These shootings are another tragic symptom of our contemptible outsourcing of the severely mentally ill to law enforcement. The police are our de facto front-line mental-health workers — “armed social workers” in the pungent phrase of one observer — and jails are our de facto psychiatric-hospital system.
.. It’s a poignant lament, but why do the families of the severely mentally ill need to rely on the police for medical assistance? When someone has a heart attack or gets cancer, we don’t call the police.
The answer is simple. In response to abuses, we emptied out mental institutions, but didn’t make adequate provisions for otherwise treating the severely mentally ill, who are often left to suffer their delusions with overwhelmed, often frightened family members, or to rot on the streets or in jails. “There are less than 100,000 seriously mentally ill in psychiatric hospitals being cared for by the mental health system,” D. J. Jaffe, the executive director of Mental Illness Policy.Org, writes. “But there are 365,000 incarcerated. There are also 770,000 on probation or parole and 165,000 homeless.”
.. A more rational and humane policy would give families robust treatment options before it gets to the point of calling the cops. This would mean more psychiatric hospital beds and more options for mandated care. Representative Tim Murphy (R., Pa.) has a bill to push the mental-health system in this direction. The alternative is to continue to default to police to cope with out-of-control people, often brandishing weapons, and hope for the best — and brace for the worst.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429164/police-shootings-mental-illness-problem
A Better Standard for the Use of Deadly Force
But racial bias can affect what seems reasonable. Individuals of all races in America perceive black people as more aggressive and dangerous than white people. Studies show that black people are seen as being physically stronger and less prone to feeling pain than people of other races, and black children are often perceived to be older than they are. When faced with an armed black target, shooters are both more likely to shoot and quicker to shoot than they are when faced with an armed white target.
.. To quote the Seventh Circuit, the federal appeals court that covers Chicago, “we do not believe that the Constitution requires the use of the least or even a less deadly alternative so long as the use of deadly force is reasonable.”
.. If a necessity standard were rigorously pursued by courts and legislatures, we would develop better nonlethal weaponry, with better training and stronger punishments for misuse.
Political Lies About Police Brutality
His formulation implies that for the police to do their jobs, they need to have free rein to be abusive. It also implies that the public would be safer if Americans with cellphones never started circulating videos of officers battering suspects in the first place.
.. “Every time I see a police officer, I get a cold chill. Even if I needed one, I wouldn’t call one.”
This is why crime is rampant in poor Black neighborhoods and not that police officers are afraid to do their jobs. If you believe that you could become the subject of their rage rather than the criminal you called about then you do not call the police. You take your chances with the criminals who you live with everyday. It makes the idea of becoming part of the gang more appealing.
The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black
One change is already in place: Officers now must give every stopped motorist a card explaining how to file a complaint.
.. “It means whites are ‘getting away’ with very low-level offenses, while people who are poor or people of color are suffering consequences.”
“It amounts to harassment,” she said. “And police cannot demonstrate that it is creating better public safety.” To the contrary, she added, it makes minority citizens less likely to help the police prevent and solve crimes.
.. Like Chief Scott of Greensboro, he deploys more officers in high-crime areas and faces constant demands from citizens to assign even more. But, Chief Medlock said, “they are not asking for more traffic stops.”
.. Not everyone is cheering. This month, Chief Medlock, who is white, found a racist flyer in his front yard that he regarded as a personal threat. On the back was an application for the Ku Klux Klan.
.. Yet traffic codes are so minutely drawn that virtually every driver will break some rule within a few blocks, experts say. “The traffic code is the best friend of the police officer,”
.. In an interview, Mr. Maryland said Officer Christopher Cline had told him that his registration had expired, although it was clearly valid for 15 more days. The officer then said Ms. McRae, sitting in the back seat, “looked like someone” and asked to search her purse. Officers do not have to tell drivers or their passengers that they have the right to refuse, and like the vast majority of people, Ms. McRae agreed. The officer found a small amount of marijuana and several grams of cocaine and arrested her.
.. Since 2010, officers searched blacks more than twice as often but found contraband only 21 percent of the time, compared with 27 percent of the time with whites.
.. Five times as many blacks as whites were arrested on that charge, despite evidence whites use marijuana about as often.
.. A judge eventually dismissed their cases. But in the meantime, Mr. Phillips said, a job offer was thrown into limbo when a background check turned up the pending criminal charge.
.. The department not only rejected all allegations in the complaint that she and Mr. Fields filed, they said, but the complaint seemed to backfire. Every night for a month after they filed it, Mr. Fields said, a patrol car parked outside his house.