The Defund the Police Movement Has Found their Replacement for Law Enforcement

Lies that police are unqualified to address mental illness will result in unnecessary injuries and deaths. These are attempts to undermine and delegitimize law enforcement institutions.

Apr 12, 2023

people walking on park during daytime — Photo by Chris Henry on Unsplash

I won’t bury the lede: I claim that the defund-the-police movement is using paraprofessionals and co-responders to usurp the traditional domain of law enforcement. Here is a quote from The American Prospect in an article on April 10, 2023, titled What Defunding the Police Actually Looks Like:

By shifting public resources to more effective and less risky response systems, cities and historically marginalized groups are finding power to create their own community alternatives to policing, as well as demanding that systems take their needs seriously.

I welcome public safety partnerships.

Public safety partnerships between law enforcement, victim service organizations and behavioral health professionals are a great thing. I’ve worked strenuously to strengthen the bonds between law enforcement and the victim services community, who identify mental illness as a root cause of crime, violence, substance abuse, disorder, and homelessness.

I unintentionally hurt the feelings of a victim advocate when I discussed what the limits should be on the proposed co-responder model. In the case in Lancaster, PA, I personally know gun-toting badge-wearing friends I love who would likely be injured, or worse, by a madman charging them with a knife.

The co-responder model is faulty. It is portrayed as a superior replacement for police on mental health calls with many leaders promoted it knowing it to be completely false. The most ‘successful’ model I was associated with involved a minimum of three marked cars before the sergeant in an unmarked car brought the behavioral health professional on scene. Touted as a success, it’s never economically viable and not touching the bases on the original complaints of police first contact.

Share American Peace Officer Substack

Police executives abandoned their officers.

From 2014 to 2020, two thirds of the professional police organizations began the process of assigning guilt to the rank and file. They perpetuated the myth of tragedy free policing described by Thomas J. Lemmer:

“It is a worldview that the police must proceed without taking any action that could cause harm, without using force and without ever making a mistake.”

However, the cases that shaped national opinion bore no resemblance to any situation where a better outcome would have involved an unarmed crisis interventionist. In every case, there would be the very real expectation of great bodily harm or death of the social worker.

This article was also partially inspired by the Paterson (NJ) Healing Collective and their IRS recognized umbrella non-profit Reimagining Justice, Inc. The 501 (c)(3) receives millions of taxpayer dollars as an activist organization with goals to address the issues that, according to their website on March 27:

“… have led to mass incarceration and the disruption of the economic and holistic growth of black and brown communities. The mission of Reimagining Justice Inc. has been to highlight the importance of addressing violence by using evidence-based models such as Hospital based violence intervention programs, crisis intervention, public health models and transformative justice models.”

The Reimagining Justice website is currently down.

As I mentioned in my previous article:

The person in crisis was the (7x 911) caller, Najee Seabrooks who “was wielding multiple knives, set a fire inside the apartment, broke water pipes, hit one officer with a porcelain toilet cover and sprayed a chemical-like substance in another cop’s face.” Seabrooks also intoned that he was armed with a gun.
Seabrooks was a community crisis intervention specialist with the Paterson Healing Collective, a hospital-based gun violence initiative where gun violence harming black and brown communities is declared a public health crisis.
Liz Chowdhury, director of the Collective, complained in a profanity salted press conference that Seabrooks would be alive today had her team of crisis intervention specialists (like Seabrooks) superseded the police crisis negotiators. However, they texted and called him from outside the cordon to further corrupt the police process.

Following negotiations with a barricaded gunman standoff for more than four hours, Seabrooks charged out of the bathroom, knife in hand and officers were forced to shoot him.

The negative fallout resulted in the New Jersey Attorney General taking over the City of Paterson Police Department and in the same speech, announcing funding for a police-behavioral health specialist co-responder program to assist with crisis intervention.

man in black and white checkered dress shirt sitting on black office rolling chair — Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

2020: Media Focused Cases

There were either three or four tragic officer-involved deaths within six months of individuals in crisis in 2020. That began the fictional narrative that law enforcement officers lack the training and talents to address properly and safely the mentally ill in crisis. The irony is that not one of these cases would never have ever been assigned to even the most robust unarmed civilian response teams. Also, it is clearly proven that illicit drugs are the driving factor in two and strongly suspect in a third.

Let’s take a brief look at them:

March 23, 2020 – Daniel Prude – Rochester, NY

Rochester officers responded to a call made by the family of Daniel Prude. Their concern was that he was acting bizarre and running the streets naked in very cold weather. Prude violently resisted the officers and spit on them. To manage him in custody, they put a ‘spit hood’ which is designed let him breathe but makes intentional spitting ineffective. Prude passed out and was treated by EMS. He died about a week later. Toxicology identified PCP in his system but his cause of death was stated to be positional asphyxia related to excited delirium.

(New York) Attorney General Letitia James, whose office took over the investigation, said her office had “presented the strongest case possible” to the grand jury, but couldn’t persuade it that the officers had committed a crime.

Lawyers for the seven police officers suspended over Prude’s death have said the officers were strictly following their training that night, employing a restraining technique known as “segmenting.” They claimed Prude’s use of PCP, which caused irrational behavior, was “the root cause” of his death.

April 21, 2020 - Nicolas Chavez – Houston, TX

According to CNN: The incident started with several 911 calls about an apparently emotionally disturbed man jumping in front of cars and entering backyards.

In a report from Fox 26 at the time: they tried tasers and discharging beanbags, but the man began charging toward them. After trying other non-lethal ways of stopping him, the suspect was shot and killed. He was not identified but is described as a Hispanic male, 27, who had just been released from jail, according to his mother.

Drugs were involved: Acevedo [then police chief] said toxicology tests revealed Chavez had methamphetamine, amphetamine and ethanol in his system when he died.

September 13, 2020 - Ricardo Munoz - Lancaster, PA

Family members called the police to their residence for a domestic disturbance when Ricardo Munoz had a psychotic episode. As soon as the officer arrived on the scene, Munoz ran out the door with a knife above his head toward. The officer retreated and fatally shot him. Body camera video, linked below, shows the encounter lasted five seconds.

Lancaster Police were the target of demonstrators who quickly became violent protestors throwing rocks and bottles and setting things on fire. This is the only case where there was more evidence of mental illness than substance abuse.

October 26, 2020 - Walter Wallace, Jr. Philadelphia, PA

Officers responded for the third time that day, at the family’s request and neighbors 911 calls as Wallace became violent.Wallace was a Door Dash driver whose vehicle had been missing for several days. During my career I was occasionally flagged down by people who were trying to find their missing or lost (but not stolen) car. According to news reports : “Guns were a central theme as he rhymed about shooting people, including police. His videos also included songs about social causes and police injustice.” Wallace was out on bond when he was shot for threatening to shoot a woman and blow her house up.

Immediately on arrival on scene and first contact with the family, officers were charged by the suspect brandishing a knife. At gunpoint he was commanded to back off and drop the knife but continued to move toward the officers brandishing his weapon. Officers fired killing Wallace about 12 seconds after first contact. Links to body camera detailing the entire encounter are listed in the references.

Thousands of people protested Wallace’s death peacefully. Thousands of people also rioted for days engaged in arson, looting grocery stores, shoe stores plus blowing up at least 24 ATMs.

broken car covered with flame — Photo by Flavio Gasperini on Unsplash

Considerations moving forward.

Understand that the media made these cases national stories. For the most part, crime stories stay local within their own media market. These law enforcement stories had the legs to create outrage and unrest and came equipped with shocking visuals to hit the national wire.

Statistics touted by the activists trying to dismantle law enforcement acknowledge that no groups have more experience in dealing with people in behavioral health crisis than law enforcement and corrections. Police and the jails have numerous CIT officers, and in some cases such as large universities, the entire department is trained.

When you need a police officer, you need a police officer.

Close examination of these cases, including the one in Paterson, indicate substance abuse may have been the pivotal factor - not behavioral health or mental illness, in four of the five deadly force encounters.

Lastly, consider that we need to look at all future policing ‘tragedies’ comparing them to the textbook checklist of Fentanyl intoxication and other substances attributed to psychotic episodes.

Keep all our officers in your prayers.