NAACP urges changes to Berkeley mental health services. This kind of request by non-white people to white police does not recognize the racist environment that we are operating in. So, it's usefuleness is limited until the issue of white supremacy is dealt with. Mao Tse-Tung said, "it is well known that when you do anything, unless you understand its actual circumstances, its nature and its relations to other things, you will not know the laws governing it, or know how to do it, or be able to do it well." [MORE] Here, in a white supremacy system it is pathological to expect white people to treat non-whites humanely or to otherwise rely on moral suasion to solve problems with white people. [MORE].

In photo Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan at press conference after several detectives worked overtime to find his son's allegedly stolen iPhone in October 2012. [MORE]

From [HERE] and [HERE] Just before midnight on Feb. 12, Kayla Xavier Moore’s roommate dialed 911. Moore, 41, a paranoid schizophrenic, was off her prescription meds and highly agitated. The roommate thought he knew the drill – Moore would be taken to a psychiatric hospital, stabilised with medication and allowed to go home in 72 hours.

That’s not what happened. Finding Moore had an outstanding $10,000 warrant from San Francisco, Berkeley police decided to take her to jail. When they tried to handcuff her, Moore, who was also African American and transgender, resisted – and died. The coroner said Moore died from obesity, drugs and cardiovascular disease.

On March 13th, 2013 Black teenager, Jeremy Carter was brutally arrested by members of the Berkley Police Department. [MORE] 

Moore’s family blames the police. Which is a reasonable accusation considering the facts that she died after a violent struggle with at least three cops who were beating on her in a small space. The cops apparently ended up on top of her and restrained her with 2 sets of handcuffs and ankle straps. Minutes after the struggle she stopped breathing - coroner missed that? To the extent that you might be dealing with a racist coroner - get an independent autopsy done. 

Thus far no lawsuit has been filed, no criminal charges were filed against cops and after being briefly put on administrative leave following the incident, the officers have since returned to work. [MORE]

According to police, Moore's roommate said in the 911 call that there were no weapons in the house, but that Moore had been known to pick up kitchen knives and threaten to use them. He said that Moore was diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder. [MORE]

Moore was not creating a disturbance and presented no threat, her sister Maria Moore told the community at a meeting on the incident. "Berkeley was well aware of Xavier's issues," "I don't know the circumstances that happened that night, but mental health wasn't there for him. They needed that aspect to help calm him down, to help communicate with him. You’re dealing with someone who’s paranoid, who trusts no one, and you have the police there?"[MORE]

Officer Brown “made the decision to physically restrain Moore for a 5150 evaluation and the $10,000 warrant.” She tells Moore that she would be going to the police department. She was unresponsive to my verbal commands.

“Moore’s behavior became increasingly aggressive,” Brown continued. “I signaled to Officer Tu to go hands on and assist me in placing Moore in handcuffs. Officer Tu grabbed Moore’s left wrist. I simultaneously grabbed Moore’s right wrist, in an attempt to apply a control hold and put the handcuffs on. Moore immediately started yelling, ‘No, No!’ He attempted to pull away. Officer Tu and I maintained our grasps. Moore continue to violently pull away. While doing so, he pulled Officer Tu and me into his apartment. We all fell on a mattress that was on the floor, against the east wall.

“At the same time,” she continued, “I noticed a BMA [black male adult], later identified as witness Sterling, in the apartment. For officer safety reasons, I ordered him out of the apartment. Officer Tu and I continued struggling to restrain Moore who was violently resisting. I ordered him to stop. There was no compliance.”

Sterling’s witness statement: “The scuffle started outside the doorway and then continued inside the apartment. Xavier wasn’t being cooperative with the police at all. The officers kept telling Xavier to ‘stop resisting’ but he wouldn’t. He kept resisting and speaking jibberish. Officer Brown told me to wait outside, so I left the apartment quickly and waited outside. I was worried that Xavier was going to freak out and attack me too as I was trying to get out.”

Officers Mathis, Gardner and Kastmiller arrive at the apartment. Brown and Tu had managed to get one hand cuffed, and with assistance from the other officers, are able to cuff the other wrist. Because of Moore’s size, nearly 350 pounds, two sets of cuffs were used.

After being handcuffed, according to Tu, Moore “continued to scream and kick,” so the other officers used the ankle strap of a WRAP device to secure his ankles. “Moore continued resisting for a short period of time before appearing to calm down,” Tu wrote in his statement. Once he calmed, we rolled him onto his side, and Officer Brown confirmed that he was breathing and had a pulse.”

About a minute later, Brown said that Moore was no longer breathing and no longer had a pulse. Berkeley Fire Department is called with a Code 3. “We immediately removed the handcuffs, laid him on his back and began CPR,” Brown wrote.

NAACP

Berkeley City Council will consider making modifications to the city’s mental health services after it discusses recommendations from a Berkeley NAACP study at a work session Tuesday.

The report, which was released this summer, concluded that a number of changes need to be made to city policies and departments in order to improve mental health services and ensure equal treatment and support for minority groups.

There is evidence, the report said, that black mental health patients receive inappropriate treatment, noting that the city should hire more black and Latino health professionals to mitigate the problem.

Among the NAACP’s recommendations discussed at the City Council meeting earlier this week was a suggestion to implement a policy of “nonpolice involvement” in mental health cases, except in life-threatening matters. [MORE]