Yes, you read that correctly. What you will also read correctly is this cobbled together "news" story written to inflame your hatred of the po-po:
Worried family calls 911 hoping for ambulance, cops show up instead and KILL HER
Great work on the headline there Eric Owens, Education Editor. I guess there's no need to think this call through as far as my 3rd grade daughter could, but let's give it a try shall we?
1. The family should have intervened long ago. Years ago. Waiting until someone with known mental health issues starts grabbing the cutlery is not the time to reach out for help.
2. Ambulances can not make people take psych medications. Again, see #1 "Family." So far we've identified people far more responsible for the death of this girl than the police, but let's keep going.
3. They called 911 "hoping" for an ambulance. No one calls 911 and requests resources, that's not how it works. People call and state what is happening, the dispatcher assigns the appropriate resource for the situation described. Speaking of which...
4. Paramedics can not safely deal with persons who have stated their desire to harm others or who may have weapons. Paramedics are trained to assess and treat medical and traumatic conditions. The reason the dispatcher sent a Police officer is because what happened happens far more often than people realize: People who want to hurt others pick up stuff that hurts others.
5. Even the 12 year old kid saw the knife. Let's put you in the Officer's shows for a moment. A woman chases you with a knife. A woman with known psychological issues. A woman who is not taking her medications. Now what do you do? There can be all sorts of outcry about tazers and tackles and other such nonsense but when it comes down to it the Officer did what they had to do to remove the threat.
6. To all of you about to comment that I don't know what I'm talking about, I wasn't there, I don't have the full story, go over to Eric's story and comment there first.
Eric, here are some headlines I think better fit the story:
"Woman killed by police after chasing them with knife off psych meds"
"Officers forced to kill knife wielding woman after family fails to assure she is healthy"
"Family unable to help 18 year old prior to her chasing police with a knife and being shot"
"Ambulances do not help people take medicine"
"Education Editor writes inflammatory headline oblivious to how 911 works"
Motorcop has a post up that should shut up all the "Why didn't they just taze her" folks. Go have a read and see this situation through an Officer's eyes.
A human being is dead because someone waited too long to help her. Blame the family, the system, the Doctors, Obama, Bush, God, heck blame me, pick your enemy, but don't turn this into a situation where the evil police are to blame. They were just there at her worst hour and did what they are trained to do when people attack them with knives.
Worried family calls 911 hoping for ambulance, cops show up instead and KILL HER
Great work on the headline there Eric Owens, Education Editor. I guess there's no need to think this call through as far as my 3rd grade daughter could, but let's give it a try shall we?
1. The family should have intervened long ago. Years ago. Waiting until someone with known mental health issues starts grabbing the cutlery is not the time to reach out for help.
2. Ambulances can not make people take psych medications. Again, see #1 "Family." So far we've identified people far more responsible for the death of this girl than the police, but let's keep going.
3. They called 911 "hoping" for an ambulance. No one calls 911 and requests resources, that's not how it works. People call and state what is happening, the dispatcher assigns the appropriate resource for the situation described. Speaking of which...
4. Paramedics can not safely deal with persons who have stated their desire to harm others or who may have weapons. Paramedics are trained to assess and treat medical and traumatic conditions. The reason the dispatcher sent a Police officer is because what happened happens far more often than people realize: People who want to hurt others pick up stuff that hurts others.
5. Even the 12 year old kid saw the knife. Let's put you in the Officer's shows for a moment. A woman chases you with a knife. A woman with known psychological issues. A woman who is not taking her medications. Now what do you do? There can be all sorts of outcry about tazers and tackles and other such nonsense but when it comes down to it the Officer did what they had to do to remove the threat.
6. To all of you about to comment that I don't know what I'm talking about, I wasn't there, I don't have the full story, go over to Eric's story and comment there first.
Eric, here are some headlines I think better fit the story:
"Woman killed by police after chasing them with knife off psych meds"
"Officers forced to kill knife wielding woman after family fails to assure she is healthy"
"Family unable to help 18 year old prior to her chasing police with a knife and being shot"
"Ambulances do not help people take medicine"
"Education Editor writes inflammatory headline oblivious to how 911 works"
Motorcop has a post up that should shut up all the "Why didn't they just taze her" folks. Go have a read and see this situation through an Officer's eyes.
A human being is dead because someone waited too long to help her. Blame the family, the system, the Doctors, Obama, Bush, God, heck blame me, pick your enemy, but don't turn this into a situation where the evil police are to blame. They were just there at her worst hour and did what they are trained to do when people attack them with knives.
Comments
I haven't heard what steps the this young woman's family might or might not have taken before the final 911 call, but rest assured that if they did call, they were almost surely told that since she was 18, there was nothing they could do about getting her help that she didn't want. They were probably told no one in law enforcement or EMS could take action unless she currently posed a danger to herself or others. And so on. It's a no-win situation for the families of the mentally ill. Our system has to change. That will require taxpayer money. Do we as a society possess the will to make this change happen?
I've been involved in cases where the police used OC spray to disarm a knife wielding person. I was involved in a case where a woman opened the door to her apartment and was THIS close to me, my partner, and a police officer with TWO knives in her hands. The officer made the fastest draw I've ever seen and told her to drop the knives. She did, which was fortunate for her. I've been confronted by "patients" who pulled knives on me with no police on scene.
In everyone one of those cases the patients went to the hospital and the rest of us went home at the end of our shifts. In everyone of those cases, except the one where there were no police, the police could have shot the knife wielding people, but were able to control them without shooting. Under slightly different circumstances, the officers might have shot and been justified in doing so.
Any speculation by anyone that wasn't there that the police shouldn't have shot is just plain stupid. Especially by someone who has no knowledge of either EMS or police work.
You want to fix that? Good, so do I. Tell me where to start and let's get going.