I found this video by accident looking for something else, but I wanted to share it.
So the police responded to a mental health crisis response.
A man was cutting his own throat with a knife. They shot him with a less-lethal impact round that was able to disable the man long enough to secure him and apply a clotting agent saving his life.
I am reminded of two quotes Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein.
“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms”
And
“Then you’ve heard the answer. But I’ll give you my own–unofficial–views on it. If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cuts its head off?”
“Why . . . no, sir!”
“Of course not. You’d paddle it. There can be circumstances when it’s just as foolish to hit an enemy with an H-Bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an ax. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose.”
In this case, the proper and controlled application of violence saved a life.
The police did not use lethal force, but still used force, and were able to take control of the situation.
I am not going to say that this is a universal fit, every situation is different.
I have read on a number of LEO blogs and message boards how even they (the police) don’t like responding to mental health crises because of the frequency of suicide by cop.
I truly believe having some sort of mental health expert first responder able to arrive at suspected mental health crises to try and non-violently defuze the situation is a good idea.
However, having law enforcement there with proper tools, training, and an understanding of how those weapons can be applied to mental health crises is equally valuable.
The ultimate purpose is to save lives, those of the innocent and that of the person suffering from internal demons.
Sometimes, the direct application of measured and controlled violence is the right way to do that.
This could be a good approach, assuming it’s immediately available to the responding officers. But you don’t want to “non-violently diffuse” the situation. “Diffuse” means “spread.” You’d probably prefer to defuse it.
Call me a grammar Nazi if you want, even though this isn’t grammar. Using the wrong word makes you look bad.
Nowadays, it just makes you look like a computer or smartphone user.
Computers (at least the good ones) can have autocorrect disabled; I did that years ago. Don’t know if smartphones can do that.
Maybe, but this won’t phase me at all.
“”Video Unavailable: Playback on other websites has been disabled by video owner”