There has been an update in the Milton Hall case. Milton Hall was the homeless mentally ill African-American who was shot to death by Saginaw police after threatening them with a knife. You might say it's Michigan's Trayvon Marvin case.
There were six officers involved in the shooting. Forty-seven bullets were fired with only 11 of them (11!) striking Mr. Hall. Two of the officers were "written up" and one was demoted. Was that justice? I'm not sure. I do think that there needs to be an overhaul of the Saginaw police department and how they handle such cases but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. Because it's not cost effective.
Much has been made about the racial aspects of this case. Yet in another Michigan town (Saline) a similar standoff occurred between a knife-wielding mentally ill man and police with a similar result but it didn't make national news because everyone involved was white. There were no national leaders coming to protest.
I submit the real issue in the Milton Hall case isn't race but economics. Milton Hall died, first and foremost, because he threatened officers with a knife. That is undisputed. But Milton Hall also died because society says that people like him (regardless of color) are not worth investing social capital in. I know it is easy to Monday-morning quarterback but there are a lot of things the Saginaw police could have done differently.
Police departments are not trained to deal with people with mental problems or even people on the spectrum. Come on folks, that takes time and money. Both are in short supply. It is not economically worth it--or at least our society says it is not--to provide such training. It is also not economically worth it to provide safe places for mentally ill people to live where they are not on the streets. Once we had such places but they were shut down because of abuses. It's easier to shut things down and dump people on the street and pat ourselves on the back for doing a good deed than it is to reform the system. Some people cannot cope with living in society. They need to have safe and humane places to live. But that takes money. It takes effort. And it doesn't really pay off. There's no economic reward in it. That's why many of the old institutions were hell-holes and why so many nursing homes today are in the same shape. We get what we are willing to pay for and invest in.
The reason I say that the Milton Hall case is about economics and not race is because Milton Hall had no worth to society while he was alive. It is only because he is dead that he is worth something now. The man who was shot by cops in another town doesn't even have that. Notice I did not mention his name. It's because I don't know it. Imagine, dying in such a fashion and nobody even knows your name, just that guy who was shot by the cops? So that guy didn't even have the worth Milton Hall had in death.
We like to think of everyone as being equal but as George Orwell pointed out, "some are more equal than others." Investors only like to invest where they can get results. Who wants to invest in the life of a mentally ill person or a person on the spectrum? Why bother? That is why special ed students are routinely shortchanged. They aren't considered as valuable. There are others who it makes much more sense to spend scarce resources on. The best and the brightest. The ones who have the advantage. Education. training and health care are means of social investment. And where we spend our money, who or what we choose to invest in, shows what we really value.
I submit that if Mr. Hall had been a highly skilled, highly educated person his fate would have been much different. But poor people are a dime a dozen. I consider Mr. Hall's death a travesty but not for the reasons Reverends Sharpton and Jackson feel. And I don't think their coming to Saginaw will change anything. If anything it might make the police warier of answering certain types of calls.
There were six officers involved in the shooting. Forty-seven bullets were fired with only 11 of them (11!) striking Mr. Hall. Two of the officers were "written up" and one was demoted. Was that justice? I'm not sure. I do think that there needs to be an overhaul of the Saginaw police department and how they handle such cases but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. Because it's not cost effective.
Much has been made about the racial aspects of this case. Yet in another Michigan town (Saline) a similar standoff occurred between a knife-wielding mentally ill man and police with a similar result but it didn't make national news because everyone involved was white. There were no national leaders coming to protest.
I submit the real issue in the Milton Hall case isn't race but economics. Milton Hall died, first and foremost, because he threatened officers with a knife. That is undisputed. But Milton Hall also died because society says that people like him (regardless of color) are not worth investing social capital in. I know it is easy to Monday-morning quarterback but there are a lot of things the Saginaw police could have done differently.
Police departments are not trained to deal with people with mental problems or even people on the spectrum. Come on folks, that takes time and money. Both are in short supply. It is not economically worth it--or at least our society says it is not--to provide such training. It is also not economically worth it to provide safe places for mentally ill people to live where they are not on the streets. Once we had such places but they were shut down because of abuses. It's easier to shut things down and dump people on the street and pat ourselves on the back for doing a good deed than it is to reform the system. Some people cannot cope with living in society. They need to have safe and humane places to live. But that takes money. It takes effort. And it doesn't really pay off. There's no economic reward in it. That's why many of the old institutions were hell-holes and why so many nursing homes today are in the same shape. We get what we are willing to pay for and invest in.
The reason I say that the Milton Hall case is about economics and not race is because Milton Hall had no worth to society while he was alive. It is only because he is dead that he is worth something now. The man who was shot by cops in another town doesn't even have that. Notice I did not mention his name. It's because I don't know it. Imagine, dying in such a fashion and nobody even knows your name, just that guy who was shot by the cops? So that guy didn't even have the worth Milton Hall had in death.
We like to think of everyone as being equal but as George Orwell pointed out, "some are more equal than others." Investors only like to invest where they can get results. Who wants to invest in the life of a mentally ill person or a person on the spectrum? Why bother? That is why special ed students are routinely shortchanged. They aren't considered as valuable. There are others who it makes much more sense to spend scarce resources on. The best and the brightest. The ones who have the advantage. Education. training and health care are means of social investment. And where we spend our money, who or what we choose to invest in, shows what we really value.
I submit that if Mr. Hall had been a highly skilled, highly educated person his fate would have been much different. But poor people are a dime a dozen. I consider Mr. Hall's death a travesty but not for the reasons Reverends Sharpton and Jackson feel. And I don't think their coming to Saginaw will change anything. If anything it might make the police warier of answering certain types of calls.
