June 25, 2024 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph shares vivid, compelling stories of one constant struggle for police, and for communities: The care and safety of those with mental health battles.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Hean Joseph is a law enforcement consultant, author, and active
senior lead officer the downtown Los Angeles skid Row Community.
He's here to share another story with us. Here's Dion.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The one thing that I was never able to really
get a handle on. We were able to reduce crime
forty percent, reduce death thirty three percent, wonderful, wonderful achievements
that we all engaged in, but one thing we couldn't
fix was mental illness. Mental illness will forever be the
challenge of our lifetime in my opinion. As a matter
(00:53):
of fact, I think it's about the third or maybe
half of the homeless problem. If you really, if you're
thinking about it realist, we all know that in America,
our solution to quote unquote helping them mentally ill was
to close down the asylums, and then they sued, so
nothing like it, even a better version of it, could
ever come back. So now you kick people out into
(01:15):
the streets and the name of similiberty, yeah you're free.
You sprinkle pills on them and tell them by okay,
come check on me every two week, Come check in
every two weeks. Never happened. Some of these individuals fell
into the loving arms of family members, loved ones, you know,
who tried to help them. Others too. Many of the
others ended up in places like skid Row, and when
(01:35):
they came to skied roll, they would throw away their
prescribe medication because it made them feel down, It made
them feel lethargic, and in skid row you got to
be ready for everything, so they threw that away or
sell it to make enough money to buy the hard stuff,
the crack, the meth, the marijuana and all this other stuff.
And being mentally ill is not a crime. I've stated this.
(01:57):
Any police officers you talked to would tell you being
paranois gets frank is not a crime. Being bipolar is
not a crime. Being depressed is not a crime. But
when those things meet heroin, crack, methamphetamines, fedanyl spice, and yes,
even marijuana, it could have disasterous consequences. And that's when
they become a police problem. That's when no mental health
professional was going to approach them. When they're in an
(02:17):
agitated state of delirium, slap boxing with city buses and
they're underwearing wearing red sox. You know that's not going
to happen no matter what the rhetoric is today, they're
going to call us first, because what do you do
when it's not just paranoia? What do you do when
there's a chemical buffer between you and the crisis? And
that was the issue. So there were so many mentally
(02:40):
ill individuals who lost their lives in skirrole. Some I
ended up developing relationships with one named Linda. Her nickname
was the Hurricane. She saw me as her little brother
and I was her protector. And you know, I remember
I discovered she wasn't homeless because her family would come
from Pacoima and pick her up and try to clean
her up. And one day my wife and I are
driving to a party. This big, ugly van pulls up
(03:01):
next to us and she sticks her head out the window.
Waed flies, all false teeth comes out through hits for window.
Hey robo, God, Hey did brother? It's me Because my
wife never believed my story, but she was a believer
that day and it was Linda. She had been picked
up by her family and they try to love her
back to health, but she would often escape because of
her addiction dual diagnosis. Okay, another friend of mine, he
(03:26):
was from the LBGTQ community, and he was often bullied
because he would wear daisy dukes. But I like the guy.
He was a cool cat. But of course when he
was a high it was like a doctor jeck O,
mister heideffect. And I'll never forget. He was bullied by
the gangsters in the park and they bloodied his lip,
and of course he was too afraid to fight them.
(03:47):
So he comes around the corner and his mental his
crisis kicks in and he wants to fight me. And
I said, hey, it's me, Ricky, it's me. You don't
want these kind of problems. Okay, you don't want these hands, Ricky,
So calm down. And he would try to calm down,
and then he walked away from me and tried to
take his aggressions out on a pregnant woman. And I
grabbed him before he could harmor wrestled him to the
(04:08):
ground and handcuffed him. And I thought, for sure, they're
going to place this guy on the hold. For sure,
it's going to be more than seventy two hours. For sure,
it's going to be about two weeks. Nope, he was
out in about six hours if I remember correctly. And
a month later he finally decided to stand up for
himself when a parole started attacking him because of the
(04:30):
clothes he was wearing, and the parole stabbed him in
the heart.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
He was in.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The hospital for about six weeks before he finally passed away.
And I always ask these questions to the public, you know,
because they always want to blame us when things fall apart.
Whose fault is it? Was it our fault or was
it the system? It was a system, because the way
the system is set up, the law enforcement is always
going to be the tip of the spear until we
actually changed the mental health system and bring some common
(04:58):
sense mechanisms back in place, like, for instance, instead of
three days seventy two hours, it should be six weeks.
And the reason why is it takes about four to
six weeks for most of their medication for them to
even benefit from the therapeutic attributes of their medication. That's
common sense, So don't release them until that six weeks
is up, so it'll be in a habit of taking
their medication. Also, during that six weeks, you know, you
(05:19):
have to clean them up before you can help them,
because a lot of them do what's called cleaning up.
They'll go to the hospital six hours later they'll say, hey,
how are you feeling, Oh, I'm fine. Why are they
saying that because they want to go out there and
scratch their chemical itch right Instead, get them clean first.
Once you got them clean, develop a report with them
and find out who their family members and loved ones
(05:40):
are and see if we can get them connected. And
that's streamline the process of conservatorships so that we can
get their family members to help them and just help
them guide them a little better. And even if that
doesn't happen, they'll be in a habit of taking their
medication and they won't fall off the wagon as long.
But until that happens, we're going to continue to see
them countless tragedies that I've seen every day. It's near
(06:03):
and dear to my heart because I have a niece
who's mentally ill, I have a nephew who's touched with
a little mental illness. I watched falster kids who are
really struggling with it, and I even mentor young men
on a spectrum of autism. I think about once or
twice a year when I can, and it's near a
deer to my heart, and I just wish somebody would
(06:23):
listen to this street cop. I don't have a dog
in the fight. I'm not political. I just want to
tell you the truth from a boots on a ground perspective.
I'm not looking at it from thirty thousand feet. I'm
not some college professor who's overly idealistic, who only sees
one way, you know. I just want to tell you
the truth what's happening in the street.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And a terrific job on the editing, producing and story
editing by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks
to Dion Joseph for sharing his story. And we all
know the problems of mental health, and it is indeed
one third to one half of the homeless problem in
this country is mental illness. And we don't have answers.
And if in any way our stories can lead to
(07:04):
those answers, well then we have helped do something good
for all of us, for all of our families, and
for those most harmed, and that's the mentally ill who
aren't properly treated and end up on the streets. Dean
Joseph's story, and in so many ways, the story of
cops across this country who deal with the things that
we don't want to deal with. Here on Our American Stories,
(07:32):
leehbib here the host of Our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this
great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramerican Stories dot com and click the donate button. Give
(07:54):
a little, give a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and give
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Hean Joseph is a law enforcement consultant, author, and active
senior lead officer the downtown Los Angeles skid Row Community.
He's here to share another story with us. Here's Dion.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The one thing that I was never able to really
get a handle on. We were able to reduce crime
forty percent, reduce death thirty three percent, wonderful, wonderful achievements
that we all engaged in, but one thing we couldn't
fix was mental illness. Mental illness will forever be the
challenge of our lifetime in my opinion. As a matter
(00:53):
of fact, I think it's about the third or maybe
half of the homeless problem. If you really, if you're
thinking about it realist, we all know that in America,
our solution to quote unquote helping them mentally ill was
to close down the asylums, and then they sued, so
nothing like it, even a better version of it, could
ever come back. So now you kick people out into
(01:15):
the streets and the name of similiberty, yeah you're free.
You sprinkle pills on them and tell them by okay,
come check on me every two week, Come check in
every two weeks. Never happened. Some of these individuals fell
into the loving arms of family members, loved ones, you know,
who tried to help them. Others too. Many of the
others ended up in places like skid Row, and when
(01:35):
they came to skied roll, they would throw away their
prescribe medication because it made them feel down, It made
them feel lethargic, and in skid row you got to
be ready for everything, so they threw that away or
sell it to make enough money to buy the hard stuff,
the crack, the meth, the marijuana and all this other stuff.
And being mentally ill is not a crime. I've stated this.
(01:57):
Any police officers you talked to would tell you being
paranois gets frank is not a crime. Being bipolar is
not a crime. Being depressed is not a crime. But
when those things meet heroin, crack, methamphetamines, fedanyl spice, and yes,
even marijuana, it could have disasterous consequences. And that's when
they become a police problem. That's when no mental health
professional was going to approach them. When they're in an
(02:17):
agitated state of delirium, slap boxing with city buses and
they're underwearing wearing red sox. You know that's not going
to happen no matter what the rhetoric is today, they're
going to call us first, because what do you do
when it's not just paranoia? What do you do when
there's a chemical buffer between you and the crisis? And
that was the issue. So there were so many mentally
(02:40):
ill individuals who lost their lives in skirrole. Some I
ended up developing relationships with one named Linda. Her nickname
was the Hurricane. She saw me as her little brother
and I was her protector. And you know, I remember
I discovered she wasn't homeless because her family would come
from Pacoima and pick her up and try to clean
her up. And one day my wife and I are
driving to a party. This big, ugly van pulls up
(03:01):
next to us and she sticks her head out the window.
Waed flies, all false teeth comes out through hits for window.
Hey robo, God, Hey did brother? It's me Because my
wife never believed my story, but she was a believer
that day and it was Linda. She had been picked
up by her family and they try to love her
back to health, but she would often escape because of
her addiction dual diagnosis. Okay, another friend of mine, he
(03:26):
was from the LBGTQ community, and he was often bullied
because he would wear daisy dukes. But I like the guy.
He was a cool cat. But of course when he
was a high it was like a doctor jeck O,
mister heideffect. And I'll never forget. He was bullied by
the gangsters in the park and they bloodied his lip,
and of course he was too afraid to fight them.
(03:47):
So he comes around the corner and his mental his
crisis kicks in and he wants to fight me. And
I said, hey, it's me, Ricky, it's me. You don't
want these kind of problems. Okay, you don't want these hands, Ricky,
So calm down. And he would try to calm down,
and then he walked away from me and tried to
take his aggressions out on a pregnant woman. And I
grabbed him before he could harmor wrestled him to the
(04:08):
ground and handcuffed him. And I thought, for sure, they're
going to place this guy on the hold. For sure,
it's going to be more than seventy two hours. For sure,
it's going to be about two weeks. Nope, he was
out in about six hours if I remember correctly. And
a month later he finally decided to stand up for
himself when a parole started attacking him because of the
(04:30):
clothes he was wearing, and the parole stabbed him in
the heart.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
He was in.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The hospital for about six weeks before he finally passed away.
And I always ask these questions to the public, you know,
because they always want to blame us when things fall apart.
Whose fault is it? Was it our fault or was
it the system? It was a system, because the way
the system is set up, the law enforcement is always
going to be the tip of the spear until we
actually changed the mental health system and bring some common
(04:58):
sense mechanisms back in place, like, for instance, instead of
three days seventy two hours, it should be six weeks.
And the reason why is it takes about four to
six weeks for most of their medication for them to
even benefit from the therapeutic attributes of their medication. That's
common sense, So don't release them until that six weeks
is up, so it'll be in a habit of taking
their medication. Also, during that six weeks, you know, you
(05:19):
have to clean them up before you can help them,
because a lot of them do what's called cleaning up.
They'll go to the hospital six hours later they'll say, hey,
how are you feeling, Oh, I'm fine. Why are they
saying that because they want to go out there and
scratch their chemical itch right Instead, get them clean first.
Once you got them clean, develop a report with them
and find out who their family members and loved ones
(05:40):
are and see if we can get them connected. And
that's streamline the process of conservatorships so that we can
get their family members to help them and just help
them guide them a little better. And even if that
doesn't happen, they'll be in a habit of taking their
medication and they won't fall off the wagon as long.
But until that happens, we're going to continue to see
them countless tragedies that I've seen every day. It's near
(06:03):
and dear to my heart because I have a niece
who's mentally ill, I have a nephew who's touched with
a little mental illness. I watched falster kids who are
really struggling with it, and I even mentor young men
on a spectrum of autism. I think about once or
twice a year when I can, and it's near a
deer to my heart, and I just wish somebody would
(06:23):
listen to this street cop. I don't have a dog
in the fight. I'm not political. I just want to
tell you the truth from a boots on a ground perspective.
I'm not looking at it from thirty thousand feet. I'm
not some college professor who's overly idealistic, who only sees
one way, you know. I just want to tell you
the truth what's happening in the street.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And a terrific job on the editing, producing and story
editing by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks
to Dion Joseph for sharing his story. And we all
know the problems of mental health, and it is indeed
one third to one half of the homeless problem in
this country is mental illness. And we don't have answers.
And if in any way our stories can lead to
(07:04):
those answers, well then we have helped do something good
for all of us, for all of our families, and
for those most harmed, and that's the mentally ill who
aren't properly treated and end up on the streets. Dean
Joseph's story, and in so many ways, the story of
cops across this country who deal with the things that
we don't want to deal with. Here on Our American Stories,
(07:32):
leehbib here the host of Our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this
great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramerican Stories dot com and click the donate button. Give
(07:54):
a little, give a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and give
Host
Lee Habeeb
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