Deborah Danner must have seen some things in her lifetime. A 66-year-old black woman living in The Bronx you know that she had gone through her fair share and more of trials and tribulations, but she was still here, still fighting, still living. Still living, that is until NYPD Sgt Hugh Barry burst into her apartment last Tuesday night.
Deborah Danner could be sweet. Deborah Danner could be kind. But Deborah Danner was also affected with severe mental illness that sometimes caused her to be violent, irrational, and dangerous.
The 66-year-old Danner lost her battle with mental illness Tuesday night after putting up a valiant fight for decades.
The NYPD knew Ms. Danner. Over the years they had to visit her apartment a number of times. They knew that she suffered from mental and emotional issues. According to news report, Deborah was naked in her bedroom suffering from a psychotic episode when cops barged in on her. The cop claimed that she was armed with a pair of scissors and that he was forced to draw his weapon to defend himself. He was scared for his life. He further claimed that he managed to get her to put down the scissors but that she then grabbed a baseball bat and lunged at him. She was naked and vulnerable — physically, mentally, and emotionally — in her own bedroom and he didn’t have the decency to withdraw. He didn’t have the compassion to see her as a human being in need of his help. A person who needed to be protected maybe even from herself. Instead, he saw a threat to himself. He and his enablers saw a dangerous suspect who presented the opportunity for a “good shoot.”
A sergeant entered the seventh-floor apartment and encountered the woman, who was armed with scissors, but he persuaded her to put them down, Nikunen said.The woman then grabbed a baseball bat and attempted to hit the sergeant, Nikunen said. The officer fired two shots, striking the woman in the torso, he said. She died of her injuries after being taken to Jacobi Medical Center.
Four white cops in that apartment facing a hurting older woman and it didn’t even occur to them that that alone would have been traumatizing for her. Deborah Danner was politically and socially aware. She was a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. She knew about Eleanor Bumpers. She knew of the countless number of unarmed black people who were sent to early graves by the NYPD. Why then would she feel anything but fear when the cops stampeded into her bedroom?
In addition to being a black woman, Deborah was also in the sub-category of those who are most in the crosshairs of trigger happy cops: She was mentally ill.
At a time of heightened concern over police shootings, a new report estimates that people with mental illness are 16 times more likely than others to be killed by police.
About one in four fatal police encounters involve someone with mental illness, according to the report, released Thursday by the Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center, which focuses on the needs of people with serious mental illness.
It has truly reached the point where loved ones should think once, twice, thrice before calling the cops when their mentally challenged family members need help. Cops pose an existential threat to people suffering from psychoses.
Almost half of the people who die at the hands of police have some kind of disability, according to a new report, as officers are often drawn into emergencies where urgent care may be more appropriate than lethal force.
New York officials from Mayor Bill de Blasio on down claim to be outraged at this latest unwarranted, senseless killing. The Mayor:
"It should never have happened, simple as that. The NYPD's job is to protect life," de Blasio said, adding, "Deborah Danner should be alive right now, period."
New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said that the cop failed to follow protocols and that the NYPD had “failed.”
“It’s distressing to me, the fact that it did end up this way,” said O’Neill in an unusually fast and harsh rebuke. “We just have to take a long, hard look at what happened. . . What’s clear in this instance is that we failed.”
Truly Outrageous
Ms. Danner’s sister, Jennifer, was outside of her apartment waiting to accompany her sister to the hospital. That’s why the cops were called...not to kill her, but to get her to the hospital. Why didn’t the officers ask Jennifer to help in talking down her sister?
Jennifer Danner wasn't worried because police had done so successfully in the past, de Blasio said."I was down the hall from my sister's apartment when I saw officers rush in and I heard three gunshots," she told WCBS.De Blasio said the officer had received training on how to de-escalate a situation. The mayor said investigators will ask why the officer didn't use his stun gun or wait for officers trained to deal with mentally ill people.
Apologists and enablers claim that Deborah posed a threat to the officer. Let’s give them that. Let’s say that this 66-year-old woman was so agile that no way could Barry have gotten out of the way of her swinging a bat at his head. So yes, she posed a threat; but did she pose a lethal threat to him? What would have been so wrong for them to turn and run out of the apartment? I am repulsed and horrified by the mere idea, but why didn’t Barry use his taser instead of his gun?
Sergeant Barry, the man who murdered Deborah Danner, has a clean record despite the fact that he was sued twice for brutality.
The cases were filed in federal court within the past four years and alleged that Sgt. Hugh Barry dealt brutal beatings with his fists, feet or baton, in violation of the plaintiffs’ civil rights as racial minorities. A 2012 case resulted in the city paying a settlement. A 2014 case went to trial, with that plaintiff receiving no money from a Manhattan jury earlier this year.
Say her name: Deborah Danner’s life mattered. Say her name: Deborah Danner’s life was precious. Say her name. Say her name. Say her name.
Can we all agree that in addition to being a candidate for our Asshole of the Month Award, Hugh Barry should also be labeled a murderer? It’s all good and well to condemn him for his cowardice and his callousness; but let’s also see him arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted of murder. That would be justice for Deborah Danner.
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