MENTAL ILLNESS AND ADDICTION CAUSED TRAGIC DEATH, NOT POLICE

Re: Distraught dad angry at police as he grapples with son's death,
Ian Mulgrew, Feb. 23

Why does columnist Ian Mulgrew turn a very sad story into an
opportunity to point possible criticism at the police? The tragic
death of John Erslavas Jr. still haunts some of the officers who were
there when he died -how could it not? But like many accidental deaths
or suicides, what caused this young man's death was mental illness
and drug addiction. He had fought his addiction for years and on this
cold wet, dark night his drug-twisted, distorted and delusional
thought process was making him believe something that was not reality.

We all know very well that people on street drugs can and will do
some bizarre things, and, yes, the police get called to such
incidents every day, and sometimes someone dies. Is this the police
officer's fault? Is it the fault of the paramedic or firefighters for
not getting there quicker? No, it is the fault of all of us. We have
allowed our governments to let our mental health care and justice
systems deteriorate to an overburdened state. Not enough of us have
stood up and said enough is enough.

Instead we have organized crime gangs gunning themselves down in our
streets amid our homes, fighting over the profitable drug trade. We
have people who clearly should be hospitalized for mental illness
issues and drug addiction wandering the streets and self-medicating
with drugs brought in by those same gangsters.

John Erslavas Jr. was clearly loved dearly by his parents. If only
the system had been there for them, if only the drug trade had not
been allowed to flourish, if only government officials had listened
to mental health care professionals, maybe John and others like him
would still be here.

Tom Seaman

North Vancouver