Readers React: Police shootings show how society has failed mentally ill people

To the editor: According to the Los Angeles Police Department, more than one-third of people shot by its officers in 2015 had documented signs of mental illness, and 21% — a disproportionately high number — were African American. (“More than a third of people shot by L.A. police last year were mentally ill, LAPD report finds,” March 1)

These statistics come as no surprise. The media and politicians are more interested in preying on fear and promoting stereotypes linking disability and race to violence than developing solutions to the serious access to care and use-of-force issues that have decimated and divided our community. The current situation is largely a self-created crisis that we must act collectively and holistically to address.

At its core, the LAPD’s report illustrates the very human impact of a faltering local economy, the painful remnants of racism, years of deep budget cuts to mental health services and the desperate need to improve the training and oversight of law enforcement and other first responders who encounter people with disabilities, particularly people of color with disabilities.

Michelle Uzeta and Trevor Finneman, Los Angeles

The writers are disability and civil rights attorneys.

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To the editor: Your article does not discuss the fundamental cause of the high number of police shootings involving mentally ill individuals.

Under California’s outdated involuntary treatment law, people who are psychotic and suffering from mental illness must wait until they become dangerous to themselves or to others or gravely disabled, assuring the presence of danger. Many deteriorate to the point they are on the street, end up in prison, are victimized or die before they can get the treatment that would free them from psychosis.

Waiting for danger is too late. We must provide more hospital beds and change the involuntary treatment law.

Brian Jacobs, Tustin

The writer is government affairs chairman of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Orange County.

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