Depression (5x8 - 7/27/11)
Posted at 7:07 AM on July 27, 2011
by Bob Collins
(14 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8
People who matter, Westover v. Quimby, for the love of a cougar woman, a fight at the beach, the economy in song, and the worst umpire call this season.
1) ON PEOPLE WHO MATTER
The death of Amy Winehouse, whose funeral was held yesterday, isn't the story of a popular singer silenced, it's not the story of whether she glorified alcohol and drug abuse, and it's not the story of whether she should get any attention at all. The story of Amy Winehouse is that she's like thousands and thousands of other people struggling with some sort of mental illness, who face the additional hardship -- at least while they're still alive --of trying to find a reason why their life matters in the first place.
Max Sparber, writing at MinnPost, has done a marvelous job of giving voice to the tragedy here: In 2011, people still have to explain why people with depression have an illness...
I expect that people who won't shed a tear for Winehouse see her as the agent in her own death, and this is why they compare her to Oslo, where a man with a gun killed 80 or more people, none of whom had done anything to deserve their fate. But I see a killer in Winehouse's death as well, and one that has moved through rock and roll history, and moves through the world. Depression leads to suicide in about 15 percent of the people who have it, and depression is the reported cause of over two-thirds of the deaths by suicide each year. It's difficult to determine how many people with depression die from related causes, such as substance abuse, but the toll is enormous. Worse still, it can be very difficult to get diagnosed and treated for depression without insurance, and even with insurance, multiple studies show that most adult Americans with mental disorders do not receive any treatment for their symptoms. According to British health economist Richard Layard in 2006, conditions were much the same in Great Britain, and I cannot find evidence they have improved.
So we can see the story of Amy Winehouse as being one of a drug addict who shrugged off every effort to help her and wound up with an entirely unsurprising early death, and I can see why this might not encourage sympathy or grief. Or we can see her as a victim of mental illness in a society that doesn't understand or respond to mental illness with great effectiveness.
What can we do to help people who suffer -- that term is used for a reason -- with depression? Giving a darn is a good start.
Sadly, we have so many opportunities to do so. Speedy Peterson won a silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics.
This week he shot himself to death in a Utah canyon. He was abused as a child. His sister was killed by a drunk driver. He witnesses the suicide of a friend. He struggled with alcohol.
2) WESTOVER V. QUIMBY
People who follow NewsCut on Twitter (and, for the record, please don't if you tend to take the world entirely seriously) know that for more than a year, I've advocated that some smart media organization somewhere give Charlie Quimby and Craig Westover a show or column. Their exchanges on Twitter -- Quimby to the left and Westover to the right -- are punctuated by respect, facts, and the ability to make you think even if you think you disagree with one of them.
In other words: They're what everyone says they want in political discourse in this country.
No media organization has yet stepped forward to take my sage advice, but this week Quimby is hosting the discussions on his long-time blog, "Across The Great Divide."
Their first exchange -- posted last Friday -- discussed a Star Tribune article about a woman who kept her daycare center running for low-income people, even though the state shutdown prevented her from being paid.
Here's Quimby:
As a regular volunteer working in child care, I was not surprised by their compassion. But I wondered how people like Williams would be regarded through the prism of libertarian economics.
As MNGOP communications man Craig Westover continually reminds us: Government cannot do anything for anybody until it first takes the resources from the private sector that produces the wealth that makes compassion possible.
My first inclination was to draw some snide lessons from this. For example, will smaller government really inspire the private market to provide low-cost childcare so low income parents can search for work and hold jobs?
And Westover counters:
Roxanne Williams is able to provide the service she does - even at her own expense - because there are millions of people going to work everyday to produce products and deliver services (and pay taxes) that ultimately provide her the resources (not just money) that make her service possible. These people go to work for their own reasons and not to help low-income parents find daycare. Yet one of the consequences of their action is Roxanne Williams can provide daycare. Without their effort producing wealth, Roxanne Williams can't provide daycare.
And back and forth they've gone a few times along the lines of a local Brooks and Shields. with nary a personal insult along the way.
It's well worth reading and, when the opportunity presents itself, emulating.
3) FOR THE LOVE OF A COUGAR WOMAN
A cougar, once spotted in a Twin Cities suburb, has been killed in Connecticut. Connecticut. How is that possible? Think of all the obstructions between here and Connecticut. Lake Michigan or Huron. Chicago. Cleveland. Even humans don't survive Cleveland. It may be the the longest recorded journey by a land mammal in history, the BBC says. And it ended in Milford, Connecticut when he got hit by a car.
As long as a cougar can find deer to eat, they'll be fine. But unless they can find a woman, they keep moving. It must be tough being a cougar guy in Minnesota when you have to walk to Connecticut to find love.
4) A FIGHT AT THE BEACH
The video below is starting to make some noise on the Internet, allegedly because those involved in an incident at a Minneapolis park contend it's police brutality. Is it? Warning: Not suitable for the workplace.
5) THE ECONOMY IN SONG
Ryan Stotland and Kyle Thompson-Westra met while studying economics at Tufts University. Their passion for economics matched their passion for music. So they formed a group and started writing and playing music about the economy.
They have an inexhaustible supply of material...
Their group --The Bull and the Bears -- donates a portion of the sales of their music to a homeless coalition.
Here's one story today they could put to song: People in New York who scavenge for aluminum cans. "In your own neighborhood, people look at you and say you can do better," on scavenger says. "I figure, it's $10 an hour, fast-food wages. My relatives don't know. Everyone on this planet has pride."
Bonus: Last night, the Pirates and Braves played 19 innings. The game ended when the umpire took the 19th inning off.
TODAY'S QUESTION
President Obama seeks a tax hike to help cut the deficit, but 277 members of the U.S. House and Senate have pledged to oppose any tax increase. Today's Question: Should public officials sign a pledge that limits their options in office?
WHAT WE'RE DOING
Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) - First hour: The effectiveness of antidepressants and psychiatry.
Second hour: Living with migraines.
Midday (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) - First hour: TBA
Second hour: TBA
Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) - First hour: NPR political editor Ken Rudin discusses the debt crisis.
Second hour: The UN calls it the worst food crisis in a generation. Millions of East Africans are threatened by drought and hunger. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton from East Africa, and Ted Koppell, on limited options.
Comments (14)
Police Brutality? Not even close. In fact, the two Park Policemen reacted with restraint.
What the video does not tell us is that the police were most likely at the scene as a result of a call for service. One could speculate, given what the video does show, is that the call could have been for disorderly behavior.
Now if there are those out there that don't believe that the two officers could not have over-powered the man arrested in less than 30 seconds, then you don't know much about police training. The reason they did not is that it would have undoubtedly resulted in injury to the man and possible injury to the officers.
What they were doing was waiting for back-up once it became obvious that the man wasn't going to go quietly.
I also saw one obvious felony and possibly a second.
The police were also acted with restraint when it came to those witnesses who were obviously ignoring lawful orders to back off. Interferring in these situations is also illegal.
I would have to agree that there was no brutality, I think the police actually did a great job by just keeping separation between yellow shirt guy and the officer arresting his girlfriend to keep it from getting ugly.
Having said that it really appears that the police took a nothing situation and escalated it. The guy was leaving, unhappily with a few choice words, but leaving. The men in blue need to check their egos and let the situation dissolve when they can. Had they done that they (nor anyone else) would have been in danger and nobody would have to go to jail.
Far too often the characteristics that make a person a great police officer make a police officer a horrible person.
I agree, Max did a fine job with his Winehouse feature, and the root cause of a lot of pain for both the famous and the not-so-famous.
To me, it does not look like 'brutality'. However, I think a lot of these cases come about be police just taking action and not trying to guide the situation. I couldn't hear much of what was being said, but the body languages told the story pretty well. What I don't understand is that when an officer is going to subdue a suspect they don't tell them and give a chance to surrender. I feel like if the officers had said they had to put cuffs on him he probably wouldn't have resisted as much. Simply going straight for the arm of someone who does not appear to be any threat seems a bit excessive. Then again, I couldn't hear what was being said.
While the arrest for swearing seems dumb (I assume there was more going on there), I don't see any brutality at all. The officers did a very good job and were professional. I've seen videos of police brutality and this was not one of them.
While I am usually generally supportive of and grateful for the police, this incident makes me furious!! I don’t know all the details, of course, but it really looks like the officers CAUSED that situation. They were just angry at the man because they didn't like what he was saying. He was leaving, for crying out loud! There was no apparent need to arrest him. It didn’t appear that they were going to do so before he swore at them (I would be very surprised if there's an ordinance against swearing in a public park). The guy should have controlled his anger, but the officers were the ones who should have been in control of the situation. It did not need to escalate the way it did.
I would say there was no brutality up until when they sat on him and wouldn't let him breathe. I know I would have trouble breathing in a situation like that. And they wouldn’t let him up for a very long time -- unnecessarily. He hadn’t been violent before that, and there was no reason to believe he would be violent if they had let him get up with handcuffs on. That was completely unnecessary.
I imagine there might be something wrong or illegal about yelling the way he was (disturbing the peace?), but the officers egged him on. He was relatively calm until their actions escalated the situation. Whatever the officers were there for – maybe somebody called because the guy had been doing something wrong or illegal before the tape started – didn’t seem to be a very big deal when they first got there.
The woman shouldn’t have hit and pushed the officers – they were probably justified in arresting her. But I don’t know if they were justified in using mace on her. I think the officers’ egos took over this situation. They did not act professionally, judging from what I could see.
I can imagine for Amy Winehouse she saw herself as being famous and at the top, having anything she would ever want and still felt rather empty.
27 years of life is a common denominator for Jimmy Hendrix, Janice Joplin, Kurt Cobain to name a few.
Money and fame cannot buy happieness
I would file the cop thing under abuse of power, anover abundance of available yang and red bull. : >)
"PB2-16. - Prohibited language and conduct.
No threatening, profane, abusive, disorderly, insulting or indecent language, conduct or behavior, nor any act tending to a breach of the public peace, shall be allowed in or upon any park, parkway, beach, playground or park waters; nor shall any person play at games of chance, drink intoxicating liquor, or be drunk, or do any indecent, lascivious, lewd or improper act therein. (Code 1960, As Amend., § 1010.210)"
///"PB2-16. - Prohibited language and conduct.
No threatening, profane, abusive, disorderly, insulting or indecent language, conduct or behavior, nor any act tending to a breach of the public peace, shall be allowed in or upon any park, parkway, beach, playground or park waters; nor shall any person play at games of chance, drink intoxicating liquor, or be drunk, or do any indecent, lascivious, lewd or improper act therein. (Code 1960, As Amend., § 1010.210)"
holy shlit annonymous! looks like you're gonna need a bigger boat...i mean jail.
If you have ever been in a predicament like this or have been close witness to, you would see the provoking action of the police officer. Some poster above mentioned that the man was leaving, (obviously upset) the police could have kindly stepped aside and allowed the man to leave. Problem solved but instead they chose to heighten the aggression.
Misuse of power
A couple of commenters have pointed out that the man was trying to leave the park and the police would not allow him to do so.
Well, there is a good reason for that. He was already under arrest when this video piece started. He wasn't going anywhere.
Exactly what Duke says. The guy had already gotten himself arrested when he decided to leave. Maybe he should have decided to leave before the police officers got to the point of arresting him.
And I doubt the cops were hiding undercover waiting for the first person to swear at the beach. Something happened that lead to him being put under arrest.
As for sitting on him, he clearly was a threat to the officers. He had not cooperated at that point and didn't deserve to be treated gently. And he could breathe. If you can talk you can breathe.
How do you know he was already under arrest? Were you there? If so, you should say so. If not, how do you know? It didn't appear that he was under arrest when the video started. They weren't doing anything that looked like arresting someone.
He was BARELY able to breathe. I could hear it in his voice. And he didn't do ANYTHING that looked like a threat to the officers. That's ridiculous. All he did was yell after they provoked him. Not being cooperative and being threatening are two very different things. There was absolutely no need to sit on him the way they did.
Whether or not the guy did something wrong before the video started, the officers handled the situation very poorly, and I am disgusted. And, again, I say this as someone who usually has a lot of respect and admiration for the police.
@Duke,
The when doesn't matter...what was he being arrested for? Swearing? As soon as you are going to arrest someone for that you are escalating the situation and creating a problem. Consider the Adam Vs. The Man videos where the people are arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial (http://is.gd/xz1moa)...clearly you have people that are seeking to get arrested for publicity but in the end they are just dancing. When the police escalate the situation they run the risk of being hurt themselves or hurting the person they are arresting. This is even a hundredfold worse when you are arresting someone for an offense that many people commit every day without being arrested for.
The police were not abusive here but clearly in the wrong. Bad cop, no donut.
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