4 Disabled People Dead in Another Week of Police Brutality
Sanchez
I first wrote about disability and policing for The Nation in 2013. Iâm not sure anything has improved since then. The people who have been working on this the longest  people like the lawyer Talila Lewis and the organization HEARD and artist and activist Leroy Moore  remain unfunded  even as organizations pour money into trainings for cops. But police donât need training to choose not to shoot folks like Sanchez. They just have to stop treating noncompliance as a justification for escalation.
Back to  Sanchez   we see similar patterns of police conduct  this time with horrible  lethal  consequences. Sara NoviÄ  who identifies as Deaf and is an assistant professor of creative writing at Stockton University  told me via e-mail that the killing emerged from a âperfect storm of communication anxiety for many d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.â Itâs hard to talk to strangers  especially when the stakes are high. It was also dark. She notes  âEven the most skilled deaf communicators/lipreaders struggle in the dark. It is only natural that  Sanchez  would try to get closer so  he  could see what was going on  especially because  he âd had no involvement in the traffic incident they were investigating.  He  was sitting on  his  porch minding  his  own business;  he âd done nothing wrong.â But  he  didnâtâcouldnâtâcomply with orders  so a police officer killed  him .
 Instead of training police to grant people they recognize as disabled specific rights  victims like Leibel and Sanchez  demonstrate the need for police to operate with a baseline of presumption of compliance. When significant threats emerge  as does tragically happen  officers will need to respond. But when  Sanchez  walked forward  surely the officers could have stepped back. When the autistic boy was shaking his string  the officer could have just decided not to cuff a child  even if he didnât recognize the word âstimming.â There are so many ways to improve the situation without asking for specialized training.
At least four disabled people died at the hands of police this week. One previous case of unjustified police violence came to light. Except for the brief media attention of the Sanchez and Leibel cases  thatâs a pretty normal week. Itâs unlikely anyone will be held accountable  except possibly in the situation where Leibel  a white teenager in an affluent neighborhood  was brutalized. There  the combination of powerful video  a compelling victim  widespread coverage  and a good lawyer might help. In the other cases  the multiply marginalized status of the victims plus the lethality of the encounter will make accountability difficult  if not impossible. And then next week  alas  the same types of stories will play out again  and more people will die.
I first wrote about disability and policing for The Nation in 2013. Iâm not sure anything has improved since then. The people who have been working on this the longest  people like the lawyer Talila Lewis and the organization HEARD and artist and activist Leroy Moore  remain unfunded  even as organizations pour money into trainings for cops. But police donât need training to choose not to shoot folks like Sanchez. They just have to stop treating noncompliance as a justification for escalation.
Back to   [TGT] we see similar patterns of police conduct  this time with horrible  lethal  consequences. Sara NoviÄ  who identifies as Deaf and is an assistant professor of creative writing at Stockton University  told me via e-mail that the killing emerged from a âperfect storm of communication anxiety for many d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.â Itâs hard to talk to strangers  especially when the stakes are high. It was also dark. She notes  âEven the most skilled deaf communicators/lipreaders struggle in the dark. It is only natural that   [TGT] would try to get closer so   [TGT]   could see what was going on  especially because   [TGT]  âd had no involvement in the traffic incident they were investigating.   [TGT]   was sitting on   [TGT]   porch minding   [TGT]   own business;   [TGT]  âd done nothing wrong.â But   [TGT]   didnâtâcouldnâtâcomply with orders  so a police officer killed  him .
  [TGT] demonstrate the need for police to operate with a baseline of presumption of compliance. When significant threats emerge  as does tragically happen  officers will need to respond. But when   [TGT] walked forward  surely the officers could have stepped back. When the autistic boy was shaking his string  the officer could have just decided not to cuff a child  even if he didnât recognize the word âstimming.â There are so many ways to improve the situation without asking for specialized training.
At least four disabled people died at the hands of police this week. One previous case of unjustified police violence came to light. Except for the brief media attention of the Sanchez and Leibel cases  thatâs a pretty normal week. Itâs unlikely anyone will be held accountable  except possibly in the situation where Leibel  a white teenager in an affluent neighborhood  was brutalized. There  the combination of powerful video  a compelling victim  widespread coverage  and a good lawyer might help. In the other cases  the multiply marginalized status of the victims plus the lethality of the encounter will make accountability difficult  if not impossible. And then next week  alas  the same types of stories will play out again  and more people will die.