Florida PD Throws Black Activist in Psychiatric Facility After She Made Complaint to Bank
Florida PD throws Black activist in psychiatric facility after she made complaint to the bank her deposit was missing from her account.
Linda Stephens is a community activist and retired educator for Polk County Schools. Stephens asserts there were more than eight cameras when she deposited $600.00 into the ATM at Mid-Florida Credit Union in Bartow on April 13th, 2021. She spoke to several branch officials and showed them her receipt. Stephens also displayed her receipt to another bank official who informed her the funds would be visible in her account within 3 to 4 hours.
However, Mid-Florida never deposited the funds into her account. This discrepancy led to a dispute between Mid-Florida and Stephens. Following the dispute, a technician informed Mid-Florida that Stephens did make a deposit.
The following details of this story are a bit vague, but it appears two Florida PDs arrived on scene. Stephens asserts one officer stepped into the office and had his hand on his firearm, where he said, “I thought I heard her say ‘I have a gun and I’m going to shoot you.'”
None of the banking officials stood up for Stephens, leaving her alone to speak up for herself. Stephens further assert the Officer was intimidating her with his firearm, causing her to feel threatened. Out of fear of being shot, Stephens declared she never owned or shot a firearm, to which the Officer responded, “If you say to word gun, one more time, I’m going to arrest you.” Attempting to stand her ground, Stephens said: “gun.”
The Officer arrested Stephens, where he ejected her from the car and forced her into the booking station. There, Officers placed Stephens in a psychiatric holding facility, where they made claims against her for being psychotic and “suicidal,” which Stephens firmly disputes.
Florida PD Throws Black Activist in Psychiatric Facility After She Made Complaint to Bank. Have There Been Other Incidents?
As Stephens asserts, the ATM machine was equipped with a camera, which recorded the deposit. However, there are many instances were psychiatric abuse happens without the camera rolling.
Ryan C.W. Hall and Richard C.W. Hall also state psychiatric abuse may consist of an intentional misdiagnosis to discredit an individual, imprison them or, to cause their unemployment and loss of specific rights. An intentional misdiagnosis may also be to protect others (i.e., individuals in power). This quote appeared in Chapter 9 of Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry (2017, p. 846). Indeed, Jonathan M. Metzl calls this psychiatry abuse “protest psychosis.” In The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease (2011), Metzl draws a connection between the discriminatory perceptions of schizophrenia as a disease prone to Black people, and the continued pathologisation of them within systems that relies on language that has been shown to oppress.