In fairness, the biggest gas station chain where I live has revised their mask protocol. Employees are required to wear masks but they don't have to wear them over their nose so the ridiculousness is widespread.
People are outside all alone for hundreds of yards wearing masks. They think the Rona is going to swoop down from the sky like an alien and take them away. I jog by and they cross the street. Scurrying away like cockroaches
It’s almost like people can be walking in public with nobody around one minute and then you know since it’s a public sidewalk people could walk by at another time. Maybe they don’t want to constantly take a mask on and off if they are walking to an area where it is needed.
I’m fine with this. Police are asked to respond to issues that should be handled in other ways. I commend our great mayor and police chief for their forward thinking.
What’s the difference between a trained professional in mental health and a police officer from your perspective? A gun? I think most issues of “truancy, mental illness, homelessness, suicide threats, and drug overdoses” can be resolved without needing to use deadly force. But having someone who is specifically trained in dealing with mental health issues doesn’t preclude them from also having firearms training for your just in case scenario.
What is your question? If some people wouldn’t take the job for fear of those situations? Well certainly. Same thing for the job of “police officer”. The important thing is we are attempting to send people who have had training in these situations rather than just any random police officer. The thought is that this can help diffuse situations before they escalate. It’s experimental. I don’t think anything precludes both the trained mental health professional and an accompanying officer from going to “high risk” situations. I mean these are instances with someone calling in and reporting something so there is some idea of what they will be dealing with.
I’m saying that using trained mental health professionals in certain situations rather than throwing a cop at everything sounds like a decent idea. I guess we will get to see how it plays out. I would assume situations that pose a serious threat can still be responded to with police. Not everything has to be black and white. Each situation is different. We could see how it actually plays out before dismissing the idea offhand. Other countries roll with the majority of police unarmed and countries like Norway have 0 deaths at the hands of police. US has over 1000 per year. Other countries deal with the same types of mental health issues as the US. Only difference is a mentally unstable person in the US has much easier access to a firearm where they can injure themselves or others.
They’ll ask if the person is armed or has a weapon. If so the police can respond. 90% of the time these people won’t be armed or looking to hurt others.
There is certainly a time and a place for law enforcement officers who respond to situations with the potential for the use of deadly force if necessary. But I do agree with hemightbejeremy that there are also situations where trained mental health professionals are much more capable of de-escalating a highly emotional situation with the potential to turn violent more than your average cop.
I mean do we need police to respond to literally every single human interaction where someone “could” have a weapon in the US?
There is a finite amount of funding. This is a redirection of existing funding. In an ideal world full of unicorns and rainbows there would be enough funding to have both. I don’t think anyone would deny that.
The article specifically states nonviolent interactions. Which makes sense. And the inevitable response is how can you ever know if someone is violent so we need police for everything.
And the worse case is what then? Social worker can’t handle it so then call the cops? Makes sense to me.
I agree. Best case is they are both there. I’m assuming these are situations that aren’t unknown. As in somebody called in a situation and has some sense of what is going on. For a complete unknown I’m fine sending cops. Makes sense.
Psychiatric hospitals and sanitariums still exist in other countries. It was decided that we were too "compassionate" to have facilities like that back in the 1970's after everybody watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
