Journalist – Historian – Speaker
On Tuesday, I praised good NYT reporting on CIT training in Portland, a piece that tried to go beyond the usual platitudes. Today, I’d like to criticize their most recent Room for Debate – on mental health facilities. The truth of a vast publication like this is that while there are overarching standards, it’s made …
I’m flying to San Antonio today to learn more about their approach to mental health. My hope is that I’ll find three things. Efforts pre-crisis to prevent people from going into mental health crisis. Policies to insure that mental health professionals have command over mental-health-crisis incidents, rather than lightly or un-trained police officers (even the …
In our system, parents have to abandon their disabled children (officially anyway) in order to make the state into a child’s legal guardian, and thus the state will provide actual health care. From WBEZ: One of the worst moments in Eileen’s life was the day she called a local Chicago hospital to tell them she …
Nice article in the local paper on de-escalation training for Park Ridge law enforcement. Last year, a U.S. Justice Department grant secured by the Park Ridge Police Department allowed for officers to take crisis intervention training, a program that aims to prepare officers to deal with citizens struggling with a broad spectrum of mental health …
From last night’s Town Hall. SANDERS: I get calls – I have gotten calls in my office, and I’m sure other senators have as well. This is the call. Somebody calls us up and said, I’m very worried about my brother. I’m worried what he might do to himself or, to answer your question, to …
Today, President Obama is announcing new executive actions on gun violence. I am a proponent of sensible gun control solutions. I do not believe we can arm ourselves to safety. I am, however, always concerned when discussions around gun control stigmatize people with various types of disabilities as dangerous, so I was glad to see …
In response to the recent shooting of Quintonio Legrier and Bettie Jones, embattled mayor Rahm Emanuel has made a decision – give all cops Tasers. Chicago’s mayor and police superintendent will announce Wednesday afternoon that every police officer who responds to service calls will be equipped with a Taser and properly trained to use it …
Disability continues to be a largely ignored issue in the presidential primaries except for when it comes to gun violence, when the candidates get things entirely wrong. Here’s 100% of what Sanders or Clinton (the only candidates that actually might get nominated) said about disability last night. SANDERS: Let’s begin, Anderson, by understanding that Bernie …
Prisons are the asylums of our age. We just don’t call them that. Then, when people with mental disabilities end up incarcerated, they are horrifically vulnerable to abuse from both prison employees and other prisoners. Moreover, prison staff even when not intentionally abusive, are not well-trained in responding to the needs of people with disabilities, …
Yesterday, I wrote about the death of Anthony Hill, a man with bipolar disorder, who, while naked and unarmed, was killed by police in the Atlanta area. Here are three stories on how police should respond to these sorts of situations (I’m guessing there are 500+ related deaths a year nationally, but numbers are hard …