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Issa TrapAngela Helm
10/01/18 3:17pm
Wow, that was hard to read anticipating the ending but hoping it ends better than statistics suggest. In this case, it did. Stay strong for your family (not just your mother but all the other potential non-diagnosed crazy folks in the tree) because they will need you. Like DetroitGuys says, we all are pulling for you.
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  Angela HelmIssa Trap
  10/05/18 10:56pm
  I love you for saying this: not just your mother but all the other potential non-diagnosed crazy folks in the tree...because truer words have never been spoke!
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  Angela HelmIssa Trap
  10/05/18 10:56pm
  I love you for saying this: not just your mother but all the other potential non-diagnosed crazy folks in the tree...because truer words have never been spoke!
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Not2LuckyAngela Helm
10/01/18 7:10pm
The NAMI chapter here helps with the CTI training for the police. We find that police forces are reluctant to send people for training since the officer will still have to be on payroll during the training, and the training will be lost if the officer moves. We find that after 5 or 7 years of training we have 1 or 2 officers trained in each of the police forces (there are lots of small communities), the shame is that the police force in the largest city in the county does not ever send officers.
We are lucky though that we have a CRISIS line, who are all trained to escort the person having the mental issue to the hospital without confrontation.
If you have a local Crisis center, call them first, and if you do have to call the cops, tell them that the person has a mental illness AND TO NOT USE THE SIRENS. .. it’s amazing what a difference it can make when the first interaction is a polite ring of the bell and everyone is calm vs a yell though the door that the police want to come in and are about to knock down the door.
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  Angela HelmNot2Lucky
  10/02/18 8:53am
  Where are you located Not2Lucky?
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  Angela HelmNot2Lucky
  10/02/18 8:53am
  Where are you located Not2Lucky?
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Rooo sez BISH PLZAngela Helm
10/01/18 3:28pm
- Is there a racial analysis in the CIT training?
Yes.
That is, is there any acknowledgment of the systemic bias against people of color coupled with mental health stigma (i.e., an erratic black man or woman is inherently dangerous)?
No.
You know I write a lot about systemic implicit bias. One of the things that jumps out at me partially as a result of coming from the family of educators I’m so often running on about, is not only that the training is four days, but it wouldn’t matter if it was four years if the training itself didn’t specifically address that issue and specific ways to address that before even going in or responding to a call — particularly given how that bias factors into the higher white-cop-POC-victim shooting & death ratios everyone who reads here knows about.
In wake of this most recent achievement of yours (yay) I’ll be reaching out to two mentor-type people, a senior attorney and a mental health practitioner and advocate, and reporting back to you after I’ve done that so you can let me know the best way for them to get in touch with you (AAPF, maybe? Or via the Carter Center?) so you all can have an constructive - and possibly necessarily ongoing - dialogue about the information they have, and address that issue in revisions to the substantive curriculum directly, to improve these outcomes. (I don’t think we can get in touch through CUNY anymore?)
Congratulations again, and also thank you
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  Angela HelmRooo sez BISH PLZ
  10/02/18 8:53am
  Thank you, Rooo! Please hit me at angela.bronner-helm@theroot.com.
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  Rooo sez BISH PLZAngela Helm
  4/02/19 2:15pm
  Done, with potential multiple sources
  This
  No Health = No Justice:
  “Dismantling Systemic Inequity in Criminal Justice & Health”
  is happening tomorrow at Columbia U., and I’m sorry this installment took this long
  Registration info and agenda are in the email; if it doesn’t show up right away in your inbox please look in your spam folder (it wouldn’t be the first time I’d tried to email a Root columnist from a gmail account & the email somehow went missing).
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MishaBitesAngela Helm
10/01/18 3:53pm
Something HAS to be done— I commend your efforts and wish you all the best!
Twelve years ago, the police killed a young man who was a distant cousin of mine. It’s the same old story— just a kid, scared, freaking out, calling for Jesus and his mom. He wasn’t a danger to anyone; he was probably just having trouble adjusting to medication changes. And they Tasered him to death.
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  Angela HelmMishaBites
  10/02/18 8:56am
  I’m so sorry to hear this. It’s a story that’s far too common.
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NopeNopejustNopeAngela Helm
10/01/18 12:47pm
A youngish cop, maybe in his 30s engaged me. He said, ‘You know not all police are like that.’
Unfortunately, the ones who are and the ones who aren’t like that are completely indistinguishable from each other. We don’t get the luxury of the benefit of the doubt.
Thank you for your work, Angela.
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selburn6Angela Helm
10/01/18 2:13pm
This was extremely timely, given a breaking news story:
“Orlando police shot and killed a hospital patient who claimed he was armed but wasn’t.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/01/us/orlando-police-hospital-shooting/index.html
This story does not mention many details. But I can guess the race of the victim.
The story ends with the line “No one was injured in the incident.”
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  Angela Helmselburn6
  10/02/18 8:57am
  Good ole Florida.
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acmeindustriesAngela Helm
10/01/18 1:11pm
Thanks for doing this.
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FredCee71Angela Helm
10/01/18 5:04pm
So the police initially denied you, a family member, the opportunity to de-escalate someone in mental distress because of what, the “imminent threat” she posed to the general public?
‘You know not all police are like that’
No, motherfucker, we DON’T know, because the “good ones” cover for and fail to weed out the ones who are “like that.” Therefore, ANY police officer being “like that” justifies mistrust of ALL police officers.
FTP
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fartschoolforthegiftedAngela Helm
10/01/18 12:21pm
How are mentally distressed people in crisis handled in other countries? I’m wondering specifically about England, where it is my understanding that police officers are unarmed, armed officers only responding when requested. They must have to, gasp, actually talk to folks in distress?
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  ack2013fartschoolforthegifted
  10/01/18 1:41pm
  Surprisingly well. De-escalation techniques are emphasised and used when dealing with the public. We also have community support officers who can often give background and assist in crisis. Mental health crisis really do end in a cup of tea quite a bit. They do also end in hospitalisation and if things go very badly with someone in custody instead of receiving treatment.
  Obviously our police and communities on the whole do not have guns, so having a death at the hands of an officer is extremely rare. There are still belligerent officers who lack compassion and there are still those who let prejudice creep into their actions. There are areas, Tottenham comes to mind, where there are still a lot of systemic issues as well. It’s just incredibly unlikely that anyone dies.
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dangitAngela Helm
10/01/18 2:21pm
“He said, ‘You know not all police are like that.’”
We do? When did we learn that? I must have played hooky that day.
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  Bowl Better Talkdangit
  10/01/18 2:40pm
  Do the police who Aren’t Like That wear some kind of special ID?
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