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Two years on from police shooting Jesse Deacon who was in severe mental breakdown at a Glebe public housing estate, family and friends rally for justice.

We will call for an end to the senseless killing of mentally ill citizens by the NSW Police Force. We want to stop police attending as first responders attending mentally incapacitated people in distress and from killing community members with impunity.

Stand with us to demand reform in services and their funding from governments and in holding the police force accountable for wrong doing and insufficient provision of care.

In July 2023, Jesse Deacon suffered an acute breakdown and acute psychotic episode in his Glebe public housing home. Jesse was self harming at home, by cutting his arm. He then went to his neighbor, asking for cigarettes. The well-meaning, concerned neighbor rang ‘000’, and police also arrived and forcibly entered his home, intervening before the ambulance arrived. He was shot and killed. Jesse’s tragic death was entirely avoidable and leaves behind traumatised friends and family.

Tragically, Jesse is not the only victim of these fatal practices. In the last five years in NSW, over 55 and ongoing people experiencing mental illness were killed in interactions with police.

Some of the victims were : Ron Levi (Bondi Beach 1997), Jason Chapman(Yarraville 2004), Daniel Ralph (Boorloo/Perth 2007), Tyler Cassidy (Victoria 2008), Adam Salder (Lakemba 2009), Elijah Holcombe (Armidale 2009), Amanda Jones (Perth 2011), Courtney Topic (Western Sydney 2015), Todd Davis (2017) Jack Kokana (Camperdown 2018), Timothy Garner (2018), Dwayne Johnstone (2019) Todd McKenzie (Taree 2019), Brandon Rich (2021) Simon Cartwright (2021), Michael Peachey (2021), Kevin Edwards (2022) Clare Nowland (Cooma 2023), Steve Pampalian (North Willoughby 2023), Jesse Deacon (Glebe 2023), and Krista Kach (Newcastle 2023).

The NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission May 2023 report into NSW police critical incidents involving death or injury found that of the 157 incidents from 2017-2022, 43 percent of them involved people experiencing an acute mental health episode.

Rising cost-of-living stress exacerbates mental health problems among our community. Natural disasters, war, ongoing environmental concerns, housing affordability and homelessness add to anxiety pressures and the everyday reality of being able to cope.

Black deaths in custody, suicides, domestic violence and the impact of COVID add additional burdens for vulnerable people.

Increasing pressures means the government and their agencies need to be extra responsible for caring for the community and saving lives - not taking them.

The NSW Council of Social Services report a 21% increase in the community of self-reported mental health issues consistent with depression or anxiety. Indeed, over the last decade there was a 21% increase in community mental health patients, yet funding for those services only increased by 13% in the same period. There are 58,000 people in NSW suffering a severe and complex mental illness, estimated to be missing out on psychosocial support services.

In June 2024, findings from the Inquiry Equity, accessibility and appropriate delivery of outpatient and community mental health care in New South Wales found the NSW Police were deployed to 64,000 mental health-related incidents in 2022. Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson was quoted to say that for many of those incidents, police should not have attended. We agree.

Crisis mental health response programs exist that don’t involve police, but these are de-prioritised and underfunded. The Western Sydney Health Model Teams respond to acute distress of community members without police involvement. The South Australian core model allows Triple Zero calls to be referred to mental health clinician and paramedic, not police.

The NSW government has not shown any interest in implementing a fully-funded health response to mental health crises. The initial NSW funding response of $109 million in June 2024 acknowledged the dire need for a total overhaul of the NSW mental health system. An acknowledgment is a start but we need to implement the necessary, known solutions, with substantial budget assistance.

Police continue to inappropriately attend to acute situations, and often exacerbate situations. Their interventions result in killing vulnerable people suffering from a mental illness.

Adding to this mental health crisis, police act with impunity. Police continue to harass and kill Aboriginal people with impunity.

Join us in taking a stand against the police force being the first responders called out in a community-wide mental health crisis.

Mental health is an affliction not a crime.

Justice for Jesse Deacon and all the other victims of police violence occurring while someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, is a call for:

1/ An end to the senseless killing of mentally ill community members by police.
2/ Mental illness is a health problem, not a police problem. We want an end to sending police into mental health crisis cases.
3/ Provide specially trained mental health first responders programs nationally, to replace police.
4/ The federal government, with new infrastructure, must immediately fund the development and expansion of ‘000’ to include the addition of a mental health response hotline so
people can call mental health workers, not police.
5/ Relevant governments must reinstate supported, quality and dignified accommodation for mentally ill people, fully federally funded, and free. We need a massive funding injection with no diminished rights embedded in the structure for mental health, government run, quality services.
6/ End police investigating police. End police impunity from the time of the incident, not the time of the court outcomes. Accountability and repercussions are currently not in place.
7/ Implement any Coroners’ Recommendations from cases involving police killing people in mental distress.

Organised by Judy Deacon (Jesse's mother), Action for Public Housing, Justice Action, Sydney Socialist Alliance, Greens NSW, Hands Off Glebe, Australia-NZ Lived Experience Advisory Council for Police Related Deaths (ANZLEACPRD), others TBC.

Contact 9283 0123 or 0403 517 266

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