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On Monday, October 26, Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old black man with bipolar disorder, was shot dead by Philadelphia police as he walked towards them. He was apparently suffering from a mental health crisis and was wielding a knife.
Wallace’s family had called an ambulance for help before the murder, but the police were the first to arrive. Video on cell phone The meeting, which has since gone viral, raised new questions about the role of the police in engaging people with mental health issues. The question that arises most often: was everything done to defuse Wallace’s encounter with the police?
“Police are not trained to deal with people with mental health issues,” Kirk Burkhalter, a 20-year former New York Police Department detective, told Yahoo News in a video interview. “It takes years for a person to complete this form of training.”
What happened to Wallace was the consequence of only sending police officers to the scene, rather than police officers and a mental health professional, Burkhalter argued.
“How many resources are worth a human life?” He asked. “And the answer is: no amount of resources.”
Burkhalter acknowledged that most police officers in a comparable situation would likely react in the same way and challenged police chiefs to avoid placing officers in this position.
“It was not necessary for the police to be in this situation,” he said. “I’m not saying the police shouldn’t be responding. They are our first responders. … However, there should be an answer with other people: first and foremost, mental health professionals.
Inadequate mental health intervention has been shown to lead to fatal encounters with law enforcement. According to a 2015 report from the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national nonprofit based in Arlington, Virginia, adults with severe mental illness account for one in four people killed in clashes with police. People with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed. during a meeting with the police than other civilians. Meanwhile, people with severe mental illness account for only 3 to 5% of violent acts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Shaka Johnson, an attorney for the Wallace family, told a press conference Tuesday that Philadelphia police had failed in their preparation to meet with Wallace, whose mother had warned them of her son’s mental breakdown.
“When you come to a scene where someone is having a mental crisis and the only tool you have is a gun … where are the right tools for the job?” Johnson said.
Police officials said they could not confirm what information was provided to officers who responded, according to the Associated Press. However, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw admitted that none of the officers at the scene had a taser or similar device at the time of the shooting, adding that the department had requested funds to equip more agents of such devices. Outlaw also noted that the department does not have a mental health service.
“We don’t have a behavioral health service, which is badly needed,” she said. “There is clearly a disconnect on our side, in terms of knowing what is out there.”
Outlaw has pledged to release 911 tapes and body camera footage once they are shared with Wallace’s family. The Philadelphia Police Department did not respond to a Yahoo News request for comment.
Wallace, a father of nine, expected to welcome a baby this week with his wife, Dominique Wallace. Now Wallace’s family are confused, hurt, and traumatized by how the ordeal unfolded.
“It’s on my mind,” Walter Wallace Sr. said Tuesday, “I can’t even sleep at night. I can’t even close my eyes.
Reacting to the video and the fallout from the shooting, Zeek Arkham, a black New York state police officer, shared his take on the encounter in a tweet that has since gone viral.
“I’m black. I’m a cop. I also took hours of de-escalation training,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Having said that: No matter what color you are, what your mental state, where you were or what your mood is, if you run over me with a knife, I will shoot you. Many times. The end. #Philadelphia #phillyriots #BlueLivesMatter. “
In a follow-up interview with Yahoo News, Arkham expanded on his point.
“When he swings the knife, there’s no way to defuse something like that,” he says. “If he’s already decided he’s going to be violent, he’s already decided something is going to happen. I don’t know of any way to talk someone out of this other than giving them multiple commands to drop their guns. … I think the cops did all they could.
While many Twitter users agreed with Arkham, others criticized the idea that nothing else could have been done.
Another black officer from a Southern California Police Department, who agreed to speak to Yahoo News on condition of anonymity, said video of the meeting showed the police put their profession ahead of their humanity, adding, “Too many cops are mixing this up. to the top. “
“When I saw the video and heard about it, it was absolutely disturbing to me,” the veteran told Yahoo News. “As cops, we don’t like Monday night quarterbacks with other cops… [but] what I saw on the video was a whole bunch of cops who didn’t know what they were doing and didn’t have a plan. They run around the car like it’s a merry-go-round. In my 14 years, you don’t find yourself in a situation like this without a plan. ”
The officer added that a proper plan would have involved at least one taser, or some other form of non-lethal weapon, that the officers in Philadelphia did not have. He also stressed the need for more mental health services, which are severely underfunded across the country.
“From Monday to Friday we are mental health services, homeless outreach services and more,” the policeman said. “It’s a lot.”
Arkham added that it understands the need to defuse tense situations and increase the resources available to law enforcement, including mental health professionals. In his opinion, however, the main problem for a police officer is to get home safely. In other words, it is “blue life matters,” he said, referring to the motto police advocates have adapted from the Black Lives Matter movement.
“The importance of blue life is not just about skin color,” Arkham said. “It’s about what’s in your heart. I have had partners of different races, origins, religions, beliefs and orientations. We both swear to go home. You watch your partner’s back and he watches yours.
Arkham said he believed the lives of black people were important, but argued that this should include all the lives of black people: not only those killed by law enforcement, but also those living in the dark. disadvantaged lives, which he says he tries to help.
Burkhalter, the former NYPD detective, sees the nickname “blue life” as a distraction.
“No one would say Blue Lives Matter or All Lives Matter if it hadn’t been for the Black Lives Matter movement,” he said. “So it’s a bit of an antagonistic sentence. Of course, blue lives matter. I was a cop for 20 years. Police life matters. I don’t think that’s involved. And I don’t think you have a large part of the public that thinks the life of the police doesn’t matter. The problem here is the proliferation of murders of blacks at the hands of law enforcement. “
He added. “The Black Lives Matter slogan, the movement, was meant to draw attention to this particular aspect. There is no sympathy deficit in this country for police officers who are injured – and rightly so.
The Southern California officer shared these sentiments.
“I don’t believe in the importance of blue lives,” the officer said. “Blue lives came after Black Lives Matter. It is a story of inclusion and not of exclusion. … For the other cops, we’re just cops. But things are different for me outside of this uniform.
The officer said that once he quits his job and changes his uniform, he is subjected to the same type of profiling as any other black man, if he is arrested by another police officer.
“It’s my problem with blue lives, it’s important,” he says. “When you’re on leave, you don’t have the complexion to take a break. Ultimately, you change the police culture, you change the American culture. “
Cover thumbnail photo illustration: (Photo illustration: Yahoo! News; Photos: Mark Makela / Getty Images (3))
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