I think we all know there are instances of shootings and such perpetrated by people with significant mental illness, either diagnosed or hidden.
But I had to go downtown Tulsa yesterday for a meeting and I saw a couple of people that made me very nervous.
I had to drive around a few minutes to find a parking place, finally ended up on the top story of a parking garage. I was carrying concealed and wearing a coat, as it was pretty cold. But as I come out of the garage, I hear someone yelling, sounds like someone fighting. As I look around, waiting for the light to cross over, I see a guy ambling down the street in the same direction I am going to be heading, obviously homeless. This guy is yelling at the top of his lungs, very angry, cussing up a storm, though you can't tell what he's worked up about. I mean, I think it was obvious he's mentally ill, he's screaming obscenities at the air, looking all around, gesticulating, but not in any hurry to go anywhere, no one else around, etc. Definitely made me pay attention and I made sure to hang back about a half-block from him until I got to my destination.
So then, when I come out a few hours later, I see another guy walking down a street perpendicular to mine while I am waiting for the light to cross. This one really kinda made me look twice - this guy was wearing a coat, but above the coat he was wrapped tightly in multiple scarves to the top of his head. Including his face. Not like... wearing a scarf because it's cold and have your nose and mouth covered - this guy looked like he was mummified, tightly, and had eyeholes cut out. Not a slit where he didn't wrap it, actual eye hole cutouts. And it wasn't like a ski mask, it was scarves or bandannas or something wrapped around. He's holding what looks like a phone toward his lips, horizontally facing outward, like he's blowing into the mic on the bottom, and as he walks out into the road to cross without paying any attention to the light, to any cars that might be coming, etc., he's waving his hand around flipping the bird up high to all the high-rise buildings around us. Not to anyone (no one else was around), not to traffic, nothing like that. Just randomly flipping off buildings, it looked like. Was pretty strange, you couldn't see a lick of skin on his face, hands, nothing. Couldn't have been able to even tell his skin color to tell the police if something had happened.
It's been a few years since I worked at Hillcrest and we got so many of the mentally-ill homeless coming in for various reasons, but it just struck me yesterday how many people we have living on the street who are mentally ill and could potentially be dangerous, given nearly any situation. Being alert and paying attention to your surroundings is all well and good, but many of us here have been approached or even accosted by someone while pumping gas or getting a paper, stopping at a stoplight, even.
We need more facilities and medical folks to help deal with these people, but the bottom line is, you can't (at this point) force them to medicate or live in a facility. Had a family member who was a brilliant guy who could fix anything electronic, but he chose to live homeless and alcoholic when he had other options. Matter of fact, after Christmas one year he came to his parents' house, picked up a new CD Walkman they'd gotten him for Christmas, declined their offer of a warm place to stay that night, promptly walked out and the next morning was crushed to death by a Tulsa trash truck while sleeping in a dumpster.
You just can't make them....
Nothing new here, but my experiences yesterday just reminded me how many of these folks we have that society simply writes off and tries to walk around.
But I had to go downtown Tulsa yesterday for a meeting and I saw a couple of people that made me very nervous.
I had to drive around a few minutes to find a parking place, finally ended up on the top story of a parking garage. I was carrying concealed and wearing a coat, as it was pretty cold. But as I come out of the garage, I hear someone yelling, sounds like someone fighting. As I look around, waiting for the light to cross over, I see a guy ambling down the street in the same direction I am going to be heading, obviously homeless. This guy is yelling at the top of his lungs, very angry, cussing up a storm, though you can't tell what he's worked up about. I mean, I think it was obvious he's mentally ill, he's screaming obscenities at the air, looking all around, gesticulating, but not in any hurry to go anywhere, no one else around, etc. Definitely made me pay attention and I made sure to hang back about a half-block from him until I got to my destination.
So then, when I come out a few hours later, I see another guy walking down a street perpendicular to mine while I am waiting for the light to cross. This one really kinda made me look twice - this guy was wearing a coat, but above the coat he was wrapped tightly in multiple scarves to the top of his head. Including his face. Not like... wearing a scarf because it's cold and have your nose and mouth covered - this guy looked like he was mummified, tightly, and had eyeholes cut out. Not a slit where he didn't wrap it, actual eye hole cutouts. And it wasn't like a ski mask, it was scarves or bandannas or something wrapped around. He's holding what looks like a phone toward his lips, horizontally facing outward, like he's blowing into the mic on the bottom, and as he walks out into the road to cross without paying any attention to the light, to any cars that might be coming, etc., he's waving his hand around flipping the bird up high to all the high-rise buildings around us. Not to anyone (no one else was around), not to traffic, nothing like that. Just randomly flipping off buildings, it looked like. Was pretty strange, you couldn't see a lick of skin on his face, hands, nothing. Couldn't have been able to even tell his skin color to tell the police if something had happened.
It's been a few years since I worked at Hillcrest and we got so many of the mentally-ill homeless coming in for various reasons, but it just struck me yesterday how many people we have living on the street who are mentally ill and could potentially be dangerous, given nearly any situation. Being alert and paying attention to your surroundings is all well and good, but many of us here have been approached or even accosted by someone while pumping gas or getting a paper, stopping at a stoplight, even.
We need more facilities and medical folks to help deal with these people, but the bottom line is, you can't (at this point) force them to medicate or live in a facility. Had a family member who was a brilliant guy who could fix anything electronic, but he chose to live homeless and alcoholic when he had other options. Matter of fact, after Christmas one year he came to his parents' house, picked up a new CD Walkman they'd gotten him for Christmas, declined their offer of a warm place to stay that night, promptly walked out and the next morning was crushed to death by a Tulsa trash truck while sleeping in a dumpster.
You just can't make them....
Nothing new here, but my experiences yesterday just reminded me how many of these folks we have that society simply writes off and tries to walk around.
