Originally Posted by martinguerre

In my home town, Minneapolis, we had one of the highest rates of police shooting mentally ill persons. First, any time an officer has to draw a gun, chances are, there may be serious consequences. People in cross fire, officer wounded, it's not just about the offender. And it was causing huge problems with community trust. Folks assumed that the cops were the ones who just showed up to shoot their friends and relatives for no reason, and not when they were needed.

Things are finally on the mend, but one of the most important things they did was to train a squad of officers who are knowledgable about mental illness, and better able to assess the threat in a given situation.

The plane was already landed...the moment of highest threat passed. i assume from my reading that the officers were at least aware of the claim that this man was ill...which may have made them more likely to believe that this person was actually dangerous, a innacurate stereotype. i know they have to take this seriously...i don't suggest for a moment that they don't. But the intersection of mental illness and police cannot just be assumed to be a fatal reaction. The cost is simply too high.