“The deadly taking pictures of a person with psychological sickness reveals Hong Kong police want a greater response to such crises“
Daisy Cheung
Hong Kong Free Press
Revealed on-line: October 2024
The current incident in North Level involving the demise of a person with psychological dysfunction by the hands of police responding to an emergency at his house is tragic, however sadly not unusual worldwide.
In jurisdictions all around the world, police usually act as first responders in instances involving psychological well being crises, despite the fact that usually they severely lack coaching on how finest to help such people. A fast search reveals the names of numerous susceptible people who met premature deaths attributable to interactions with police over simply the previous yr.
Because the variety of such deaths improve, locations world wide are starting to take a protracted, laborious take a look at the suitability of police involvement in conditions involving folks with a psychological incapacity.
Many nations are calling for police reform, and in some instances, even the police themselves have concluded that they could not all the time be essentially the most acceptable responders, since their presence could also be an “escalating issue” itself.
What classes can Hong Kong be taught from the experiences of those nations? First, the problem of police inadequacy within the face of psychological well being crises have to be recognised and squarely confronted, reasonably than swept underneath the rug as merely one other incident the place the fatality was unlucky, however using drive justifiable within the circumstances.
Issues about how police in Hong Kong take care of folks with psychological incapacity should not new. In 2015, an autistic particular person was wrongfully charged with manslaughter……(Please click on right here to view full textual content.)
