And, indeed, the death of Francis Ramos brings the plague of the mismanagement of mental health cases once more to the fore. Over the years, countless mentally ill persons have been killed in similar situations with the police. And that's because so many of them roam the streets - there's no system for handling persons in acute states of mental illness. And, it's left to police to deal with these dangerous situations. The exasperated Compol says everything is thrown at his department:
Chester Williams, Commissioner Of Police
"Many people don't like the police until they need the police but the. The nature of our job dictates to us that it isn't about who likes us. We have sworn to do a job and we must do that job to the best of our ability but again everything Is thrown at the police even things that should not be the police's responsibility for example dealing with mentally challenged persons is not the responsibility of the police but again because some organizations who are supposed to be there to deal with these persons are not doing it then we have to be the ones to be out there confronting these individuals be that as it may I have seen many mentally challenged persons and they are not aggressive. You can speak to them, they listen and they understand but obviously, history has shown us that Mr. Ramos is an aggressive person and when you are dealing with an aggressive person you have two be extremely careful and so I would not even have advised the persons from the mental health institutions to accost a person of Ramos's nature because perhaps they would have been killed just as, I believe it was the case with, um, the guy Elijio, I hope that's the name who had caused the death of Mr. Vasquez's brother in the cell block when he was taken to the mental health hospital, he also injured the nurse who was there so again police, health professionals and anyone who has to confront mentally challenged people to have to do so cautiously and must always ensure to have their personal safety at the forefront of their duty."
