PA Lawmaker Carjacked After Supporting Replacing Police with Mental Health Professionals

Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), who supported replacing police with mental health professionals, thanked the Philadelphia Police Department for their “swift response” on Wednesday after the congresswoman was carjacked at gunpoint in Philadelphia.

The incident occurred Wednesday around 2:45 p.m. in FDR Park following a meeting. 

“The Congresswoman was physically unharmed. She thanks the Philadelphia Police Department for their swift response, and appreciates the efforts of both the Sergeant at Arms in D.C. and her local police department, for coordinating with Philly PD to ensure her continued safety” her office said in a statement:

Statement from the Office of Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon on today's incident: pic.twitter.com/fomScnWUXo

— Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (@RepMGS) December 22, 2021

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told PEOPLE that she was “relieved that Congresswoman Scanlon was not physically injured,” adding, “and my thoughts are with her during this difficult time.”

“The PPD will continue to provide any support needed in this case and will work diligently alongside our federal partners to assist in bringing those responsible to justice,” Outlaw added. 

According to CBS3, Delaware State Police have recovered the congresswoman’s SUV, and five suspects are in custody. 

Notably, for the last two years, Scanlon has joined her radically left-wing colleagues in supporting “REAL reform” in police departments across the country:

We have seen too many lives taken and communities devastated by police brutality and racial profiling. Action is long overdue. @HouseDemocrats are fighting for REAL reform in our country’s police departments. #JusticeInPolicing pic.twitter.com/IS9n6LZXCg

— Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (@RepMGS) June 8, 2020

She is one of 125 cosponsors of the Mental Health Justice Act, which specifically aims to replace law enforcement officers with “mental health professionals.”

The bill itself states its aim of authorizing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “award grants to States and political subdivisions of States to hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and for other purposes.”

Elsewhere, in Illinois, Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford was carjacked in Broadview as crime continues to surge in cities like Chicago. That is one of the primary reasons many people are flocking to other areas, such as Florida, describing Gov. Ron DeSantis as a governor of “law and order.”