Jonah Neal, 25, had a handgun and was threatening suicide. Instead of local police, federal agents arrived at her doorstep. Within minutes of entering her home, a special agent had shot her son, Neal said. It would be hours before she found out her son was dead, she added.
The agent was with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which operates under Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HSI was sent to Memphis as part of a crime-fighting task force composed of roughly 350 federal agents and 1,450 members of the Tennessee National Guard, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. It began last fall at the direction of President Trump and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
At least five people — including Jonah Neal in May — have been shot by a member of the Memphis Safe Task Force. …
…
In its only press release regarding Jonah Neal’s death, which was released in May, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said members of the task force encountered him “with multiple weapons inside the residence.” 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.”
In their first public interview since Jonah Neal died, his mother and his grandmother, Cindy Leachman Aldridge, told NPR it’s difficult to believe that a gunshot did not play a role in his death. They are asking to see any body-camera footage from that night.
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?