The Rochester police force's leadership just resigned en masse, on principle.
As one of Neo's commenters said, the next time there's a drug-crazed guy out there endangering himself and others, Mayor Lovely Warren can go out there and deal with him personally.
My bipolar nephew is well known to the local police, who are kind to him when he's out of control. Even so, he nearly died from aspiration-induced pneumonia after one of his dissolutions. Being that mentally ill is deadly dangerous no matter how careful the police are, and that's before you get to the danger of being shot to prevent your doing something even more awful. It's not to get better if we chase off all the police officers who possess either integrity or a self-preservation instinct.
Thanks for the notice, Tex. Here is my comment:
ReplyDeleteOne more example of how police are forced into the social workers with guns role.
The police that have been called to my HOA have also been in the role of social workers with guns. It’s a difficult role, but one I have seen them play very well. But they didn’t have to deal with what the Rochester police had to deal with.
If people don’t want cops to deal with drug-addled jerks, they should try dealing with drug-addled jerks themselves.
Entire police command staff in Rochester NY resigns
I didn't even notice that link was from you! It's a chilling link.
ReplyDeleteThe Neo commenters post lots of good links.
I was getting mixed up between the two posts and thought you were the source for the wild report about the Portland Antifa attack on potential police recruits.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the Rochester link is chilling, too.
The protestors are acting as if the police have never thought of dealing with the mentally ill or drug-addicted differently before, have no training in it, and are essentially cruel to begin with. Who thinks that?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: people who have frequently approached the police with a bad attitude of their own, that they must blame on soeone else.
AVI- This might be an interesting topic for your blog, but I've seen the Rochester situation described as an instructive example of when, say, a social worker could have been called to deal with the situation rather than the police. Redirecting funding from police to social workers, etc. has been one of the ideas posed by those clamoring for defunding of the police.
ReplyDeleteHaving read a description of the events leading up to Daniel Prude's death, I'm left wondering what exactly a social worker was supposed to do with a ranting, naked man on the street at 3 AM on a cold, March morning.
a social worker could have been called to deal with the situation rather than the police.
ReplyDeleteHow would that work, mechanically, though? All the caller knows to do is dial 911. It seems impractical to have a list of emergency and quasi-emergency numbers for the citizenry to call, or to have the person with the...situation...have to sort through what he thinks he has and then dial the right number.
Similarly, it seems impractical to have the 911 dispatcher have to work through his own checklist to sort out who he wants to roll on the call. The dispatcher already has to play 20 questions with the caller to work out who, what, where, when, who else, what else just to decide among ambulance, fire, and police. Adding a sorting task for who to roll for social worker calls--and no, those don't all look alike--only delays the response even further--especially bad since seconds are ticking away, and the responders already are starting out minutes behind the power curve.
Even with a quick sort, it seems suboptimal to send in the social worker like a USAF recce driver--alone, unarmed, and unafraid--to then still need the cops because the dispatcher figured wrong or the situation evolved.
That leaves the social worker rolling with every cop roll. Which puts the social worker superfluous and in the way on way too many calls and needing cop attention diverted to dealing with or protecting the social worker or getting her the hell out of the way, not because she's being a ditz, but because she entered the situation with the cops in order to be on the spot.
Better, I think, to add to cop training--a little, since they're already spring-loaded to the key part of this--to stabilize the situation and then call whomever--a social worker, perhaps--when things are at least somewhat settled. Sort of like the docs in an ER. Or the EMTs on the initial medical response.
Eric Hines
Deevs
ReplyDeletea social worker could have been called to deal with the situation rather than the police....
Having read a description of the events leading up to Daniel Prude's death, I'm left wondering what exactly a social worker was supposed to do with a ranting, naked man on the street at 3 AM on a cold, March morning.
You nailed it. A social worker in that situation would probably have called for a cop.
A further point about a social worker in such situations is that often the "clients" physically resisted the police. That doesn't exactly tell me that a social worker could have done better.
I hope people wake up and stop doing things that would necessitate a police chief and his staff resigning, but I commend them for standing up for themselves and their fellow officers and resigning. I don't know what else they could do.
ReplyDelete