A mother holds picture
of son with a mental illness
fatally shot by police

My friends have an adult son who suffers from a mental illness. Sadly, my wife and I know the trials of parents in this situation. My friends have made numerous attempts to get their son help with his illness. However, due to the mental health system and the nature of the illness they have been unable to do so. Our deceased son was taken to jail or the mental health center a number of times by police officers. Once I asked my friend, the mother, why she did not commit her son or call the police when he was out of control. She answered by saying she was afraid that if the police came they would kill her son. I thought that was an unusual response since the mother was very familiar with the mental health system and knew of the training the police used to go through how to deal with persons with mental illnesses.

The training is called Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). It is a training program developed in a number of U.S. states to help police officers react appropriately to situations involving mental illness or developmental disability. When I first heard about it the police chief in Milwaukee was a major supporter and wanted every police officer to have this training. Shortly afterwards we got a new police chief and I started to hear about more and more reports of shootings by police of persons with mental illnesses. When I checked into the program I discovered that the new police chief is not a supporter of the program but rather has invested police resources into what is called “data driven policing.” (Personally I call this a code name for the New Jim Crow). The local paper reports that we only have about 20% of police with CIT training and when calls come in about persons with mental health breakdowns they are often not called to the scene.

Yesterday on the TV news I heard about how a mother called the police on her adult son when he was having a mental health breakdown so he could be taken to the mental health facility. She went outside with her grandchild and when four police arrived they called her son out of the house and, according to her, after uttering a few words fired many bullets at him. Fortunately he did not die and is in the hospital. The police claimed that her son had a rifle in his hand when he came out of the house and that is why they shot him. She was a witness to the event and claims he did not have a rifle when he came out of the house and she does not understand why they fire multiple shots at him. The newspaper this morning only reported the police version the store that the police were justified in shooting him. Since police shootings of individuals in Milwaukee are always justified by the police and DA we probably will never know what really happened.

However, now I understand why my friend will not call the police on her son although he has no gun. She does not want police to kill him as often happens when police not trained how to deal with persons with mental illnesses respond. Calling the police for help with your ill son and than watching him being shot by the police is a mother’s worst nightmare.

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