uǝlƃ ☣ wrote: > I've thought that Portland's "street response team" [†] is a good idea that > addresses much of this, at least if the idea is taken seriously and > extrapolated. It helps address the militarization of police by allowing the > police to be/stay that way, but then NOT sending police out for everything. > The composition of the response team can be dynamic, maybe even > self-organizing to some extent. And if it were extrapolated to (e.g.) groups > like CERT (of which Renee' was a member back in Oregon), neighborhood watch, > suburban/corporate security services, etc. it could be a serious approach to > "defunding" the police. (Defund in quotes because it's not really defunding > them, just changing the way it's all organized.) > > [†] > https://www.kgw.com/article/news/amid-spike-in-911-calls-tied-to-homelessness-street-roots-pitches-response-teams/283-cb0ee8bc-f0e1-4c22-984e-f1c0244e9a7a
Mary did a short stint in Western (semi-rural) Nebraska as a regional coordinator between Law Enforcement (primarily Sheriff's dept) and a group of trained therapists who were "on call" to meet law enforcement on calls and *usually* take point with any call where there might be a mental-health component. That included domestic disturbance calls as well as drug/alcohol-involved calls, youth and elderly, homeless (vagrant?) etc. The Law Enforcement welcomed them with open arms and the therapists appreciated the opportunity to be involved early, rather than later at the jail, the hospital or a bereaved family gathering. That may not translate into the higher gradients of urban contexts, but it was a start. Now, if their funding had come out of the Sheriff's budget, maybe not? It sounded like it was about 1 FTE of funding, probably stacked against a Sheriff's dept and town police forces numbering less than hundreds over the region... seems like a good investment... but tell that to the laid off staff when funding shifts? I do think that EMT-trained non-enforcement can pick up a *LOT* of what we consider Law Enforcement response needs, and a LOT of what we think requires LEO's help doesn't: When I found that Ed (who had been living with me for nearly 2 years) had taken his life (3 years ago) on my property, I chose NOT to call 911 but instead to drive 8 miles to the fire-station who had responded just a few months before when Ed had blacked out at a Casino. The firemen/EMTs had (against some rules I think) taken Ed's car-keys (at Ed's request while being loaded into an Ambulance) and drove his vehicle to their fire-station a mile away and took his dog (100lb Akita) inside to care for overnight. Ed and I picked "Brando" up the next day after he was released from the Hospital. The "rules" probably called for towing his vehicle to an impound and "towing" the dog by animal control. Instead they did the common sense, humane thing. We brought them Jerky and Breakfast Burritos. They thanked us and patted Brando on the head and gave him a bite of their jerky. I knew I was risking something by NOT calling 911 (though I had the technicality that I have no landline, no cell service at my house, and the Google Fi service I have states: "NOT FOR EMERGENCY/911 calls!" (though I know that is their liability, not an proscription from calling 911 on their service). I was in no mood to have Ed's death treated as an emergency (it was a shock but not a surprise to those who knew him well), much less a "crime". I hoped that the EMT-Firefighters could respond more humanely. Unfortunately, they did not answer their door, and when I called the number on their locked door I got central-dispatch (not 911, but nearly so) who in fact dispatched the same team as well as 5 Sheriff's deputies to my house. I rolled in just after the first Deputy arrived at high-speed, lights/sirens-on, etc. So much for my good intentions. The EMTs did arrive soon after, recognized Ed's vehicle and dog and were very gracious, but entirely displaced by LEO. The Uniformed Sheriff's officers were very professional but were required (I suppose) to treat my home as a (possible?) crime-scene and even after the first couple of hours seemed to be treating it as a crime scene and me? as a suspect? in a crime?. There was a (running the whole time) patrol car parked blocking my driveway right up until the coroner's vehicle arrived for Ed. I spent a couple of hours (total) with a Sheriff's Detective (2 actually) and again they were very professional but I did feel "grilled" most of the time. If I had been more "paranoid" about law-enforcement, I could imagine having become adversarial with them. It helped that the main questioner was very junior (and clumsy in his affect/questions), it might even have been his first case, and I recognized that this was probably being used as an OJT opportunity for him... which made me believe that they weren't *really* treating it as a possible homicide. There came an unspoken moment in the "interrogation" when the tone changed radically and it was evident to me that the two detectives had given one another some kind of sign and they shifted to a more conciliatory tone. It was a good 6 hours after I made the drive/call that the last deputy left my property (I'm surprised his gas tank wasn't empty from idling all that time, radios blaring and AC running and alternators kicking in to feed the power draw for all of that). I couldn't (and don't) hold anything against the actions or even affect of any of the individuals in this situation, BUT, it still felt incredibly invasive and wasteful and disrespectful (to Ed, to my neighbors, and to a lesser extent to me) and a recipe for bad feelings and misunderstandings. I sent a note of thanks/commendation to the EMT/Fire guys supervisor but couldn't quite do the Sheriff's, even though I knew they were "doing their job professionally" Ed's son, sister and grandson came down the next weekend to collect his possessions and decompress with me (I had met the son/grandson) once. It was a good visit, but it became evident that the cost of Ed's cremation was to exceed his assets (he was living on disability and his only significant asset as a shaky vehicle and a small bank account holding the security deposit I'd "loaned" him so he could find a place to park the RV I'd "loaned" him). This was going to have to come out of his son's hide which was not impossible but not trivial for a struggling young family. The amount spent on rushing 2 fire-trucks, an ambulance, and 6 marked cars and two detective's cars 10-20 miles from home-base and holding the related staff on-site variously for 30 minutes to 6 hours could have covered that expense 10 times over. I think one EMT vehicle, one coroner, one Sheriff's detective and a couple of hours and no lights or sirens or blocked driveways would have been ample? Ed *did* get as much preventative care as he would allow from mental/social services, but a more robust mental/social health system might have reduced the stigma's that prevented him from asking/allowing for more. I'm not arguing that this would have kept him alive, but it might have been more humane and less wasteful. Meanwhile, just over the county line in Espanola (closer to my home than Santa Fe), The city police have arrested the county Sheriff either for very good, or totally frivolous reasons... In the midst of a the Coronavirus lockdown and on the cusp of the Police Misconduct/Abuse worldwide protests, we have that kind of mickey-mouse stuff burning tax dollars and public trust? http://www.riograndesun.com/news/rio-arriba-sheriff-arrested/article_6455c066-9bbf-11ea-9ec4-93b4a8ae54cf.html And in my backyard (or more to the point, the back-yard I am living in of someone else?) the Tewa Pueblo of San Ildefonso is locked down hard against COVID19, possibly channeling "racial" memories of the Orbis Spike/Columbian Exchange that may well have taken over 90% of the lives of Indigenous Americans in the first 100 years after Columbus. And I can see from where I sit, "Black Mesa" where their warriors held out for months against de Vargas' "reconquest" of the area 300+ years ago. The first conquistador (Onate) took the foot of every able-bodied male in the area (rendering them not-so) to "prevent future uprisings". It didn't work. https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/a-refuge-from-the-reconquista-joseph-aguilar-on-mesatop-archaeology/article_5c7bb04c-c31f-59fa-b8ec-c252a0bd0ce5.html https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/630.html It wouldn't surprise me if my neighbors watching the military riot-police on TV don't have visions of conquistadores in steel armor on horseback wielding swords instead of batons and riot-shotguns 400 years later. Onate and de Vargas still ride at the lead of the Fiesta de Santa Fe parade every year (as far as I know... I only had to see that once). ... and here I sit, mostly safe and comfortable, half-smug, helpless to do much more than shake my tiny fist and yell "black (red?) lives matter!" or "I can't breathe (walk?) !" and look for ways to take Tolstoy's admonition more personally/seriously. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4491-i-sit-on-a-man-s-back-choking-him-and-making Maybe send a check somewhere? Yell at a cop? Light up a dumpster? Wish I could vote *twice*? Hamstring any of my friends/neighbors who might vote for Trump before election day? Make up a tone-deaf joke to post to FriAM? Make fun of "snowflakes" or "deplorables"? Whine about my own 'got it bad' situation? promote Anarchy?, demand Law&Ordure?, conflate ends/means?, riff on hoity-toity free-associations?, contract coronavirus and make room for a new child on this planet (or not)? I'm on my 9th year of growing out the 3 corn seeds Robert Mirabal (Channeling 'Po'Pay) handed me after his re-animation of 'Po'Pay <https://www.taosnews.com/stories/robert-mirabal-to-perform-popay-speaks-at-taos-community-auditorium,8423> in 2011. They might even be knee-high by the 4th of July to celebrate the founding of "this Great Nation" while the fireworks sold *only* on native lands start fires in the bosque. It is a small tribute. grumble, - Steve > > On 6/10/20 2:58 PM, Steve Smith wrote: >> My "intellectual" interest is in how self-organizing principles and >> emergence operate in social contexts... on both sides of the debate here, >> as is being alluded to here already. When Law Enforcement gets >> significantly defunded, what fills the vacuum left by that?
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