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Introducing ‘Aftershocks,’ Our Series About Life After a Shooting

July 07 2021

From the article: Congresswoman, policing expert advocate for non-police options for responding to mental health crises. In a New York Times op-ed, Democratic Representative Katie Porter, who introduced the Mental Health Justice Act in the House in February, and Philip Atiba Goff, co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, make the case for Porter’s bill to create federal grants to localities for local mental health providers to act as emergency response teams for mental health emergency calls. Almost one in 4 people killed by the police since 2015 have had confirmed signs of mental illness, and municipalities across the country have started implementing reforms to remove police from some emergency response. “The Mental Health Justice Act is based on the uncontroversial idea that having a mental health crisis is not a crime, and badges and guns are not treatment solutions,” they write.

By Ko Bragg

Continue reading the article on Thetrace.org.