brutality grandmother—demonstrating officer

VIOLENCE INSTEAD OF TREATMENT: POLICEKILLINGS OF BLACK WOMEN IN MENTALHEALTH CRISISIn the absence of adequate mental health resources for the vast majority of Black communities, lawenforcement officers often serve as the first and only responders to mental health crises experiencedby Black women. Police officers, however, are not mental health professionals, and often lack the skillsand training necessary to handle these situations. This lack of training, compounded with a takecharge-at-all-costsattitude on the part of some officers, has led to the loss of life of those whom thepolice were called to serve. In several tragic instances, police officers have perceived Black womenwho are experiencing mental health crises as dangerous or as individuals who possess “superhuman”strength no matter how vulnerable, fragile, or in distress they might be. Instead of offering the compassionatesupport these women needed, police criminalized them and responded with deadly force.Tanisha AndersonNovember 13, 2014 / Cleveland, Ohiowouldn’t know anything was wrong with her.” 43Johnson indicated that despite media narratives,Anderson was not violent, and that it wasthe behavior of the police in isolating her fromher family that made her panic.Michelle CusseauxAugust 13, 2014 / Phoenix, Arizona18The family of 37-year-old Tanisha Andersonreached out for assistance to calm their daughterduring a mental health crisis. Anderson grewincreasingly agitated when the police separatedher from her family and attempted to place herin the confined space of the police vehicle. Duringthe struggle, a police officer performed a“takedown” move on her, slamming her againstthe concrete sidewalk. He placed his knee on herback and handcuffed her as she lay face-downon the pavement. The officers refused to allowAnderson’s family to comfort her as she lay dyingand exposed on the snow-covered street.She was pronounced dead upon arrival at thehospital. The Cuyahoga County medical examinerruled her death a homicide. 42 Anderson’sfamily has filed a wrongful death lawsuit againstthe City of Cleveland and two of its police officers.Anderson suffered from bipolar disorder,but her mother, Cassandra Johnson, explainedthat as long as she was on her medication, “youPolice shot Michelle Cusseaux to death in her homewhile they were attempting to take her to a mentalhealth facility. Cusseaux refused to let the police inher home, prompting Officer Percy Dupra to breakthrough the screen door to gain entry. Dupra encounteredCusseaux holding a hammer and shother in the heart. Dupra claimed that although Cusseauxsaid nothing to threaten him, “she had thatanger in her face like she was going to hit someonewith that hammer.” Cusseaux’s mother, FrancesGarrett wondered, “What did the police officer seewhen he pried open the door? A Black woman? Alesbian?” 44 Cusseaux’s mother further explained