![]() The group’s news release goes on to say “The plaintiffs include people who were arrested simply for having a mental health diagnosis – or even just being perceived of having a mental health diagnosis – and who were not a harm to themselves or others, but were nevertheless forcibly strapped to gurneys or otherwise restrained and taken against their will to a hospital. The policy creates a “concrete risk” that people will be detained “for merely living with their illness while in a public place,” the motion says and that the new policy violates the Americans With Disabilities Act and the New York City Human Rights Law, as well as constitutional rights. Police officers, the filing says, have “little to no expertise” in handling people with mental disabilities who could be “forcefully - often violently - detained. The motion calls for a temporary restraining order to block the policy from going into effect. In collaboration with NY Lawyers for the Public Interest, NAMI-NYC, Community Access and Correct Crisis Intervention Today-NYC, a civil rights law firm argued that the new policy allows a police officer to commit a person to a hospital against his or her will, violating the constitutional right to due process and to protection from improper search and seizure. ![]() NYAPRS Note: NYAPRS greatly welcomes the action taken yesterday by our legal rights and mental health advocacy colleagues to legally challenge New York City’s new plan to take more homeless people with ‘perceived’ mental illnesses to hospitals against their will if they are deemed a danger to themselves.
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