More Police Problems

Today's national news story about Maplewood and St. Louis City police officers beating a man, complete with video, illustrates another situation where the police appear misinformed about how to handle suspects. While the man may not be mentally ill, as the victim discussed in a previous posting, he appears to be a victim of over reaction by the police. Can't we train our police officers better? We desperately need them, but don't we need them to be better informed?

I am most disturbed by an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1/22/06 describing the shooting and killing of a schizophrenic man by a police officer. Despite the man's obvious mental illness, the police officer is not being charged with any crime. I wonder how often this happens in Missouri, and I plan to research it. Why aren't our police officers trained to handle those with mental illness?