Several years ago I was suicidal and called family. They called local PD to help.

[Photographer]

They burst into my home, handcuffed me as I sat on my couch saying I really didn't mean it then drug me out of the house by the handcuffs tearing my rotator cuff and threw me in jail.

This is both the highlights of our Police and Mental Health organizations in America today.

I will never call the police for anything ever again as they seem to be not only ineffectual but contrary to one's well being.

There is no safety net in America today.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. How horrifying for you!

I'm sure your family meant well, but they didn't have a clue as to what to do.

I hope you've gotten the help you needed.

[Photographer]

2. Still here.

And no such thoughts.

[No Vested Interest]

3. Sorry to say I've heard or read of other instances where well-meaning or naive family

call police when family member has mental issues, and police wound up shooting or otherwise killing the individual the family was trying to "help" or trying to "save from himself".

I honestly feel sorry for the families who have to live with those unintended consequences.
It would seem that many (most?) police departments do not know how to properly handle mental problems.

Maybe it would be better to call NAMI or a public agency whose main mission is dealing with these issues.

[tblue37]

20. Many years ago, here in Lawrence, KS, a 22-year-old Native American, Greg Sevier,

was shot and killed by cops when his parents called 911 because he was in his room with a knife and they feared he was feeling suicidal. Cops arrived, immediately kicked in the door to his room, and then when he naturally stood up after being thus startled, they shot and killed him.

[Loki]

4. Too many times this has happened

often with disastrous results. I'm glad you are still with us

[LuvNewcastle]

5. I'm very sorry you had to

go through that. It's a pity that it seems to be beyond some people's scope of emotion to show a little humanity to someone when they need it most. It seems they think it's going to cost them something to show a little compassion.

[scscholar]

6. This is just so typical of the thugs in blue

Force is all they know.

[cstanleytech]

7. I dont blame you as most police are often not really trained well to deal with

people in your situation or for dealing with people like my younger brother who is mentally challenged and got arrested when he was arguing with a police officer when our mother had to go to the hospital a few years ago just before she died.

[Curtis]

8. When I needed help from family

My mother and younger sister turned their backs on me and haven't spoken to me since. My proble.s had nothing to do with drugs or alcohol either. My brain broke from serving as an EMT, on an honor guard for funerals and working with the Patriot Guard Riders. My psyche just couldn't deal with the death like I thought it could. I was lucky that the one chambered round was the only dud of thousands of rounds I've put through that gun. I still have that round.

In a way, I would have welcomed a police invasion on my most critical day, but then I was close with local law enforcement in a very small community.

Sorry you went through what you did but glad you're here to tell your story.

[zwyziec]

9. Same thing here

My son in ca called me where I live in Oregon to tell me he was suicidal. He suffers from bipolar and was severely depressed. Being so far away (he lives alone) all I could do was call the police and told them that he was not violent and didn't have a weapon and to not treat him roughly because he has a lot of muscular ailments.

When he opened the door three cops rushed in, threw him on the floor, pulled his arms behind his back, handcuffed him and dragged him out to a patrol car.

He hopes to never need to rely on the police again.

[tblue37]

21. 2011: Cops killed a vet whose medical alert necklace accidentally went off to send a "help" signal.

This is the story (from Wikipedia):

Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. was fatally shot on November 19, 2011, in White Plains, New York. After his LifeAid medical alert necklace was inadvertently triggered, police came to his home and demanded that he open his front door. Despite his objections and statements that he did not need help, the police broke down Chamberlain's door, tasered him, and then shot him dead. Chamberlain was a 68-year-old, African-American, retired Marine, and a 20-year veteran of the Westchester County Department of Corrections. He wore the medical alert bracelet due to a chronic heart problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Kenneth_Chamberlain_Sr.

[No Vested Interest]

28. Now that is pitiful. nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. I know a woman who called the cops after her boyfriend beat her up....

They saw a pack of Zig-Zags on her coffee table and beat her up.

[SheilaT]

11. I'm so sorry.

It is my understanding that if a person is suicidal, he or she can go to a local emergency room, let the staff there know about the suicidal thoughts, and will be admitted for a couple of days.

I may not have this completely straight, and it may vary in different parts of the country. I do know that my sister, about seven or eight years ago, told me her son was feeling suicidal, went to an ER, and got help that way. He is still around, and so far as I know has not been suicidal since.

Most people haven't any idea how to deal with someone in that condition or situation. I know I've never dealt with it, and I probably wouldn't do a very good job of it.

Our legal system isn't well set up to help people in crisis. It's far more geared to punishing, which is, if you think about it, the underlying reason for all of the times that cops have killed someone who absolutely didn't deserve it. They work with a criminal/must be punished model, rather than a person in need/should be helped model. Plus, to be fair to cops, they are dealing with a vast array of behaviors and problems, and under the best and most forgiving of circumstances are under extreme pressure to make a decision. Sometimes they make the wrong decision.

[roamer65]

12. Imagine if they had knocked on the door...

and simply said, "We are here because your family is worried about you." And talked for a second with you.

Imagine what a difference that would make in so many lives, as it would have in yours.

I understand.

[undergroundpanther]

13. I went through similar

Treatment by cops a few times when I called or my counselor called for help on my
Behalf. I get cuffed put in a cop car. I ask to be front cuffed because of having carpal
Tunnel down both arms . they dont care they cuff behind my back which is
Excruciatingly painful. Nevermind I have. Made no threats or anything.
Most people dont realize. One FOURTH. of all the police shootings
Black white hispanic or whatever race involve mental illness.
If you have a mental illness you are more likely to get shot by a cop than any
Other factor. And mentally ill people are less violent than normal people statistically.
Sad aint it.

[yourpaljoey]

26. agreed

[november3rd]

14. Many Involuntary Commitments

Back in the eighties, my brother was slowly going crazy. A few years after graduating cum laude from Yale, he started having occasional psychotic episodes. I called the police at least three times that I remember, although there may have been more. Other people had to do it a few times, too.

The cops were always very patient and conscious of the delicacy of the situation.

Every time he had an episode, it would take longer and longer for him to come back to reality. Eventually, his psychosis became a virtually permanent condition, only treatable by very heavy medications.

I grew a tremendous respect for the cops because of the care, professionalism and integrity they demonstrated in handling my brother.

I've been arrested twice in the last 15 years at various protests. The last time was at UN disarmament talks. The cops were very good.

I'm white--or, what we call "white." Actually, I'm the same color as everybody else: flesh tone. Plus, my ancestors are from the same continent as everyone else's: Africa.

The squatters in our doorways are holding us all hostage with LANGUAGE, because language governs thought, and consciousness.

We can't save the planet without the revolution of consciousness that opens our eyes to our oneness. I insist the police treat ALL my brothers now with respect, because the police are my brothers, too, from now on. ... like Walt Whitman said ...

[mrmpa]

15. I was once a University Police Officer............

We were called to a suicidal student in her dorm room. She had a knife and had already slashed her forearms, some bleeding but not too bad. I knew her. I told her she couldn't kill herself tonight, she looked at me with the knife in her hands and said "why", I said I was 'Shift Commander and there was too much fucking paperwork involved." She looked at me again and said "Ok" and she dropped the knife.

We got her patched up and transported to a psychiatric hospital.

You need to talk to those that in distress before you act. Not act first. Communication is a lost art. I used foul language with the student, but she got the drift & it also gave her the insight that her actions would affect others.

She came back to campus and received her BS in Electrical & computer engineering. I met her family at commencement time.

[Sgent]

17. This is a great story

and outcome. Kudo's to you.

I know here in New Orleans they are trying to hire officers with social work / psychology bachelor degrees to be on special mental health units to respond to these situations.

[liberalmuse]

16. The way you were treated is unacceptable.

Never call the police on someone who is suicidal as they are likely to end up more dead than if you had not called at all. I think our society needs compassionate mental health advocates. Police should not be called in for something like this, and not wanting to live in a fucked up society, and world, should never be treated as a crime.

[tblue37]

24. Sometimes people call for an ambulance and explicitly say not to send cops, but cops show up anyway,

and then they brutalize or kill the person that needed the ambulance.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

18. Holy fuck. Sorry to hear that.

[bvar22]

19. "To Protect and Serve"

*

[etherealtruth]

22. This is truly another group extremely victimized by the police

I am so sorry for what you endured

[MrScorpio]

23. One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a person...

Is having a mental health crisis, or even a medical crisis anywhere within the vicinity of the police.

[tblue37]

25. Or being deaf, developmentally disabled, autistic, in a diabetic coma, or in

any other kind of condition or situation that makes one unable to respond in a way they consider "appropriate" to their barked commands.

Even white people often get the shoot first and ask questions later treatment from the cops in such circumstances. Needless to say, if one happens to also be a POC, then the chance of surviving a police encounter goes down even further.

[MrScorpio]

27. Damn Skippy nt