It happened over and over when I was answering 911 psych calls. We'd have someone having a crisis talked down and ready to go to the hospital and the cops would barge in, take over, and spin everything up again.
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
229 points (99.1% liked)
News
38360 readers
2450 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.
Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.
7. No duplicate posts.
If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.
All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Federal Government: You think you can kill yourself? Oh fuck no, that's our goddamn job.
If a loved one was threatening suicide, the last people I would call are the police. It seems like involving the police only increases the chances of your loved one dying.
Especially if those police that turn up are ICE agents
I totally agree, but a lot of people don't understand the function of the police. I feel bad that they called people they thought would help and this is the position they ended up in. This is a great example of why we need to fund different types of first responders.
You can call your local fire station and they will come out and help.
I'm really excited that Durham where I live has a new program called HEART where you can dispatch non-police first responders. One time I was at a library down town and someone came in from one of the rent controlled housing areas down the street and asked them to call someone, or call 911, and they said "do you want us to call police, or call HEART?" So the person said HEART and someone came and talked with them about what was going on
I don't know what they were dealing with or what they needed help with, but it makes me happy that there are more tools in our community's toolbox now, because when all you have is a man with a gun, every social issue looks like criminals doing something nefarious who you must shoot. We need people who can engage with the social issues folks are facing
we need to fund different types of first responders.
Absolutely.
I work in 911 dispatch, I like to think I have my head on more or less straight, but a lot of my coworkers are bootlickers
A few years ago when the BLM protests were in full swing and there was a lot of "defund the police" talk going around. I remember one of my coworkers was complaining about that
I pointed out how many fucking calls we get for things that aren't police issues that we end up having to send cops out to because that's basically the only tool in our box, and how if we funded some of those instead of the police it would free them (and us) up to handle actual emergencies
Of course basically none of them wanted to hear that.
And it's not just mental health issues, it's animal control, road and utilities maintenance, legal advice, code enforcement, homeless outreach, non-emergency healthcare, etc.
Hell, half of the "disturbances" (fights) I get are just verbal arguments between two emotionally-stunted adults who really need a middle school guidance counselor to go out and tell them to take a couple deep breaths and use their fucking inside voices.
And I would love to be able to hook people up with some of those services instead of sending a couple armed cops out to not really do anything useful about the problem.
And instead it seems like half the departments in my county have built a new police station since then.
I think I heard it best said thus; When you see a situation, like an unhoused person having a mental health crisis, ask yourself is a 25 year-old with a gun and little training beyond using the gun really the best that we can do for this situation?
the problem is they don't call the police. they call 911. in a sudden emergency where you don't have time to look up an approriate help thing you call 911. there is 311 but they are just geared for information and are not ready to send somone right away. This is why so many cities are looking to replace many police calls with people trained to be interveners. The defund the police thing gets some people hot under the collar but most people who really know get that its more about shifting some of their work and funding to an agency that is better setup to handle non criminal matters.
They get fucking retarded as soon as there is mention of a firearm. I get they have to be alert but fucking calm down.
ACAB
- Busts through the door, firing 15 shots into your kids and dog*
"DO YOU STILL FEEL SUICIDAL MOTHER FUCKER!?!?"
Mental health crisis are not criminal incidents. Stop sending cops to lead the handling of these moments. FFS, America has zero empathy or compassion.
According to US Law Enforcement logic, Empathy and Sympathy makes you a domestic terrorist
American people have plenty of empathy and compassion, what they don't have is literally anyone else to call.
If you have an emergency, you call 911 and as soon as they hear the word "gun" cops are the only outcome. Maybe in some universe a person has some foresight in case of a suicidal person with a gun and can look up local resources or something, but until we have something built into emergency services for this, panicked people are going to do the one thing they can think of when someone needs help.
Americans do, but America doesn't.
So this "task force" is just ICE agents wearing a different mask - and by the looks of it the same amount of gun discipline too.
Fuck ICE, and fuck whoever sent them there in place of a mental health specialist.
Nobody ever made a song called "Fuck the Mental Health Specialist".
No no, don't get it mixed up. ICE specializes in brutalizing and murdering minorities, immigrants, and foreigners. Federal Agents are generalists that will brutalize and murder anyone.
Maybe, but this task force is formed from, and this agent a member of "Homeland Security Investigations (HIS)"...
And want to guess who's in charge of HIS?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka. ICE.
So in this instance they are just ICE with a different mask on.
ICE gets a call like this and they're like "Awesome! I haven't shot anyone in 2 days!"
The TBI added, "At this time, it is not immediately clear whether Neal died as a result of the agent firing upon him or if it was self-inflicted stab wounds."
Yeah, gunshot wounds and stab wounds are notoriously difficult to tell apart 🙄
This isn't news anymore in America. This is normal.
that will teach him to try suicidin on our watch!