Police shoot and kill autistic boy in his home

[stevenleser]

33. I had a college English professor who had been a police officer. SHe had interesting comments

on situations like these. She was 70 years old and had been a police officer in her 20s. My college days were in the late 80s so we are talking about law enforcement in the 1930s.

She said when they had someone brandishing a knife who was either elderly demented or appearing otherwise not in their right mind, all police officers had a large thick blanket they used to carry in the trunk of their cars. They would outsmart the person such that they wrapped them up in the blanket immobilizing their arms and then they would take them to the psychiatric emergency room for evaluation and treatment.

She said that there is almost never a reason for the police to shoot a person with a knife who is in mental distress like that.

The issue came up for discussion because in 1987 in the NYC metro area, police shot and killed an obese elderly black woman who came at them with a knife. She said that would not have happened in her time.