Unsure of What to Do

Recent events have influenced me to revisit the issues of law enforcement, mental illness and being African American or other persons of color.

Those who work in the mental health profession from social workers to marriage and family counselors are by law obligated to inform law enforcement if a client presents symptoms of self-harm and/or the willingness to harm others. However, they cannot prevent the outcome of any critical situation. Law enforcement will follow-up with a visit to that client’s home or wherever they happen to be located to assess them to see if the client needs to be taken into custody.

When our loved ones are in obvious psychological distress, we are told to call law enforcement in order to prevent self-harm, harm to others, and sometimes we may be the ones in danger. In light of recent events, it could be “dead if we do and dammed if we don’t” call for help when we need it.

In 2011, Kelly Thomas a young white man diagnosed with schizophrenia was beaten to death by Fullerton police. An unknown call was made to law enforcement that parked cars in the area were being burglarized. I don’t know if Thomas was the perpetrator or not; nevertheless, he was beaten to death by Fullerton PD as he pleaded for his life.

If these actions are indicative of what law enforcement agencies will handle the mentally ill population, then this does not bode well for us at all.

2 comments

I’ve never in my life been more aware of the color of skin than I am now. In the last two years I have come to understand how Citizen A gets to Citizen FU. I remember having two incidents with the police in a month. That is more times of having the police in my life than I can remember. Both times it was evident that my behavior wasn’t the problem, I was. Never in my life have I been escorted out of a building until the day an armed security guard talked to me like I’m nothing. I used to think to myself, why is that guy arguing with the police? Why doesn’t he just shut up? I thought, all he has to do is shut up. Oh how wrong that is. When I was talked to like a dog I became more and more aggressive and less and less willing to be peaceable. I lost my ability to reason, to close my mouth because I was offended to the deep because he was talking to me like a dog. I told myself several times to shut up but I couldn’t. Since watching a man get shot in the back 8 times and watching a man shot in the chest, rolled then shot again, I am very well aware of what I am to others instead of who I am. It took nearly 45 years to understand this, but I do understand now.

The mental health aspect of it is frightening too because we are treated like criminals. If they think we need to go to the hospital they handcuff us as if we’ve broken a law. People in a psychotic episode may not respond to the outside reality the way others do and so their behavior is met with aggression. An officer who approaches a Schizophrenic man and shoots him approaches with the attitude that the man is inferior and his life doesn’t matter. It is as if they feel they have a license to kill according to their discrimination.

It’s funny because, I won’t call the police because of a disturbance. I’M BLACK, I have no idea if I, the one calling for help, will be caught up in a police officer’s day of taking out skin of color. This is sad because until recently I actually trusted the police. I thought if the police pulled someone over they did something wrong. I was one of those who believed that, until I heard that the man shot in his car next to his girlfriend and child was pulled over nearly 100 times for a supposed broken tail light.

A good friend said to me that my experiences are very different from other black people. She said, you were born with “privilege”. That lead into a whole different discussion on how she see’s black people as poor and uneducated. However she sees blacks, one thing is for sure, “privilege” does not change the color of my skin that is sought often by individuals in a blue uniform.

Okay, I just wrote a journal entry. LOL.
I’m happy you stopped by because I couldn’t remember your name or blog name.

Faith

Krafty Woman says:

August 17, 2016 at 3:40 pm

I’m glad that you stopped by and thank you for your comments. I will definitely touch on the issue of black people and the police in dealing with a mentally ill person. Right now, I just don’t have the information to give mostly because I don’t believe that most law enforcement officers are trained on interacting with disabled people in general (for example, individuals on the autism spectrum) let alone someone with a mental illness. Plus, we bring our attitudes and beliefs to our jobs. How does one change that?

Reply

Faith-Madgalene says:

August 12, 2016 at 8:02 pm

I’ve never in my life been more aware of the color of skin than I am now. In the last two years I have come to understand how Citizen A gets to Citizen FU. I remember having two incidents with the police in a month. That is more times of having the police in my life than I can remember. Both times it was evident that my behavior wasn’t the problem, I was. Never in my life have I been escorted out of a building until the day an armed security guard talked to me like I’m nothing. I used to think to myself, why is that guy arguing with the police? Why doesn’t he just shut up? I thought, all he has to do is shut up. Oh how wrong that is. When I was talked to like a dog I became more and more aggressive and less and less willing to be peaceable. I lost my ability to reason, to close my mouth because I was offended to the deep because he was talking to me like a dog. I told myself several times to shut up but I couldn’t. Since watching a man get shot in the back 8 times and watching a man shot in the chest, rolled then shot again, I am very well aware of what I am to others instead of who I am. It took nearly 45 years to understand this, but I do understand now.

The mental health aspect of it is frightening too because we are treated like criminals. If they think we need to go to the hospital they handcuff us as if we’ve broken a law. People in a psychotic episode may not respond to the outside reality the way others do and so their behavior is met with aggression. An officer who approaches a Schizophrenic man and shoots him approaches with the attitude that the man is inferior and his life doesn’t matter. It is as if they feel they have a license to kill according to their discrimination.

It’s funny because, I won’t call the police because of a disturbance. I’M BLACK, I have no idea if I, the one calling for help, will be caught up in a police officer’s day of taking out skin of color. This is sad because until recently I actually trusted the police. I thought if the police pulled someone over they did something wrong. I was one of those who believed that, until I heard that the man shot in his car next to his girlfriend and child was pulled over nearly 100 times for a supposed broken tail light.

A good friend said to me that my experiences are very different from other black people. She said, you were born with “privilege”. That lead into a whole different discussion on how she see’s black people as poor and uneducated. However she sees blacks, one thing is for sure, “privilege” does not change the color of my skin that is sought often by individuals in a blue uniform.

Okay, I just wrote a journal entry. LOL.
I’m happy you stopped by because I couldn’t remember your name or blog name.

Faith

1. Krafty Woman says:
  
  August 17, 2016 at 3:40 pm
  
  I’m glad that you stopped by and thank you for your comments. I will definitely touch on the issue of black people and the police in dealing with a mentally ill person. Right now, I just don’t have the information to give mostly because I don’t believe that most law enforcement officers are trained on interacting with disabled people in general (for example, individuals on the autism spectrum) let alone someone with a mental illness. Plus, we bring our attitudes and beliefs to our jobs. How does one change that?