If a police officer finds you pinning your little brother down in a van, with a knife in your hand, and you fail to relinquish that knife, proceed to struggle physically with that police officers, kicking and otherwise striking him, you will be shot. There are no exceptions to this. If you are white, black, brown, yellow, red, purple, or polka-dot. If you are straight, gay, young, old, rich, poor, smart, or dumb, you will be shot. With bullets. From a gun. There are no exceptions for mental health. Indeed, brandishing a knife at a police officer is an excellent indication that you are unstable and an immediate danger to the people around you. And you will be shot.

This week the District Attorney of Sonoma County wrapped up an investigation into just such an incident last year. A young man, only 16 years old, had a mental health crisis that resulted in a 911 call, his family trying to lock themselves in a van to keep away from him, a brief hostage situation and struggle, a bloodied police officer being kicked to the ground, and another police officer opening fire once the other officer was out of the way. The DA found that the police officers had acted legally, and that there was no crime in the shooting.

Since this finding, there has been a renewed rash of accusations that the local police do not understand mental health issues and aren’t handling these situations correctly. I certainly agree that the death of Jeremiah Chass is unfortunate. Had things not gotten to the point they did, with an irrational, violent outburst, he likely would have gone on to be a productive member of society. Once it went that far, once he decided to violently resist being taken by his family to the hospital, once he broke into that van and took hold of his sibling, it was already too late. The police officers did what they had to do to protect the younger boy, each other, and the community. You are not allowed to brandish a knife at police officers. You are not allowed to attack police officers. Society requires that they put themselves between irrational, violent people and ordinary civilians, and when they do this, they have the right to defend themselves.