recognizes that whenever he says that word outrage ensues and modifies his behavior himself.
Now, if he keeps saying it then he may have a problem. It could be that he has a brain tumor, or it could be that he is an asshole.
Being an asshole is not a medical condition. The cure for being an asshole mayor is to resign, at which point you are no longer an asshole mayor.
If a mayor needs to go into a crash theraputic program for being racist then he shouldn't be mayor. What's the point in having a mayor so racist he needs therapy for it?
And the same goes for grabbing women. Of course there are changeable elements of personality that contribute to the behavior, but even if it were stipulated that someone can be "cured" it is not argument for being mayor.
Vote Bob Smith. A curable racist. Has that sexual assault thing just about licked.
The ADA does not apply to personality traits of mayors. Even if a mayor does have a brain tumor that makes him yell racial slurs, he should resign. Not be imprisoned... his tumor in the slur-center of the brain provides a good incapacity defense. Just resign, so the city can have a mayor who doesn't call people in his city names.
Seriously... Filner will have a two-week rehab stint to treat grabbing women in his workplace??? What are they going to do in two weeks beyond telling him it is wrong to do that, which he might have picked up from the ongoing scandal.
A 14 day or 21 day rehab can be effective for alcoholism, with the patient streamed right into AA during the process, and with "90 meeting in 90 days" following release.
This is because alcoholism is an addiction, and something people tend to do almost every day. You can "dry out" from it... breaking the cycle of constant drinking to lay a foundation for ongoing group therapy (AA).
Being a sexist jerk is not that kind of addiction.
Will Filner have his hands bandaged for 14 days so he can't grab anyone's butt? Clockwork Orange for the political class? Will they give him a Barbie and induce electric shocks every time he lifts her shirt?
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