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.
I honestly don’t know what the hell you’re supposed to do in America if a loved one has a psychotic episode and threatens you, because calling the cops for help could be a death sentence for them, but not getting help could be a death sentence for you. Maybe make some sort of plan with neighbors in case something happens? But then you get the neighbors all worried that they’re living next to someone who could get dangerously psychotic. I’m not talking about what should be done if things were more ideal, I’m talking about what people with such loved ones should do if it happens today, May 22, 2024. Because it sounds like someone has a good chance of dying no matter what.
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I mean, every criticism you level at the parents sounds like people worried that if they call police its going to go badly.
I have a severely autistic son. There is literally no circumstance where I would call the police for any event involving him. Unless there is a dead body on the floor, they are not getting a call.
I’m in a weird dichotomy where I need to be sure he knows to trust police in case somehow he’s alone and needs help one day, while at the same time realizing that if he gets to that point he’s probably fucked, and praying there is never, ever a time where he interacts with police without my wife or I between him and them. I can’t say “look for a fireman” or “look for an ambulance” because there isn’t always one of them around. But you never have to wait too long to see a cop.
Hopefully if that ever happens, he’ll stumble across one of the less trigger-happy ones.
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Here’s a hypothetical for you, if your son had an episode and took someone hostage with a knife, you wouldn’t call the police?
Sure, OK, you have found a corner case. Bravo, I guess? We can pretend I was using the modern definition of the word “literally.” 😉
It doesn’t change the overall point.
Here’s a hypothetical for you, which is far more likely than your own for an autistic kid. My son doesn’t even have the concept of holding someone hostage, and I venture to guess this is true for lots of others on the spectrum.
Let’s say he has a knife in his hand because that’s what he happened to have in his hand (somehow) when his fight or flight mechanism was triggered, and now he’s massively overstimulated, and in a meltdown. He’s not trying to hurt anyone (I’m not convinced he knows stabbing someone is an option a knife provides), but he’s waving it around because he is very active with his arms when he’s overstimulated, and he might even try to grapple with someone while holding it, again not really recognizing the potential for great harm. It’s going to be a real challenge to get it from him safely, and someone could get badly injured.
Do I call the cops in that circumstance? Not if I want to see him sans-bulletholes again. (Not a direct example of what I described, but close enough for these purposes.)
Edited to add - I read the story in OP, or I read about Linden Cameron, or I read about Elijah McClain (and others) and that’s my son there, or may as well be. Elijah McClain especially - heartbreaking. Nothing about any of those circumstances seems like an outcome I couldn’t imagine with any given group of police. I have no faith that more than a vanishingly small percentage would even see the problem with how these situations were handled, let alone try to do it differently.
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I will always advocate that a big area where police could improve their standing with the communities they serve is to always strive toward better, non-lethal handling of situations where the circumstances are appropriate; however, handling individuals with behavioral / mental disabilities isn’t simple…
Nearly every single time I have seen someone make this particular excuse for police, a nurse or other staff from a healthcare facility will crop up to point out that they do it all day every day without having to kill people.
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You just have to fucking deal with it yourself basically, our social safety net is a bad joke. If you’re a minority, neurodivergent, queer, or anything else they decide they don’t like, you have a much higher likelihood of literally being murdered by the people who are supposed to help and protect society.
It sounds like what it is, Flying. Not a tasty pill to swallow but these are the dues of the division modern society has allowed.
No more Village raising the children. No more respected elders, trusted craft people, or neighborly bonds.
For the illusion of connection and its subsequent gamification and for the enrichment of those who say what we want to hear, these are the dues to be paid.
We live and die alone, bemoaning a loss of bonds that could be mended at any time; let he who is lonely lay their cynicism down first.
No, I don’t believe it’s that easy (and recognize the risks of being first) but it probably is that simple. No clue how the message is amplified back through time in a manner that gets enough likes though.
Such an insightful comment. /Gen
Sometimes, others share their opinions and lived-in experience not to give you insight, but because to speak is to human. Sonder on that, whatever your generation.
I am aware the oldest writing is of a merchant swindling. I am aware of the atrocities respected elders have carried out against the Village children, all villages.
I am not here to insight you; use your own faculties for that.
do not call the police. many countries outside the united states understand this already
Uhm, in Germany it’s completely normal for police to assist in situations of mental health and instead of shooting them they talk to them, or, as a last resort, restrain people and bring them back to a care facility, unharmed.
Police receive proper 3 year training and most of them even have a required university degree.
While the cops in Germany are a lot better trained and won’t kill you or harm you, many are still on power trips and try to screw you over. Some abuse their authority especially towards teens and they try to fine you if you’re an adult. Society needs that job, but man I rarely hear about good encounters with police. I feel like older people had a better experience with cops and younger people in Germany like the police a lot less, but I could be wrong.
You’re definitely right, it’s still a place where people with fantasies of power end up. It’s not all just sunshine and the media might be biased but compared to some countries it’s still a pretty high standard which should be the minimum in the US as well.
Eh no?
Most counties outside the US have actual police forces which are there to serve and protect.
Your Euro-centric bias is showing.
Uh huh, and that is bad because? Because I know it can actually work well?
It’s normal practice in the UK for police to aid the handling of mentally unstable people. The difference is that British police don’t shoot people. Ever.
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.”
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.
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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.
AGAIN!
THE. POLICE. ARE. NOT. THERAPISTS.
Fuck these parents, you shouldn’t be parenting if you’ve fumbled it this badly. Dumbasses.
To address some things:
No where did I make the claim that the parents called the cops or didn’t call the cops. Learn to fucking read, idiots.
Also, I’ve handed out blocks so go on a one-sided pointless debate all you want and talk to yourself, I’m not fucking responding to you or going out of my way to unblock you to respond. Fuck you.
Mods, whack his pp
Got a problem?
Call the cops.
Now you’ve got two problems!
Just to be clear, the family didn’t call the police. The mobile response team did, which is typically done when there’s a weapon.
