"The woman said someone was trying to kill her."

A Sutter Street pizza parlor worker was stabbed to death early this morning, and police have arrested a woman they say had visited the restaurant just before the attack for a drink of water.

If you read major metropolitan newspapers every day, you will find a version of this story somewhere in the United States on a regular basis: S.F. pizzeria worker stabbed to death.

It's not a story about crime or violence or murder or revenge or weapons or jealousy or a love-triangle or money. It's a story about insanity. Yes, the woman who killed the worker at the pizzeria was out of her mind. But the story is really about the insanity of our system which allows mental patients to roam free. Does anyone in his right mind think someone who is deranged should be out on his own, out to harm himself or harm other people? That is total insanity.

The victim, a 28-year-old man whose name has not been released, was stabbed at 1:30 a.m. inside Bellissimo Pizza at 920 Sutter St., near Leavenworth Street, said Lt. Mike Stasko of the San Francisco police homicide detail. The victim died a short time later at San Francisco General Hospital.

No doubt, every person who knew the killer knew she was dangerous. No doubt they tried to avoid her. No doubt her family could not control her and our laws prevented her from being locked up in a mental hospital. And for the sake of the American Civil Liberties Union, one man is dead and millions of others are put at risk every day.

Stasko said the assailant was a 24-year-old from Hercules who had asked for water. The woman, whose name has not been released, got the water and left, Stasko said.

A few minutes later, the pizza worker was taking a break when the woman returned and stabbed him, police said. She ran down the street, dropped the knife, then started to flag down motorists.

I used to bother to wait for the legal authorities to report that killers like this were confirmed mental patients. But when you read the details of case after case, it is so obvious, there is no need to wait. No sane person ever commits this sort of crime.

A driver who stopped to pick her up reported that the woman said someone was trying to kill her, police said.

A cab driver who saw the woman get into the car, alerted by witnesses that something had happened at the pizzeria, followed the vehicle and called police. Officers stopped the car a few blocks away and arrested the woman.

We have laws in order to protect us. Yet in the case of the mentally ill, the laws are designed to make us less safe. Does that make any sense at all?

"What can you say? This is a horrible tragedy," Stasko said. "We have no idea why this happened at all."

It happened because treat the mentally ill as if they are in control of their actions, when by definition they are not.

Throw out the ACLU. Take control of our mentally ill. It is not their fault they are crazy. Rational adults need to act as guardians for all seriously ill mental patients. As guardians, they need to medicate the mentally ill. They need to care for all of the needs of the mentally ill, just as they would a child. And if the patient cannot be controlled, he needs to be locked up. The answer is not that tough.

EDIT: Subsequent stories identified the killer. No mention yet of her history of mental illness. Here is what KRON4 is reporting about her:

Maryam Achekzai, of Hercules, is alleged to have stabbed 38-year-old Lassaad Youssef Bokri, of San Francisco, at about 1:30 a.m. outside Bellissimo Pizza at 920 Sutter St. in the city's Nob Hill neighborhood. ... Achekzai has a prior felony conviction for a 2006 assault during a robbery in Fremont for which she served time in prison, and a misdemeanor conviction for hit-and-run in Contra Costa County. Attached to the murder charge is an enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon. There is also an enhancement for having served a prior state prison term. ... If convicted, Achekzai could face up to 27 years to life in prison, according to the district attorney's office.