Over the years, the news has been full of stories about police officers who, in confronting someone who is mentally ill and behaving erratically, end up killing the individual. This appears to be what has happened in the case of Roberto Alpizar in Miami two days ago.
Roberto Alpizar & Kelly Buechner (source: Alpizar family)According to the [NY Times->http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/national/09plane.html?ex=1291784400&en=2ba08219ed0a5cd9&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss], air marshals claim Alpizar said he had a bomb. They claim they ordered him to drop to the ground numerous times. A Miami police official expanded:
Chief Willie Marshall, who leads the Miami-Dade criminal investigations unit, said Mr. Alpizar had run off the plane and, while on the passageway, reached into a bag that was “strapped to his chest.” That was when both air marshals opened fire with multiple shots, he said.
I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. But we must remember that the London police initially gave what seemed to be an airtight explanation of how they killed a Brazilian man in the aftermath of the subway terror bombing thinking he was another terrorist. Subsequently, almost all of the police’s contentions of what happened and why were shown to be false. I’m not saying this will happen in this case. But the media should dig hard into this story to keep the marshal service honest.
Have you noticed that only the marshals say they heard Alpizar say he had a bomb. The FBI would love to find a passenger who could corroborate this statement. But I understand that none have yet done so. Interesting also that the marshals say they gave him several opportunities to surrender speaking in Spanish and English. But can anyone else confirm what they’re claiming? The media says there is an investigation into what happened and whether the shooting was justified. Does anyone find it passing strange that Scott McClellan would prejudge the investigation by claiming that from everything he knows the marshals did their job properly and the system worked as it should? Maybe someone would like to tell the guy to shut up until the professionals have rendered their opinion?!
I also want to make a plea that police agencies get more training in understanding mental illness and how to treat a mentally ill individual in a potentially threatening situation. I remember watching horrifying TV footage of a deranged Seattle man walking down the street waving a knife as he was trailed by Seattle police officers. A few seconds afterward he was killed in a hail of bullets. Though again I wasn’t there and didn’t see what transpired (other than what I could see on the video), I didn’t see the man threaten anyone with bodily injury. Yes, he was waving a potentially lethal weapon. But I didn’t see lethal intent nor did I see an officer in jeopardy. I don’t believe any officer was charged in that case.
I wonder whether this might also be the case in the Alpizar incident. Behaving erratically? Yes. But there’s a big leap from erratic behavior to deciding a man is a terrorist and must be killed. I wonder whether these marshals were justified in making that leap? It would seem to me that when the police announce that he wasn’t taking his medication for bipolar disorder that they’re looking for ways to justify the shooting. But just because someone who’s mentally ill isn’t taking their meds, does that justify killing them?
[The Times-> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/national/09marshals.html/partner/rssnyt] also features an article today on precisely this issue of air marshals’ lack of proper training to confront mental illness in the skies. The article is NOT reassuring as this mental health advocate confirms:
One problem–Mary T. Zdanowicz, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, which lobbies on behalf of people with mental illness–said, is that a common tactic of law enforcement officers is the wrong one to use with the mentally ill.
“Typically when they are trying to subdue someone whose behavior is escalating, they pump themselves up, make themselves big, get in their face and try to overpower them,” she said. “That kind of behavior will more often lead a person with mental illness to get worse.”
After Wednesday’s shooting, the National Alliance on Mental Illness called on the Air Marshal Service and other law enforcement agencies to review their training to determine if it is adequate. In August 2004, the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found various deficiencies in the air marshal program, including inadequate background checks on the flood of new officers. Training problems were also cited, although they did not involve lack of instruction in detecting mental illness.
If these training problems are not addressed then there will be more mentally ill killed in the air. There is a big problem in this country with the public’s lack of understanding of mental illness and how to treat it. Most of us rarely meet the mentally ill. We don’t know how to act toward them when we do meet them. They frighten us. I’m sure the same is true of police officers. I’m afraid that the result of this ignorance and misunderstanding is all too often the lethal result we witnessed in Miami.
