Thread by @owasow, Studies find ”between one-third and one-half of total police killings each year [...]

Studies find ”between one-third and one-half of total police killings each year are of people with disabilities or of people who are experiencing episodes of mental illness.” https://time.com/5857438/police-violence-black-disabled/

Black and Disabled People at Risk in Police Encounters

Encountering police during a mental-health crisis should not be 'a death sentence,' advocates say

https://time.com/5857438/police-violence-black-disabled/

In March, Daniel Prude was having a mental health crisis. His brother placed a call for help. A group of police officers ”put a hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement for two minutes.” Days later he died of asphyxiation. https://apnews.com/5c2f0cf366e560b7f41ebb3c964b099c?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP

Video in Black man's suffocation shows cops put hood on him

A Black man who had run naked through the streets of a western New York city died of asphyxiation after a group of police officers put a hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement...

https://apnews.com/5c2f0cf366e560b7f41ebb3c964b099c?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP

Good alternatives exist: a program in Eugene, OR ”pairs a crisis worker & a medic, who form a team dispatched by the 911 system to calls that normally would be routed to police or firefighters. It fields about 20% of all calls to 911 & non-emergency line.” https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2020/08/eugenes-alternative-to-policing-would-go-national-under-bill-to-provide-medicaid-funding-for-similar-programs-nationwide.html

Eugene’s alternative program to policing, Cahoots, would go national under bill

Cahoots fields about 20% of calls to 911 and the non-emergency line. Only about 10% of Cahoots responses require help from the police or other public safety agencies.

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2020/08/eugenes-alternative-to-policing-would-go-national-under-bill-to-provide-medicaid-funding-for-similar-programs-nationwide.html

“The tools that I carry are my training. I carry my de-escalation training, my crisis training, a knowledge of our local resources and how to appropriately apply them. I don't have any weapons and I’ve never found that I needed them.” https://www.npr.org/2020/06/10/874339977/cahoots-how-social-workers-and-police-share-responsibilities-in-eugene-oregon

'CAHOOTS': How Social Workers And Police Share Responsibilities In Eugene, Oregon

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with crisis workers at the White Bird Clinic in Eugene, Ore., about their Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets program as an alternative to police intervention.

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/10/874339977/cahoots-how-social-workers-and-police-share-responsibilities-in-eugene-oregon

For more on how #BlackLivesMatter

is also a disability issue, see this thread by @notanastronomer: https://twitter.com/notanastronomer/status/1270469699441049600?s=20

https://twitter.com/notanastronomer/status/1270469699441049600?s=20

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