called 911 for help. Win was inside his family home in Queens with his mother and younger brother, Utsho. Two New York City Police officers arrived within two minutes. Utsho let them in the door, asking them to “be gentle” with Win, who was experiencing a psychotic episode like those he had had before and for which he had been hospitalized during the previous year.
There is now very little supportive infrastructure left to prevent or respond to the manifestations of poverty, desperation, ruptured social fabric, and healthcare exclusion that particularly affect Chicago’s Black and Latinx neighborhoods. In times of need, residents have few options but to request police who—despite wildly inappropriate training for the role—are effectively required to fill in as community mental health workers.
TNT’s popularity among voters is not in doubt. What remains to be seen is whether the Johnson administration will ultimately make the major investments needed for TNT to be successful. After including ain his first budget alongside a comparatively static City allocation for public health, Johnson has displayed a penchant for compromise with the sameand given them reason to doubt his commitment to TNT, particularly to the work of building the community care corps around which TNT revolves.