A mental health crisis should not be a death sentence. Between one-third and one-half of people killed by police are experiencing a mental health crisis on a national level, and Hawaii is hardly exceptional on this front. Just last year, a jury awarded over $2 million to the family of Delmar Espejo, a disabled homeless man who was shot in the back by a deputy sheriff at the state Capitol in 2019. For too many of our neighbors — especially Black, Pacific Islander, Indigenous, houseless, disabled and LGBTQIA+ folks — actions of “help” bring harm and reactivations of trauma either through arrest or otherwise.
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