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Toronto Police Service Reformation

www.vice.com

Canadian Cops Keep Killing People During Wellness and Mental Health Calls

At least five people have died during mental health calls or wellness checks by police since April. All five were Black, Indigenous, or people of colour.
www.vice.com www.vice.com

Moore was not the only person in Canada killed during wellness or mental health calls in recent months. There have been at least four cases since the spring. In all four, the dead were either Black or Indigenous—populations that are much more likely to have experienced trauma, receive inadequate mental health care, and experience violence from police officers.

On June 20, Peel Regional Police shot and killed a 62-year-old man with schizophrenia after his family had called a non-emergency line to say he was suffering from a mental health crisis. Ejaz Choudry, a father of four, died after police forced their way into his home where he had barricaded himself and shot him.

Khizar Shahzad, Choudry’s nephew, told the CBC Choudry's eldest daughter had called for an ambulance because her father was having an "episode." When the paramedics saw Choudry had a knife they called police, he said. Police shot Choudry five times in “cold blood” after promising to handle the situation “peacefully,” Shahzad said, and that the family’s offer to calm Choudry down was refused by police.

Choudry’s family maintain that Choudry was frail and harmless. "He could barely take three, four steps," said Hassan Choudry, another nephew. "You're telling me a 62-year-old man... who can barely breathe to begin with is going to run and attack you?" Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which is investigating the killing, said in a press release that police used a taser and non-lethal ammunition before firing lethal rounds at Choudry.

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A CBC investigation found that of the 461 uses of deadly force by police from 2001 to 2017 over 70 percent of the victims suffered from mental health and substance abuse problems. The study found that per capita Indigenous and Black people are “overwhelmingly overrepresented” in police killings.

“We have a system where the police are ill-equipped,” said Notisha Massaquoi, a social worker who is also co-chair of Toronto Police Services Board’s anti-racism advisory panel. “They are not trained effectively to engage with the public, particularly those who are having a mental health crisis.”

While not all wellness checks involve someone with mental health issues, a large portion of them do. Experts say limited training doesn’t give police the tools to discern between those suffering from mental illness and those, for example, who are frightened because they are being harassed.

But because of shrinking budgets for mental health programs, police have become de facto front-line mental health workers. According to a report by the Canadian Mental Health Association in 2018, Canada spent 7.3 percent of its health care budget on mental health whereas the U.K. spent almost double that at 13 percent. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto reports that mental health programs in Ontario alone are underfunded by $1.5 billion.
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AlbertC said:
www.vice.com

Canadian Cops Keep Killing People During Wellness and Mental Health Calls

At least five people have died during mental health calls or wellness checks by police since April. All five were Black, Indigenous, or people of colour.
www.vice.com www.vice.com
Click to expand...
Nice try Vice, but this is disingenuous.

“...over 70 percent of the victims suffered from mental health and substance abuse problems.“

Someone strung out on drugs is not the same as someone suffering from mental illness. The former is a voluntary state, and if you purposely put yourself into A hallucinogenic condition and then go violent, yes the police are going to put you down. That’s not the same as a mentally ill person waving a small hammer or stapler.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Nice try Vice, but this is disingenuous.

“...over 70 percent of the victims suffered from mental health and substance abuse problems.“

Someone strung out on drugs is not the same as someone suffering from mental illness. The former is a voluntary state, and if you purposely put yourself into A hallucinogenic condition and then go violent, yes the police are going to put you down. That’s not the same as a mentally ill person waving a small hammer or stapler.
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You think someone strung out on drugs is justification for being "put down"? Holy proportionality batman.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
You think someone strung out on drugs is justification for being "put down"? Holy proportionality batman.
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No, but if the druggie gets shot because he was waving a knife at police I’m less inclined to immediately feel the police were unjustified than this seemingly parade of mentally ill people being shot.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Would you say the same thing about someone who is drunk?

AoD
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IDK. My cousin-in-law was DUI and killed a person. Had police shot him, that victim would still be alive. Drunk drivers are in the realm of pedophiles and rapists in my book, the scum of society that the world is better off without.
 
Admiral Beez said:
A lot of this can apply to Toronto Police, including union obstruction to reform.

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Oliver is a hack and his videos are full of gaping holes all the time.

Best we stop looking to comedians to direct policy and be an answer to our problems.

I can see why as post 2016 our leaders, in general, have come so useless though.
 
Jasmine18 said:
Oliver is a hack and his videos are full of gaping holes all the time.

Best we stop looking to comedians to direct policy and be an answer to our problems.

I can see why as post 2016 our leaders, in general, have come so useless though.
Click to expand...
John Oliver certainly is a comedian (and quite a good one too) but most of his 'investigative pieces' are actually very good and very accurate. Of course, he cannot deal with every fine detail in a 15 minute 'expose" (and 'hard cases make bad law') but he does a very good job of exposing problems and informing 'ordinary people'. of significant problem areas. (Pharmaceuticals, health care bills, police etc etc.) I do not think he intends (nor can) "direct policy" but he can, and does, bring many problems to our attention. It's then up to us to decide if policy needs to be changed.
 
DSC said:
John Oliver certainly is a comedian (and quite a good one too) but most of his 'investigative pieces' are actually very good and very accurate. Of course, he cannot deal with every fine detail in a 15 minute 'expose" (and 'hard cases make bad law') but he does a very good job of exposing problems and informing 'ordinary people'. of significant problem areas. (Pharmaceuticals, health care bills, police etc etc.) I do not think he intends (nor can) "direct policy" but he can, and does, bring many problems to our attention. It's then up to us to decide if policy needs to be changed.
Click to expand...


I agree its good to bring awareness but he always fail to see a lot of the actual grey side in issues.

If everything was so easy to solve that a comedian can spell it out then a lot of issues would likely be fixed XD
 
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