Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
Yes but my point was why did the police choose to put themselves in close quarters with a guy with a knife in the first place? paramedics called them in so they know its a mental health call, they also know the guy doesnt speak english, his kids are there, in my mind the first question they should ask is 'does he have a hostage or is anyone else at risk?' once the answer comes back 'no' then at that point they have all the time in the world to come up with a better plan then 'lets borrow a ladder and climb up onto the 2nd floor balcony where we cant retreat and have no alternative but to shoot the old guy when he freaks out and attacks us', I mean common sense tells you time is your ally
|
I understand what you're saying. I just don't think they went in there thinking they were going to kill the guy. I think they went in there thinking let's grab him - taze him if we have to - and things went south fast. In hindsight, they likely would have done things differently, but I don't expect them to throw tons of resources at every call. Maybe if there was a hostage you would bring in the negotiators to talk to him, but I don't know who we have in our system you send for in this type of situation. Also, do we even have the resources to increase the cost of every welfare check by adding more professionals into the mix?
A guy alone in an apartment that won't come out having an episode? It seems he needed medical care, but when that care arrived dude had a knife. Okay, it's definitely now a police situation. Why did they need to breach the apartment? Well, there's a guy in there threatening first responders with a knife. Their job is to go get him.
This couldn't be further from the George Floyd case. I look at this and I don't really see them acting maliciously. A bad situation turned lethal in the span of like three seconds. It's sad, but it's the guy flapping around with a knife that is the problem in this situation and less so the police.
Maybe the root of the problem goes further back to when he was first diagnosed with schizophrenia. Should we have someone checking in on those people weekly or monthly? A mental health crisis is probably more difficult to handle than mental health maintenance.