LA Police Commission’s ruling is a betrayal of justice

[Editorial]

On April 10, the Los Angeles Police Commission ruled not to discipline Officer Andres Lopez, who fatally shot Yong Yang, a 40-year-old Korean American man, in Koreatown last May. The decision, announced nearly a year after the incident, is not only disappointing—it is infuriating.

The commission unanimously acknowledged that Officer Lopez’s tactics prior to the shooting were flawed. Yet in a contradictory 3-2 vote, it still deemed the shooting itself justified. This decision is a betrayal—both to Yang’s family and to the broader Korean American community. It is anything but just.

Yang was suffering from a mental illness at the time. His mother had called for help, hoping to get her son the mental health support he needed. What arrived instead was not a helping hand but a drawn gun. Within just eight seconds of the police encountering Yang, he was fatally shot—allegedly for holding a knife. If the tactics were flawed, the question must be asked: was the use of lethal force truly the only option?

What adds to the outrage is the recurrence of similar incidents. Police shootings of Korean Americans have taken place repeatedly over the past four decades. According to Korea Daily archives, this pattern dates back to the 1987 death of 21-year-old Hong Pyo Lee in Long Beach, who was shot by five sheriff’s deputies after failing to stop for a traffic violation. A particularly haunting parallel is the 2007 case of Michael Cho, a 25-year-old who was shot more than ten times after allegedly ignoring officers’ commands to drop a crowbar and turning away.

The Korean American community must now say: Enough is enough.
These tragedies continue because LAPD’s official policies—prioritizing non-lethal tools and de-escalation tactics—are failing to function in reality. The department’s training methods and crisis response protocols demand a thorough and urgent overhaul. We must insist on transparent, impartial investigations and the creation of systems that ensure real accountability—not repeated internal absolutions.

More fundamentally, our community must build greater political power. Only through collective action, centered around influential leaders, can we push back against abusive law enforcement power and strengthen safety nets for the most vulnerable among us.

April 7—the day before the commission’s decision—was Yong Yang’s birthday. No words can express the grief of parents who must bury their child. But through our shared attention and action, we can honor Yang’s life and prevent future tragedies.