"A protest is a great American right. I support peaceful protests. "The Reverend Kinzer Pointer, pastor of Agape Fellowship Church in Buffalo says
one of the great failings in our American healthcare system is around mental health.
"One of the reasons you're seeing confrontations like the
police officers faced on Saturday in Buffalo - is because we no longer have a
full range of treatment options for people with mental health. We need to fix that and fix it yesterday," he said.
Pointer is fully supportive of peaceful protests, as long as the reason for the
engagement is clear, and does not get off on tangents. "When you protest,
you have to engage in conversation. And conversation means you have to negotiate, which means you have to compromise. Talking to each other is extremely valuable," he said.
But are larger messages of racial and social justice getting damaged due to the recent mental health incident in Buffalo? It's one thing to support the idea of racial and social justice, but another to support a man who struck a police officer with a baseball bat. "It's very possible that the man wielding a baseball bat is a stellar human being, said Rev. Pointer. But it highlights the fact that we have failed on the mental health side with regard to healthcare."
Pointer said it's time we give police proper training when dealing with mental health issues. "We need to embed mental health professionals in our law enforcement departments who are readily available and who can come to a scene of a mental health issue." The 9-1-1 call in the case on Saturday at Genesee and Ash Streets indicated it was a mental health situation. "Working collaboratively is our best option," he said.
Pointer was asked if Buffalo is unique or like other cities going through strife at this time. "Buffalo is like every American city," he said. "But we have to recognize that we're on this journey together. And in order to be our best as a community, we have to help each other to be our best as individuals."
He says Buffalo has the opportunity to show the rest of the nation how to do this.
