All right. I'm going to talk a bit about the police, and something I've seen of late. Strap in, folks, it's gonna be a thread.

BIPOC are excused, this is (as with many things) a problem caused primarily by white people.

White people...we gotta talk about you calling the cops.

We've heard a lot about #DefundThePolice of late, how they're tasked with far too many things they are objectively bad at, and so on. This is all true.

But we've also got to face the fact that one of the reasons for this is that we, as a race, call them WAY too easily.

Now, as a neurodiverse disabled person, I feel this a bit more keenly than most of the people I know and grew up with. We're often taught, as young white folks, to call the police "Just In Case" or whatnot.

This behavior is literally killing people.

When we look at, for example, #ElijahMcClain 's case, we see police called on someone. (I don't know who the caller was, but I will bet you a crisp $20 bill that they were white.) The caller told the police that he didn't seem to be dangerous, but that he was 'suspicious'.

Well intentioned or not, this call had a direct and fatal result. Elijah was acting in a manner the caller found unusual, and he died for it.

So here's my point. When you are calling the police, ESPECIALLY (but not exclusively) when you are doing so about a BIPOC...

...you need to ask yourself a question. "Is what's happening, right now, worth their death?"

If the answer is no, put down the phone. That simple. Someone being weird, but not dangerous is not a reason to call several men with firearms to deal with it.

Similarly, when something is going on that DOES need immediate attention, we need to start reaching out to resources best equipped to handle it.

As someone who's had it happen, I can assure you: Calling police on a suicidal person is NOT a good idea.

I know you mean well. I get it. It's scary. And I'm not going into a tangent on mental health. But if you know a friend is hurting badly enough that they're considering harm to themselves, why do you think men with guns is a solution to that? (Hint: It isn't.)

Now, I do need to come clean, I don't have a nice easy list of resources tailor made to your area for such an occasion. If you think that you might need it, consider that homework. And if folks want to reply to this thread with ideas for things to check, that'd be good.

Some of these resources may not exist yet. One of the reasons we're shouting to #DefundThePolice is to fund some of these. Social workers with training for mental health interventions, for example. But as long as we call 911 on 'suspicious' but not dangerous people...

...we will be killing members of our community. It happens more than we realize. So please, before you reach for the phone, before you call men with guns to solve a problem, think for a minute about the alternative. About what happens if you don't.

Yes, it is possible that you might prevent a crime. A robbery, perhaps. Maybe even something worse. But the chances that you're stopping a murder are...very, very slim. Infinitesimal.

And if you call the police, especially on a BIPOC...you may be causing one.

And frankly, the odds of a BIPOC dying at the hands of police are a lot higher than the odds of you heroically stopping a murderer.

So, please. For all of our sakes. Unless the problem is truly one best solved by them...don't call men with guns. Men with guns solve very little.