Imamu Baraka: Compassion Above All Else

A week ago Tuesday, a few minutes before midnight, the temperature in Baltimore was below freezing. A man named Imamu Baraka stepped out of his office on Howard Street, near the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus for a quick trip to the drugstore. He encountered security guards from the hospital pushing a young woman in a wheelchair, who was dressed only in a hospital gown and socks, despite the frigid cold.The reasons she came to be taken out of the hospital by security guards are also unclear. What is clear, however, is that Mr. Baraka saw something, and said something. He got involved. And he showed extraordinary compassion and concern for a woman who was a stranger to him. We continue our discussion about accessibility to care for those who suffer from mental health issues and are in the grips of homelessness, with Dr. Jonathan Sheppard of the Black Mental Health Alliance and Philip Reese, Pulitzer Prize winning finalist and reporter for the Sacramento Bee who has written about similar incidents in Nevada.

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