Well, this may be an interesting development:
I posted this link on Facebook, and it started a discussion. I’m a neurologist, and I’ve had two patients end up in jail following seizures with post-ictal disorientation and no recall of their events. Both reportedly got pretty banged up in the midst of their seizure, though I’ve wondered how much of the “banged up” could’ve been at the hands of the arresting officers. (One was arrested after a woman saw him walking around, disoriented, confused, and called police saying he looked like he was “high on meth.”)
I’ve considered routinely suggesting to families that they might introduce their disabled loved ones to the members of the local police force, in the hopes of defusing those uncontrolled situations when a confluence of factors causes normal safeguards to fail. Any time an officer approaches a new and unknown situation, the possibility of drunk abusive asshole, druggie high and out of control, or extremist wanting to kill a cop, etc, has to be somewhere on their differential. Hopefully, familiarity can move that possibility further down the list, so instead of “approaching the potential suspect,” the officer is “checking in to make sure Darrel is doing okay.”
Well, the discussion was forwarded to a local sheriff with the proposal that I make a presentation to the police department, start a discussion, etc.
Could yield some interesting results. I’ll let you know what I find.
(Or maybe I’ll get shot. In which case it’s been nice knowing you.)
