Sexual Assault Hotline, Children in Internment Camps, Mental Illness & the Police: 3 Stories You Should Read 10/1/2018
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In the category of: When trauma becomes mass healing.
National Sexual Assault Hotline Had Busiest Day In Its History After Kavanaugh Hearing
RAINN also reported a sharp increase in calls throughout Thursday, the day of Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh’s closely watched Senate testimony.
“History shows us that when high-profile allegations such as these are in the news it often causes others to reach out too. This story has clearly resonated with survivors, and has led thousands to reach out for help for the first time,” RAINN President Scott Berkowitz said in a statement. “Over this past year, following the cases of [Harvey] Weinstein and [Bill] Cosby and the explosion of #MeToo, our numbers have been growing pretty rapidly, but we’ve never seen anything like this before.”
In the category of: Just because we’re distracted doesn’t mean it’s not still happening.
Trump Administration Quietly Moves 1,600 Migrant Children To Texas Tent City: Report
The children have been relocated — mostly in the middle of the night without warning — from shelters and private foster care to Tornillo in the Texas desert.
More than 1,600 migrant children in U.S. custody have quietly been relocated in recent weeks from private foster homes and shelters to a barren tent city in the Texas desert, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
Most of the children were moved “under the cover of darkness” and with almost no prior warning, according to the paper. They were roused from sleep in the middle of the night so they would be “less likely to try to run away” and loaded onto buses bound for the sprawling tent city in Tornillo, a border town in El Paso County.
In the category of: Mostly likely to be killed by the police.
My Pain. Our Pain: Help Me Help the Mentally Ill Survive Police Interactions Without Being Killed
The police tell me to step away from her. I look into their eyes. Clearly, I speak. “This is my mother. Please do not hurt her. She’s sick.”
I wanted to humanize her. To let them know that she is loved. A grandmother. An elder in her mosque. To let them know that she is not a caricature and that they would have to go through me to get to her.
I say, “I don’t want her killed. I know how these things end.” Especially for black people, who are inherently, or perhaps tacitly, viewed as a threat. I look into their eyes. “This is my mother.”
I told them that I know the statistics—that more than 25 percent of those killed by police are in mental health crises. I know the names. Like Deborah Danner, the 66-year-old woman in the Bronx, who was killed in her house because she wielded a pair of scissors. Or 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier in Chicago, a kid home from college for his Thanksgiving break. He had a bat. His father called 911. Police shot him six times and killed his downstairs neighbor, Bettie Jones, a 53-year-old mother and grandmother, who just happened to get caught in the crossfire. Or 27-year-old Anthony Hill in Atlanta. A veteran who served in Afghanistan, in a mental health crisis who was naked, but still shot and killed by police. There’s 31-year-old Dontre Hamilton, who was shot 14 times; 30-year-old Charleena Lyles, who was shot in front of her children. Alfred Olango. Tanisha Anderson. Darell Richards.
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