interesting article on police use of force

OK, deep breath. There are several problems here. Chief among them is that the training and attitude of cops is at odds with how one should deal with someone with mental issues. We’ve seen this sort of thing time and again: the cops expect abject obedience (not that they deserve it) and when they don’t get it immediately, they respond with physical violence in order to try to obtain it. From listening to my family members who worked in MRDD facilities, I can tell you that this IS NOT going to work. Also, as the article pointed out, trying to physically touch them, much less attempt to restrain them is likely going to trigger an even worse response. Another point the article raised is that someone with mental issues or disabilities may have normal behavior that appears suspicious to the cops exacerbating the situation.

There are other issues too, such as lack of funding, etc, that have been a topic for decades.

One thing that the article raised is the lack of prosecution for excessive violence leading to death and the while, “we investigated ourselves and found nothing” mentality. Obviously, the cops, prosecutors, DAs, clerks, judges, etc. work together in long term career fashion. This is not good, because it detracts from, if not ruins, accountability and transparency that should be 100% mandatory in any system where govt. serves to make the rights, property, or life of people. All one more reason why I think the founding fathers would have found the idea of career govt. enforcers to be abhorrent.
 
chiefjason said:
Weird that when you work with kids solo or with a partner, and don't have qualified immunity, you have to learn to restrain them without killing them.
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reaching back for memories i haven’t thought of in a while, but pretty sure when i worked with juveniles that type of training started week 2. that was taught in conjunction with deescalation and crisis management for the following weeks and on a regular basis once you was with the clients.
 
I have not had any bad experiences with police myself during various encounters (accidents, helping a stranded driver etc.) but in all of mine both parties were sound and sober. I was not in any mental distress of any sort and all sides acted calm and professionally. A person being in a crisis situation is a different story.
 
I'm having a hard time believing that 100 people die a year due to police brutality. That's got to include a bunch of dirtbags that got shot, not "innocent" folks.
 
I definitely agree with this. In hundreds of cases, officers weren’t taught or didn’t follow best safety practices for physical force and weapons, creating a recipe for death.
Keep lowering the standards in professions. It started in the nineties if not late eighties in law enforcement. And it contributed to many areas of the profession not just use of force.
IMO it has been going down hill ever sense.

And you can go ahead and smash me, but it all started basically with affirmative action.:(



I have a little bit of a problem trusting the AP totally.

The Associated Press receives support from the Public Welfare Foundation for reporting focused on criminal justice. This story also was supported by Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights in conjunction with Arnold Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This story is part of an ongoing investigation led by The Associated Press in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism programs and FRONTLINE (PBS). The investigation includes the Lethal Restraint interactive story, database and the documentary, “Documenting Police Use Of Force,” premiering April 30 on PBS.
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LarrySr. said:
I have a little bit of a problem trusting the AP totally.
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Media in general has a credibility problem these days.

LarrySr. said:
It started in the nineties if not late eighties in law enforcement.
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Was having a conversation yesterday with a coworker, who said the militarization of police began, he believes, in the 80s and it has continued to get worse since. One of the things he mentioned is the change in uniforms to where they’re outfitted like they’re in a war zone and in other cases (usually dress uniforms) they look like something out of 1940s Germany, especially in People’s republics like MA and MD.
 
the militarization of police began, he believes, in the 80s.

I think that's pretty close. Back then the military would donate or sell old vehicles to law enforcement agencies for use. Also a lot of the special response teams (SRT) used the equipment for different types of emergencies. If I recall some agencies could use money or the sale of property that was confiscated from drug arrest to purchase equipment to support the agency mission. But there were some court cases that evolved from that. I can't remember what the results were. Obviously the local county would fight for those funds as well. lol
 
noway2 said:
they look like something out of 1940s Germany, especially in People’s republics like MA and MD
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dmgi3Rm.jpeg


They look like they're getting ready to invade Poland.
 
The mental health thing is tough. Academies on NC do have blocks of instruction on recognizing people with autism and or Down syndrome. They cover the basic trigger points.

There is a lot more violence and willingness to use violence today, both on the part of the police as well as Law breakers.

Excessive use of force is bad and destroys trust in the community. Problem is, most people who have force used on them would absolutely crumble in any type of major lawsuit, due to their own criminal or mental health history. People with mental health, on meds are not the issue. Rampant drug use combined with untreated mental health is.
 
Part of the issue I see here is that police are trained to "take control" of the situation. The basic concept makes sense but you can't apply that in the same way you would for a mental health breakdown or overdose situation as you would for a conventional violent encounter. Because the people involved can't really fully comply and they are not violent to begin with.
 
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