Reply to Defund the the police talk is some sort of apologetic cultural appropriation. Please stop.

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Reply to "Defund the the police talk is some sort of apologetic cultural appropriation. Please stop."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a MSW, I really question whether most social workers would be willing to go unaccompanied into many of these situations, maybe with a partner, but not alone.  Many of the situations that end up with police shootings are people who appear volatile, have a knife in their hand, are high and approach in a threatening way, etc.  Definitely they don't deserve to die.  I am just not sure that many people in mental health services would want to approach these people alone.  It could even create more dangerous situations, as the police feel that they have to protect the unarmed social worker who is in the line of fire.  Perhaps police could at least use nonlethal force when called for mental health checks, and not chase and agitate people on welfare checks.  Training...[/quote]

This. The minute there is a shift to "send a social worker", the social workers will refuse and/or one will be killed or seriously injured in short order.
Sure, the police could use more training, but sometimes there just aren't a lot of good options when you have somebody who is armed and high/psychotic.[/quote]So you all are thinking that we won't change how police do their business and we won't change how social workers do their business. We'll just send them in the way they are now.  Think about that.  Why are you assuming that there isn't some other way to organize these services so social workers wouldn't go in alone?  Why not have social workers and police working together? [/quote]

Because cops playing babysitter to a social worker may not be the best use of resources? And because it may create further complications?

I don’t know what planet some of you are on regarding police and mental illness. Previous posters keep repeating “training” as if police in this area are sent out into the world to work with no idea that many people they will deal with professionally are going to be disturbed. I’d say that the police have dealt with more mentally ill people than your average social worker[/quote]

I am the social worker.  I know that police are trained, but shooting [u]to kill[/u] someone approaching with a knife, etc. doesn't have to be the default (unless they are close enough to stab you).  Cops are trained that when they shoot, they "shoot to kill."  Perhaps when doing mental health or drug checks, they can assess whether they are really in mortal danger before using the "lethal" option.  I also know of car chases/shootings resulting from suicide welfare checks.  Or what about the autistic 13 year old who was shot multiple times in Utah when he became aggressive toward his mom and she called for help?  Come on.  They may be trained, but the training that is used for a dangerous criminal isn't the same that should be used in these situations.  So yes, training.[/quote]

This would involve re-training, not defunding. Prob more funding. Also, I would argue that for police it introduces more ambiguity and society would have to have some tolerance for human error.[/quote]

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