Episode Description
On this episode of Our American Stories, Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph shares vivid, compelling stories of one constant struggle for police, and for communities: The care and safety of those with mental health battles.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Dian Joseph is a law enforcement consultant, author, and active
senior lead officer the downtown Los Angeles skid Row Community.
He's here to share another story with us. Here's Dion.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The one thing that I was never able to really
get a handle on. We were able to reduce crime
forty percent, reduce death thirty three percent, wonderful, wonderful achievements
that we all engaged in, But one thing we couldn't
fix was mental illness. Mental illness will forever be the
challenge of our lifetime in my opinion. As a matter
(00:53):
of fact, I think it's about the third or maybe
half of the homeless problem.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Really, if you're thinking about it realistic.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
We all know that in America, our solution to quote
unquote helping them mentally ill was to close down the asylums,
and then they sued, so nothing like it, even a
better version of it, could ever come back. So now
you kick people out into the streets and the name
of similar butityia, you're free sprinkle pills on them and
tell them by okay, come check on me everyw week,
(01:22):
come check in every two weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Never happened.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Some of these individuals fell into the loving arms of
family members, loved ones you know, who.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Tried to help them. Others, too.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Many of the others ended up in places like skid row,
and when they came to skied roll, they would throw
away their prescribe medication because it made them feel down,
It made them feel lethargic, and in skid row you
got to be ready for everything, so they throw that
away or sell it to make enough money to buy
the hard stuff, the crack, the meth, the marijuana and
all this other stuff. And being mentally ill is not
(01:55):
a crime. I've stated this. Any police officer you talked
to will tell you. Being paranoise gets a Frannick is
not a crime. Being bipolar is not a crime. Being
depressed is not a crime. But when those things meet heroin, crack, methamphetamines,
fetanyl spice, and yes, even marijuana, it could have disastrous consequences.
And that's when they become a police problem. That's when
no mental health professional was going to approach them. When
(02:17):
they're in an agitated state of delirium, slap boxing with
city buses and they're underwearing and wearing red sox. You
know that's not going to happen no matter what the
rhetoric is today, they're gonna call us first, because what
do you do when it's not just paranoia? What do
you do when there's a chemical buffer between you and
the crisis?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And that was the issue.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So there were so many mentally ill individuals who lost
their lives in scitro. Some I ended up developing relationships
with one named Linda. Her nickname was the Hurricane. She
saw me as her little brother, and I was her protector.
And you know, I remember I discovered she wasn't homeless
because her family would come from Pacoima and pick her
up and try to clean her up. And one day,
(02:58):
my wife and I are driving to a party. This big,
ugly van pulls up next to us and she sticks
her head head out the window, wig flies, all false
teeth comes out.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Through a hits for window. Hey, robo, God and the
brother it's.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Me because my wife never believed my story, but she
was a believer that day, and it was Linda. She
had been picked up by her family and they try
to love her back to health. But she would often
escape because of her addiction dual diagnosis. Okay, another friend
of mine, he was from the LBGTQ community, and he
was often bullied because he would wear daisy dukes.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
But I like the guy. He was a cool cat.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
But of course when he was a high it was
like a doctor jeck O, mister Heide effect.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And I'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
He was bullied by the gangsters in the park and
they bloodied his lip, and of course he was too
afraid to fight them. So he comes around the corner
and his mental his crisis kicks in and he wants
to fight me. And I said, hey, it's me, Ricky,
it's me. You don't want these kind of problems, Okay,
you don't want these hands, Ricky, So calm down. And
he would try to calm down, and then he walked
(04:01):
away from me and tried to take his aggressions out
on a pregnant woman. And I grabbed him before he
could harmor wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him.
And I thought, for sure, they're going to place this
guy on the hold. For sure, it's going to be
more than seventy two hours. For sure, it's going to
be about two weeks. Nope, he was out in about
six hours if I remember correctly. And a month later
(04:25):
he finally decided to stand up for himself when a
parole started attacking him because of the clothes he was wearing,
and the parole stabbed him in the heart.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
He was in.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The hospital for about six weeks before he finally passed away.
And I always ask these questions to the public, you know,
because they always want to blame us when things fall apart.
Whose fault is it? Was it our fault or was
it the system? It was a system, because the way
the system is set up, the law enforcement is always
going to be the tip of the spear until we
actually changed the mental health system and bring some common
(04:57):
sense mechanisms back in place, like, for instance, instead of
three days seventy two hours, it should be six weeks.
And the reason why is it takes about four to
six weeks for most of their medication for them to
even benefit from the therapeutic attributes of their medication.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That's common sense, So.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Don't release them until that six weeks is up, so
it'll be in the habit of taking their medication. Also
during that six weeks, you know, you have to clean
them up before you can help them, because a lot
of them do what's called cleaning up. They'll go to
the hospital six hours later they'll say, hey, how are
you feeling, Oh, I'm fine. Why are they saying that
because they want to go out there and scratch their
chemical itch right Instead, get them clean first. Once you
(05:35):
got them clean, develop a report with them and find
out who their family members and loved ones are and
see if we can get them connected. And let's streamline
the process of conservatorships so that we can get their
family members to help them and just help them guide
them a little better. And even if that doesn't happen,
they'll be in a habit of taking their medication and
(05:55):
they won't fall off the wagon as long.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
But until that.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Happens, we're going to continue to see them countless tragedies
that I've seen every day. It's near and dear to
my heart because I have a niece who's mentally ill,
I have a nephew who's touched with a little mental illness.
I watched falster kids who are really struggling with it,
and I even mentor young men on a spectrum of autism.
I think about once or twice a year when I can,
(06:18):
and it's near and dear to my heart, and I
just wish somebody would listen to this street cop. I
don't have a dog in the fight. I'm not political.
I just want to tell you the truth from a
boots on a ground perspective. I'm not looking at it
from thirty thousand feet. I'm not some college professor who's
overly idealistic, who only sees one way.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know. I just want to tell you the truth
what's happening in the street.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And a terrific job on the editing, producing and story
editing by our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks
to Dion Joseph for sharing his story. And we all
know the problems of mental health, and it is indeed
one third to one half of the homeless problem in
this country is mental illness. And we don't have answers.
And if in any way our stories can lead to
(07:04):
those answers, well then we have helped do something good
for all of us, for all of our families, and
for those most harmed, and that's the mentally ill who
aren't properly treated and end up on the streets. Dean
Joseph's story, and in so many ways, the story of
cops across this country who deal with the things that
we don't want to deal with. Here on Our American Stories,
(07:32):
Leehabibe here the host of Our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this
great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
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(07:54):
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