As the verdict was announced on April 20, 2021 in the State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin, the defendant sat chauvinistically taking in his guilty sentence; the stench of his narcissism detectable even through whatever medium it was viewed on. At this point most Americans, if not world citizens, have seen the video of the May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin. It is insanely brutal, difficult to watch and makes it extremely evident that George Floyd was suffocated while his neck was knelt on by Officer Chauvin. Onlookers with any mental health experience see a man in a position of power with a clearly undiagnosed mental health disorder.
Many viewed the justice system at work during this trial with eyes that already see a broken system. How did someone like Derek Chauvin, so clearly unempathetic and drunk with power get into a position meant to serve and protect the public? Why is it that there are mass shootings being performed by primarily white men all over the country who are being brought to justice peacefully, whilst minorities, primarily black members of society are being murdered without proper evidence or due justice? These inequities point directly to a lack of proper entry evaluation and training for public servants at all levels, and no cohesive mental health system to filter people through when they cry out for help or so clearly require it.
Responding to a mental health crisis is not a job for a police officer; they are not properly trained for this, nor is this their primary responsibility. Who then should someone call for a family member or friend who has become aggressive or unresponsive due to a mental health crisis? Between 1955 and 1994, approximately 487,000 patients with mental illness were released from state hospitals which were desperately flawed and abusive. Long term, this resulted in the statistics we see today. According to the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) about 1 in 5 adults live with a mental illness, approximately 51.5 million citizens in 2019 in the U.S. Of those 51.5 million, it is estimated that only half receive treatment. This is in large part due to stigmatization of mental illness, lack of proper healthcare, and lack of proper resources for friends and families dealing with a loved one with a mental illness.
During my time completing my Masters at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, I sought the aid of a local psychiatrist for a bout of depression I’d been struggling with. In our time together I shared that I wanted to be a detective, this is when she shared that she performed psychiatric evaluations for the NYPD. She told me that I would be excellent in law enforcement, but that I should never disclose that I’d seen someone to deal with mental health issues. This would mean confessing that I had a mental health issue. Everything is wrong with this sentiment, but she was sadly right. I spent 5 years in the private security industry dealing with numerous different police departments across various states. The fraternal order as a whole does not look upon mental illness as anything but a weakness, making it socially very difficult for its members to seek treatment if needed. We are talking about a group of people who see people do horrendous things on a daily basis, regular therapy should be in the job aide.
While I was seeing this therapist, I subsequently ended up in a class at John Jay that taught the administration of the MMPI. At the time, I had no idea what this was or what it was used for, but I would come to learn both. The MMPI or Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, is a test that helps its users assess a person’s personality traits and psychopathology. Many police departments utilize some form of psychiatric evaluation for their candidates pre-entry, the NYPD for example, uses the MMPI-2. This is an updated version of the MMPI meant to be more inclusive and therefore more accurate. It is also the most widely utilized psychometric test of adult psychopathology in the world, being utilized by mental health professionals, medical professionals and a multitude of employers.
The original MMPI was crafted by Charnley McKinley and Starke Hathaway in the late 1930’s. The original test group was made up of all white, Christian, blue collar workers who lived in a rural area of Minneapolis. The total number of subjects was small and not well representative of the total population. James Butcher and colleagues developed the MMPI-2 which sought to be more inclusive and diverse in its testing. A sample of 2,600 participants was collected in 7 sites in 7 different states with a mean age of 41 years old. Of that sample 1,462 were women and 1,138 were men. Now here’s where that diversity and inclusion gets called out. The racial composition of the participants was as follows Caucasian 81%, African American 12%, Hispanic 3%, Native American 3% and Asian American 1%.
If we do not have appropriate representation in the methods through which we appoint average Americans to positions of extreme responsibility, how can we rationally expect equal treatment for those under their care? A Pew Research Center study found that 83% of officers in the United States report firing their weapons a few times a year on duty. They found some key differences to those who fired their gun and those who did not fire their gun. In a direct quote from their study Pew states, “To start, male officers, white officers, those working in larger cities and those who are military veterans are more likely than female officers, racial and ethnic minorities, those in smaller communities and non-veterans to have ever fired their service weapon while on duty.” The diverse representation is not seen in the statistics because it is not present in the field, and without representation, racial bias is much more prevalent.
Although it has been since our inception, over the past decade it has become increasingly more visible that the legal system is broken. This article does not stand to attack police officers, individually or as a group, however it also does not stand to absolve those guilty of their crimes. It does implore its audience to further explore the institutions that are failing the American public, and truly gain some traction on how we are going to fix them. Mental health is an essential conversation, it encompasses our increasing drug use as a country, a portion of the overall visible poor police interactions, and how we keep disproportionately granting people power on nothing but superficial merit. We need to dig deep to lay a better foundation than the one we’re currently treading on or we might just sink.
Catie Zimmerman 