You would think that the law enforcement are hard on the colored people, abuse their power against them and did several police brutality on them but what many people does not realize is that they are not the only one. Law Enforcement gives Deaf and Hard of Hearing people a very hard time as there are several stories about their experiences when they had confrontation with the police. One of several experiences, there were a Deaf woman who called police for immediate help because she was being beaten by her boyfriend or husband so once the police arrived at their residence and the Deaf woman were approached by the police where she would be supposedly to explain the situation about her husband or her boyfriend beat her to the plum but instead the police never took the time to hear her explanation so they tasered her then body slams her to the ground with their knees on the back of her body and cuffed her then books her to the jail while the husband or boyfriend who can hear were scoot-free. So imagine the horror as if you were in her shoes, the police never even questioned that man or even to let the woman to tell them what was going on or the reason for their call to the police station so they immediately arrested a victim and booked her there without an interpreter to read her rights which is illegal under American with Disabilities Act 1990. Didn’t even bother asking that man about the situation or anything, as they just tasered her, arrested her then put her in the back of the car and left while that man get to chill at her house with a jail-free card given by the police. How can they do that?
That is just one story, there are several stories and most of them are worse than the story that I just have told you about the police tasered then arrested that woman. How worse may you ask me?
All I have to say is the name of the person then you would know and the name is Daniel Harris. If you still don’t know then obviously you didn’t watch the news and I suggest that you read some news because Daniel Harris is another Deaf person. Now for several years, it is known that the Deaf community is very weary of the police because either that they have experienced firsthand with the police themselves in the past, experienced brutality from the police or extreme oppression from the police so that instills the fear within’ the Deaf community and many of the Deaf or Hard of Hearing individuals hear some stories from their people so it spread more fears in the Deaf community. Any time that Deaf or Hard of Hearing would be approached by the police, of course they are going to be very nervous and maybe panicked because of the horror stories that they have heard from their own people in the Deaf community or that they have already experienced firsthand in the past so they knows what would happen even before they are being confronted by the police as they knew that they are going to be either brutally abused by the police or going to be extremely oppressed by the police themselves. Deaf community is minority, very small which that is why they are more afraid than any other communities such as people of colors as being that Deaf community is minority, where almost several Deaf or Hard of Hearing individuals have been experienced firsthand with the police before shared their experiences so these others who haven’t experienced the approach from the police yet they would already expect what have been happened to them would be happening to them too. The ratio in the Deaf community who have been brutally abused or oppressed by the law enforcement is insane, that is why the ones who hasn’t experienced being approached by the police expects that they are about to experience what the others have experienced because it is extremely rare that any Deaf or Hard of Hearing person have been approached by the police properly or in nice manner.
Remember a few years ago, the Deaf man were walking on the street with a carver knife as he is wood-carver, or something which I cannot remember what it is called was simply walking on the street on his way home and somebody saw that he had a carver knife on him as he walked to the store to buy it on that day then walks home from the store so these strangers on the street called the police on him then within’ a couple seconds after the police’s arrival that wood-carver man who happens to be Deaf was shot from behind as the police screamed by asking him to stop walking but obviously considering that he is Deaf so he won’t be able to hear the order from the police so he keeps on walking but they didn’t pay attention to the fact that man could be either Deaf or Hard of Hearing as the police were happy-trigger as he shot the Deaf carver man in the back without coming up with another idea of how to get his attention. The best way to get their attention is try to get in front of them, make them aware that the police needs their attention because since they are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and screaming from behind will NOT get their attention as they cannot hear them from the behind as anyone who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing rely on visual more than anything.
Nonetheless, it is saddening that a few years later since that happened. Another Deaf man’s life have been taken by the ignorant happy-triggering police, that man I am referring to is Daniel Harris. What happened is that, the story is somewhat smeared as it seems that they are trying to cover up or trying to stall to come up with an idea of story to share in public but there are some witnesses who sees it all. Daniel Harris were speeding, of course he shouldn’t have but that isn’t the point here though but he was speeding so the law enforcement spotted him for speeding so they turned on the lights and get behind Daniel Harris’s car so when you see a police car behind you flashing their lights then common sense is that you pull over right? Now what if it is unmarked? There is speculation going on around about that. Back to the story, Daniel Harris was speeding, of course that man who was speeding happens to be Deaf so obviously, he cannot hear the sirens so you get the picture, so he keeps on driving as he wasn’t aware of the police that was trying to pull him over so until a few minutes later the police bumped the back of his car so that caught Daniel’s attention and he didn’t pulls over so he kept on driving trying his utmost best to make it to his family house because as I mentioned that almost every Deaf or Hard of Hearing individuals have no good experiences with law enforcement so this means Daniel Harris were afraid so he just wanted to get to his family house so he can be comfortable knowing that there would be witnesses or that he’d have somebody to inform the law enforcement that he is Deaf.
That didn’t work as he was just about to arrive where his family’s house is, his car spun out of control and he spun around but he was close enough to his family’s house though as he can see the house from his car. So he get out of the vehicle, getting ready to let the police know that he is Deaf but unfortunately he didn’t get his chance as the police happens to be a happy-trigger and killed him right on the spot as he gets out of the vehicle. Almost didn’t even give him a chance to stand up, as he was just getting out of the vehicle then as he was about to stand and his life were ended right there. Of course his family and the Deaf community are saddened by that news, as Daniel Harris is known to be a very nice guy. His family and the Deaf community have said that he is someone who wouldn’t want to harm anyone or anything. So who is all to be blamed for? Law enforcement.
You’d think that the people of colored, especially black have it bad with the law enforcement. Not just them but the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people too; Deaf community. Law enforcement would always say that American Sign Language is misunderstood as gang signs? Like what the heck. American Sign Language and gang signs is very different. American Sign Language is a real language, it is the language that Deaf community born with and belongs to which is looked at it as gang signs by the law enforcement? Excuse me! That is like saying English is a gang language too. Law Enforcement is known for serve and protection. Okay, I beg differ. Now I am not saying that all the law enforcement is the same, but unfortunately the most are and that is a problem. Many police departments have repeatedly said that they have taken workshop annually, some classes and others so that they can improve on their policing when it comes to approaching the Deaf or Hard of Hearing individuals. Like Ricky Taylor says, that does not work and that never will work. I strongly agree with Ricky, saying that each police station should at least have one or more Deaf or Hard of Hearing who knows American Sign Language working in the same building with them so that they can be aware how to approach anybody who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing better. Not just that, having Deaf or Hard of Hearing who knows American Sign Language working in the same building as they do, they will be exposed to American Sign Language so that way they can learn American Sign Language while they are at it and then they would know at least basic signs so that way they can communicate with anyone who happens to be Deaf or Hard of Hearing especially if they are pulling them over like Daniel Harris but unfortunately they never been exposed to them. The death of Daniel Harris can be easily preventable, Daniel Harris wasn’t even endangering them or anything as all it takes is him getting out of his seat inside his vehicle to outside and then next thing he has been shot.
That police should have wait a few more seconds, allow him to actually stand and then see what happens before happy-triggering shot him. Because if a few seconds later, Daniel Harris could calm the law enforcement himself and follow their orders as he was close enough to his family’s home where he could have someone over there to interpret the communication for the law enforcement. There are few different scenarios that doesn’t involve a happy-trigger shooting, Daniel Harris would still be alive today and the police wouldn’t be on paid leave (PAID LEAVES? *Shrugs!).
Of course since what had happened a few days ago with Daniel Harris, that is another horror story added to a long list of the stories by other Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the community. Oppression, Brutality, Tasering then arrested a victim, refusing to provide an interpreter which violated American with Disabilities Act in several ways and more. That makes me think, I wonder if the law enforcement abuses their own law, American with Disabilities Act in particular than anybody else? That would be a good topic to discuss about in the Deaf community so I suggest that you have a talk about that with your Deaf or Hard of Hearing friends or family members. Since what had happened with Daniel Harris by police, that instills even more fear within’ the Deaf community to be approached by the law enforcement so I don’t blame any of them if they will try everything in their power to avoid themselves from ever being approached by the police for any reasons because I would too. If you ask me is there a way to fix this? There is one solution that they could consider, hire Deaf who knows American Sign Language to work at the same building with them and they don’t have to be a police as they can be hired for something such as mentoring, liaison, data entry, media press and other different titles.
That is actually the only solution, unfortunately I don’t think that the police would consider it because again it is expected. As for me, have I ever been approached by law enforcement? I have a few times but not for any crimes or anything. Only these times I had experienced with the police were in mall, at football game or something but most of the times I and other polices waves at each others but that may be because this city is somewhat small where everybody knows each others. My great uncle was a police for a very long time in Columbus, Ohio. So I really never had any bad experiences with law enforcement, not yet and I hope I never will but I am speaking for myself, I am one of 300,000+ Deaf/Hard of Hearing in the Deaf community here in the United States and I am one of these ratio under “rare” because there thousands of Deaf or Hard of Hearing had bad experiences with law enforcement almost every time so I guess it does depend on the areas or police departments. So if you are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, I would highly recommend that you always keep an eyes of you in the rear view now and then so that what had happened to Daniel Harris wouldn’t repeat. If you do happen to see an unmarked vehicle, please find a crowd place to pull over so if the police is to pull you over on a highway or a street then you slow down below the speed and try to find the parking lot with a lot of the people around so that there would be witnesses because police wouldn’t do anything if there are too many witnesses. So please be careful out there, be safe and drive safely.
Here is a story from the news outlet about Daniel Harris if you would like to know what happens: North Carolina Law Enforcement kill unarmed Deaf man who was using sign language by NY Daily News.
If you do a search on a search engines like Google, you would see several news saying that North Carolina police repeats over and over saying that they still cannot explain why Daniel Harris was shot. Keep that in mind the police department over in North Carolina have said that they worn a body camera where it would show what was happening and yet they still says that they cannot explain why this happened? That is something fishy if you ask me. That sounds as if they are covering themselves and trying to come up with a story that sounds plausible but false. A plausible story so that it can get the public to think that as if it make sense, but inaccurate and I am sure that they are doing everything they can to get away with just as the police normally do. But if they cannot explain then why not release the video from their body camera and let us determine what really happened then maybe we as Deaf community can actually explain but that is where the problem is, they are afraid that we are smarter than they thinks.
Thank you very much for all of your time reading this article, I pray that Daniel Harris’s family get the justice for Daniel Harris and pray for their comforts. This shouldn’t have happened but it had happened and it’s unfortunate but we have to live with which is unfair. May Daniel Harris rests in peace and the police of North Carolina does the right thing by suspending the police infinitely which that would still be unfair as to be fair we’d be asking that he is to be arrested for murder but again we know how police works here in the United States. Please let me clarify, not all police and police departments are the same but it is unfortunate that the majority of them is. Feel free to leave a comment below if you’d like to discuss about this matter, Deaf community and the law enforcement in general. I’d love to hear what you have to say, if you have had a bad experience with law enforcement yourself then I would love to hear them as well and if you have any recommendation for how Deaf or Hard of Hearing people should handle when it comes to being approached by the law enforcement please leave them in the comment too!
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
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