Cops are never held accountable for anything any more.

but prominent on my list would be reliance on firearms during procedural step one for police: 'secure' the situation so that responding police and 'bystanders' are safe.

Also high on the list would be the belief that 'failure to comply' (as well as comply fast enough) is a signal of defiance and a threat to safety...(the later has also been reported to get the deaf, the diabetic, and legitimate protestors threatened with gun violence, and sometimes killed).

All of which is likely complicated by common beliefs of police and the public about the mentally ill.

...start with the myth that persons with mental disorders are more dangerous than the rest of humanity, essentially monsters among us...

leverage that with published institutional evidence (mostly prison studies) used in police training that suggests incidents of violence by persons with mental disorders are most common during confrontations (which the institutional studies also show are perceived by the mentally disordered as threats/attacks by staff)...

get a boost of adrenalin by a call to danger that reduces barriers to impulsiveness...

It's not all that difficult to appreciate how snap judgements can go terribly awry and be rationalized

Where's the widespread public outcry? Where's the public uprising telling them they _can't_? Oppressive systems rarely change voluntarily.

These people need to be in treatment, not wandering the streets, often homeless and abused. I don't blame the cops (most of the time) when they encounter an armed person, it's not realistic to expect them to try to conduct a mental evaluation of the armed person, nor would the results of such an evaluation matter. If someone whom is armed is advancing on anyone, cop or not, the time for talking has passed.

Get our mentally ill folks the help they need.

and the resultant lack of understanding. Dealing with the mentally ill requires the exact opposite approach from how police are trained to deal with situations.

With normally perceiving people, you go in with an exaggerated show of force to convince the person that resistance is futile. It would work for you or I, who aren't going to battle five guys in SWAT regalia brandishing weapons. However, any show of power to most mentally ill people who have lost control only convinces them that they are in mortal danger and they will react as if in mortal danger. This causes them to ramp up aggression toward police because to them they are fighting for their lives. The cops then feel threatened and ineffective because what they have been trained to do isn't working, so then THEY react in fear. Unfortunately, the average cop has more lethality at her disposal than the average mentally ill person, so things go bad from there.

The average police isn't trying to go out and shoot people, but their training fails them at a time when they have a gun in their hands and two frightened people facing off. The way to stop police shooting is training and a community mental health 1st responder unit that is trained to deal with the mentally ill before the police with their guns, testosterone, and tactics geared toward the mentally well even arrive.

Incidentally, testostrone in a mental health emergency is like bringing gasoline to fight a fire. And I am not implying that any one gender is better or worse in this situation. It all depends on on the control one has of one's reactions.

in 3 states, over a period of 30 plus years, and I can tell you that the police I worked with are spooked by what they see as
unpredictable and unexplainable behavior of "crazy" people. The police do not bother with distinctions of the person being high on
drugs or being mentally ill, at the moment they encounter someone acting "crazy".
And so I have been called out, all 5.5 foot of me, in the middle of the night, to evaluate someone, with the quite tall and quite large police guys keeping a good distance away from the "crazy" person.
Unfortunately, the Mental Health Crisis evaluations can only be done in a jail or hospital. We were not allowed to be out in the field
with the police.
And,as we know race enters the picture. Police in the 3 states I worked in did shoot and kill black clients, one of whom was just standing in the street, naked, and confused, while his family was trying to tell the police he was off his meds.
That was a client whose case I got review, in light of the shooting.
White clients were much more likely to be held in jail or taken to the ER until the MH evaluator could be summoned.

Not to mention that the police force does tend to attract those who want and desire power over others. So, many on the force are those that should not BE on the force.

Why are cops shooting so many people, period?

90% of police these days don't live where they work. This did not use to be the case. One of the things that were said about the National Guard, etc., is that soldiers wouldn't turn on their friends and neighbors.

The problem we have now is that police are strangers to the communities they work in, instead of members of it. It is FAR easier to shoot a stranger, an "other", than the person you see every morning walking their dog or the person whose kids go to school with yours.

Has this been done on purpose? I don't know, but it is part of the downward spiral into excessive force, in my opinion.

Last edited Mon Sep 8, 2014, 06:18 PM - Edit history (1)

1) The cops don't like anybody who are more accomplished than they are (i.e. just about anybody);
2) They have lots of guns and lots of bullets but not many nails;
3) A new doughnut shop opened up and they're in too much of a hurry to give them a good beating.

The statement is still 100% accurate or as I like to put it: cops are almost as smart as any group you can categorize!

I had thought you meant something else. Though were I you I would reword it.

You're right of course. Sometimes I'm a bit slow. How about: The cops don't like anybody who are more accomplished than they are (i.e. just about anybody)? I do thank you.

... we shoot them...

...or incarcerate them in prisons.

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2014/04/01/mental-illness-in-americas-jails-and-prisons-toward-a-public-safetypublic-health-model/

You are an undesirable and will be subject to execution and/or other actions.

Just the way things work in the United Aryan States of Germania.

They need to replace the national law enforcement memorial with a statue of a pig roasting on a spit

It would be the samexas saying all black NFL players are wife beaters.