In February, jurors found Andrew Buen guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the 2022 death of Christian Glass. Prosecutors alleged that Buen needlessly escalated a standoff with Glass, who showed signs of a mental health crisis and refused orders to get out of his SUV near Silver Plume, a small, former mining town along Interstate 70 in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver.

His parents and the agencies involved reached a $19 million settlement that also made changes to how officers are trained to respond to people in mental health crises.

    • taulover@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      If you don’t want people driving who aren’t in a mental state where they should be driving, then you need good viable alternatives to driving. Otherwise people will continue to suck it up and drive when they are tired, sick, stressed, had a single beer, etc.

      • Narauko@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I totally misread ‘good viable’ as good vibes, and immediately agreed despite having no substantive idea what that would be. Fleet of Magic School buses driven by assorted Ms. Frizzle’s? Cheech and Chong’s Uber service? Limo service where you get to answer suggestive Family Feud surveys with Steve Harvey? I don’t know, but I’m totally down for good vibes alternatives to driving.

        • meco03211@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          And still some won’t care. Worked at a bar for a bit. After work one night with a bunch of coworkers drinking. One had had too much but wanted to drive home. It would have been trivial for myself and one other sober person to get both her and her car home safely. She was still fumbling for some reason she needed to drive as we’d negated every excuse she had so far. Then in a small moment when we were distracted, she full on sprints away giggling and drove home. It was like one of those scenes about the troubles of parenting where you set the infant down swaddled, buckled in a carrier, and seemingly safe. The parent looks away for half a second. Cut back to the infant playing with a bottle of acid sitting in the knife drawer with their head inside the mouth of a lion that is now inexplicably in your house.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      He likely did not start driving the car in a mental health crisis. Oftentimes mental health issues are not persistent.

      Regardless, you seem to have missed the main issue somehow. Maybe try reading the article again.

    • comador @lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      More than 50% of all people in the world will experience at least one mental health crisis in their lives.

      “A mental health crisis is when someone’s behaviors prevent them from functioning or indicate they might harm themselves or others.”

      So anything from anxiety and depression to suicidal thoughts with specific symptoms can fit the definition of a mental health crisis.

      Thus why your comment is ridiculous.

      • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 days ago

        I could see calling panic attacks a “mental health crisis”.

        I had them years ago. I would feel one coming on during my drive home and so I would pull off into a parking lot, park the car, lay the driver’s seat all the way back, and blast the air conditioner while focusing on my breathing until I felt safe to drive again.

        I’m glad no one ever called the cops on me.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        They are smarter than you and have better opinions than you. They really need you to know this.