Viviana Solorio

Prof. Batty
English 113B
March 25, 2016
Police Against Disabilities
Every day there is someone with a disability getting harassed by a police officer. It may
not seem like its a big issue but it defiantly is. In this world there are many types of people, not
everyone is perfect. Everyone has their own struggles, but these specific people dont get a
chance to get their voice heard. One reason is because they either wind up dead or in a state
where they cant even talk about it. Police are able to get away with anything even with the
deaths of innocent people. Many people get abused or harassed by the police on the daily. To the
police someone who is acting unusual is someone who is under the influence of drugs or is being
suspicious. Not everyone is mentally stable, and not everyone is out there trying to kill someone.
People always get mistaken for trying to resist the police but in reality the way they approach the
person frightens them even more. This happens to people who deal with disabilities, and most
them of them dont speak up. These people dont do drugs, dont do unusual things, and
shouldnt be mistaken as easy targets.
To be able to understand why the police are poorly instructed to deal with disabled people
we have to analyze the ways they have chose to deal with cases Every year people with
disabilities are being beaten, held, pushed, joked, and many other things. Hundreds of
Americans with disabilities die each year in police encounters, and many more are seriously
injured. (Center) Police officers dont get sent to jail, because most of the time they arent found
guilty. In 2015 a woman was shot in her own home because the police felt threatened. As told in

the article this is what had happened. The police showed up to the residence because they got a
noise complain from the neighbors. Before they even got to the house, the police knew what they
were dealing with. They didnt try to keep her calm, but instead frightened her off even more.
The police had no patience with her situation. They had a chance to deal with her differently and
the picked the most violent one. Instead of trying to convince her to take her to a hospital and
keep her calm. They broke down the door to enter the room and frightened her even more. Her
first instinct was to pull out a bread knife to defend herself. As soon as they saw the knife the
police began to shoot. This lady suffered life threating injuries, but made it through. This shows
that police are easy to react instead of actually analyzing the situation. A call for help shouldnt
result in someone dying.
Police are usually caught up in the moment that they dont listen to anything the person
has to say. In this case actions speak louder than words. A deaf person cant hear, obviously, but a
police doesnt know that right away. When this person cant hear what the police is trying to say,
they get mistaken for trying to resist them. That person couldnt hear, and now its in trouble. In
this article people who are hearing impaired [or] autistic react atypically when approached
by police [and] are much more likely to be tasered, beaten and arrested. (Chediac) There had
been many cases where a deaf person couldnt hear a police man and they get harassed or
injured. This is terribly wrong. People with disabilities shouldnt have to carry a pin with them
that points out their disability. What I am trying to prove is that police officers dont have
patience with every single situation. Regardless if they have a disability or not. Everyone should
be given the equal chance unless they are at a point of trying to kill someone. Cops automatically
assume that a person laying down on the floor is drunk, but probably dont event stop and think
that person is having a seizure. They need to calm down the person and take them to a hospital.

Police have rights, but so does everyone else. Just because we dont serve our country
like they do, it shouldnt mean that they have the privilege to kill someone and get away with it.
We should all have the same rights regardless of our tittle. It shouldnt make us any different.
Many times police have killed innocent people and their excuse is that they were trying to defend
themselves. Those people had families, friends, and people who cared abut them. Now theyre all
grieving, because a police officer made the mistake to kill that person. They are so easy to pull
up a gun to someone, even if that person was unarmed. Police are here to make us feel safe, and
protected. But why is it when we see a cop we fear them the most. It makes no sense. Police
harass many people, but people the ones that deal with disabilities seem to be their target. Ethan
Saylor killed for wanting to watch a movie twice (Chediac) This man wanted to watch Zero
Dark Thirty twice but hes caregiver didnt have the extra money to do so. He failed to
understand and went in anyway. Three cops took him out by force, then causing them to put all
their weight on top of him to put cuffs on when he wouldnt do as told. As they put all their
pressure on top of him, they were able to crack his neck and he died in an instinct. They
considered it a homicide, blamed it on his weight, and disability. These police knew that they
were dealing with someone who wasnt mentally stabled. Its not right for someone innocent to
die, and let them get away with it. People with down syndrome usually go into meltdown and
become aggressive because they found themselves in social situations they couldn't handle or
understand. (Anonymous) The problem with the police where that they were to harsh on Saylor,
and didnt respond the correct way. If they wouldnt have caused him to get a melt down, he
wouldnt have been aggressive. This makes police officers seem like they dont know what they
are doing, in fact they need specific training to be dealing with each illness.
Having considered all these cases, these specific disabilities arent the only ones who get

harassed by the police. People who deal with schizophrenia are the ones who get confused for
being on drugs, but its something they cant control on their own. Schizophrenia is a mental
disorder that deals with hallucinations and delusions. People in this state of mind believe
something is there, when it really isnt. There have been many cases where the police werent
properly trained to control someone with schizophrenia. Usually when people in this mental state
tend to act up when not taking their pills. The hallucinations begin, and this is where the family
calls to the police to help control them. Two summers ago, June 2014, a women called the police
to help out with her son who has bipolar schizophrenia. This man was in his late thirtys, he
didnt take his medication that morning. Usually when this happens they tend to get help, since
she cant control him herself. On the phone she asked for them to send someone who knows how
to deal with schizophrenia. The police were trying to calm him down but he didnt as told. As he
began to approach them, she instructed them not to shoot, and the police still did it anyways. The
lack of training these police officer got shows that they didnt know anything about this illness.
They could have dealt with this situation differently, and that man wouldnt have died. He isnt
the only one who was killed by officers that didnt know what they were doing.
Although police officers do get training. They might not get enough information for them
to be dealing with the disabled the correct way. CIT is a program that trains police officers about
mental disorders. Within this program they are taught about each specific disorder, and the
different ways to deal with it. If this program really taught them how to deal with everything,
then why do they always end up killing someone. Someone always has to die because the police
officer didnt take the right path to save their life. The program shouldnt just inform them about
the illness but be more specific in how to deal with certain situations. Police officers should take
multiple courses through their career to be up to date to all the new information, and ways to deal

with different types of illness. Police officers shouldnt be scared of the victim since they are
here to make us feel safe and protected.
In conclusion not all police officers are good people in this world. Some of them take
highly advantage of their rights. People with mental disabilities should be treated with care, and I
know they are protected under protected under the government. Not all cases are believable, and
the death always get blamed on the victim. People who deal with schizophrenia are the ones who
get confused for being on drugs, but its something they cant control. Police need to be really
careful with who they deal with. They should also serve consequences, and justice should be
served. Its not fair for them to get away with the death of an innocent person. The person dealing
with a disability shouldnt have to call the cops for help, since all they do is make things worse.
There should be a number specifically where you can call, and ask for help. It should be with
people that can be able to deal with any type of situations. Whether it be someone having a panic
attack to someone trying to cope with anxiety. Many of these people didnt know that a cry for
help was going to be their last one.

Works Cited
Anon. Damage Cases. 2016 6 April
<http://www.centerforpublicrep.org/litigation-and-major-cases/damagecases/41-litigation/damage-cases/68-use-of-police-force-against-people-withpsychiatric-disabilities>.
Anonymous. Parents of children on the Autism Spectrum. Ed. University of
Oxford. November 2010. 2016 April 05 <http://www.healthtalk.org/peoplesexperiences/autism/parents-children-autism-spectrum/fears-anxietiessensory-issues-and-meltdowns>.
Center, Claudia. How Police Can Stop Shooting People With Disabilities. 20
March 2015. 24 March 2016 <https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/howpolice-can-stop-shooting-people-disabilities>.
Chediac, Joyce. People with disabilities half of people killed by cops; disability
rights groups protest. 24 January 2015. 26 March 2016
<http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/01/24/people-with-disabilities-half-ofpeople-killed-by-cops-disability-rights-groups-protest/>.