We have all seen or heard stories about police brutality on television and social media, that African Americans are the most famous race targets of police brutality. However, we don’t see or hear the word “disabled”, but what does that mean? According to statistics reported by BBC, The Guardian, and most news outlets, half of the police brutality victims are disabled.
The police violence has long been a significant concern in the United States and other nations, with the majority of victims being disabled, and it is not a recent problem. According to Alem Maqbool, author of a BBC report from 2013, there were real cases of injured people that were either attacked or killed by law enforcement in the world in 2013, as well as debates around the terms “disabled” and “mental disorder” that were not widely discussed in the press. He quotes, “Hundreds of people are killed by police In the u.s. each year and much attention has been paid recently to the high proportion that is black. But there’s another disturbing trend that is rarely discussed”. Every year, a US citizen is killed by police in the United States, and the black race has been receiving more attention in the media. He’s pointing to a troubling pattern in which the media fails to reveal that a police brutality victim has a mental illness. An author, Mary O’Hara who wrote an article about the issue in The Guardian and her article stated that “Also, according to the foundation, almost all well-known and widely reported cases of police violence involve a disabled person”. O’Hara presents data from a Massachusetts-based foundation founded by a disabilities rights non-profit organization to show that while police brutality incidents involving a disabled individual are well-known and frequently documented, the term “disabled” when discussing a victim is barely used, and most cases get no attention.
Things go tragically wrong when police respond to a mental health emergency. According to Maqbool’s post, on January 12th, 2013, 26-year-old Evan Saylor, who has Down syndrome, was restrained at a movie theater in Maryland and was face down and unable to breathe. He and his caregiver were watching Zero Dark Thirty the night of the incident, and when the film ended, he refused to leave the building and demanded to see it again. Three off-duty officers working as security guards discovered Saylor enter the auditorium without a ticket for the next showing when he left and returned without his carer. The officers told him he had to “leave or he would be arrested”, and then when he refused, they forcefully removed him, and Saylor was face down, not breathing, and dead. On May 25th, 2017, 22-year-old Adam Trammell had a psychotic breakdown, and police rushed to try to stabilize him to get emergency attention, but only ended up shooting 15 times with taser guns at him. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. According to police, they were attempting to restrain him but went too far. Trammell did not seem to be hostile or in possession of a knife. In the wake of the attack, there was no media coverage and protests, proving that disabled victims of police brutality go unnoticed.
Although disabled adults have been killed or assaulted by the police, children, and teenagers with disabilities have also been killed or assaulted. According to a New York Times post, a police officer shot a 13-year-old boy from Salt Lake City who had a special needs condition. The teenage boy had been diagnosed with autism. Police were called to a report of a “violent psych issue,” which pointed to the boy having a mental breakdown. The boy was shot while fleeing, and he was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Christian Hall, a 19-year-old Pennsylvania teenager, was shot and killed by state police on the bridge in February of this year, according to a Yahoo article published by Bryan Ke. Hall was in the midst of a mental health crisis, according to his mother, who said, “He needed help, he was looking for help, but instead of getting help, he was killed by those who were supposed to help him.” This was the only incident that received more coverage this year, and all previous events should’ve received similar coverage. I have a feeling that police violence against people with disabilities is attracting more attention, but this isn’t the case yet.
Unfortunately, we expect police officers to assist in situations like this when they respond to a mental health crisis but instead, they harm the person who is suffering from a mental illness that is having an episode by seriously injuring or killing them. This is because police officers are not qualified to be mental health providers. How are we going to address the issue of police brutality? Several suggestions can help in this regard. We ought to defund the police, for example, some may interpret this definition to mean abolishing the police, but defunding the police means diverting funds from the police to mental health organizations so that, in the event of a crisis, mental health professionals, rather than the police, respond. Mental health providers can assist in cases where someone is having an episode by calming them down. Police reform is another option for resolving the problem. Extra training and workshops on how to deal with mental crisis issues are needed so that we don’t have to deal with this in the future and so that it can be corrected since these incidents are breaking families apart and impacting communities. It will also teach other officers and prospective officers how to deal with them when they begin to work in law enforcement. These workshops and training will give officers experience in mental health.
Another suggestion for ending police brutality against people with disabilities is to spread the word, raise awareness about police brutality, and attract political figures. We need to raise awareness by sharing and airing PSA advertisements on social media and television. We should also share this in public places like billboards, building signage, and public transit so that people notice and consider what happens when they see a video of police brutality and realize the victim is impaired. We need to attract the attention of activists and news organizations such as CNN, NBC News, and others, as well as local news outlets so that they can make people aware in news reports. We can do this by sending emails, petitions, calling social media tags, and direct messaging. Finally, by writing letters and sending emails to lawmakers and politicians, we will persuade them to propose and enact legislation that reduces police brutality and misconduct against citizens while simultaneously protecting disabled and non-disabled people by passing a disability rights bill. It can be a councilperson, state or district representative, mayor, governor, senator, or someone that is running for public office that has the same ideas. We can also attract activists and celebrities.
Consider a situation where a teenager with autism is having an and the police are called to assist, but the teenager is killed by police because the officers used excessive force. This issue of people with mental illnesses being attacked or killed by police is troubling and tragic because, while police are supposed to protect us, they use force on people who might go too far and end up seriously injured or killed. Since the news media seldom reports it, the fact that the majority of police brutality victims are injured or killed goes unnoticed. Since you never know what will happen, this issue can affect and happen to you or anyone you know with a mental disability. Who can we trust if someone suffering from a mental disorder needed support and was instead abused or murdered by someone they expected to help them? You’re aware of police violence because you have seen videos and read accounts of officers abusing citizens, but you are unaware of a disease that they face. This should be concerned because it is a civil rights violation. You should be concerned about this and take action to stop it because it could happen to you or anyone you know who is suffering from a mental illness.
References:
Epperson, Matthew. “Where Police Violence Encounters Mental Illness.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Jan. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/opinion/where-police-violence-encounters-mental-illness.html?searchResultPosition=2.
O’Hara, Mary. “Up to Half of the People Killed by US Police Are Disabled | Mary O’Hara.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 29 Mar. 2016, www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/29/media-must-report-police-violence-towards-disabled-people.
Maqbool, Aleem. “Don’t Shoot, I’m Disabled.” BBC News, BBC, 4 Oct. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/stories-45739335.
Fortin, Jacey. “A Police Officer Shot a 13-Year-Old With Autism in Salt Lake City.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/us/salt-lake-city-autism-shooting.html.
Ke, Bryan. “Pennsylvania Teen Had Hands Up When Police Shot and Killed Him, New Video Shows.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, 4 Feb. 2021, news.yahoo.com/pennsylvania-teen-had-hands-police-220540745.html.
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