I guess the irony here is he isn't safe. But the police aren't mental health professionals either. Have they done their job if they've assessed he's not in imminent danger and neither is anyone else?
It's a good question, and I can admit that based on their training, sure, they "did their job." But I'd say that rather than demonstrating their efficacy it indicates a gaping hole in their training.
I don't expect them to wrap him in a straitjacket or mandate counseling, but I do feel like this is a woefully missed opportunity for them "to protect and to serve," as the LAPD motto goes. They've basically walked by an open manhole in the street and said, "I hope someone qualified intervenes before something bad happens."
The thing that gets me is the irony of the American surveillance state. After 9/11 came the Patriot Act, which allowed the government to monitor everyone's online communications in the name of "preventing terrorism." They caught zero terrorists. Meanwhile, white teenagers across the country spend weeks and months posting on their blogs and YouTube channels announcing plans to shoot up their schools, then they execute said plans, and law enforcement is baffled.
The Patriot Act problem is of course due to America's racist definition of "terrorist," but this is the rotten core of U.S. law enforcement. Its values are inherently racist and classist, so they suck up all the resources and provide mostly harm and bloodshed in return.
Tax dollars paid for those LAPD officers to show up in the middle of the night and shrug at a guy in the depths of a mental health crisis.
And if Alex weren't white? Automatic increase in their suspicion and aggression, a drug search, "precautionary" arrest of "an unstable individual," and things only get worse from there.
All reactions in the police repertoire are wildly unhelpful, despite the police being the most ubiquitous, public-facing points of contact in the system.
I guess the irony here is he isn't safe. But the police aren't mental health professionals either. Have they done their job if they've assessed he's not in imminent danger and neither is anyone else?
It's a good question, and I can admit that based on their training, sure, they "did their job." But I'd say that rather than demonstrating their efficacy it indicates a gaping hole in their training.
I don't expect them to wrap him in a straitjacket or mandate counseling, but I do feel like this is a woefully missed opportunity for them "to protect and to serve," as the LAPD motto goes. They've basically walked by an open manhole in the street and said, "I hope someone qualified intervenes before something bad happens."
The thing that gets me is the irony of the American surveillance state. After 9/11 came the Patriot Act, which allowed the government to monitor everyone's online communications in the name of "preventing terrorism." They caught zero terrorists. Meanwhile, white teenagers across the country spend weeks and months posting on their blogs and YouTube channels announcing plans to shoot up their schools, then they execute said plans, and law enforcement is baffled.
The Patriot Act problem is of course due to America's racist definition of "terrorist," but this is the rotten core of U.S. law enforcement. Its values are inherently racist and classist, so they suck up all the resources and provide mostly harm and bloodshed in return.
Tax dollars paid for those LAPD officers to show up in the middle of the night and shrug at a guy in the depths of a mental health crisis.
And if Alex weren't white? Automatic increase in their suspicion and aggression, a drug search, "precautionary" arrest of "an unstable individual," and things only get worse from there.
All reactions in the police repertoire are wildly unhelpful, despite the police being the most ubiquitous, public-facing points of contact in the system.
Poor Alex.