Black Mental Health Matters demands Justice for Kenion La’Vonte Gay a Black Man struggling with mental illness  brutalized, tortured, assaulted and humiliated by Akron police without regard for his dignity.

Police Brutality against Black people with mental illness has led to injury and death to innocent people who  the only thing they needed was  care and access to mental health services.

Mental illness should not be a death sentence. Being Black  with mental illness should not be a license for Police Brutality.

On August 4th 2021 at 6.00- 6.05 PM Akron PD Police officers according to footage captured by standby witness  tortured Kenion,    rammed him down on his stomach with his legs hanging up in the air and as if this was not enough  Akron Police Department slammed the door on his legs and ankles 3 times. They also squeezed his penis and balls and publicly embarrassed, tortured and humiliated  him as a man before taking him into custody.

Kenion is in jail and  has been  asking for  mental health and complaining about head injury pains  after officers repeatedly punched him in the head but Akron PD Police  won't let him go to hospital.  He paid $20 only  for the Dr. to say there is nothing wrong with  him  and gave him Ibuprofen. 

Black Mental Health Matters started this petition to champion for #JusticeForKenionLaVonte and at the same time raise awareness on the only several cases of Black people with mental health illness who have been brutalized  or killed by Police .

Add your voice and tell Mayor Dan Horrigan  Mother has been traumatized by the incident and wants Justice; all his son needs is mental healthcare, compassion and care.

Here is the number to Call or message  Mayor Dan Horrigan and raise your voice so that he knows Black Mental Health Matters! 

Mayor Dan Horrigan
Suite 200 Municipal Building
166 South High Street
Akron, Ohio 44308

330-375-2345
330-375-2468 (fax)

Mayor@AkronOhio.gov

Mental illness should not be a death sentence. Being Black  with mental illness should not be a license for Police Brutality. 

No  mother, friend, family member or decent public member should ever have to undergo through this trauma and pain.

Sign the Petition and share:

We are taking action to raise  awareness spread about what happened to this Black man and the unnecessary pain he's been put through so that Akron Police can allow him access to mental health care and for justice to be served.

#BlackMentalHealthMatters #BMHM #MentalHealth

 

Police Brutality against Black people with Mental Illness a raging pandemic

• In February 2021   unarmed Black Man Killed By a Texas Police Officer During Mental Health Check in Texas. According to the family of Patrick Warren Sr., the police were called to try to help assist Warren as he was having a mental health emergency. Instead of helping to defuse the situation, Killeen police ended up killing him.
• In September 2020 Daniel Prude, 41, who had mental health issues and who was unarmed, was restrained in March by police who put a "spit hood" - used to stop detainees spitting or biting - on his head. He later died of asphyxiation but his story has only now been made public.
  His death was two months before the killing of George Floyd.
• On May 23, 2019, Baytown police officer Juan Pedro Delacruz shot and killed  Pamela Turner, a 44-year-old mother of two suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, in the parking lot of her Baytown apartment complex where he worked as a security guard but Justice remains at large.
• According to according to a new study released today by the Treatment Advocacy Center ,People with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement.
• Reference Resources Links:
• Daniel Prude: New York police used 'spit hood' on man who died of asphyxiation
• Unarmed Black Man Killed By a Texas Police Officer During Mental Health Check
• Police Brutality and Mental Health in the African-American Community
• Policing mental health: Recent deaths highlight concerns over officer response
• A Black man killed by OKC police had severe mental illness; the officers had no crisis intervention
• A Black man killed by OKC police had severe mental illness; the officers had no crisis intervention