BUFFALO (WBEN) - Early last week, city officials and members of the Buffalo Police Department held a press conference to demonstrate a non-lethal restraint known as BolaWrap, as the department is looking into a potential pilot program.
However, community activists held their own press conference Friday morning to condemn the use of BolaWrap.
"Apparently this is supposed to be a non-lethal way in which police will be capturing people, especially those who are in mental health crisis - this is a step in the wrong direction," said Eve Shippens, one of the leaders in the Allies for Black Justice. "Non-lethal is not non-harmful, and we very much believe that we should be using counselors, not cops, especially when we're talking about mental health crisis."
"You are not thinking about a real solution of defunding the police; you are not finding a real solution so that mental illness is really dealt with," said Christian Parra of Citizen Action. "This is going to cause more harm in our communities - it is time for real change, it is time to take money out of the budget to put it towards a real solution, and those are the people that are going to bring the restorative practice, not the restorative practice that they say the police is going to bring.
"This is not a source of more healing," Parra continued. "This is a source of more trauma, a source of more oppression, a source that they are going to say that they need to increase the budget of the Buffalo Police when we need to defund the police."
"We have long stated that police are not first responders, and they should not be the ones responding to mental health crises," said community activist De'Jon Hall. "We have called on the city to defund the police department and invest directly into communities. What we are seeing now is another step in the wrong direction...Harm reduction is the future of this city, and harm reduction is the only way to respond to mental health crises, and any other crises, in this city. Investing in BolaWraps is the wrong direction."
The activists did praise the Common Council for passing Cariol's Law earlier this week, and they encourage Mayor Byron Brown to sign it into law as soon as possible.
