Michigan Social Work Demands Justice and Accountability for Daniel Prude

We are angry and disheartened at the recently released video showing Daniel Prude’s death at the hands of police in March. This treatment of police officers toward Prude, a Black man with mental health issues, is the latest of too long a series of police brutality cases that stain our nation. We grieve with Prude’s family and recognize the cruel and inhumane restraints that led to his death. Black Lives Matter. We demand justice, accountability and racial equality. We also call for a complete and fundamental philosophical overhaul in the training and behavior of police officers, giving them the tools to respond to mental health crises with critical health interventions and trauma-informed policing.