Opinion | Less lethal means of controlling erratic behavior should be tried first

I was on a crisis response team at a mental health clinic. We were taught to de-escalate a very aggressive person according to that person’s degree of agitation. Only the most severe behavior indicated a need to take the person down, and only after less intrusive interventions. The entire point of the training was to keep everyone safe. I guess now if people exhibit erratic behavior because of a health or mental health problem, they can expect that bystanders might pin them to the floor until they die.