I'm sure a social worker could have handled this situation, right?

Handled with total professionalism. This had a significant opportunity of going very very bad given the circumstances. . Sergeant Pojanamut should be recognized for descalating the situation.

I was there playing soccer next to him and he seemed like a nice guy as we shared a brief conversation. But, agreed, it was poor judgment on his part. I'm glad it was handled professionally.

Haha, as if! Not buying it!

Well done PAPD. Very pleased this did not turn into a shoot out in a place where children and others play normally in a very safe area.

Thank you Officer Panajamut - this situation could have ended up being awful.

One thing I take issue with is your saying we are in a state of “civil unrest’”. That’s absurd. If that is how the PAPD views our few peaceful rallies and marches, some involving our Congresswoman, Mayors, Assemblyman, and County Supervisor, and Marches with City Council members participating, not once but more times. And those with no elected were of course similarly peaceful. This over reactive mindset is toxic.

Here is how civil unrest is defined:
“Civil unrest is typically defined by as a gathering of three or more people, in reaction to an event, with the intention of causing a public disturbance in violation of the law. Civil unrest typically involves damage to property or injury to other people.”

So we have great work by this Officer but we have a systemic problem in the PAPD.

This situation should be investigated for possible bias by community members and potentially the police. This individual was reportedly "building a bomb", but how many community members even know what "building a bomb" looks like? There was a recent case of an African American kid reported for "building a bomb" that was actually a clock. If this person in El Camino Park had been white, would he have even been reported? These are questions that community members and police need to ask themselves so that we can improve our society and eliminate racial bias.

These are not normal times and whatever label you decide to call the emotional state most of us are living in, it is not very restful, peaceful or very normal.

People are not working, kids are not doing normal summer activities, any large group is not allowed due to social distancing, large numbers of people are out and about in public wearing masks - something that in the past would have been frightening in itself, people are on edge. Every day in the news we see pictures of various types of violence, we have seen looting in normally peaceful areas, and we in Palo Alto have been put under curfew.

If this does not put people's perceptions of times of "unrest", I don't know what will.

We are going stir crazy and it only takes seeing something a little odd to scare normally rational people into protective action.

I was there. All I know is that a raggedly looking guy was sitting on a field, and was met with about 10 officers with riot shields and large weapons. After handcuffing him while he was on his knees at gunpoint (we was cooperative when they yelled through a bullhorn and saw the paramilitary coming his way), they talked to him for a long while before letting him go.

Didn't look like a kevlar vest to me. Looked like a very loose, thin, sleeveless shirt. Obviously he had nothing and did nothing, otherwise they wouldn't have let him go with nothing but trauma. Could be wrong, but I am sharing what my eyes observed.

@"If this person in El Camino Park had been white... "

The individual did not appear to be a minority.

Rather have civil unrest than uncivil unrest.

History makes me suspect that if he had been a black man he would have been treated differently. He would have been viewed as a hostile, threatening, outsider--no matter how compliant he may have been.

Thanks for deescalating a potential tough situation Officer.
These are the times of civil unrest.Period. People all over the country are sad, angry and are trying to protest the killing of unarmed, captive men and women of color. Many of these rallies have erupted into violent ones due to police folks wrestling their muscles, and many looters taking the cover up of a good cause rally. If any doubt look around you.
The 18 y/o was advised wisely and acted wisely in response too.
Social workers wouldn't be a wise first choice to provide any intervention. But as a second line of support, definitely along with mental health therapist.

There has been some "civil unrest" in elsewhere. I haven't seen any here. Only peaceful protests, protected by the US Constitution. In Palo Alto, only -small- peaceful protests. A "large" peaceful protest is relative to the location, but, we seniors recall a few 250,000-500,000 crowds back in the 1960's. Hundreds of thousands, not hundreds. And I don't appreciate confusing peaceful protests with riots.

I also am very confused by the descriptions of this incident. They seem inconsistent. Is this a "Karen"-type incident? Bomb? Body armor? Are there pictures of what people say they saw? And, since owning firearms is legal, was the person actually doing something threatening? What?

Do I have this right? There was no bomb, he wasn't wearing body armor, didn't have a hand gun, and the weapon was a BB gun.

I am glad the Palo Alto police handled it well and didn't overreact.

The issue I see is he looks very thin and malnourished....please help those in our society that are less fortunate...maybe police could have given him a ride to a local soup kitchen or charity...

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Well trained, well paid officers make this happen. PAPD was on the streets throughout COVID, while most everyone else was isolating at home. Remember this kind of incident when the city wants to cut their pay this year.

Cleaning any type of gun in a public area is poor judgment. It's threatening to any community, and some residents will call the police. I'm not one to call the police myself, but I appreciate those who do. They're erring on the side of caution, and that's a good thing.

Read Nextdoor and see just how suspicious people are. From people walking looking into cars, to people standing staring at homes, and people wearing masks and not wearing masks, everyone seems to be on alert, looking for potential problems. People are calling the police for anything that looks suspicious, cars asking for directions, cars being left for days on end (not too surprising when nobody is working), kids playing in other people's yards, etc. etc. etc.

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I was jogging past when this first started, but only paused to watch briefly before continuing on and letting the police do their jobs. They had Alma blocked off, and over one vehicle's PA I heard (as I left) them ordering the man to put his hands up. Then, 15 minutes later when I passed back through, everyone was gone. Great. professional job by the PAPD, and yet another example of why their funding should NOT be cut. Maybe others don't care about public safety, but I do--I don't want to be shot or blown up as I jog along city streets.

Posted by TimR, a resident of Downtown North

>> I was jogging past when this first started, but only paused to watch briefly before continuing on

So, did you see anything like what is alleged to have been called-in? Like, the "body armor" or "bomb"? In the picture, the guy is shirtless. (And, extremely skinny.). But, he does have his social-distancing face cover.

Not sure what I would have made of this had I seen it. But after 9/11 a new phrase, “If you see something, say something” came into existence. The public was advised of this, makes sense. Nothing wrong with investigating unusual activity. I wouldn’t be able to distinguish various types of guns or BB guns...why clean any gun out in a park? Seems worthy of dispatching police to check it out and secure the scene because the public could have been shot. My ancestor had one eye shot out from a BB gun.

@Anon,
"So, did you see anything like what is alleged to have been called-in?"

No, I figured the police had chased him there, due to some other incident someplace else. He looked like a generic homeless person to me.

Posted by Anonymous, a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis

>> Seems worthy of dispatching police to check it out and secure the scene because the public could have been shot.

TBH, onceuponatime, I would call police occasionally to make a wellness check on a homeless person who clearly couldn't manage on their own. No more. I've read too many news stories, a few of them pretty close to home.

Too often, police show up, give someone "a lawful order", the person doesn't respond the way they are supposed to, and, bang. It happens all the time. Whole websites devoted to listing mentally ill people killed by police completely needlessly. And, when you read the accounts, clearly most police simply have no training with how to deal with mentally ill people.

We need public safety units trained to deal with mentally ill people.

So no, I don't call. I've given away food and coupons for food when I happened to have them. Some people I know seek out homeless people to help this way. Nobody I know calls police, because, for some reason, most police expect the homeless mentally ill to behave rationally. For some reason, they don't.

@Anon
Sadly, point well taken...

Posted by Anonymous, a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis

>> Sadly, point well taken...

I can't vouch for this organization, Web Link , but, I have used their website, which has some very fact-oriented information on this topic. e.g., Web Linkoverlooked-in-the-undercounted

Sorry to follow up my own post, but, the website cited above has a very useful section, the "Preventable Tragedies Database".

Web Link

This is a database of incidents that can be queried by date or other info. For people who would like to explore what kinds of things happen when law enforcement responds to incidents involving mental illness. I was able to test it using several incidents that I recalled some details of.