I’ve been a licensed middle health professional for nearly 15 years. I’ve had folks with mental illness threaten me countless times. Some threatened to hit me, some pulled knives. Some had guns and were crazy high on drugs.

But no one got shot. /1

“Our training tells us” a particular way to respond to situations. That training may not be appropriate for all situations. My training taught me how to talk to people in acute mental health emergencies, how to listen to their rambling and not shout at them or shoot them. /2

I appreciate our police and most of what they do. I’ve called them many times. When my karaoke neighbor’s drunk brother fired a gun during an argument, for example. I’ve also called them when facility policy requires it for mental health transport. Rarely went well. /3

What is exceeding clear is that our police are not equipped, in training nor any other way, to provide the kind of services we expect of them. You wouldn’t call a psychologist to be a cop; why do we expect the reverse to work? It’s nonsense. /4

I’m not saying we should defund the police, thought I certainly understand the sentiment of those who do. I am saying that if we spent half as much on social workers & therapists to work alongside law enforcement as we do on armored cars & bullets, maybe fewer folks would die. /5

And that’s the difficult truth. Our friends and neighbors are dying at the hands of the police - who are also our friends and neighbors. We all live here together. This is our #1OKC, right? And we’re shootings each other unnecessarily. Doesn’t have to be this way. /6

And to be clear, this is happening disproportionately to black & brown folks. I recognize that if it was me, a white dude, who had the mental health issue and ran from the police today, I very well might be alive. Nothing about the situation okay. Bennie should be alive. /7

I don’t know what it’s going to take to make change happen. More than this tweet thread, for sure.

OKC City Council elections are February 9th. Let’s start there. There’s a bunch of candidates - start asking them about this issue. https://www.okc.gov/departments/city-clerk/elections/upcoming-elections /end