San Jose has the highest rate of police killings relative to the overall murder rate of any of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. Three mentally ill people have been killed by the SJPD since the summer of 2003. Indybay reporter Peter Maiden spent the last eight months on the beat of police issues in San Jose. This is the second of two installments of the article that is the culmination of his efforts, an in-depth investigative report on how police and corrections officers in San Jose deal with the mentally ill. Peter went from being embedded with the SJPD for a day to attending many meetings of the activist Coalition for Justice and Accountability. He exposes the reality of life for the mentally ill inside the Jail. And he writes that the situation cannot be fixed without change that is essentially revolutionary. Previous Indybay stories by Peter on police issues in San Jose include: A Meeting on Police Killings, Commission Meets on Police Violence, A Nurse’s Story, A Prisoner’s Story, Trial in the Killing of Rudy Cardenas, March for Rudy Cardenas, San Jose Copwatch, and A Call to Ban Tasers.
Read Part One | Read Part Two