In the aftermath of the killings we saw yesterday at Capitol Hill, let’s see what sort of discussions we have around mental health..This is the second incident we’ve had in two weeks involving someone with ‘mental health issues’.
But I caution us… our discussion on mental health should not be limited to this woman (Miriam Carey )who they said was suffering from postpartum depression and that she was a loner who kept top herself..Now some news agencies are reporting she fell down and hit her head a few years ago and that she was starting to change as a result..
Whatever the case, we need to have discussions about our collective mental health, especially after seeing and hearing folks who are obviously traumatized. It’s showing up in us cheer leading or being completely callous to one being killed.
I’ve heard one too many folks say things like “well if she rammed a police car she deserved to be shot“…or “everyone was on edge because of the mass shooting last week so its good the police shot her.. ”
When its made known she was unarmed and had a baby in the car, I’ve heard people say things like; “Oh well if the baby got shot it was the woman’s fault.. she shouldn’t have rammed the police car“..
When I hear ‘tough talk’ like this I can’t help wonder how shook some folks are that they will high-five a killing and not think about their indifference to the loss of life. Ideally we should be asking what led to this and will others suffering depression follow suit in some form or fashion?
Ideally our hearts should be going out to the child, a daughter who lost her mother..She joins the ranks of far too many Black and Brown kids who I come across in classrooms and workshops at young ages like 5 and 6 who all know someone in jail or has been killed. How will she be impacted years down the road?
We need to be mindful of the mental health challenges of those in media who were so eager or frightened to appease a demanding boss who wanted to be first on the scene with info, any info no matter how far-fetched vs being accurate…Whats their mental health that their conversation was around how to fan the flames of fear and mayhem vs healing..
Their initial reports were pretty assertive in noting that there was a ‘shooter‘ outside the Capitol and that people had been injured & as a result the police were doing a lock down.. As time went on we learned that the ‘shooter’ was a female with a baby in the back of her car..
Then news reports came out saying the female shooter had died.. Some outlets immediately contradicted those reports saying she was in the hospital and had not died said she hadn’t died..We saw endless interviews from the news agencies talking to people who talked about all the shooting they heard and how they had to duck and cover etc.. Some heard two bangs..Others heard more than 2 bangs. It was bang, bang bang.. Lots of shooting and lots of foaming at the mouth by eager, beager reporters..
Miriam Carey
As the smoke was clearing we then heard reports that the woman who at that time was still unidentified wasn’t a shooter at all.. but a ‘rammer’ She was said to be a Somalian woman who was ramming everyone, police cars, barricades, innocent bystanders, other cars. She was described as a mad woman on the loose.. Ram, ram, ram..
At every chance the media was ratching up the fear, so much so that one is left concluding that many in corporate media are ringleaders in what is shaping up to be the millennium version of the Roman Coliseum where we watch and cheer death being played out on live TV.
I keep hearing folks say the police were on edge? We’ll if they’re on edge because of last week’s mass shooting and now because they are furloughed, how is their mental well-being??Yes the news channels will be onto another news story and drumming up another crises, but like it or not we the killing of this woman is not something so easily dismissed.. If it is perhaps that’s the first indication that something is wrong….Say to yourself a thousand times today.. ‘I shall not cheer death.. I shall not cheer death, I shall not cheer death‘.. Hold on to your humanity..
I question the collusion between media and law enforcement in shaping this story. Listening to the reporting in real time, I was first led to believe that a shooter had rammed barricades at the White House and gotten into a shootout with law enforcement, perhaps killing two of them. Then pictures were shown of the car and it didn’t appear to have any damage to the front end indicating that it had rammed anything. The police chief, when asked about the injured officers, suggested they were near death–“breathing.”
As events became clearer to Twitter, CNN went into “defend the police” mode. Showing “proof” over and over that the driver of this car acted aggressively with her car and interviewing officials who praised law enforcement. Jake Tapper actually said that police may have thought that the driver was related to the Navy Yard Shooter–this as details were leaking out (not via TV news) that the driver was a black woman, surmised because an obviously black little girl was taken from the car.
The crypticness of the press conference made me wonder what law was trying to protect as they announced they wouldn’t talk about the suspect or the case in order to “preserve evidence.” They refused to announce the woman’s death, although it had been reported in print for two hours. They continued to suggest that this woman was shooting at them “shots were fired at multiple locations,” instead of stating that they were the ones doing the shooting. They boasted of “rescuing” the little girl, suggesting that she’d been kidnapped or held hostage. They claimed they didn’t know she was in the car, although video shows them surrounding the stopped car and looking inside. Clearly, they were disappointed not to find some kind of weapon to justify their killing this woman.
So today they gleefully report that the woman was taking medication for mental disorders. We do have unstable people in this country and some of them will act out in a moment of crisis. Does that justify killing them dead? No, they couldn’t have known what this woman was up to, true. But why not shoot out her tires when she was stopped at the barricades and they had surrounded the car.
And when exactly was she killed? Was she killed while driving, or after she had crashed?
There is something strange about this entire story and the defensive way it is being reported.
This is increasingly either the explanation or justification for the people associated with these kinds of events. Whether we say that this is just a justification for cops killing people, or an explanation for people killing cops and other people, the reality is that we are all crazy as hell. The numbers in the link I’ve attached to this just scratch the surface of the true number of people afflicted by mental illness.
Because of the stigma surrounding mental disorders, especially among certain demographics, it’s really hard to know the true number of sufferers. If we include dual diagnoses and other “masking conditions” such as alcoholism, substance abuse and combinations thereof, along with other behaviors which have yet to be recognized as mental disorders, those numbers would double, maybe even triple!
It is therefore hardly feasible to police these things and anybody who says things like “Well if she rammed a police car she deserved to be shot” or, “Everyone was on edge because of the mass shooting last week so its good the police shot her ” is simply showing their own insanity!
Mental illness requires preemptive approaches. That is the the most practical way to ease the sufferers before they nut up and blow shit and themselves up. Everyone of the police officers that shot that woman today could have been replaced prior to this tragedy by the right psychologists ten years ago. That’s my position and I’m sticking to it!
The truth is that something like 40% of prison inmates should actually have been treated for mental illness instead of being incarcerated. Clearly, more like 90% of inmates need to be treated for mental health issues after they leave prison showing that prison only makes crazy people crazier
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml
Looking on from a long way off (Sydney Australia) I can only say I endorse the points you are making DaveyD, especially this: “Say to yourself a thousand times today.. ‘I shall not cheer death.. I shall not cheer death, I shall not cheer death‘.. Hold on to your humanity.”
I’m sure the police at this point, all have PTSD, and most of the rest of us do too, to a greater or lesser extent. And if people aren’t on official psych meds they’re self medicating. And self medicating can include many things such as eating disorders, shopaholism, gambling, addiction to exercise and sex. There have been many reports of people in the House drinking alcohol while they’re keeping the rest of the country held hostage. Their behavior is obviously delusional. Thank you Davey D for hanging in there and pointing out some of the realities of our current situation and helping us stay awake.