Fundraising for FOIA Fullerton PD and Henrico PD “Handling the Mentally Ill” Training Manuals

In April, Henrico, VA police shot an unarmed man, Allen Skeens, in the torso just for a destruction of property call (he was upset and throwing things at his mother’s unoccupied car). This man, by the way, allegedly has “Bipolar Disorder.” Many of these people that get wrongly brutalized and murdered by police have mental health concerns. This is because POLICE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO HANDLE AND DEESCALATE PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS—IT SAYS IN THEIR TRAINING THAT THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE REQUIRED TO DO…NOT BEAT THEM OR SHOOT THEM.

Here’s an article about Allen Skeens: https://mindfulliberation.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/rva-police-shoot-unarmed-bipolar-man-near-freeman-high-school-thursday/

We have also posted multiple articles about Kelly Thomas on this site: https://mindfulliberation.wordpress.com//?s=kelly+thomas

Our group, Mindful Liberation Project, has put two Freedom of Information requests in. One for Henrico Police Department (Allen Skeens) and Fullerton Police Department (Kelly Thomas). We are requesting training manuals on how their police officers are trained in handling the “mentally ill.” We want justice for Kelly and Allen. We need answers.

But these documents are not free, and as we are a grassroots organization, we do not have any outside funding. Just for the Henrico documents it is $313, and we can only imagine how much Fullerton documents will be. Police Departments tend to make the price much higher in high-stakes situations like the Thomas and Skeens cases to get you to not go through with your request. Any help that we could get would be wonderful. https://mindfulliberation.wordpress.com/donate/

What we’ve raised as of 5/19!