This is why we need to redistribute funds from the Police to other services.
This post is about the Killing of Daniel Prude (Wikipedia article -- warning for a picture of several police in the act of “arresting” Mr. Prude).
On March 23, Daniel Prude, in predawn cold of Rochester, NY., in the middle of suicidal breakdown, went out into the street wearing nothing but long johns and a tank top. His brother, Joe, told NPR in an interview, Friday (September 4, 2020) that he called 911.
It was the 911 operator who called the cops.
We need to defund the police, and spread the money around to other services, so next time, the operator at the other end of a 911 line will have someone else they could call, to help someone in distress (and will know to call someone else).
This is your friendly, yet vaguely threatening, reminder that both mental illness (including depression) and drug addiction are classified as disabilities, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and also that people who are both black and disabled are killed at an even disproportionately higher rate than abled Black people.
Here’s a recent (25 June, 2020) article from Time magazine online about that very thing:
Black, Disabled and at Risk: The Overlooked Problem of Police Violence Against Americans with Disabilities
There is no reliable national database tracking how many people with disabilities, or who are experiencing episodes of mental illness, are shot by police each year, but studies show that the numbers are substantial—likely between one-third and one-half of total police killings.
(Emphasis is mine, sayeth the OP)
Intersectionality’s a Bitch.
