PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ramon Leclerc, Outreach & Recreation Assistant from New Alternatives for LGBTQ+ Homeless Youth
4:01:37
·
144 sec
Ramon Leclerc provides testimony criticizing the current approach to mental health crisis response, particularly the involvement of police. He shares personal experiences highlighting issues with police and EMS responses to mental health situations at his organization.
- Describes police as antagonists who intimidate people in mental health crises with their equipment and appearance
- Recounts an incident where police arrived in riot gear despite being told the situation was non-violent, causing adverse reactions from other clients
- Mentions unprofessionalism in both NYPD and EMS, citing an example where an EMS responder made an inappropriate joke about medication
- Emphasizes the need for oversight, training, or removal of police from mental health crisis responses
Ramon Leclerc
4:01:37
Good afternoon, counsel.
4:01:39
My name is Ramon Leclerc.
4:01:40
I'm representing the attorneys for Homicidal GBT.
4:01:44
Let me say first that police are antagonists and bullies who show up with guns, batons, riot gear, and other paraphernalia to intimidate.
4:02:03
People going to mental health crisis.
4:02:10
I've experienced my director, Cole, a call 911 for a schizophrenic client who was having a hallucination that they were saving a child and throwing their book back across the dining hall who needed to be on medication who was not medicated for a while.
4:02:31
And right police in full, even though my director expressly said the client was nonviolent if needed to get to a hospital ASAP, police showed up in full riot gear causing a adverse reaction from other clients in dining hall, which is not fair and could have been a deadly situation if I had not stepped up and removed those clients from that hole.
4:03:01
Also, unprofessionalism runs rampant within NYPD and the EMS systems.
4:03:12
One time we had a client who we hadn't seen, who was street homeless and schizophrenic, who needed to be medicated.
4:03:20
My director once again, who never wanted to get this person to the hospital, The police show up first, and then EMS shows up after the officer what's going on.
4:03:31
The officer naturally responds.
4:03:35
Oh, somebody's after medicine.
4:03:37
And EMS response was me too.
4:03:41
How it it it it blew my mind.
4:03:44
Excuse me for going over.
4:03:45
I just need to get this out.
4:03:47
But the client ended up leaving, and we barely keep the clients.
4:03:51
And so it's a major concern.
4:03:54
There needs to be some sort of oversight and training or, like, just remove the police.
4:04:00
No.
4:04:01
No.
4:04:01
I'm sorry.
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Testimony by Jonathan Chung, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI NYC), on B-HEARD Program and Mental Health Crisis Response
