The killing of Victoria Lee by New Jersey police officer Tony Pickens while she was experiencing a mental health crisis has sparked outrage at the police handling of mental health emergencies nationwide, especially in the Korean-American community. In an interview with Newsweek, CPE CEO and Co-founder, Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, explains more about this tragic trend and why alternatives to police response in these situations are needed:
Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, CEO and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, said police kill about three people per day on average.
“All of them are tragic,” Solomon said. “The ones that are especially tragic to me, or some of them that are the most tragic are the ones where family reached out for help, someone was dealing with a mental illness, they made it painstakingly clear, ‘hey, here’s what to expect’ and the police still kill that person.”
He said that appears to be the case in the killing of Lee.
“You just look at that and you say there were so many opportunities for that person to still be alive today,” Solomon said.
See the full article on Newsweek’s website.