Police need psych patient training

Police need psych patient training - Queensland - BrisbaneTimes

The way society cares for its most vulnerable is a reflection of now "civil" that society is.

The goal of "civilisation" is an assumption of progress. The banishment of such evil arts as slavery is progressive. We still hear of horrible shootings, enslavements, drug crimes and other forms of marginalisation of the human quality, but we let them pass by us as though they were mere fiction.

"Real" criminals make up a small percentage of the population.

People come in many shades of personality. If we draw a line and say one group of humans are "stable" and marginalise a few as "unstable" - it would seem to sort out the good from the bad, the stable from the unstable, the trustworthy from the fiend. It is not like that, however, and the skill it takes to identify and differentiate between a dangerous situation and one that can be easily controlled is a primary skill in the armory of a guardian.

TV cops have all the intellect of great writers to provide a fiction that makes us expect most police to be extremely intelligent, loyal and trustworthy individuals. Recent exposures of the fallibility and "corruption" of the police seem to point to a culture that is unable insensitive to the concerns of the community at large, let alone able to calm down a schizophrenic or even an average human being in a panic.

Real cops have a far greater responsibility to the weakest in our society. If they do not protect and serve, as their primary function, if they are only assessed on how many arrests they achieve, then they are being managed by bean counters.

Real police become able to rescue sleeping kittens from tall trees without waking them if required, or arrest a violent offender before he attacks a pedestrian. Measure makes it a force for the betterment of the community.

Tasers risk the life of the accused. Since they have not been found guilty by a court,

Tasers are effectively torture as they inflect severe pain upon "the accused", who instantly become "the victim". To do battle with violence, it is important not to admire it.