Parents called for mental health help. Police arrived and fatally shot their son.

Less than 10 seconds after officers opened the door, police shot Yong Yang in his parents’ Koreatown home while he was holding a knife during a bipolar episode.

Parents in Los Angeles’ Koreatown called for mental health help in the middle of their son’s bipolar episode this month. Clinical personnel showed up — and so did police shortly after.

Police fatally shot Yong Yang, 40, who had a knife in his hand, less than 10 seconds after officers opened the door to his parents’ apartment where he had locked himself in, newly released bodycam video shows.

Now the parents of Yang, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around 15 years ago, have told NBC News exclusively that they are disputing part of the account captured on bodycam, in which police recount a clinician’s saying Yang was violent before the shooting on May 2.

Bluefalcon,

Everyone say it with me, FUCK THE POLICE!

Anyone that had lose someone to yhe police knows how hard it is to get “justice.” Especially if they are sheriffs.

p5yk0t1km1r4ge,
@p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world avatar

Oh look, another crime against a minority in America! I am SHOCKED.

JonEFive,

Note to everyone here: 988 is a new emergency number for mental health crises. 988lifeline.org

Tygr,

They too will call authorities when a dangerous weapon is in play.

Red_October,

At this point we need to treat Police with rules similar to the handling of a firearm. Always assume they can go off, only ever point them at something you’re willing to kill, and be aware of possible collateral damage.

PrettyFlyForAFatGuy,

“police recount a clinician’s saying Yang was violent before the shooting on May 2”

Yeah, they knew that surely.

They knew they were going into an environment where someone with diminished mental capacity had access to bladed weapons.

They likely knew he was actively wielding bladed weapons.

They had access to less than lethal methods of self defence, tasers, body armour, mace, tranquilizers, superior numbers, training in hand to hand combat, fucking nets etc.

They chose to use firearms in lieu of these and shot a mentally ill person to death unnecessarily.

Guns should be a last resort, not a first resort

tortillaPeanuts,

They likely knew he was actively wielding bladed weapons.

I watched the full video. They were repeatedly told he didn’t have any weapons. The clinician just said the man was violent and kicked him.

I have no idea why they didn’t use less than lethal first, they talk about it but I don’t know which officer was tasked with it. It seems like they didn’t expect him to be armed when they entered.

Dasus,

American cops are such fucking pussies

Acab tho but especially American ones

Suavevillain,
@Suavevillain@lemmy.world avatar

The less interactions with Police you have the better. Even if a family member is having a mental health episode, you’re better off trying to figure out something yourself at this point. This same thing keeps happening where people call for help during a mental health crisis and Police kill them.

AFC1886VCC,

Can’t have mental health issues if you’ve been shot dead. It’s the police way

Valmond,

No no no, it’s “fatally shot”!

Hugh_Jeggs,

“Shootalyzed”

mrgreyeyes,

A Psyshootogist

MonkderDritte,

So he’s deader now?

efstajas,

Can always trust the cops to show up and make everything infinitely worse.

JonEFive,

Yup. The way I like to phrase it is “there’s no problem that cops can’t make worse.”

Theharpyeagle,

Very genuine question: why do cops never use taser guns for situations like this? Presumably they knew the weapon was a knife, so no risk of a shootout.

SkyezOpen,

Tasers kinda suck.

Shou,

Dunno man. Gunshot wounds suck pretty bad too.

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

very genuine small penis.

el_abuelo,

Honestly this is what infuriates me when 2nd amendment enthusiasts say “UK cops should carry guns” - fuck off mate, we de-escalate and use non-lethal way more effectively than your wanker cops who only have a hammer and everything is a nail.

Give your cops a toolkit instead of just a hammer and you’ll see the difference.

RampantParanoia2365,

You’re responding to someone asking why they don’t use their tasers. They have a toolkit. They choose to only use the hammer from it.

dustyData,

The typical service worker has more training time before doing their job than a cop gets before getting a gun and a badge. That’s the other side of the coin.

el_abuelo,

Yeah my comment wasn’t intended to be critical of the person I was replying to - it was infact highlighting their point.

American cops don’t tend to use tasers when the suspect is wielding a knife because it’s seen as a lethal weapon, to which they have a lethal response for. Or as another responder replied - the training is the issue, US cops are hardly short of equipment.

spirinolas,

HEY! Civilian, stop talking about stuff you know nothing about!

In dangerous situations and non-whites (same thing , right) we need LETHAL FORCE to control the situation. If someone us murd…I mean, fatally shot, so be it.

Tasers are just for torture. It’s fun but we can’t be always playing! We’re working here!

/s

MetalMartin,

Don’t call police unless you want someone to die.

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

this is why SWATing is so freaking scary.

tiefling,

Google called police on their own employees. I keep saying this.

NickwithaC,
@NickwithaC@lemmy.world avatar

When? And why?

tiefling, (edited )

It was during a quiet sit-in in protest of Google abetting genocide. They also fired everyone in the area, even people who weren’t directly involved.

More deets

JonEFive,

“Don’t be evil” was a canary clause. There’s a reason it doesn’t appear in any of their documents anymore.

DragonTypeWyvern,

It does, akshually.

They removed it from the preface of the Code of Conduct to being a footnote in that document no one will read.

Phegan,

Police have 1 job…

And it’s to uphold order for the ruling class.

Police are class traitors. ACAB.

ahriboy,
@ahriboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

And they are trigger-happy like barbaric IDF personnel.

Melatonin,

Police should NOT be involved in the mental health process.

Currently they are legally required.

OfficerBribe,

They should, they just need to be competent.

I doubt medical personel would be too keen to go alone in situations like these.

JonEFive,

I think the point is that we have appropriately trained crisis response professionals, and those people should not be law enforcement. Cops have their role, and it is enforcing the law. They are not not should they be tasked with becoming mental health professionals.

I don’t want cops showing up when I really need an ambulance.

GlassHalfHopeful,
@GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca avatar

There needs to be a way to call for help from unarmed specialists. 😖

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

in the civilized world, there is. You call the police for an event like this, and they send their psych staff over with support. The issue where I am is that they work normal hours, so late night/weekends you’ll get the support team only (who are still not regular, untrained cops).

ameancow,

There needs to be a restructuring of the entire law enforcement system so blood-thirsty cops aren’t required to show up at all 911 calls with guns drawn.

There needs to be accounting and actual oversight from the community, their bosses who pay their checks to ensure they are held accountable and the actual number of times a cop murders a beloved family pet in front of the children, or murders the children, is actually tracked and recorded so we can see how bad the problem really is.

It’s almost as if we should, collectively, as a society, stop over-funding violent, tight-knit groups who cover for each other and ostensibly “uphold the public trust.”

Woht24,

It’s such a nuanced issue and comments like this are just dumb.

ameancow,

If criticism of our current law enforcement organization makes you feel this frustrated, you probably are not one of the people who have the most to worry about from police.

Woht24,

I’m definitely not and make no claims to be. But I’m not talking about criticism of law enforcement, that doesn’t frustrate me. I’m talking about no large scale societal problem is so easy to solve like I see posted here frequently relating to the police, government, climate change etc.

But unless you say ‘hurr durr, acab’ you’re a boot licking cunt.

ameancow,

It’s not the JOB of casual internet browsers to have all the answers, but it IS the job of the people we pay with our taxes to fix the problems with the systems we hired them to manage.

To say that normal, uneducated people on the internet have no voice unless they understand all the nuance and technical details of an issue, or that people who raise complaints against a system need to formulate an actionable and realistic plan? When you say that you are saying that you just don’t like the issue, that you don’t want to see people complaining and you don’t care about the issue because it doesn’t effect you.

If someone shoots me in the stomach, I will plead for help from medical personnel to fix the holes in my body, I may even have some suggestions like “Also, you will need to remove the bullet if possible, and maybe a round of antibiotics after!”

If the doctor rolls his eyes and says “Why do people think this is so simple to solve?” I will fucking go to different ER.

Instead of looking at the people who complain with disdain and impatience, ask why the problems of others are so ill-informed and see if you can figure out a way to help people foment better arguments. Otherwise you’re basically shining the boots for licking.

Woht24,

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    ameancow,

    Thank you for proving that you’re not actually at all serious or care about anything and thus all your thoughts are not to be counted on this issue. You’re just pounding keys to express your anger at someone or something and want to make someone mad or make yourself worked up to validate your negative state. Got it.

    Woht24,

    Hahahaha love the moral high route.

    You need to get off your fucking high horse, you flog.

    Confound4082,

    I will say, I work ambulance for a very right wing rural community. I have done this for a number of years now.

    While I do have issues at times with our local LEO, they do a good job with not shooting my patients, or their dogs.

    They have done a good job in my community with securing the scene without escalating and then standing back and let us deal with medical/mental health crisis.

    These stories do happen to often, and there are policy changes that need to happen, but there are a significant number of communities that have law enforcement who are acting appropriately and therefore get no news coverage.

    ameancow,

    The problem is not with the police organizations who are doing everything right, the problem is that much of the time we wouldn’t know if they are doing things wrong, because they cover for each other, because they are not incentivised to uphold their own standards, and run without enough supervision from local and federal bodies.

    I’m sure there are millions of great police teams working in good communities out there. I think most people know that as well. We’re not calling for the good cops to be run out of town, we’re calling for the good cops to hold each other accountable.

    The number of good cops doesn’t balance the equation here. If a major auto manufacturer announced that 2% of it’s millions of cars on the road had a fault where they may suddenly and spontaneously run off the road and seek out run over pets and dark skinned youths, but it’s okay because the rest of the 98% of the cars are just fine, well the public would be outraged and rightfully so. We don’t accept “some bad apples” in a lot of industries like doctors and pilots, so why are we accepting bad apples in police, the one organization that holds our society to account to follow laws and who’re we’re supposed to turn to in times of need?

    JonEFive,

    There sort of is now but most people don’t know about it yet. Instead of 911, dial 988. I don’t think 988 sends people to you, but they are trained mental health specialists who can talk instead of shout and threaten violence.

    Read more here: 988lifeline.org

    GlassHalfHopeful,
    @GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca avatar

    Not likely helpful in a situation like this, but a truly helpful resource in other ways. Thanks!

    TIL

    Sir_Kevin,
    @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    I feel like I’m reading this same story once a month. There are so many people that need help and then the police show up and murder them. All the time.

    ameancow,

    That’s not entirely true.

    Sometimes they just shoot the family dog(s) for barking and go back to work like nothing happened.

    There are countless stories of people cradling their dogs as they bleed out from bullet wounds weeping as the cops write up a ticket or something. Just constantly, all the time, and for some reason we don’t DO anything about it. Like, as a group, we could end this nightmare tomorrow if we could all cooperate for one goddamn day without horrible shitty people trying to politicize and subvert every community action we try to do to make the world a little better.

    Sir_Kevin,
    @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    So damn true on all points. And yeah we could do so much if we could organize but trying to get Americans off their ass just once to stand up for something is damn near impossible. I wish I was in France. Those mofo’s start a riot the moment the government does anything even remotely stupid.

    Theharpyeagle,

    This is one of my biggest (hopefully irrational) fears. My dog is not violent but she is reactive, there’s no way she wouldn’t be shot dead if police ever had occasion to come into our house.

    SaddieTheMad,
    @SaddieTheMad@lemmy.world avatar

    This keeps happening and it is infuriating. It’s also scary for people with SMI/SEMI (severe and enduring mental illnesses) such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as if the fear of the illness itself wasn’t enough.

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