I was very pleased to see someone bring up the issue of mental illness regarding Syl Jones, Melissa Schmidt, & Martha Donald. I'm a strong supporter of NAMI & for providing training for the police of safe (non-lethal) management of people with mental illness who commit crimes. I believe that the police & the city are not doing their part to address the amount of mental illness in our community by underutilizing other area agencies that can provide assistance, support, care, & rehabilitation of people with mental illness.
Earlier this month there was discussion on "livability crimes" & list members focused on the act & the punishment of such crimes. In order to address the prevention of such common occurrences we must focus on the large homeless population in our city, of which many are thought to be mentally ill. So many of these people could be served but are not referred to agencies & organizations that could help. Below is a recent letter to the editor that I felt was on point regarding the Melissa Schmidt/ Martha Donald experience. Thanks again to Ann Berget for raising this issue on the forum. -amanda tempel NE Mpls. (W1, D6) P.S. for information on NAMI go to: http://mn.nami.org/ or http://www.nami.org A victim of mental illness The Minneapolis Police Federation exhibits how much further it needs to go to raise its awareness of mental illness when its officials call Martha Donald a "murderer." How do they know that? Martha had a long history of mental illness. She and Officer Melissa Schmidt were friends. How does the union know Donald knew what she was doing when she fired that weapon? How does it know she wasn't hallucinating and she was fighting off large cats attacking her or devils trying to take her soul? Melissa Schmidt was a victim of Martha Donald. Martha Donald was a victim of mental illness. I hope that a Melissa Schmidt/ Martha Donald memorial fund is established someday to raise community awareness of mental illness. The first beneficiaries of this fund should be the Minneapolis Police Department. More officers should get the training that Schmidt received to deal with people suffering from mental illnesses or having a crisis. -- Rene Jenson, Frederic, Wis. Published Aug 14, 2002 (Star Tribune-Letters) http://www.startribune.com/stories/563/3161441.html Message: 14 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 22:39:20 EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] RE: Syl Jones, etc. I only have an observation to offer, not a brickbat or a solution. Although I disagree with Syl Jones at times, I find most of his writing rich and moving. And I am a little (middle aged) white girl from the Deep South. Maybe that's why. Anyhow, it seems to me that the more authentic issue ignored here on center stage is the tragic toll mental illness takes on people, sometimes entire communities. No one seems offended by Jones or the Strib (in earlier pieces) identifying Ms. Donald as probably mentally ill. She probably was, by all accounts, even her family's. And untreated, it sounds like. In this community - as in most across the country - very little can be done to compell a (suspected) mentally ill adult to seek and submit to medical assessment and treatment if he/she doesn't want to. Tragically, many serious mental illnesses impair not only one's judgment about the outside world, but also the ability to correctly assess one's own condition and actions. Sometimes it turns dangerous, even deadly, especially when weapons are at hand. God only knows all the details of what happened that night at Horn Towers, but I think the real issue is what happens when mental illness turns lethal - regardless of the color or station in life of anyone involved. Ann Berget Kingfield (Past Board Member of NAMI - National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
