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Suspicious Man Alarms Motorists on Houston-Harte Expressway Saturday Afternoon

By Joe Hyde, Aug 30, 2014
 

A suspicious man acting crazy was seen at the 300 block of Houston-Harte Expressway this afternoon. It was the catalyst for about 100 911 calls made by passers by, police dispatch said. He was hanging around dangerously close to the railing of the overpass of Veterans Memorial Blvd.

“The other officer asked him if he felt like hurting himself, and he said, ‘heck yeah!’” the police said. Mental health was called to evaluate him. Police implemented zone protection procedures to make sure he didn’t jump over the side of the overpass.

There is a possibility that drugs had a role in the incident, police said. “Since he may be on drugs, he’s going to go to get evaluated over at Shannon Medical Center. And from there, he may end up going to River Crest.”

“There were quite a number of 911 calls that came in about this guy. My other officer who was here said go ahead and speed it up, so we got here as quickly as we could,” he said.

The incident happened at approximately 2:48 p.m. Saturday. The scene was cleared within 45 minutes.

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It sounds like this man is in need of some kind of mental health assistance. That said, do you, Joe, have any idea how stigmatizing it is to chock-up the experience of people having a mental health crisis to "acting crazy?" Maybe there is no "acting" involved! And instead of "crazy," why can't we leave it at a group of 911 calls on a suspicious person? Or, better yet, find some news worth reporting elsewhere in the city and have some respect for the man's privacy. There are entire groups dedicated to de-stigmatizing mental illness. Let's start with this one, for the purpose of education: http://www.nami.org/
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who says he is mentally ill?... maybe he is just crazy, crazy, crazy. :) Actually the article says he was "acting crazy." that means his actions were crazy and not he was crazy.
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Some people have issues that cause them to do destructive things to themselves. Let the mental health experts evaluate them before just pasting the crazy label on them.
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live, Sat, 08/30/2014 - 18:57

I thought of that. But I also am reminded that there is a serious issue of how our state handles mental illness. "Out of sight" means out of mind. When the Texas Legislature starts cutting budgets to the state-run mental hospitals, I think it's appropriate for the news media to point out the problem so that the issue can be dealt with directly, and citizens are informed. By the way, I am not advocating one proposed solution over another. We are, with our reporting, pointing out circumstances where mental illness is a societal problem that needs to be handled. I say handled, because I don't think we can solve it, just manage it. --Joe

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Two in two days that have bats in the belfry...... Sounds like he needs to be put in the same asylum as the dude from yesterday to keep them out of society for now on.....
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This story from the Texas Observer http://www.texasobserver.org/want-treatment-mental-illness-go-to-jail/ helps put the problem in perspective. The largest mental health facility in Texas is the Harris County Jail in Houston.
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