Visions, Voices & Violence

Book excerpt: As a fictional memoir, Zahn Pesh tells the true story of a mentally disabled young man Billy, known affectionately as Vaney and Billys run-in with the San Francisco police. Often using Billy speak, the youths arcane lingo, the author reveals societys neglect and injustices toward such individuals. Wrongly, Billy is accused of making terrorist threats against a paramedic, but few other than Pesh believe the disabled kids story. Avoiding the blame game, Pesh shows how each from personal perspective does his duty, indiscriminately, but nonetheless Billy, or Vaney, suffers because the system fails. Billy is treated like a criminal, not as a patient, which Pesh insists he is. Try as he might, Pesh only meagerly reforms that system, before . . .