When you're in an emergency situation the go-to response that we've had ingrained in us since kindergarten is to call 911. You do what you can to be safe and keep the situation under control, and hope they arrive fast. For some people in our country though, when first responders arrive on the scene the situation just might get worse. This was unfortunately what occurred Tuesday, September 27th when Alfred Olango's sister called the police because she was worried that her brother was "not acting like himself" as he was walking into traffic. Olango's family stated Thursday that he had been suffering from a mental breakdown due to the recent death of a friend. Shortly after police arrived at the scene Olango was shot and killed. Olango was unarmed, but cops have stated that he took a "shooting stance" after removing his hands from his pockets which is why they fired. This story is heartbreaking, his sister had called the police to help her brother, and they ended up shooting a distressed man who hadn't done anything wrong. Situations like these are a perfect example of how departments need to better train officers in dealing with people who have mental health issues and disabilities. There needs to be a focus on education and de-escalation instead of teaching officers that they need to be constantly afraid, which the current training does and results in an excessive use of force.

Even when Tawon Boyd called 911 on September 18th requesting an ambulance for himself because he was feeling disoriented he was restrained and beaten by the cops, punched multiple times in the face and neck area, and was pronounced dead three days later in the hospital. The family blames Boyd's wrongful death on the officers, but there are other pre-existing conditions that may have contributed to his death and we won't know the cause until the autopsy report comes back in a few weeks. Police arrived on the scene and interpreted the situation as a domestic dispute, Boyd and his girlfriend Deona Styron were screaming at each other, however at no point in the officers initial reports did they describe Boyd as a threat, yet they still ended up getting violent with him. Officers described Boyd as being "confused and paranoid" and it appears from the report that officers believed Boyd to be suffering from some kind of mental illness, yet the situation was escalated instead of trying to calm and treat Boyd.

Also, this September, four months after the death of Terrill Thomas in the Milwaukee Country jail his death has been ruled a homicide due to dehydration. Thomas had been arrested nine days earlier for allegedly shooting a man in the chest. He suffers from bipolar disorder and his family said he was in the midst of a mental breakdown at the time of his arrest. Even in cases where people may be rightfully arrested, this doesn't mean we can ignore their rights as soon as they are imprisoned. Officers at the jail shut of Thomas' water for six days according to inmates. Officers told them his water had been shut off because he had been trying to flood his previous cell. While this seems like a logical response, inmates primary source of water is from their faucet in their cell, and officers did not provide Thomas with a sufficient supply of water after turning the water in his cell off. Inmates also stated that they had heard Thomas begging for water days before he died from dehydration, but he was ignored by officers. These three stories are just a few big news one from this month, there are countless instances of police not knowing how to properly respond to people with mental health issues or disabilities. Almost half of people who die from an interaction with police have some kind of disability. That number is astounding, and shows us we need to focus police training on educating them on psychiatric disabilities and how to deal with people when they are having a breakdown instead of assuming they are a threat immediately. People of color are also more likely to suffer from police brutality so this issue goes hand and hand with the goals of Black Lives Matter, who wish to reform police training and the criminal justice system and hold officers accountable for their actions. The thought of a loved one being profiled or harmed by police because of the color of their skin or their mental state is terrifying and should encourage all of us to work towards these goals.