D. Carlos Brown recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons. You see, he’s the guy who allegedly stabbed Arena Zerusa, and let’s just say, he may have taken a few too many detours on the way to making rational decisions. Now, if you’ve ever seen a reality TV show where the characters seem out of touch with reality, you might have an inkling of what D. Carlos was like when police had to step in after he was found wandering around in distress. Spoiler alert: the distress wasn’t from a bad haircut or a broken smartphone.

In a recently released body cam footage, D. Carlos has what he believes is an absolute emergency. Apparently, he woke up “on the ground” and thought this was a signal to unleash a wild tale about how he was exposed to some secret material that nobody else has ever encountered. His conversation with the police could easily win awards for most convoluted dialogue. It’s like watching someone try to explain quantum physics after an all-night binge on energy drinks. The officers did their best, but you could almost see the wheels turning in their heads, desperately trying to keep up with D. Carlos’s thought processes, which seemed to veer off the deep end more frequently than he did.

Now, let’s take a step back. Here’s a man who is clearly struggling with understanding reality, yet the system let him roam free. With a history of multiple arrests—like he’s collecting them as if they were Pokémon cards—you can’t help but wonder what sort of policy decisions led to him being out on the streets. It’s like sending a kid with a severe peanut allergy into a candy store—what did anyone think was going to happen? Even the police officers on the scene could see that they were dealing with someone who wasn’t quite all there, and at one point, they essentially told him, “Yeah, we can’t help you, buddy.” Ouch.

Of course, it leads us to the broader issue at play here: how society handles mental health and criminal behavior. The conversation about deinstitutionalization is a tricky one, often filled with well-intentioned sentiment that doesn’t account for the messy reality that not everyone can be treated with a warm smile and a clipboard. D. Carlos was quite adamant that someone had committed a crime against him—right before he seemed to forget what day it was or what a coherent sentence sounded like. The stark reality is that without proper facilities or mental health resources, we end up dealing with these situations in ways that are neither effective nor safe.

And let’s not ignore the elephant in the room: the catch-22 this places law enforcement in. They are not mental health professionals. When dealing with someone like D. Carlos, they’re essentially put in a position where they must choose between diverting their attention away from actual crimes or engaging with someone whose narrative makes as much sense as a dog trying to recite Shakespeare. Sadly, such encounters often end with the officers saying they will have to lock someone up for misusing emergency services, as the cycle of lack of care continues on. It’s almost as if D. Carlos is a case study in how to be pitifully incompetent in a way that makes it impossible for everyone involved to win.

So, here we are, left to wonder how many more D. Carlos Browns are out there wandering around, convinced that mysteries beyond our understanding are being wrought upon their very beings. The current system is leaving far too many vulnerable individuals out on the streets, while also putting law enforcement in a tough spot. One thing’s for sure: brighter ideas are needed to tackle mental health issues while ensuring the safety of everyone involved—because right now, it seems we’re just playing a game of “Who Can Ignore the Problem Longer.” D. Carlos’s saga is another uncomfortable reminder that it’s high time we reworked the system. After all, the only thing worse than a person lost in their thoughts is a society that lets it happen unchecked.