By Jocelyn Wiener, Cal Matters, July 1, 2020
On the afternoon of June 2, 2019, psychosis convinced 23-year-old Miles Hall that a long iron gardening tool given to him by a neighbor had morphed into a staff gifted from God, his mother said. He used it to break his parents’ sliding glass door.
Looking for help, Miles’ grandmother, his mother and several neighbors called the police, explaining that Miles had serious mental health issues, according to recordings of 911 calls. Officers found him on a tree-lined street in the swimming-pool studded neighborhood he’d grown up in. As he ran toward the police, video footage shows, they shot him first with bean bags, then — when he didn’t slow down — with handguns. The Walnut Creek Police Department did not respond to calls for comment for this story.
A little more than a year after Miles died, his mother is lending her voice to AB 2054, which would create pilot programs to remove police from the response to crises involving mental illness and homelessness, as well as natural disasters and domestic violence. The bill seeks $10 million to fund up to a dozen pilot programs around the state. It would be administered through the state’s Office of Emergency Services.
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