I wrote a piece for the Washington Post on Sunday that turned out much differently from what I had intended to write. A man with mental illness was fatally shot by a Fairfax County police officer. The police were looking for him because he was suspected of taking flowers from a planter outside an area shop.
I decided to use this horrific incident to explain how important it is for the police to get Crisis Intervention Training, which teaches officers how to handle persons with mental disorders with a minimum of force.
But as I began investigating the shooting, I had another thought – and I also got upset.
Why is it that when we hear about someone with a mental illness being shot by the police, we assume that the shooting victim was acting oddly, was dangerous, and that the shooting was probably his own fault?
In this incidence, the man’s mental health diagnosis was not revealed until the day after the shooting. I suspect that as soon as the words ”mental illness” were linked to this case, the shooting turned from “Why would the police shoot someone for taking a handful of flowers” to “Oh, the guy was crazy so he must have had it coming.”
This is wrong and it is stigmatizing. No one should assume that just because a person has a mental illness, that he or she is out of control. My son, Mike, has a mental illness, but when he is taking his medication, he is absolutely fine.
The Fairfax County prosecutor has decided against filing charges against the police. I wonder if he would have filed charges if the deceased had not been labeled as a “mentally ill man.” I wonder if our community would have been more outraged?
You can read the OP ED here.
