What would you do?

Dodge Trucker

Dodge Trucker

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(Mods - I do not know where the EXACT place this thread fits, so move as needed or merge or split as needed. Thanks)

I have a question/scenario for ALL of us who has hearing impairment (however you wish to describe yourself).

(keep this in mind - You and your wife/partner/spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend have NEVER been in trouble with the law. Never had/have a warrant for your arrest, no parking tickets, nothing. You BOTH are clean as a whistle.)

Lets say you and your wife/partner/spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend are walking down the street on the square...plaza..center of downtown and it is SAFE. You BOTH are COMPLETELY deaf. You both are walking and you notice that people walking on the other side of the street are looking at you different. You also notice that people walking towards you in the opposite direction looking at you like you are crazy. You two keep walking down the street and not have a care in the world what other people think about you two.
Next thing you know, your wife/girlfriend/partner falls forward to the ground with a guy on her back and it is OBVIOUS that the guy is trying to subdue her/him.
You NATURALLY FIGHT back to get the guy off and you FIGHT BACK HARD. Finally the guy gets off, but you find yourself tazzed/maced. After the smoke clears, you find that it is actually a police officer who "attacked" your wife/partner/girlfriend.
At the police station, the officer writes up a report that he vocally tried to tell your wife/partner/girlfriend from behind while walking on the street to stop, drop to their knees and put their hands on their heads. The wife/partner/girlfriend did not respond after several vocal repeated requests and kept walking, so the officer took physical action. Why? He thought your other half was a known drug dealer, but case of mistaken identity.

What happens now? Who is at fault? Does the person who "attacked" the police officer get in trouble for assaulting a law officer? Does the wife/partner/girlfriend gets charged for resisting arrest? Charges dropped? Keep in mind that you BOTH are fully deaf. What is the most likely scenario outcome?
Just thought of an interesting scenario is all. Should make for a GREAT debate!
 
Well, since I am going to law school in a couple years, let me say that those police officers had better make an apology; in writing AND publicly if the story was leaked to the news media. I think I would go so far as to file assault and battery charges against all the police officers involved, not to mention suing for false accusations, false arrest and imprisonment. I think we could push this to a felony conviction against them, as well, including the loss of their peace officer license indefinately. If it were "mistaken identity," there is no excuse for that mixup. You hit me, you go to jail. Hit someone I'm with under no provocation, I would hope that they would file charges. Saying "I'm sorry" isn't enough anymore. Pony up!

Now, if Heath was here, and he's a friend of mine, he would go way softer and say that the police are always right. Not so.

By the way, I would be the one to make sure the story "leaked" to the news media.
 
Police Officers should apologize...

and I would UNDERSTAND and move on.

They were only doing their jobs.

Everybody make mistakes.
 
Wow!! I was going to ask a question similiar to this after watching television show called "Summer Snow" where there was a deaf boy who was attacked by police, all because he was in wrong place at wrong time. The boy did not have hearing aid on and he could not hear the orders from police so he got beat up until he passed out.

I had to cringe at that episode because I was deaf myself and the boy was the sweetest character and is truly innocent in this case.

I always wondered if police beat me up like that, what should I do? Defend myself or allow police to treat me roughly until they realize I am deaf? I don't want to get shot by police so maybe it's better for me to lose some teeth rather than my life, huh? That truly sucks, because police is supposed to take all facts in factor before take action, imho.
 
What would/should happen with the other half who fought back with the police officer? Should the other half be charged with assault on a law officer? Or have the officer apologize profusely and sweep it under the rug? File severe federal lawsuit??

How in today's society would us deaf people be able to comprehend or tolerate this?

Another scenario is this (short this time)

A cop pulls you over, but gets out of his car with guns pointed. You naturally sit in the car waiting for the cop to come to your window. The cop is SCREAMING at the top of his lungs for you to throw your car keys out, get out of car..walk back towards his voice, drop to knees and lay down on street spread eagle. Since we are DEAF, naturally cops will get pissed and believe that we are ignoring him. He'd probably will come over and pull you out the window.

How can this be resolved in fairness or in a practical manner?
 
Sadly.

I remember one time I drove down the road and saw CHP on the other side of road. I did not know he was using speaker on to tell me to make left turn when I was going to stay straight on the road, lucky for my son to tell me to make left turn. I wonder what will happen if I did not make left turn and stay on straight line? Scary thought.
 
Heh, for your second question, I at one time told some hearing folk that watched COPS with me that I would probably got shot at this type of situation in a joke way. She seemed uneasiness with my joke and asked me seriously what would I have done in this situation. I told her that I don't really know. I won't be surprised if police fired a gun/taser at me or beat me up because of misunderstanding, because I would probably have panic in this situation or fought back if I thought I was in a danger. It's kinda hard to stay calm or still if you were innocent and have someone shouting and point gun at you, huh?

Deaf people got to expect the worst out of hearing people sometimes, it's just a fact of life.

For a good cop there got to be a bad cop as well.
 
I'm not sure what I'd do in such a situation. I'd try to make sure he understands that I'm deaf...

One of my friends that I knew from from deaf school was killed by cops. The police shot and killed him because they thought he was resisting them when in fact he couldn't hear them shouting at him. Worst of all, they mistook him for someone else. He was no criminal. He was a track star who used to run around the track with the words I am proud of the Deaf poster on his back. He was a popular guy.
 
I have no idea if this works in practice, but as a pre-driving teenager, I was always told to tie a white ribbon to my antenna so that emergency personnel would know that I couldn't hear sirens, and to bear with me (as opposed to blowing horns and possibly giving me tickets). I would imagine if that's a standard indicator that cops are taught to recognize, then they should know not to yell at a driver in a car w/a white ribbon.

Has anyone else heard of this practice? Or is it a Kansas thing?

I don't understand why cops feel the need to come on so aggressively sometimes anyway. Even if they are doing their jobs, it just seems like a power trip that serves no purpose other than to intimidate and make the other person feel small for no reason other than to make the cop feel big. There are nice cops out there, and not all of them come at folks from behind or guns a-blazing, but it's my opinion that the way that the system has been set up, there's too much opportunity for error and/or corruption and abuse of power.

abby

Dodge Trucker said:
What would/should happen with the other half who fought back with the police officer? Should the other half be charged with assault on a law officer? Or have the officer apologize profusely and sweep it under the rug? File severe federal lawsuit??

How in today's society would us deaf people be able to comprehend or tolerate this?

Another scenario is this (short this time)

A cop pulls you over, but gets out of his car with guns pointed. You naturally sit in the car waiting for the cop to come to your window. The cop is SCREAMING at the top of his lungs for you to throw your car keys out, get out of car..walk back towards his voice, drop to knees and lay down on street spread eagle. Since we are DEAF, naturally cops will get pissed and believe that we are ignoring him. He'd probably will come over and pull you out the window.

How can this be resolved in fairness or in a practical manner?
Click to expand...
 
Funny thing that when i was teenager back in 80's and i was walking with my hearing sister and the cop stopped me for some reason and my sister told the cop that i am deaf and the cop said oh excuse me as he thought i was someone else by mistaken cuz i was wearing dark blue jacket similar to other person who was wearing one, so this cop let me go....
 
deafskeptic said:
I'm not sure what I'd do in such a situation. I'd try to make sure he understands that I'm deaf...

One of my friends that I knew from from deaf school was killed by cops. The police shot and killed him because they thought he was resisting them when in fact he couldn't hear them shouting at him. Worst of all, they mistook him for someone else. He was no criminal. He was a track star who used to run around the track with the words I am proud of the Deaf poster on his back. He was a popular guy.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? What happened to the case afterward? Did his family sued the police dept or do anything? It was never on the media so I guess it must have be resolved in private or something.
 
Your first scenerio has several flaws.
We can sit and What If all day long....
If the D/deaf people were noticing in front and to their sides that others were looking at them strangely then why wouldn't they have looked behind themselves too? The police would've made a ID and the D/deaf folks would have stopped and spoken with the officers - This would have solved the situation

Bottom line is that there is still - unfortunate as it is - a big gap between hearing and D/deaf in every walk of life and that leads to communication breakdown.

This scenerio
A cop pulls you over, but gets out of his car with guns pointed. You naturally sit in the car waiting for the cop to come to your window. The cop is SCREAMING at the top of his lungs for you to throw your car keys out, get out of car..walk back towards his voice, drop to knees and lay down on street spread eagle. Since we are DEAF, naturally cops will get pissed and believe that we are ignoring him. He'd probably will come over and pull you out the window.
Click to expand...
Isn't just a scenerio - this situation really happened and the deaf person was shot. I forget who posted it and where, anyone remember?


Actually, "Gee this guy is deaf" is not the first thing that crosses an officers mind - It is usually - "Crap, why isn't this person complying?" "Are they formulating an escape plan?" - "Are they adjusting their bullet proof vest and loading their weapon?" - "Where is cover if this guy comes out shooting?" -- these are the types of things crossing the officers mind -- Not -- "I'm pissed off to be messing with a deaf person"

I was always told to tie a white ribbon to my antenna so that emergency personnel would know that I couldn't hear sirens, and to bear with me (as opposed to blowing horns and possibly giving me tickets)
Click to expand...
Not a universal thing so do not count on getting away with impeding emergency vehicles and using D/deaf as an excuse, That is why there are also Lights Flashing. No Lights, don't worry about going right but if you see (and every driver should be observing all around them) Flashing Lights then get over as far to the right as safely as possible - It may very well be your family member who gets to the hospital quickly or your house that the fire truck gets to quickly.

In truth - when we are in an emergency run we sure do not have time to stop and cite someone then. There is always later and sometimes that happens.
Don't believe anyone who says - "Do this and it will get you out of a ticket"
 
I wish there's someone on this forum that's cop. Because I would like to know what to do if a police tackle me down and hurt me in the process. What can I do to min the damage done toward my own body by a police until someone take control of the situation again. Stay still won't help if they were hurting you or make you panic.

I wish I can shake the picture of deaf boy being beat up by a police out of my mind.

I am surprised that there weren't many replys to this topic. I guess it's something most deaf people deal with being deaf in hearing world.
 
pek1 said:
Now, if Heath was here, and he's a friend of mine, he would go way softer and say that the police are always right.
Click to expand...
Oh Lord Pek1... I am sorry that you are friends with a racist bigot.

But back to the topic. That is interesting and I believe the police face this exact issue when they encounter deaf people. While I'm sure if the deaf person knows the police are trying to communicate with them they would indicate that they are deaf. If the police are yelling at them from behind then it's a completly different situation and the police have no way of knowing you are deaf and then they are just doing their jobs. Having said that I do believe once everyone figures out what happened then apologies are in order. Just my opinion.
 
deafskeptic said:
I'm not sure what I'd do in such a situation. I'd try to make sure he understands that I'm deaf...

One of my friends that I knew from from deaf school was killed by cops. The police shot and killed him because they thought he was resisting them when in fact he couldn't hear them shouting at him. Worst of all, they mistook him for someone else. He was no criminal. He was a track star who used to run around the track with the words I am proud of the Deaf poster on his back. He was a popular guy.
Click to expand...

What a tragic thing!
 
I wish there's someone on this forum that's cop
Click to expand...
At your service SilentWolfDog :) ask me anything :)

While training is much much better then when I started in police work there is still a horribly large gap - at least here in Ohio - where communication between any branch of government and the D/deaf are concerned.
I am sure other Ohioans in here will agree.
As spouse to HOH (ran256, remember him :)) ASL person, and so on and a D/deaf advocate type person in my area I am always trying to enlighten and educate the hearing to the D/deaf and vice versa.
 
Dodge Trucker said:
What would/should happen with the other half who fought back with the police officer? Should the other half be charged with assault on a law officer? Or have the officer apologize profusely and sweep it under the rug? File severe federal lawsuit??

How in today's society would us deaf people be able to comprehend or tolerate this?

Another scenario is this (short this time)

A cop pulls you over, but gets out of his car with guns pointed. You naturally sit in the car waiting for the cop to come to your window. The cop is SCREAMING at the top of his lungs for you to throw your car keys out, get out of car..walk back towards his voice, drop to knees and lay down on street spread eagle. Since we are DEAF, naturally cops will get pissed and believe that we are ignoring him. He'd probably will come over and pull you out the window.

How can this be resolved in fairness or in a practical manner?
Click to expand...
Well, there should be something on the computer that mentions that the driver is deaf. If an officer pulls someone over and is cautious, he/she could simply check the computer for the driver history. If the computer says the driver is deaf, then the officer should be prepared to be "ignored" and proceed with different methods.

I hear that some people say, "I don't want my license to say that I'm deaf." Well, too bad... it could save your life in the future. If it doesn't say anything like that on your license and you are pulled over, the officer may never know whether you're giving him a hard time or not. It's there for the purpose of IDENTIFICATION. It IDENTIFIES who and what you are. If you wear glasses, your license should say so. If you're deaf, your license should say so.
 
VamPyroX said:
Well, there should be something on the computer that mentions that the driver is deaf. If an officer pulls someone over and is cautious, he/she could simply check the computer for the driver history. If the computer says the driver is deaf, then the officer should be prepared to be "ignored" and proceed with different methods.

I hear that some people say, "I don't want my license to say that I'm deaf." Well, too bad... it could save your life in the future. If it doesn't say anything like that on your license and you are pulled over, the officer may never know whether you're giving him a hard time or not. It's there for the purpose of IDENTIFICATION. It IDENTIFIES who and what you are. If you wear glasses, your license should say so. If you're deaf, your license should say so.
Click to expand...

I don't mind that, however it doesn't say that on my driver license. I guess it varied from state to state.

This would help with driving situation but not as innocent bystander of such freaky situation.
 
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