DtripsNH t1_j2wewsu wrote
A kid a couple years younger than me was killed by my towns police force. He was having a mental breakdown and was threatening to harm himself, so his dad called the police to try and help intervene. The police showed up weapons drawn, and ended up killing him in his driveway for not putting down the knife. I feel so bad for the dad who only wanted the police to help, not murder, his son
beaversTCP t1_j2xhoqi wrote
I can’t imagine being a father in that scenario but we need to get the message out that calling the cops in that type of situation will never help
Clinically-Inane t1_j30rcs7 wrote
What do you think is the best way to accomplish that?
I agree with you (although I’d stop just before “never” depending on context) and am constantly asking myself how we can effectively organize to educate our own communities about mental health (and the risk of violence being much higher against people with mental illness than committed by them), deescalation tactics, crisis management, conflict resolution, resources etc— any ways to handle our shit and not involve police
We need it now
My only instinct is that i think it has to start on a micro level— one community/neighborhood/whatever at a time choosing to get to know each other and work together for everyone’s benefit. Hell, even just “anyone in town who wants to talk about mental illness and violence in our communities, and how we can work together to make this a safer and healthier place to live for everyone here, show up at {blah blah} on Tuesday the 11th” is a good start I think?
If we can get people talking— face to face— I think that alone would be a fantastic start and I hope that’s not naivety but the comments here today have been pretty disheartening
beaversTCP t1_j31t64d wrote
Ya I mean that’s definitely part of it, the American lifestyle robs too many of us of our connection to nature and to other people. Instead of relieving of us this absurd work burden we spend money on police whose only job is to protect the system. There simply isn’t a system in place to adequately deal with instances of mental health crises on a large scale so it’s on communities and individuals to do their best. Ultimately the only way out of this spiral is ending the system that propagates it and to do away with the police that use violence as a first option
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