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mowhozart t1_j503zp9 wrote

Not one department in the country would have an unarmed response respond to a Mental Health call with any type of weapon involved.

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CostcoBrandDinosaur t1_j509hhi wrote

I've yet to see an actual suggestion that would have resolved a person running at the police/others with a machete but people keep claiming the police overstepped their bounds.

Sometimes shit is just bad. You can't send unarmed negotiators without zero protection, especially in situations where the person has a dangerous weapon.

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ADarwinAward t1_j562z45 wrote

They also say they tried a less lethal option first. They shot him with a rubber bullet but that didn’t stop him.

Rubber bullets are frequently called non-lethal but they can be lethal in rare cases when they hit someone in the head.

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that_dogs_wilin t1_j5har8n wrote

okay, I've never seen this suggested anywhere so I assume there's a good reason it's not done, but here's what I think could be a real solution to the problem:

nets.

obviously this could only work for situations where the person doesn't have a gun, but they do have a large bladed weapon or something. Part of the problem is that when the assailant has a knife, it's really risky for any officers to get close to them because they can get lethally stabbed really quickly. And tasers and pepper spray aren't very reliable, and we'd like to avoid using a regular gun, right?

Here's what I'm imagining: they basically have these dense, sticky nets. As soon as they get the net on the person, it sticks to their skin, clothes, and to the net itself, and makes it so they immediately can't move that much. There would be no risk of suffocation because the net is mostly holes. It would be made of a tough enough material that it couldn't be easily cut, especially given their limited mobility.

to get the net on the person, they could have two officers hold either end of a long net and then encircle/clothesline the person from a distance. Once a single net has touched them it should be really easy to get more nets on them. You could do other things too, like maybe a t-shirt cannon that flings the net out from a distance.

so once the person is covered in a few nets, frustrated but mostly unharmed, they could walk up and take the knife away. Then they could use some safe chemical that would dissolve the net's stickiness to free the person. This is kind of like those "man catchers" they use in japan to hold someone immobile from a short distance, but those are still prob too risky and require too much skill for the average cop.

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WaitForItTheMongols t1_j504phm wrote

You're quite right, the whole country is a mess when it comes to mental health and it would be great if our city could lead the way on making things better.

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mowhozart t1_j50604p wrote

An unarmed response to mental health calls seems like a tragedy waiting to happen. A non-violent situation could easily turn the other way quickly. A Co-Response would be much safer.

I think the city has great services if one seeks them out. No one is talking about this young man’s history. Was this the first episode? Was he suffering from some undiagnosed mental illness?

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WaitForItTheMongols t1_j509a69 wrote

> I think the city has great services if one seeks them out. No one is talking about this young man’s history. Was this the first episode? Was he suffering from some undiagnosed mental illness?

Can we expect a person who is experiencing mental illness (and therefore lacking reliable mental function) to identify that for themselves and seek out resources?

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mowhozart t1_j50agq4 wrote

Maybe - or maybe the family he was living with could’ve. Is it reasonable to think that a 20 year old, otherwise healthy person had his first mental health episode and went right to cutting himself, running around the neighborhood with a machete then charging at police? Or were there earlier signs that the family missed or ignored? Both are possible.

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magnetmonopole t1_j50ehas wrote

Tbh, the answer here is that some people need to have help forced on them. Same goes for people dealing with severe drug addiction. Frequently, people dealing with these issues are unable or unwilling to seek out the help they need. We cannot just assume that everyone has family or a support network. Forcing treatment on people isn’t a pretty solution, but it may help some people who wouldn’t otherwise receive any treatment.

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