<story><title>Police broke into Chelsea Manning’s home with guns drawn in a “Wellness Check”</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2018/06/05/chelsea-manning-video-twitter-police-mental-health/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>slfnflctd</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;The problem, mental health experts say, is that police should not be the ones to check on suicidal people in the first place.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is a very uninformed statement.  For 911 and&amp;#x2F;or police calls, there is an extensively well-established (to put it mildly) precedent that the safety of an area must be secured by police before medical personnel are even allowed on scene.  There are very good reasons for this-- you don&amp;#x27;t want to have your primary emergency medical responders taken out by a delusional shooter when other emergencies &lt;i&gt;will&lt;/i&gt; be coming up soon that require them, all too often for matters of life &amp;amp; death.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot; &amp;#x27;The moral of this story is don’t call the cops,&amp;#x27; Cassandra said. “If you know someone who is having a mental health crisis, call a friend, a trusted neighbor, or someone close by who can safely intervene. Keep the number to a volunteer emergency medical service in your city or neighborhood that can be called directly&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This I agree with.  For people familiar with the situation and person&amp;#x2F;people involved (if they exist), a much more appropriate response can be conducted.  There are numerous accounts of these situations leading to the arrest of the individual in crisis, which of course can make things much, much worse for them.  I know someone it happened to.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jdietrich</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;This is a very uninformed statement. For 911 and&amp;#x2F;or police calls, there is an extensively well-established (to put it mildly) precedent that the safety of an area must be secured by police before medical personnel are even allowed on scene.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here in the UK, the police would not routinely attend an ambulance call-out for someone experiencing suicidal thoughts unless there was specific intelligence to suggest that the patient might present a credible threat to an ambulance crew. Most British police officers are not permitted to carry firearms; armed officers would only be deployed to a mental health crisis if there was specific intelligence to suggest that the patient was armed and posed an immediate threat to life. All armed officers have specialist training, including crisis management and conflict de-escalation.&lt;p&gt;In 2017, six people were fatally shot by police in England and Wales. Since 1990, the average number of fatal police shootings was 2.46 per year.&lt;p&gt;Another way is possible.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.inquest.org.uk&amp;#x2F;deaths-in-police-custody&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.inquest.org.uk&amp;#x2F;deaths-in-police-custody&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Police broke into Chelsea Manning’s home with guns drawn in a “Wellness Check”</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2018/06/05/chelsea-manning-video-twitter-police-mental-health/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>slfnflctd</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;The problem, mental health experts say, is that police should not be the ones to check on suicidal people in the first place.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is a very uninformed statement.  For 911 and&amp;#x2F;or police calls, there is an extensively well-established (to put it mildly) precedent that the safety of an area must be secured by police before medical personnel are even allowed on scene.  There are very good reasons for this-- you don&amp;#x27;t want to have your primary emergency medical responders taken out by a delusional shooter when other emergencies &lt;i&gt;will&lt;/i&gt; be coming up soon that require them, all too often for matters of life &amp;amp; death.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot; &amp;#x27;The moral of this story is don’t call the cops,&amp;#x27; Cassandra said. “If you know someone who is having a mental health crisis, call a friend, a trusted neighbor, or someone close by who can safely intervene. Keep the number to a volunteer emergency medical service in your city or neighborhood that can be called directly&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This I agree with.  For people familiar with the situation and person&amp;#x2F;people involved (if they exist), a much more appropriate response can be conducted.  There are numerous accounts of these situations leading to the arrest of the individual in crisis, which of course can make things much, much worse for them.  I know someone it happened to.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>empath75</author><text>Leaning on precedent and &amp;#x27;policy&amp;#x27; to justify murderous behavior on the part of police is one of the more infuriating trends.&lt;p&gt;If your policies and precedent end with innocent people dying, then they need to be changed.</text></comment>