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• Anonymous

  He was found dead. Did someone kill him?

• Anonymous

  What?  Was the author of this hitting the pipe?  He was a criminal.  An animal.  Lets ask the prison librarian he took hostage how much of a “tragedy” his death was.  Wow, a judge complemented him.  Possibly the one time in his life he took the time to learn anything, and that was to shirk the system.  The only positive thing this creature did was preempt the state of Maine of 30+ years of prison bills.  Lets be thankful for that.

• Anonymous

  Remarkable story of a deranged psychopath.
  Tragic.

• Anonymous

  Hmmm. My headline for this would be “The strange editorial that could have been better spent on a more meaningful subject.”

• Anonymous

  Who cares.

• movingrightalong

  Superior intelligence is not a way that I would have ever described Michael Chasse.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YEOFUF76IFX2QVZFKWETZTEH3U Martha

  Very thoughtful editorial, though much more could have been said. 
   
  The first online report  following Michael Chasse’s death had two thoughtful responses (among dozens), one by a former case manager for Mr. Chasses, another speaking to the neglect of mental health care for prisoners.   So far, the comments for this editorial continue to  show the poverty of compassion in too many people.  For a healthy state and world, we’ll have to do better and model kindness for our children. Michael didn’t grow in a vacuum.

  Did anyone mention that he had been held in the “supermax” solitary confinement unit at the prison for at two years?  After only a month of such isolation, people begin to lose their minds, and for those already very ill, it is intolerable.  Fortunately those practices are beginning to change a little in Maine, though only recently.

  Still no excuses, but plenty of reasons.  May we all take whatever share of this responsiblity is due to our direct or indirect actions.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QCC3ABRLTIU3EFA26HUIDQZTSM Chris

  I remember reading the original  BDN story back in 1997…. ? Didn”t he have some sort of relationship with the daughter of R.Cohen. The daughter whom  just happened to be employed as a “dancer” at Diva’s?

• Anonymous

  Speaking for my previous comment, I just don’t find Chasse’s death worthy of an editorial, especially when the editorial offers nothing profound or new. The editorial doesn’t offer solutions to a bigger problem. It doesn’t point out a problem. It merely rehashes what most readers already knew. It reads more as a proposal for an editorial that would be more comprehensive in scope.

• Anonymous

  I met him a couple of times through my work before he became famous for the Bobby Cohen incident. He was a big punk kid, dressed like a big city gangster, speaking in a big city gangster accent and style even though I see he was from Lewiston.  Too many MTV rap videos and hood movies I guess because he sure thought himself as one of those type.  The police came by a few weeks later and asked if we could describe a burglary suspect they were after for a tool theft.  They named him and we described him, he stuck out like a sore thumb in Bangor back then, and sure enough he was the guy we had dealt with.  Soon after that he became famous, or infamous I suppose.   He wanted to live that tough guy life and he got his wish.  Sad story.

• Anonymous

  A young man decides, consciously, to to his best to be his worst. He was sent to prison for things that he did, without remorse or apparently a second thought. Did he have potential? EVERYONE has potential. Did he waste it? Absolutely. Should the BDN be memorializing him? Whatever for?

• Anonymous

  I don’t want to sound insensitive but why is the BDN devoting so much space to this persons passing?There is another story on this same subject. Everyday good, decent, young men die and yet the NEWS doesn’t do either a story or an editorial on them. From everything I have read the choices that this individual made he made himself and apparently they were pretty much all bad. 

• http://www.google.com/profiles/smoitozo SteveMoitozo2

  Mike did some really horrible things and I don’t condone any of them. I don’t believe that Mike was just a victim either; there were choices involved. Justice has been served. But your comment proves that nothing’s changed in 30 years. People loved taking potshots at Mike then and I can see they still do. You’re just like all the bullies he had growing up.