A bipolar man lost his life on Friday. Shainie Lindsay woke up to her husband calling the police to help. Her partner and father of her four children, whose name was omitted, is bipolar. He had had run-ins with police before, but never violent ones.
When the police arrived, the man was holding a knife and a fire extinguisher. The death occurred around 2:06 a.m. Friday morning, local time. He was out of it, and not wanting to drop the knife and fire extinguisher.
They used a taser on him twice, and they kicked him even after he dropped the fire extinguisher. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police are often called in to help during mental health episodes. They often arrest people having episodes and make them stay in jail overnight.
In New York City, they use “restraining bags” on people having episodes. They are basically mesh-covered body bags.
A new FBI report shows that mentally ill people are 16 times more likely to be killed by police. One in four fatal police shootings involves someone with a mental illness.
John Snook, the report’s co-author and executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, said:
“If this were any other medical condition, people would be up in arms. What we need to do is treat the person before the police are ever called. This is a mental illness, but we respond by calling the police and arresting a person.”
Police have become the first line of defense when dealing with mentally ill people. Because of this, they really need to be trained in how to handle these incidents.
Police already have to handle so much. They need some help to deal with these situations. A training class would be very beneficial. Police are trained to take action, but a mental health crisis doesn’t always require that. Sometimes the person can be talked down. We need better ways to help these sick people.
Here is a video about one police force that is trained to deal with mentally ill people:
Featured image via YouTube screenshot.
