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.
There needs to be a way to call for help from unarmed specialists. 😖
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.”
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.
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?
It’s such a nuanced issue and comments like this are just dumb.
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.
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.
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.
Removed by mod
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.
Hahahaha love the moral high route.
You need to get off your fucking high horse, you flog.
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).
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: https://988lifeline.org/
Not likely helpful in a situation like this, but a truly helpful resource in other ways. Thanks!
TIL