Rev. Frederick Shaw champions a campaign through CCHR and his Task Force Against Institutional Racism in the PsychiatricIndustry to stop the use of restraints that has led to so many lost African American lives. The tragedy of Cornelius Frederick in May 2020 raises concerns about institutional racism in the mental health and foster care/juvenile detention systems. As the 16-year old was restrained in a psychiatric facility for throwing a sandwich on the floor.

Rev. Fred Shaw wants to protect fellow African Americans from Psychotropic Drug Dangers, “Minority Mental Health Month was started with good intentions by author and advocate, the late Bebe Moore Campbell, but it’s been used to further target African Americans, Hispanics and others, getting them, hooked on damaging psychotropic drugs and even electroshocked.” – Rev. Frederick Shaw

Rev. Fred Shaw said the tragic death of Cornelius Frederick has sparked calls for a national ban on physical and chemical restraints in all psychiatric facilities. Michigan’s HHS said it “will change its policies to forbid the use of physical restraints in all its licensed and contracted facilities.”

Rev Fred Shaw, Executive Director of NAACP’s Inglewood-South Bay branch, announced a campaign to educate African Americans about the long history of their betrayal and other minorities in the psychiatric system, “We must fight for protections against damaging psychiatric treatment offered for the very real pain that racism and injustice brings and abolish the stereotypical labeling of this as a mental ‘disease.’”

Psychiatric restraints are socially invisible and should be prohibited. Like millions of others, we join in the calls for justice and a stop to racism, following the recent tragic death during a police restraint hold. We are encouraged by such a united voice and, as an extension of that, draw attention to “legal” restraint abuse that is not socially visible—behind psychiatric “hospital” walls.