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| St Loius cop strikes mentally-ill man with baton |
By Davy V.
Like I always say... Think twice before calling police.
Because many times, calling the police is calling in another problem.
Take, for instance, a family of a mentally-ill man named Mario Crump, who called St. Louis Police for help when their loved one began acting erratic.
Crump is a client of Independence Center, a St. Louis, Missouri organization which assists individuals with mental illness.
The disturbing video of the incident, which took place on March 22nd, but is just now gaining attention, after being posted on the internet, shows two St. Louis cops beating Crump, who is sitting in a chair, as one officer repeatedly strikes Crump with his department issued collapsible baton, while yelling at the African-American mentally-ill man "Put your fucking hands behind your back motherfucker!"
The second officer can be seen punching Crump.
Mike Keller, executive director of Independence Center says that the video shows there is a need for more training for more police officers, when of comes to dealing with mentally-ill and emotionally disturbed persons.
Keller said that police need more Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), to know how to distinguish criminal behavior or conduct from a person whose behavior is caused by mental illness.
“I want to give the police whom I have an affinity for the benefit of the doubt, but that video was soul-scarring,” said Keller.
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| St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson |
St. Louis Police department Chief Sam Dotson maintains that almost half of his approx. 1,200 officers are CIT certified.
Really?
What a coincidence Chief... I guess these two officers just happen to be from the approximately 600 officers who are not trained to deal with mentally-ill persons?
Chief Dotson said he has started an internal investigation.
Of course, in typical textbook cop damage control, Chief Dotson stopped short of taking accountability for his two thugs in uniform who beat a mentally-ill man, and instead seemed to be more interested in passing the blame on society.
“Certainly I want to make this a teachable moment,” Dotson said. “But we also have to understand that society, with cutbacks in the mental health field, have really left individuals kind of in an area of limbo.”
Way to go Chief.
Blame society for your thugs' actions.
So much for you wanting to make this a teachable moment.
Note: Despite having received countless baton strikes and punches, Mario Crump was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
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