Why would someone call the police for a non-violent mental health issue?
I can only imagine the need if there is a danger or someone will need to be restrained.
I can only see this increasing risk of danger to citizens.
I can only imagine the need if there is a danger or someone will need to be restrained.
I can only see this increasing risk of danger to citizens.
Not long ago I saw a very ragged man stumbling around and he just curled up and went to sleep in the middle of a busy road. What to do? I can stand and block traffic. But, he’s not listening to anyone and I’m not going to grab and drag someone who is that far gone.
Thankfully, before I called the police another (very likely homeless) person was braver than me. He did grab the passed-out dude, got him to his feet and over to the sidewalk to lay back down.
I’m not happy with any aspect of that event -especially not myself. But, I only had two options: get myself into a potential wrestling match with someone who was very much out of their mind, or ask a cop to do it instead.
Homeless should not be above the law and if they a disturbing the peace they need to face consequences so they don't do it again or help them along on thr path to realizing this.
But with mental illness there is the risk of violence and that is the police's role.
I can't see this working out and it's not fair to send in people not able to deal with a situation if it turns violent. You are sending in unarmed people to ENGAGE with someone potentially violent. If something goes wrong, sure they can call the police, but if you have people already engaging with the person it increases the risk for them.
Why didn’t I try to help the woman? Simple. I’m black. She was a drunk middle aged white woman. It would not have gone well for me.
Is a health worker allowed to grab someone who is about to walk into oncoming traffic. Should they have as part of there job description to have to physically restrain people without self protection or training in self defense.
It just feels unfair to put health workers in potentially violent situations without police backup.
We need police trained as health workers or health workers trained as police. Maybe they wear different clothes. But they need to have the same self defense training.
Maybe police should travel with counselors.
I have seen a lot of suicide by police though which is always very tragic and heart breaking, so you definitely have a point.
But then with every new encounter there is the chance that they actually start shooting.
Also if someone is suicidal they are not too concerned about consequences such as jail because they alrwsdy don't plan to be around to have to face it. So as sad as it is, there is always a high risk of danger to others.