The cities of Ferguson, Mo., and New York are grappling with massive protests over the deaths of black youth at the hands of white police officers that grand juries have ruled as justified.
Protesters allege that racism is at the heart of the officers’ actions and their exoneration by the jury.
While protests of empathy are also taking place in Portland, the nature of complaints against metro police highlights a different problem.
In late 2012, the Department of Justice determined after a year-long investigation that the Portland Police Bureau engaged in a “pattern or practice” of excessive force against people with mental illness.
The incidents highlighted by DOJ included the fatal shooting of a man threatening to kill himself, the frequent and unnecessary tasering of individuals perceived to have mental illness, and other uses of disproportionate force for low-level crimes.
These same criticisms are playing out across the country, with a recent study by the Portland Press Herald in Maine finding that nearly half of people shot by police since 2000 were mentally ill.
As an example in Oregon, Portland police were called Sept. 1 to the 122nd Avenue off-ramp from Interstate 84 on reports that a man was pointing a handgun at passing cars. Some callers said he appeared to be trying to carjack drivers on the ramp.
When an officer arrived, the man pointed a gun at him and then ran through traffic. Multiple officers were called to the scene and freeway traffic was shut down.
At some point in the pursuit, an officer fired shots and struck the suspect, who ran a short distance and then collapsed.
Police began talking with the man, who had a history of mental illness and refused to comply with their directives. He reportedly indicated he wanted officers to shoot him.
Eventually, he was taken into custody and transported to a Portland hospital for treatment of a non-life threatening injury.
Almost three months earlier, the outcome was much worse for a man who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and charged Portland police with a crow bar.
Nick Davis was the suspect in a robbery case and was fatally shot after police reportedly sought to protect an officer who fell to the ground while attempting to avoid being hit by the crow bar.
Although it is easy to blame police when these situations go bad, the vast array of problems regarding the mentally ill belong to society as a whole.
The erosion of funding for treatment services has turned the jail and prison system into one of Oregon’s largest mental health providers.
Jim Weed, director of the regional jail, said taking care of the mentally ill who land behind bars is taking up a bigger and bigger bite of his institution’s budget.
In fact, jails and prisons hold three times more individuals with mental illness than hospitals do.
Oregonians are paying hundreds of millions of dollars each year for this method of dealing with mental illness.
It seems logical that helping people in the early stages of a disorder would ward off negative public problems and confrontations with police.
But even that is a twisted path fraught with legal potholes.
U.S. Supreme Court rulings in 1975 determined that involuntary hospitalization violated an individual’s civil rights.
Justices determined that the person had to pose a danger to himself or others to be held for evaluation. And a court order would be required for long-term treatment.
Since that time, many people who need higher than average levels of care are left to decide for themselves when, and if, to seek treatment.
Each member of society must bear some of the blame when a person with a serious disorder dies at the hands of authorities who are charged with protecting and serving the community as a whole.
It is time to revisit how this state and nation cares for people who may be unable to care for themselves.
Commented