The very idea that the police would return to the house without cause or warrant and search it - which is a grotesque constitutional violation - reflects an attitude of hostility and opposition to the community the police are supposed to literally "protect and serve."<p>I'm increasingly of the belief that the domestic police in the United States shouldn't even be called a force, they should be called a service. They should not carry firearms, and they should not receive primarily military training. They should be well paid and receive aggressive financial incentives to continue their education. They should always be wearing a body cam when on duty.<p>There will always be a need for armed police at some point, but that point is not the streets, and not daily response to mundane events.
The real problem here is that these cops were not immediately arrested for home invasion and the abuse of his Constitutional rights. Why is this limited to a civil suit? These cops acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally and should be criminally charged.
One thing not discussed yet here is that it also appears to me the National Suicide Hotline isn't even handling their calls correctly.<p>I'm clearly no suicide prevention expert, but questioning the caller on drug use, repeatedly demanding to put weapons (that are not even present) away, then calling a militant police force upon no response, shows that the Hotline isn't really being the sympathetic role they were initially intended to be.<p>As bad as this situation has been for veterans, it brings to light how poorly (IMO) they are handling citizens reaching out for help as well.
Nice to see the courts doing the right thing here... While I feel that most Police Officers are mostly good, and that a lot of the anti-police rhetoric exceeds reasonable; I do believe it's become a systemic issue wrt Police organizations exceeding their positions and violating the rights of the people they are meant to serve.
Very sad that someone calling with PTSD did not get help, but the opposite. 4th amendment violations happen all the time. It's good to see justice done here, the system worked (eventually). The upshot of this story is not so much that the police messed up, as occasionally happens with treagic result -- it is that veterans still are not getting quality care.
Having mental health problems is dangerous. Once again it shows that you must not let the state know in any way, shape or form, or else you can expect that they take rights away from you.
the article fails to clarify this, but the number for the Veterans' Crisis Line and the National Suicide Hotline are the same (1-800-273-8255). When you call that number, you are prompted to press 1 to be redirected to the veterans line. In this case, Mr. Corrigan likely missed the prompt and got sent to the suicide hotline - a not uncommon experience for veterans.
This is hard to read. I volunteer at a crisis center, and just reading the description of how the phone volunteer handled the call made me cringe. In my experience, you don't call the cops just because they call the suicide hotline and have guns - I've experienced instances where callers call and <i>aren't</i> suicidal. I'd need a clear sense of intent before going out of my way to do that. I really hope this was just a one-off thing, and not at all how volunteers (if they are volunteers at all) treat callers on the suicide hotline.
I read through this article and was shocked at the level of expectation for constitutional violation built into the police departments "standard operating procedures." Happy to see the court wasn't having it, and hope this trend continues to clamp down on this department and others who believe or behave similarly.
News story from 2012: <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/guns/2012/may/23/miller-iraq-vet-brutalized-over-guns-dc/" rel="nofollow">http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/guns/2012/may/23/miller-...</a>
Well this is nice to read. I have PTSD, and attempted suicide three weeks ago. I was having a big problem last night and almost rang the same number. I'm glad that I didn't. So next time I'll probably just get into a bag, or jump from a higher place than last time.
This is why it's a terrible idea in the US to tell anyone about your problems, especially mental problems. Help is <i>NOT</i> out there unless you're extremely lucky and rich. Most likely, there are a bunch of goons like in this article waiting to pick you up, beat you up, and drop you off at the nearest jail. That's if they don't just kill you outright.<p>And the uninformed still wonder why we have so many problems with mental health and suicide in the US, a place where seeking help--even by accident--is likely to make things worse or even lead to death.
wait. even though the veteran was suicidal, it's that he used the wrong phone number? i'm confused.<p>veterans go though a unique form of stress. and they get seperate medical care etc, which I hear is not always that great.