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It's interesting to me to contrast the audience perception of Jackson Davis's mental illness, and Robby's.

We accept (rightfully) that a student in mental crisis, even when reacting violently, deserves care, not violence aimed back at him. (And if you want a really good essay about the Criminalization of Black Psychosis, there's one here.)

The audience knows Robby is in crisis, too. That picture has been painted for us very clearly. But, from so many people, Robby isn't given the same grace around his mental health needs or the care he deserves. Why?

#this isn't to say that robby is free from accountability or consequences #but I see very different views on these two mental breaks #michael robinavitch #jackson davis #the pitt #the pitt spoilers

All of the discourse about a potential Robby involuntary psych hold made me want to take a closer look at one of the characters we’ve seen this season who was actually put on an involuntary psych hold.

So, let’s talk about Jackson Davis.

When they first introduce him, he’s got taser barbs in his neck, is agitated, wants everyone to get off him, and is yelling the PA codes for ethnic intimidation and kidnapping. The EMTs tell the doctors that Jackson is a “combative college kid” who “flipped out in the library” and was “tased in the neck by campus security.”

They show the doctors struggle to evaluate him as he continues to fight against his restraints. At no point during the initial assessment does anyone grant Jackson bodily autonomy. No one goes, “oh, here’s a Black college kid who was tased by a White campus security officer. That sounds traumatic. Maybe we should respect his bodily autonomy and not touch him if he doesn’t want to be touched.” No one goes, “oh, here’s a Black law student who is basically being incarcerated on the words of a white security officer (functionally a cop), let’s assure him that we’re not here to incarcerate him and make sure that his restraints are removed.”

The thing is, it’s not a situation where they have any reason to believe Jackson is experiencing a medical emergency that requires a timely response. They have time. No one thinks to try and talk to Jackson and listen to his side of the story, maybe move him to a quiet room somewhere and assure him that they’re on his side. No one thinks to explain to him that they’re not trying to incarcerate him or hold him against his will, but that they just want to remove the taser barbs from his back. No one thinks to let him leave (because he’s clearly not consenting to be there) and gather the supplies he needs for wound care/print instructions for taser barb removal, so he can still get the medical care he needs or send him the contact info for the street team, so he can get care on his terms. No one thinks to try and call family/friends, so they can talk him down and reassure him. The show knows that harm reduction exists, so why can't we apply that mindset to all patients and meet them where they're at/respect their autonomy?

No, instead they act like something must be wrong with him to be agitated and in distress after being attacked by a security officer (functionally a cop). That’s a normal fucking reaction and even if it wasn’t, he isn’t posing an active threat to others, so there’s no reason to violate his bodily autonomy. Sure he threw a chair at the security officer, but throwing a chair at an armed attacker, especially if that attacker has institutional power they’ve been empowered to leverage against your person, is just self defense, not a pathology or a threat to the general populace.

It’s framed as if Jackson just couldn’t be reasoned with, so the only solution was to sedate him, but NO ONE tried to reason with him. No one tried to talk to him. They started attempting to do all these invasive, physical things to someone screaming about not wanting to be touched/wanting to be let go and then acted shocked that he was uncooperative with their efforts. And, again, no one had even tried to explain what was going on to Jackson. Imagine how terrifying that must feel.

And then after sedating him, instead of thinking, hmm, his vitals are all stable and normal, let’s just wait until he wakes up and ask him what happened, they run multiple expensive tests (CT scan, spinal tap) while he’s sedated. The last thing he said to the doctors was that he didn’t want to be there and yet without his consent they’re doing procedures, one of which is invasive, to try and find a medical cause for a problem that by all appearances seems to be systemic.

It’s crazy to me that everyone’s acting so confused about why Jackson would be so agitated, when we know he was attacked by a racist cop. When someone attacks you, when someone tases you, you get agitated. When everyone’s trying to restrain you and incarcerate you, you get agitated. And I’m White, so I’m just going out on a limb here, but I’d assume that when you’re scared that you’re going to become yet another Black man brutalized by the police, you get agitated.

And, trust me, I know Jackson has schizophrenia, I watched the same show as all of you (and I actually thought the ending of the storyline where the parents get to talk to another Black parent who’s been where they are was really beautiful in isolation, as was Javadi’s conversation with Jada), but that’s still not an excuse to sedate/detain Jackson and it’s still not an excuse not to try to listen to him and provide him with a calm environment, and give him bodily autonomy. People with schizophrenia should still have bodily autonomy because, y’know, it’s a basic human right.

It kind of seems like the show is trying to use his diagnosis as a way to post-facto justify the doctors decision to sedate him, perform expensive medical tests without his consent, and refuse to try and talk with him or listen to his side of the story. It’s as if they’re saying of course the doctors were in the right. He’s mentally ill, so he couldn’t be reasoned with. Of course the doctors had to sedate him. He’s hearing voices, he’s psychotic, it’s for his own good. Of course the doctors had to place him on an involuntary psych hold, realizing the biggest fear he vocalized the second he entered the hospital.

But him having a mental illness and hearing voices does not inherently make him a threat to others, nor does it justify not trying to talk to him, nor does it justify repeatedly violating his bodily autonomy. HE IS STILL A PERSON DESERVING OF RESPECT AND FREEDOM.

This is especially important when you consider the fact that Jackson is a Black man, a population that white psychiatrists are more likely to over diagnose with schizophrenia (https://www.appi.org/Products/General-Interest/Social-InJustice-and-Mental-Health), which is potentially part of the reason for the disproportionate involuntary admission of Black individuals to psych wards. In America at least (can’t speak to elsewhere), psych wards aren’t like the rest of the hospital--they’re often carceral and they have been shown to significantly increase suicidality after discharge (https://www.psychiatrist.com/news/suicide-risk-skyrockets-after-involuntary-psychiatric-discharge/). Our prisons are our biggest mental health facilities, and our mental health facilities can function like prisons. This is especially true for Black people experiencing mental health crises.

What I’m trying to say is this: Jackson’s distress was pathologized and medicalized the second he was taken into the hospital. Yes, it did turn out that he was having a mental health crisis, but before they had any reason to think that might be the case, they immediately pathologized his distress instead of considering the multitude of systemic causes right in front of their faces. And then, when it became clear that he might have schizophrenia, it was used as further excuse to ignore the racist harm he faced and further medicalize and pathologize his distress, going as far as to incarcerate him under an involuntary psych hold.

The show does not seem to see an issue with any of this, positioning it as the standard of care. No one is shown to have a dissenting opinion, advocating for Jackson’s bodily autonomy. The care team’s all on the same page -- Jackson’s distress must be pathological, not systemic (they acknowledge that it was fucked and racist that the security officer used a taser, but that’s it), and the solution to his distress is to strip him of his bodily autonomy, not to address the harms he has experienced and restore his power/autonomy (contrast that with how Dana addresses the white sexual assault patient, emphasizing it wasn’t her fault, restoring her autonomy every step of the way, and taking a systemic view of the issue).

Jackson is stripped of his autonomy by a carceral system that sees him as a threat for being Black/presumed to be an addict, and then he’s stripped of his autonomy by a medical system that sees him as a threat because he’s been diagnosed with a mental illness. There isn’t an attempt made to get justice for Jackson against the racist violence he’s experienced (there’s a one off line from Al-Hashimi, but that’s it). It’s all forgotten when he’s diagnosed.

No one asks Jackson what he wants. No one tries to explain to him what's going on or ask his opinion. No one tries to get his consent for treatment. The psychiatrist talks to him off screen and basically shrugs his shoulders and says, ehh he's off his rocker, let’s just commit him like it isn’t a big deal at all.

And we want this show to tackle involuntary commitment again? Really?

We’ll have to see how this plays out with Al-Hashimi’s new patient and with Robby, but based on what we’ve seen so far… it’s not looking good.

#jackson davis #the pitt #don't make me regret tagging the main tag

Jackson arrives in ambulance 32 (-1:52) into 02x02 8AM.

EMT says "Combative college kid. Flipped out in the library, tased in the neck by campus security. 5 midazolam didn't touch him." That's Versed

He's repeating a lot of similar numbers so lets go in order they're stated

2901 - Kidnapping

2701 - Simple Assault

Title 18 - Penn State's list of Crimes and Offenses

Section 508

2709 - Harassment

2710 - Ethnic intimidation

the "reasonableness" and "1938" have me stumped tho

so anyway that security guard absolutely committed a hate crime

#the pitt #jackson davis #the pitt season two #the pitt s2 #the pitt season 2

Feel like The Pitt kind of glossed over that time Dr. Al-Hashimi decided to loudly read out a patient's private medical test results to the entire ED, including two cops who haven't shown a court order and the campus security guard who assaulted him.

Like I think in general that whole storyline is being weirdly handled, but that was unambiguously illegal, right? Americans please tell me that was super illegal and shouldn't have happened.