Join us Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 5:30 PM for a SPEAK OUT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.

The unwarranted abuse, arrest and deaths of those in crisis must stop!  Now is the time to speak up!  We must demand answers and immediate change!  The criminalization and brutality must stop!

Community Crisis Intervention Teams are vital to reversing the trend of criminalizing people with mental illness and depriving them of the human rights that they deserve. People with mental illness need access to treatment, respite housing and other supports, not incarceration. The term Community Crisis Intervention Teams (CCITs) refers to programs that help individuals in crisis connect with community-based treatment and support services not the criminal justice system.

RIPPD knows from our own experiences, as well as stories ripped from the headlines, that the NYPD is not properly trained to respond to mental health crisis calls yet 911 and the NYPD continues to be the only resource made available to people in crisis. We believe that CCITs are the most effective way to ensure that people with mental illness in our communities are treated fairly by the NYPD. We refuse to be afraid that when we are in public, if we display “symptoms” of our mental illness, we will be under threat of arrest, imprisonment or even death. RIPPD believes that CCITs are the best way to make the NYPD more responsive to our needs and to give us a voice in the key decisions that impact us.

For more information see click here or contact Lisa Ortega at 646-260-6575