The growing call for police to have better training in dealing with the mentally ill.
This is the most diplomatic way of putting it that I can make:
Unless you're a working therapist with a very heavy client calendar, the average metro cop dealt with more cases of mentally ill individuals before lunch on Monday than you will for the rest of the month.
Because "call the cops if they won't stop being my problem" is our go-to societal solution, they're the ones who get called in. Doesn't matter if it's a kid foaming at the mouth, throwing books and screaming about demons, a hobo taking a nap at the side door of your office building, a guy with no thumbs and three teeth begging for change for their next meth fix, or a lady stripping bare-ass in the middle of the airport before waving her vagina at the TSA agents and loudly propositioning anyone in earshot.
And day in and day out, they handle it as situations dictate, almost always getting the problem out of your hands and off into somewhere else.
And occasionally, tragedy strikes.
As I had to point out to someone the other day, when someone had a knife out and is going for your kidneys, nobody, least of all you, has the time or inclination to ask about their medical history. You either let them have you, or you stop them.
So yeah, I could be salty and ask where the fuck you've been since the Regan administration. Or ask how the fuck we'll pay for who exactly to administer such training, given how less than ubiquitous body cams still are.
Instead I'll point out that they've been dealing with the mentally ill a lot longer and a lot better than they ever get credit for, because out of sight and out of mind is all a part of the service.
This is the most diplomatic way of putting it that I can make:
Unless you're a working therapist with a very heavy client calendar, the average metro cop dealt with more cases of mentally ill individuals before lunch on Monday than you will for the rest of the month.
Because "call the cops if they won't stop being my problem" is our go-to societal solution, they're the ones who get called in. Doesn't matter if it's a kid foaming at the mouth, throwing books and screaming about demons, a hobo taking a nap at the side door of your office building, a guy with no thumbs and three teeth begging for change for their next meth fix, or a lady stripping bare-ass in the middle of the airport before waving her vagina at the TSA agents and loudly propositioning anyone in earshot.
And day in and day out, they handle it as situations dictate, almost always getting the problem out of your hands and off into somewhere else.
And occasionally, tragedy strikes.
As I had to point out to someone the other day, when someone had a knife out and is going for your kidneys, nobody, least of all you, has the time or inclination to ask about their medical history. You either let them have you, or you stop them.
So yeah, I could be salty and ask where the fuck you've been since the Regan administration. Or ask how the fuck we'll pay for who exactly to administer such training, given how less than ubiquitous body cams still are.
Instead I'll point out that they've been dealing with the mentally ill a lot longer and a lot better than they ever get credit for, because out of sight and out of mind is all a part of the service.
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