The Case of Regis Korchinski-Paquet

Yesterday, justice was served after Derek Chauvin was charged with second degree murder. Hopefully, this would mean that Americans are heading on the road towards healing and rebuilding their country. However, for Canadians and for Torontonians, we are still in the middle of this movement, because of the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet. People are going on the streets demanding justice being served. But what is justice in this case? Does it mean that the policemen involved in Regis's case should be charged with her murder? If she were white, or looks white, would police have handled it differently? If she were white, would she have reacted differently to police's intervention? Does race play a part in this? As someone who is a minority, who has a mental illness, who has been suicidal, who has fallen from a balcony, who has witnessed how a police handled a crisis situation, I would like to offer some insights. 

In March, 2018, I was helping a family friend with his mental illness crisis. I wrote about it here. In short, my friend had an acute episode of manic depression. He had not been sleeping well for months. Prior to his acute episode, he was a "perfectly happy person", you would never imagine that "he would do something like this". (These were also the exact words that one of Regis' friends described her in an interview.) When we went to my friend's condo, his mom was there to take us to him. I had not seen him for months, right away, I felt like this was a completely different person. He looked really mean. I said to him, "I think you should go to the hospital. I know how you feel right now, you need treatment." As expected, he refused, and said something like, "I'd rather die than going to a hospital." Which I could relate, when I was acutely suicidal, I said something along that line. After paramedic showed up, he started to argue with them and refused to go into the ambulance. The paramedic then called the police. By that time, we had caused a lot of commotions in the condo lobby, many people were staring at us. When the cops showed up, perhaps he was embarrassed and knew that he could not resist anymore, he got up right away and walked into the ambulance. Then, one of the cops said to me, "when cops are called, the protocol is to handcuff the person and take them to the hospital in a police vehicle, but since he is very compliant, he can take the ambulance and I will accompany him." The two cops stayed with my friend in the waiting area for 2 hours until it was his turn to see the doctor. They played a huge role in successfully admitting him and keeping him safe. My friend is now back to himself, he is "happy and functional". Anyway, the highlight of this incidence is, when cops are called during a mental health crisis, the protocol is to handcuff the person, because they could be a real danger to themselves and to the people around them. The other time, when I was in the emergency room, I saw a girl brought in by cops in handcuffs. Right away, I could tell that she was manic. She was incredibly difficult to restrain.

When someone is acutely suicidal, manic, or mentally ill in other ways, how they think, how interpret and react to situations can be very ill and abnormal. We cannot use logic to explain why they do what they do. Self-harm is already a "crazy" mentality, why would anyone want to hurt and kill themselves? It's against human nature. In the case of Regis, what exactly happened on that day from the police's angle was not revealed (yet). What we know is that, she was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time. Her mom called because they were in a heated argument and she wanted the police to take her to Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. When the police showed up and attempted to "take her away". She must have resisted instinctively. Police prevented her family from entering the room because no one would want to see their child being handcuffed against their will. Since the family was not allowed to enter the room, they could only hear Regis screamed, "Mom, help! Mom, help!" Understandably, one could assume that some kind of "violence" or "police brutality" were experienced by her. Bad cops killing black lives must also play a role in aggravating Regis' fear when she was alone with the policemen. She then barricaded herself in the balcony and attempted to climb to her neighbor's balcony, which ended with her fatal fall. The act of climbing out of the balcony was definitely a poor judgment clouded by her emotions at that moment and most importantly, her mental illness. Had she knew that the cops were taking her to treatment that would ultimately bring her back to health, she would not have resisted what she thought was an arrest. From the family's standpoint, I can relate to how devastated they feel and how much anger they have towards the policemen. The training they received was not adequate for that situation. They obviously screwed up and handled the situation tragically.  However, accusing them of being the sole cause of her death, implying that they might have pushed her off the balcony, or charging them with murder, was a stretch. In my opinion, this is different from the case of Sammy Yatim in 2013, where the police officer shot him 8 times and was the direct cause of his death. 

In my opinion, this is also different from the case of George Floyd. The cops in Regis' case were intent to help and to save her life. However, the two incidence tragically happened around the same time. And they also took place during the Pandemic, where people had been depressed and angry for a while.  But we are not in the U.S., we don't have Donald Trump as the lead bully. We don't have cops killing black people as a "norm" here. Though I know racism still exists, I am a minority myself, we live in a society that cultivates kindness and inclusiveness. Like many, I am really concerned about where this protest will lead to. I am afraid by the possibility of violence and riots. I am afraid that when people are not satisfied by the charges, more protests will begin. What will make it end?

Let's pray for the healing of Regis' family. Let's pray that the movement will only lead to peace and union. Let's pray that our recovery from the Pandemic will not be affected and delayed.