My dad has schizoaffective disorder. During the hearing to make me his legal guardian he became very agitated and an armed officer came into the courtroom. This sent my dad into a rage. I was sitting behind my dad. https://twitter.com/npr/status/1318732010035216385

I gave the officer the mom looked and pointed for him to get out. He stood outside the door where my dad couldn’t see him. I talked my dad down. Cops are a trigger for many mentally ill people because they treat them like criminals.

Social workers and therapist are trained to do what I did. They have been threatened and physically assaulted. They know the danger. They face it without weapons. The same 911 operator who dispatched the social workers can just as easily dispatch the police if necessary.

Mentally ill people are people and deserve to be treated like anyone else with an illness. Diabetics can also become combative. They aren’t routinely thrown on the ground and handcuffed.

What we are doing isn’t working. Guns aren’t the answer to dealing with people who have a disease.