Wife and I just drove past what looked to be a drunk or high unhoused person stumbling around next to the road in broad daylight. He was laying down sleeping earlier. My wife wants to call the police so he doesn’t stumble into the road and get hurt. But my take is that the police are just going to come arrest him for public intox or a drug charge and then he’ll get let out tomorrow. It doesn’t help him. So what would you do?
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When you have a problem, call the cops. Now you have two problems!
The job of the police is not to provide medical assistance, it is to put him in jail, which will make his situation infinitely worse.
And how the hell do you know that he’s intoxicated? He could be mentally ill or have a head injury or it could be for one of a dozen other reasons. It’s pretty arrogant and bigoted to assume that he’s intoxicated.
My advice is to mind your own goddamn business. But if you just can’t help yourselves, maybe do the person a favor and actually call an ambulance if your intention is to actually help them rather than make their situation worse.
and actually call an ambulance
If you do that to someone in the USA, you’re just giving them a multi-thousand dollar bill.
I agree with all this person says but really had hopes they’d state it with less aggression.
Leave them be sadly is usually the best choice. There is no help available quite often. At best, if you think it’s a medical problem, an ambulance.
Cops are for crimes and nothing else. Only when people are in real danger. Otherwise they’re the danger and it is your fault for calling them.
Kind like Chemo therapy. Poison you use when desperate in an attempt to kill the problem. Only to be used when neccesary and sparingly.
See if a program like “Cahoots” or a similar crisis response program exists in your area too. If it does they may be able to help
At best, if you think it’s a medical problem, an ambulance.
That’s putting a lot of faith in the 911 dispatcher to send EMS instead of police.
Yeah, if this is the US, it’s not like you get to choose the response as the caller/complainant. PSAPs are generally police-oriented, with Fire/EMS as separate and secondary call screeners. It varies by PSAP. Some are even private contractors. Regardless, if someone calls 911 and there’s an iota of suspicion about risk to responders, the police are going to engage first.
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Do you know for sure that you don’t have an outreach team? Some cities are doing that.
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Cops outside America aren’t necessarily the same.
We had a cop doing CPR on an OD in a tent and he came-to and stabbed her.
She died.
She died saving the life of a person afflicted with addiction and homelessness, who killed her.
I’d leave him alone. If he’s fucked up he chose to get fucked up. He could find a shelter and some assistance if he wanted to but most homeless people don’t want the rules that come with assistance or housing.
Several disease conditions including fatal low blood sugar levels mimic being “fucked up” and you can’t know with out at least asking.
“ He chose to get fucked up”
Interesting way to describe addiction
The cops almost certainly aren’t going to help him, you could try to stop and connect him with some resources that might help but be prepared for an uphill battle the guy might not appreciate.
Ignore it and advocate for better infrastructure. Bro was probably trying his best to get somewhere, but walking was his only option.
My city has a crisis team that responds to calls that do not require an armed officer. I would probably call the non-emergency line to request they come out and intervene.
