POLICE:Social Work? Health Care? Immigration?

What do we want Police to do?

Social Work? Health Care? Immigration?

A rash of recent cop shootings across the country is establishing a terrible dangerous precedent. As animosity and distrust continues to grow America is facing the possibility of a total breakdown of order; anarchy and chaos. 

After 9/11 Police were heroes as the  public witnessed so many walking towards the threat to save lives.

Today, Police are maligned as cold blooded killers whose only pleasure is to shoot your children.

The homeless man killed in Los Angeles,Charly Leundeu Keunang, 43, had been living under a stolen identity. Keunang had been using the name Charley Saturmin Robinet -- a name he used when he was convicted of a 2000 bank robbery in Thousand Oaks. 

Keunang, still known as Robinet, was scheduled to be deported to France in 2013, but French officials discovered he was actually a citizen of Cameroon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. But the Cameroonian government never responded to requests from the U.S. for a travel document.

IMMIGRATION TOO MANY TIMES FAILS 

TO DEPORT DANGEROUS CRIMINALS

Because of federal limits on how long suspects can remain in immigration custody without being deported, he was released last May, court records show. He was subsequently dumped back on the street for LAPD to handle.

Police are being called to make bodily contact and subdue the mentally ill, dispossess squatters and homeless, resolve domestic violence, most times 

with only seconds to evaluate the players; 

in this era where people are "tired of the abuse" 

and want to stand up for their rights. 

Recent cop shootings will only 
exacerbate police fear of attack. 

COMPLY

Citizens call Police when they are afraid. 

When you're not willing or able to deal with the threat you will call the police to mitigate the situation for you. Very often the subject will not comply, that's when these situations spiral into escalating violence. 

My advice to any reasonable person who is personally involved in a detention or arrest has always been to COMPLY. 

People need to understand that stepping back, pulling your hands away, wrestling, pushing 

back are all resisting arrest arrest or worse. 

Resisting arrest is a misdemeanor with a possible sentence of up to 1 year. The more you fight the more serious the charge. 

Try to remain calm, you are in a situation that will take your brains to extricate you and can bring about your death or serious injury should you foolishly decide to physically fight your way out of it. In a few minutes or even seconds, Police are trying to determine how dangerous you are. If you act dangerous, their job is to neutralize the threat (YOU). If you cannot control yourself and are acting hysterically you are not helping yourself.

Don't expect the officer to take his badge off and give you a "fair fight". They didn't come to work today for that. Their job is to neutralize the threat. If you push they may use open hands on you. If you punch, they may use striking weapons, tear gas or taser. If you brandish a weapon of any kind within 21 feet (striking distance), try to take their weapon or present a situation where you physically pose a threat of serious injury or death to anyone, they are authorized to use deadly force. DEADLY FORCE! They CAN kill YOU!!!

Remember that almost everyone they come in contact with will say, "I didn't do anything!" If you act out shouting that, you will fall into the same category of every detainee or arrestee. The prisons are full with people that didn't do anything. Sadly, sometimes that is true but for your own good, comply and remain calm. When they Mirandize you, comply and calmly ask for a lawyer. 

Times Have Changed...

More and more Police are faced with subjects who are for various reasons unresponsive verbal direction. Some are under the effect of the myriad of recreational drugs available on the streets. Others because of a temporary emotional state and still others because of long term mental illness.

There was a time when people who did not have the mental, physical, or emotional capacity to interact with society on a day to day basis were provided with a place for them to sleep, eat, and have their physical and emotional problems cared for. State and local facilities were built to house the mentally, emotionally, and physically challenged. These places also housed criminally insane and those who tended to hurt themselves and sometimes others. 

Law enforcement officers are not social or health care workers. Nonetheless, they are being constantly asked to address and intervene with drug addicts, the homeless and mentally ill. 

Police have to deal with these subjects when they finally commit criminal acts; pan handling, trespassing, violent outbursts domestically or to the public at large from this cast of social "untouchables" has become law enforcement's responsibility. 

Law Enforcement is not set up to handle a public health problems, and they should not be involved. The government has caused this problem with their lack of developing a plan to take care of these folks from a public health point of view. Too many times these unattended public health issues escalate into serious threats to public safety. 

Not to say that anyone who takes prescribed psychiatric medications will become a murderer. Many times doctors have no other recourse than to prescribe psychiatric drugs to the seriously mentally ill, who need supervision and release them to take their medication at home. Knowing they will not take them correctly or maybe not take them at all. 

Rebecca Terrell exposes the undeniable correlation of prescription drugs and mental illness to murder.

Psychiatric Meds: Prescription for Murder?

Written by  Rebecca Terrell

In a frenzied cry for gun-control, the media is rife with details about the firearms Adam Lanza used to kill 20 children and six adults before turning a handgun on himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. But information about Lanza’s medical history is scarce, feeding speculation that he may fit the profile of school shooters under the influence of psychotherapeutic medication.

“In virtually every mass school shooting during the past 15 years, the shooter has been on or in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs,” observed Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute. “Yet, federal and state governments continue to ignore the connection between psychiatric drugs and murderous violence, preferring instead to exploit these tragedies in an oppressive and unconstitutional power grab to snatch guns away from innocent, law-abiding people who are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution the right to own and bear arms to deter government tyranny and to use firearms in self defense against any miscreant who would do them harm.”

There is a striking connection between school shootings and psychotherapeutic drugs, also known as psychotropics. Consider these examples:

• Toby Sincino, a 15-year-old who shot two teachers and himself in 1995 at his South Carolina school, was taking the antidepressant Zoloft.

• Kip Kinkel, an Oregon teen who murdered his parents and proceeded on a shooting rampage at his high school in 1998, killed two and wounded 25 while in Prozac withdrawal.

• Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in 1999 at his Idaho high school while on an antidepressant.

• T.J. Solomon, Jr. was 15 years old when he shot six classmates in Atlanta in 1999. He was taking Ritalin and was also being treated for depression.

• Eric Harris was one of the assailants at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. His autopsy revealed a therapeutic level of the antidepressant Luvox in his system.

• Jason Hoffman wounded five people with a shotgun at his California high school in 2001 while on two antidepressant medications, Celexa and Effexor.

• Jeffrey Weise, a student at Red Lake High School in Minnesota, killed 10 and wounded seven in 2005 while on Prozac.

• Matti Saari, a college student in Finland, shot and killed 10 people before committing suicide at his university in 2008. The Finnish Ministry of Justice later reported he was taking an antidepressant and an anti-anxiety medication.

• Steve Kazmierczak killed six including himself at Northern Illinois University in 2008 while in withdrawal from the antidepressant Prozac.

• Tim Kretschmer murdered 15 students and teachers at his secondary school in Germany in 2009, and then committed suicide. Police reported Kretschmer was taking prescriptions to treat depression.

We All Need To Define And Become Familiar 

With The "Rules Of Engagement"

Non-Violence Is The Goal

Citizens must learn what consists in resisting arrest. Good Samaritans must also understand that by getting physically involved or screaming and distracting in a situation they can escalate it into a deadly force situation.

Police need to regain the trust of the people. They must reach out to the community and develop a better relationship. Departments must continue to train and ingrain a clear and sensible policy for engagement for these times.

Let's not wear our prejudice on our sleeves. Let's be professional as citizens and law enforcement. You're going to get what you give in these encounters.

It was commonly said that we are living in a time of discriminatory colorblindness. To deny that people are prejudiced by nature is ingenuous; there are whites who resent blacks, blacks who resent whites, Jews that resent Arabs, Arabs that resent Jews, catholics that resent protestants, Ecuadorians that resent Peruvians, Dominicans that resent Puerto Ricans. We haven't totally overcome that yet. We can definitely use more open mindedness and love in that department.

Government Must Pick Up The Ball

Federal, State and Local Government must find a way to direct itself to 

1.) Immigrant Felons: We must make every effort to remove them from our streets. 

2.) Address the legions homeless who struggle to survive on our streets.

3.) Find a health care solution for the hundreds of thousands of mentally ill who are free to roam this country.