Charlotte. Baton Rouge. Tulsa. Minneapolis. Los Angeles. Ferguson.
The violence explodes on your television set. You seethe.
“This is 2016 — not 1968. Does the U.S. now stand for ‘Under Siege?”’ you fume.
Your anger is righteous. Racism is prevalent in the United States. And, yes, there are racially tinged police officers infecting American police forces.
But is your anger misplaced? Amidst the over-the-top headlines and screaming protests, a fundamental question remains: What can be done to soothe the mounting bitterness between distrustful African-Americans and a predominantly white police force?
In a multifaceted issue replete with racial and socio-economic implications, one issue has been consistently overlooked: mental illness. Half of those killed during encounters with the police every year in the United States battle mental illness.
Mental illness haunted Ezell Ford. Ford, diagnosed with depressionand bipolar disorder, was walking in a crime-infested Los Angeles neighborhood. A seemingly innocuous exchange between the unarmed Ford and two Los Angeles Police Department officers turned deadly. Angelenos smoldered, demanding accountability for systematic police violence in African-American neighborhoods.
[For more of this story, written by Matthew Loeb, go to http://psychcentral.com/blog/a...ractices-antagonize/]
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