While being homeless is not a crime, police officers need to know how to handle a situation properly when they are facing a homeless person. “The Seattle Police Department uses community service officers (CSOs) to handle many of the homeless-related situations.” It is basically their job to help homeless people seek shelters, or send them to a drug or alcohol rehab program. I think that having community service officers in the departments are beneficial but I also believe that every officer should have appropriate training on how to handle homeless people or mentally ill people. If I was dealing with a homeless person and I can see that they have issues with drugs or alcohol I wouldn’t want to hurt the individual. In order to be a good representation of my police department and the city, I would do the right thing and I would want to assist them with finding a shelter or an alcohol/drug treatment program. Some homeless people actually commit crimes on purpose so they can be arrested, and then get sent to jail or prison where they will be provided with a bed and food. …show more content…
As stated in Chapter 8, “Police officers exercise great discretion in handling the mentally ill.” If I was an officer, I wouldn’t want to use force on a homeless or mentally ill person unless I absolutely have to and if they have a weapon or are behaving in an aggressive manner. “Mentally ill persons are also much more likely to be the victims of crime and, therefore, are more likely to come to the attention of the police.” Serial killers choose their victims before they kill them and mentally ill people can be an easy target for serial
In the past few years, there have been some tragic outcomes for police cases involving individuals with a mental illness. Before the Sammy Yatim case, there have been cases involving; Michael Eligon, Sylvia Klibingaitis, Robert Dziekanski, and Paul Boyd. Each of these individuals posed a threat to the community and each also had a mental illness, and initially shot by a police officer. A recent case that has been raising awareness for police shootings resulting death involving an individual with a mental illness is the Sammy Yatim case. As like the other related cases, Yatim had a mental illness and posed a threat to the community.
What happened that they ended living on the streets? ... When I decided to major in Social Work I had a passion to learn, help and work with the homeless. But, then I realize that is not only “helping” it’s providing them with the proper resources that they need assistance with and also making sure they want the assistance. Many of the homeless who live in the street suffer from addictions and mental disorders which can probably be one of the reasons why is somewhat difficult to help them.
So what is a city supposed to do when some homeless people reject available shelter and services and insist on camping on public property? That 's the issue Denver has faced since last fall near the downtown Samaritan House shelter, and officials demonstrated a great deal of patience in trying to resolve the problem without moving against the camps themselves. But the problem did not subside.
Another reason to not criminalize the homeless is all of the costs associated with criminalizing them. Many do not stop and think of all of the costs that come along with laws against the homeless. Not to mention the costs when the laws become stricter and are enforced more heavily. According to Scott Keyes, a writer for thinkprocess.org, “When you consider all the associated costs of criminalizing homelessness — court fees, judges’ time, officers’ time, money spent jailing people, not to mention all the associated medical costs of keeping people on the streets — it makes little financial sense for cities to continue passing these types of ordinances”(Keyes). This quote is just an outline of what the costs are, it does not actually tell you how
The problem city officials have with this belief is, homeless shelters have enough room and there is no reason why the homeless individuals should be out on the street. City officials in Denver even store confiscated belongings for thirty days allowing the owner to retrieve them. Denver is trying to reduce their homeless rate, but have an issue with getting homeless to go into the shelter either because they have an issue with the with rules on drug use or they have personal preference. Nevertheless, Denver officials are going to continue in their effort to reduce the city’s
There are so many mentally ill people in correctional facilities because most families do not know how to help their loves ones who suffer from a mental illness, so the call the police for help. Majority of the police officers do not know what to do or how to handle people with a mental illness disease. Police officers who are not trained to deal with the mentally ill often do not recognize that person is ill. Some police officers do not recognize if the individual should or not go to jail or a treatment center or medical facility. The impact of law enforcement and the judicial system dealing with people with a mental illness is to assist the inmates with the help they need.
Therefore, we shouldn't judge the behavior of the homeless to let them access homeless shelters. In short, the opposing argument that only well-behaved people should enter homeless shelters is flawed because many people have made mistakes in life. In short, we should help the homeless by: giving homeless people a voice, giving homeless people access to homeless shelters without being judged on their behavior, and supporting the non-profit organizations that want to end homelessness. Also, the opposing argument that only well-behaved homeless people should be able to access homeless shelters is flawed because many people make mistakes in their life. Finally, we should put an end to homelessness using these great, effective
Sometimes people that are mentally ill do not realize they are unstable and do things they wouldn’t normally do if they were in a right frame of mind. This is where I will use a pathos approach and try to make them understand by making this an emotional argument. Showing current issues with weapons and the needless deaths, such as the reporter and her camera man, killed just recently. This could appeal to the reader’s emotional response to the
I agree with this statement. However, I do not solely blame the criminal for their actions due to their mental illness. Creating stricter gun laws, expanding mental health awareness
Mentally ill are more susceptible to police brutality due to police officers not having the training to be able to handle situations. Every department should have the proper training to be able to handle every situation they
Without a place to stay at night, the homeless have to sleep in parks or in other residential areas where they get criminalized for “loitering”. Overcrowding can be seen as the root of the problem in the criminalization of the homeless; the homeless find themselves in parks or in public bathrooms where they get criminalized for supposed illegal activity. Furthermore the numbers of the homeless are growing because of the loss of jobs and homes; reported by Bobbie Ibarra from Huffington Post. Ibarra says how today people become homeless when they suddenly fall behind in their rent or mortgage payments due to a medical or economic emergency, and find themselves unable to catch up because wages today are often not sufficient to meet basic needs. With the homeless population growing increasingly and shelters being overcrowded it leaves very few options for the homeless.
In all fairness, I had those same ideas too. Many people have driven or walked past a group of homeless people and ignored them or gone out of their way to not make contact. It’s just part of our culture. Homeless people are shunned and looked down upon. Over time, the word homeless has taken on a very negative connotation, and those labels such as, criminal, lazy and addict have taken over our perception of who homeless people are.
Like everyone else, homeless have the right in choosing their life style. The way the homeless live could have impacted the decision in forcing them into
If they really need help. I rather buy them food instead of just handing out money so they can go buy drugs or alcohol so they can drink. In this day of age, you can’t tell who 's homeless and who’s a panhandler because they dress the part and everyone is a liar sad and honest truth. you can say one experience ruined it for me. Panhandlers are like the bubonic plague its growing and growing and running the economy and its spreading fast.
The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S.