Does anyone see the irony in a behavior therapist being unable to diffuse the situation?
“Time for you to leave, Glasshopper.” —Kung Fu
“Does anyone see the irony in a behavior therapist being unable to diffuse the situation?”
Yes. Years of dealing with severely developmentally disabled and emotionally traumatized individuals did nothing to prepare him for an encounter with a paranoid and unpredictable person who was armed with a gun and a badge.
He did exactly what he could do in the circumstances. What is shown on the video is an appalling example of stupidity and brutality by the police, both before and after they shot a health care worker trying to take care of an autistic boy.
I hate to say this, but that kind of behavior is exactly what gets other police officers killed by irate, unhinged citizens. The behavior of the police shown on the video is only slightly less outrageous and uncalled for than the behavior of the crazy people shooting at police officers.
Any individual citizen doing what the police did would face attempted murder charges, as they too should. But most importantly other sane and intelligent law enforcement officers should reject that kind of behavior outright - and ensure their colleagues learn when to use deadly force and when not to.
A first step would be to change their policy so that they immediately provide first aid to anyone shot by the police - instead of leaving them on the ground bleeding. Particularly when they realize that they just shot somebody who they had no basis to shoot. Certainly the DA and the police would expect that an ordinary civilian would call for an ambulance and provide whatever first aid they could to someone they shot. They should do the same.
I work for a private residential treatment facility for
teenaged at-risk boys who are diagnosed as severely
emotionally disturbed. These kids meet daily in group
sessions and weekly in private with their therapist. The
therapists are not hostage negotiators. Unless they have
built a good relationship with their clients they have
very limited ability to talk the escalated client down
from a crisis event. In this instance the cops had no
knowledge of the therapist or if he, indeed, was a real
therapist so one cop relied on whatever training told
him to shoot first and ask questions later. I see no
irony here.