I want to talk about the last time the police came to my house, because I think it can help illuminate what dismantling the police and replacing them with a more constructive way of providing public safety means, at least to me. 1/21
In April, my friend Jesse was leaving my house after a game of tennis. At this moment, a guy neither of us knew started coming into my house. He seemed quite out of it. 2/21
We stopped him from coming inside, and got him to sit on my front steps instead. I got him a glass of water, and then another. I’ll call him “L.” We asked him where he was staying, who we could call for him, what his last name was. He couldn’t tell us. 3/21
He did not seem to have any awareness of the COVID crisis, repeatedly offering to shake our hands. It was going to snow that night, and he was dressed in a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. I gave him one of my towels, just for warmth. 4/21
We couldn’t tell what was happening: was he intoxicated? Suffering a mental health crisis? A vulnerable adult? Some combination of these? It was really unclear, but what was clear was that he needed help that we couldn’t provide. 5/21
So I called Hennepin Cty COPE. I was explicit that L was not threatening & I did not want a police response. The person I talked to really wanted to help. She tried to get L to talk to her, but he couldn’t really say much. I translated his body language to “yeses” and “nos.” 6/21
Eventually, it was clear that we needed someone to come help. The COPE person asked L if he was comfortable having an ambulance called. He nodded, and I said yes. So she called 911. She passed on to them that I did NOT want a police response. 7/22
But after she got off the phone with 911, she let me know that the initial response was likely to be MPD anyway. And that’s what happened. 8/22
A squad pulled up to my house in under ten minutes. I greeted them at the curb, with my hands out and above my head, making the sign for “calm down,” sort of a gentle pushing of my hands towards the earth. I was terrified, on L’s behalf. 9/22
The officers hardly spoke to me, or to Jesse. They approached L, and asked him if he’d come with them. We asked what they were going to do, an they said they were going to have a “private conversation” with L in the squad car. 10/22
Their attitude was dismissive and hostile throughout this interaction. Rather than treating Jesse and me as people who were trying to work with them to help L, and keep our community safe, they treated us with borderline contempt. 11/22
After going to the car for a “private conversation,” they sat in it for about a minute, and then they simply drove away, without another word to us. 12/22
It took me several days to get a clear answer from someone in the police department about what had happened to L. Had he been taken to the hospital? To some other place where he could get help? To jail? Somewhere else? 13/22
Turns out they asked him where he wanted to be dropped off. He said 38th & Minnehaha (again: he was nearly nonverbal, so I doubt how clearly he could articulate this). They took him there and let him out. In a t-shirt, with my towel as a shawl, just before the snow. 14/22
We did not need police to come to my home to help with this situation. We did not need a couple of white guys with guns, who don’t live in my community and clearly don’t like or respect any of us, me included.
We needed some kind of actual help for L. 15/22
We needed some kind of actual help for L. 15/22
I wasn’t hoping that L would be moved off of my stoop to some other place. I was hoping that he would get some sort of meaningful help. 16/22
I want to be able to call 911 and ask for someone to come and help me. Someone I have confidence *will* actually help me, and everyone involved. Someone I don’t have to worry will shove, or hit, or taze, or shoot anyone involved. 17/22
I want an infrastructure behind this immediate response, which can help people get what they need: housing, food, mental health resources, drug treatment, etc. 18/22
If there was a fire in my home, I’d call 911 and ask for firefighters. I’d have confidence that they’d come and put out the fire. If I was having a heart attack, I’d call 911 and ask for EMTs. I’d have confidence that they’d come and get me to a hospital. 19/22
When there is a strange man on my front stoop who can hardly speak, who clearly needs some kind of help, I want to have someone to call who will actually do something constructive about it. I have no confidence that the police can be made into that kind of organization. 20/22
So let’s build something else. Let’s give the people of our city another option to ask for, when we call 911. A group of people without guns, tasers, or any other weapons, who care more about compassion than control. 21/22
In the short term, maybe we need an armed force, to respond to bank robbers or shootings in progress. But let’s shrink them down just to that function, and use the resources we save to build a new way of responding to people like L. 22/22
