A PLACE FOR US TO MEET: MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN ANYTHING ELSE I CAN IMAGINE

By Jim Dougherty

A PLACE FOR US TO MEET: MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN ANYTHING ELSE I CAN IMAGINE is a gripping personal memoir of personal, spiritual and societal transformation.The book describes a tragic encounter between police officers and the author's depressed son in 2002, and the subsequent innovative process of dialogue and mediation which contributed to the expansion of an innovative but little-known program to better address the needs of the mentally-ill in a police department.The book begins in Kansas City, Missouri on the afternoon of November 11, 2002, the day Aaron Dougherty was killed by police officers. Aaron was experiencing a psychotic episode in his lifelong depression and recently diagnosed bi-polar disorder. He was 26-years-old. I was alone with Aaron and five police officers in my house. We all urged Aaron to drop his two knives. Aaron never moved or said a word, until he was shot precipitously eight times. The details of Aaron's shooting and its aftermath in the hospital are recounted, including the sudden vision of my wife, Karol, who mystically saw Aaron being held in the arms of Jesus in heaven.A description of the chaotic developments of the rest of the day of Aaron's killing follows. I try to answer the critical question posed to me by my wife, Karol: "Why didn't you protect your son?" I cannot sleep and discover my son's poem, the basis of the book's title, which has been overlooked by the police after ransacking his room.I am surprised by my wife's decision to forgive the police. We believe they mistakenly shot Aaron, even though the metropolitan newspaper and television coverage over the next two years report Aaron's death as the result of his personal irrationality and a desire on his part to die through suicide-by-cop. I briefly present stages of grief and spiritual transformation. I address my search for generational links to depression in the history of my family, and recount my journey through counseling, anti-depressant medication and prayer to uncover a secret murder in my family history, which had a mysterious connection to Aaron's death. A critical theme in the book is our work together as husband and wife to deal with our son's death, and to face our own partial responsibility for Aaron's death.I then move ahead 14 years to the period in 2017 during which I spent seven months caring for my 90-year-old parents. I uncover the deeper genetic link to Aaron's state of mind, allowing me to find some closure and deeper explanation for Aaron's death.The book alternates between recent discoveries as well as our actions 14 years' earlier. I address our decision to engage an attorney to assist our family with investigating a non-adversarial and unique approach to justice for our son.I describe the grand jury process and the approach we took to our unprecedented meeting with the Police Board President 11 months after Aaron's death, and the outcome of that meeting and five subsequent meetings with police officials. I provide critical information on police innovations in training for interactions with the mentally ill, primarily the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) program. As a result, the police department agreed to engage in an unusual mediation involving a distinguished federal judge. That climatic process and the deliberations are described in intimate and candid detail, as is the subsequent press conference where we presented our historic agreement to change police practice in Kansas City.The book includes several unique angles of great interest to families suffering grief as well as to police personnel and students of psychology. It describes the progression and development of mental illness in the author and in his family, offers a new and unique process of restorative justice through non-adversarial discussion and mediation, and addresses forgiveness and healing for intense suffering.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1549858076
• ISBN13: 9781549858079
• Release Date: October 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 123 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.3" x 5.1"