Police Beat: Sunday Oct 16

Re: “Police Beat: A toy bat, drunken shots fired, and a shirtless man in traffic” (TNT, 10/15)

I can’t stop thinking about one of the stories in Police Beat last Sunday. It said a man was causing a ruckus at the St Joe’s Emergency Room and was asked to leave.

He did leave, but then he came back with a child’s foam baseball bat and continued to cause a commotion, make threats, etc. He said he wanted to hurt people.

The police were called, and it was determined the man had been at Western State Hospital multiple times; he clearly had mental health issues.

The police ended up taking him to jail. What is wrong with St. Joe’s Hospital? The man was clearly having a mental health breakdown and went to the hospital for help. No, he didn’t behave appropriately, he was having a breakdown. Doesn’t St Joe’s have a staff mental health provider? The man went to the right place for help and didn’t get it.

Instead, he was treated like a criminal and taken to jail.

This story was originally published October 19, 2016 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Police Beat: Sunday Oct 16."