APPARENT 'MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION' IN TORONTO...
I was headed out on an errand about four P.M. this afternoon. About a block from my place I saw two cop cars at the curb, lights flashing. As is my wont I crossed the street to give them sufficient berth.
Then I spotted the focus of their attention. A young woman, perhaps five-three and 120 pounds. Four large (200 pounds+) cops standing in close proximity, hemming her in. She was clearly agitated, angry, scared - waving her arms around in the air and yelling. While the cops weren't physically restraining her at this point, two of them had donned blue latex gloves so an... intervention was clearly imminent.
I started to walk away but then a loud cry of anger or fear stopped me in my tracks. The cops had closed in... but then they backed off once more, leaving their young prey strutting back and forth, still clearly upset. At this point I fished out my phone and shot some video but unfortunately I was standing too far away to capture anything useful on low-res and I didn't dare draw too near.
There must have been about twenty spectators gathered on the sidewalk by this time and the comments were revealing indeed. Most were joking about what was going on, several expressed varying degrees of irritation with the cops - and one young guy said to me as he walked past "there's someone who didn't take their meds today!" Classic stereotype.
I left the area at that point to take care of my own business and when I returned the police had left and there was no sign of the young woman they'd been apparently tormenting. I'm hoping she's OK... but given how the cops tend to act in these instances it's hard to say.
This kind of shit goes on every damned day, in cities around the world. 'Mental health' legislation in most jurisdictions empowers law enforcement to take innocent people into custody for (basically) 'daring to be different in a public place' or displaying inward torment too visibly in the presence of 'normals'.
Psychiatrists have been getting the cops to do their dirty work for years. And police powers in this area are expanding, especially with the introduction of 'community crisis teams' that mean even one's own home isn't safe.
Instead of a police officer having to witness 'disordered' behavior for themselves, now anyone can call the cops on some innocent soul who allows their facade to slip in the view of others so the pain shows too graphically.
Back to the 'community crisis teams' - these pair a cop with a psychiatric nurse on regular patrol. First introduced as a pilot project in my own neighborhood back in the late 1990's, there are now a dozen of these 'Thoughtcrime Units' operating in Toronto.
I had a run-in with these people myself in April of 2009 thanks to a misinterpreted Facebook posting that sent one of my 'friends' into a 911-dialing tizzy. fortunately several of my other friends also responded, saving me from potential incarceration. But at one point eight or more armed, uniformed cops had crammed themselves into my tiny apartment. Luckily I had stepped out before they arrived and avoided a direct confrontation, plus my friends had my back. Most people are far less fortunate in these situations.
Psychiatric personnel have no more right to enter another person's dwelling without consent than does anyone else. By pairing them with a police officer, all they have to do is claim a 'medical emergency' exists in the home in question to authorize forced entry by the cop.
The most recent, highly publicized incident with one of these units involved a nine-year old boy who was handcuffed after the police were summoned to a daycare center for special-needs children. The youngster had been on the receiving end of bullying from peers and was clearly terrified. Then the police came in and responded to his terror with handcuffs because daycare staff felt he was 'out of control'! (Gee, I wonder why....................?)
As for the young woman on the street this afternoon - this may well have been someone who had experienced violence in the form of sexual assault or otherwise, and here she was, surrounded by four big men on the street. I can't begin to imagine what must have been going through her mind...
Most psychiatric survivors have experienced violence or related traumas in their lives, with sexual abuse/assault being rampant among these. How the hell is it supposed to ease one's state of mind by responding to them in a manner that only replicates the traumas they have already experienced? I fail to see how this kind of aggressive, overtly intimidating approach could possibly contribute to a better state of mind in anyone.
Yet this is what happens constantly at the hands of the police, who operate with virtually complete impunity. It happens in institutions and general hospital psych. wards, out of the public view - and who really listens to 'crazy' people anyway when they try to shine the light of day on mistreatment? It is also further reinforced by clear expressions of public bias like the sentiments shared by the young man I mentioned earlier.
All these officially-sanctioned actions only serve to re-traumatize people. And this needs to stop.
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