Kindness gap: Prude's death should spur wholesale change in mental health care and policing

Read all of New York Attorney General Tish James' report on Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old Black man who died last March in Rochester police custody.

A tragedy on top of tragedy, Prude's death ― and what preceded ― was probably preventable, with plenty of blame to go around. The cause: Systemic flaws in police and mental health systems, but no crime, which is why James' grand jury came back without an indictment. The facts, as thoroughly presented by James, leave no other conclusion.

Daniel Prude's situation was a complex psychiatric emergency. A Chicagoan, Daniel was visiting his brother Joe on March 23 when he suffered a mental health breakdown, either exacerbated or provoked by PCP. His brother called 911, and officers found Daniel, bloody, delirious, covered in feces, after he'd traveled a mile, barefoot, in freezing weather, thrown a brick through a store window, shouted at a tow truck driver that he had COVID, and stripped himself naked.

Cops restrained Prude, handcuffing him and placing a spit hood over his head when he started spitting. Hooded, restrained, naked on freezing ground, Prude had a heart attack, likely from his intoxication and distress. He never regained consciousness. It was actually a mostly by-the-book response. But when the book itself is deeply flawed, going by it can yield awful results.

While police shouldn't be primary responders in mental health calls, they must be trained to handle them. Meanwhile, Rochester PD, which lied about the cause of Prude's death and withheld crucial video for months, should promptly release footage in all critical incidents. Prude's tragic death must spur reform.

This editorial appeared at New York Daily News and was distributed by Tribune Content Agency.