The Lapu-Lapu Festival Tragedy Should Not Be An Excuse for More Mental Health Stigma in the Asian Community
With so much stigma surrounding mental health in Asian communities, incarceration-first approaches to mental illness will only lead to more isolation and worse outcomes.
(Photo: AP)
On April 26, 11 people were killed and multiple were injured after the driver of a black SUV drove into a crowd at the Lapu-Lapu Day Block Party in Vancouver. What was meant to be a celebration of Filipino pride, culture and joy became what is being called the “darkest day in the city’s history.”
The suspect, Kai-ji Adam Lo, has no criminal record but had previously had dozens of interactions with the police related to his deteriorating mental health. His brother was murdered last year and his mother had attempted suicide. For some, the tragedy has become a rallying call for more mental health support. For others, it’s an excuse to increase policing and the involuntary imprisonment of those with mental illness.
British Columbia’s premier David Eby said that B.C. has a need for interventionist mental health services, which includes recently opened secure involuntary beds at a pretrial jail in Surrey. “I was really pleased that we got those beds open in a very short period of time,” Eby said.
And while of course, there is a place for involuntary treatment. But advocating for more policing and more incarceration of mentally ill people will only increase stigma without properly treating mental illnesses. Having a mental illness is not a predictor of violence or crime—and it shouldn’t be treated as such.
Elda Almario, a registered psychotherapist in Ontario who works mainly with the Filipino community, says that “solutions” like policing and involuntary incarceration isn’t the solution. She calls the link between mental illness and violence a “false narrative.”
Just want to offer a few thoughts.
— Gabrielle Peters 👩🏻🦽 (@mssinenomine) April 27, 2025
Overwhelming majority of people with mental illness in our community, pose no threat & today esp they need to know the rest of us know that.
Mental health care should be free & widely available w long-term support not just meds or for crisis.
“Painting people with mental health challenges as perpetrators, as people who are violent, when in reality they’re more likely to be victims of violence," adds to the stigma, Almario says. “We need to focus on proactive responses rather than reactive ones.”
“Policing criminalizes mental health challenges,” Almario adds. “Police can take them away from the community, which further isolates them and actually does nothing to help with their struggles.”
The VPD says the suspect in the #LapuLapu Day attack had many mental health interactions w police.
— Mark Kersten || @markkersten.bsky.social (@MarkKersten) April 27, 2025
This is an important point: mental health interactions w police do not guarantee public safety.
We need new & better tools to promote community safety & mental health. #vanpoli https://t.co/yc2L72CNb5
With so much stigma surrounding mental health in Asian communities, these incarceration-first approaches to mental illness will only lead to more isolation and worse outcomes. Asians in the diaspora are already one of the least likely groups to seek out mental health support—in the U.S., the average white American uses mental health services three times more than the average Asian American. We cannot return to an era of locking away people in need of psychiatric help and throwing away the key. Stigma and policing will only make things worse. Fearmongering about the connection between mental health and crime will not help anyone but police budgets.
Instead, we ought to fight for more services for people with mental illness, that are comprehensive so that people who need help get it before their mental health deteriorates. And this is not to blame anyone but the perpetrator for the attack: just as mental illness doesn't cause violence, it’s also not an excuse.
Its too easy to rely on tropes of "terrorism" or "mental illness" to describe horrifying violence. Communities need care & space to grieve, not speculations or stereotypes. Especially about mental health at a time when involuntary treatment & police checks are sanctioned & deadly
— @harshawalia.bsky.social (@HarshaWalia) April 28, 2025
Justine Abigail Yu, the founder of Living Hyphen and an organizer for Filipinos United for Palestine, says that we should prioritize housing, mental health support, access to mental health services and community-based support instead.
“What is required is a radical shift towards healing and care where we are reallocating resources from state-sanctioned operators of violence into communities,” she says. “How do we move away from these tools of harm and violence and create a foundation that is rooted in care and healing instead?”
As more details emerge from the Saturday’s tragedy, we cannot let people push their ideas of more policing and “hard on crime” rhetoric. Not only is it awful to use a tragedy to push far-right ideologies, it’s also not going to help communities in the long run.