Police reform and mental health professionals

[fredtoast]

First of all let me say that I agree with the idea that mental health professionals could be a big part of police reform. We have seen many examples of police using extreme force against people who are just "acting crazy". Often there are extreme health consequences or injuries sometimes even leading to death. In these cases mental health professionals could save lives.

But there are other situations where people are "acting crazy" while they are armed with deadly weapons. In these cases you can't just send unarmed mental health experts to deal with the problem. Mentally ill people can be extremely dangerous. It might help the situation to send a mental health expert out along with the armed officers. In situations were someone is just walking around with a knife and not on a rampage they could attempt to control the situation without extreme violence. But in many of these cases deadly force is justified to insure the safety of innocent citizens. If a person is "acting crazy" with a gun officers don't really have much of a choice.

[GMDino]

(12-11-2020, 11:49 AM)fredtoast Wrote: First of all let me say that I agree with the idea that mental health professionals could be a big part of police reform.  We have seen many examples of police using extreme force against people who are just "acting crazy".  Often there are extreme health consequences or injuries sometimes even leading to death.  In these cases mental health professionals could save lives.

But there are other situations where people are "acting crazy" while they are armed with deadly weapons.  In these cases you can't just send unarmed mental health experts to deal with the problem.  Mentally ill people can be extremely dangerous.  It might help the situation to send a mental health expert out along with the armed officers.  In situations were someone is just walking around with a knife and not on a rampage they could attempt to control the situation without extreme violence. But in many of these cases deadly force is justified to insure the safety of innocent citizens. If a person is "acting crazy" with a gun officers don't really have much of a choice.

Every situation is unique.  I was listening to a podcast that was telling stories of  folie à deux (or "shared psychosis") and how it took six people (including civilians) to subdue the one sister.  She was out of her mind and violent...but even without a mental health person there they took her down with gunshots.

Now, that's England.  They do things differently and they also have a better chance of the person they are going after not being armed either.

But we've talked before about other countries and the de-escalation methods vs the US.  Plus the recent stories about the training used in MO that used some less that racially friendly imagery and verbiage.  

Nothing will be perfect...but can we just shrug our shoulders and say there is "no choice" when other places find a way to make other choices?

Edit: Didn't we at one time talk about the police shooting a man sitting on the curb with a toy truck while his counselor was trying to calm him down? That's the kind of thing we need to work on vs a guy running through traffic with a gun.

[NATI BENGALS]

Wow. You mentioned police reform. Dangerous words with the pro police brutality and pro minority murder by law enforcement GOPers who will use it against you and claim you support criminals.

[*michaelsean*]

Doesn't sound much different than having a trained hostage negotiator. Surely couldn't hurt.