[Access] misplaced outrage

[Mary Otten]

I got this from a UU colleague on another list. Aside from the
grossness of what happened to Mr. Sterner, there is an important lesson
here in how this is being framed. Its not being seen as a civil rights
issue. And it should be, as this author points out. 

Mary


The Outrage is Grossly Misplaced



Wheelchair Dumping



By WILLIAM J. PEACE 

Wheelchair dumping is a relatively new term and age-old phenomenon. Few
people ever heard of wheelchair dumping until this week. Thanks to a
surveillance videotape and websites such as You Tube many of us know
about Brian Sterner, a quadriplegic, who was literally dumped out of
his wheelchair by a Tampa Florida police officer on January 29. The
videotape is damning 

Conversely, the lack of any action on the part of the other police
officers present that witnessed what happened to Sterner was equally
inexcusable. 

Even I, a hardened crippled man accustomed to social abuse, was shocked
to see Sterner on the ground as officers casually laughed, put on
plastic gloves and proceeded to frisk Sterner. The tape shows Sterner's
body was moved front to back, his pants askew, as though he were a sack
of potatoes. This was not a scene from Cool Hand Luke where hardened
criminals are treated brutally. Sterner, a quadriplegic, represented no
physical threat. 

What particularly fascinated me was one aspect of the press coverage.
Headlines exploded across the United States and abroad. A random
sampling includes: "Deputy dumped quadriplegic out of wheelchair"
(MSNBC), "Deputies Suspended for Wheelchair dump" (AP), "Police dumped
paralyzed man" (BBC News), "Fla. Deputy dumps quadriplegic from chair"
(WFAA TX). Many news stories failed to mention an important part of the
story: the actual name of the human being who was dumped out of his
wheelchair. Thus the assault on Sterner did not end at the Tampa police
department. The nameless Sterner was not fully human. He was merely
"paralyzed", "paraplegic", "quadriplegic".

This story brought two thoughts to mind: first, after my father died
two years ago I needed to get my fingerprints taken. My father owned
thoroughbred racehorses and most states, including New York where I
reside, require all registered race horse-horse owners have their
fingerprints taken and kept on file. I went to the local police station
to have my prints taken only to discover there was no wheelchair
access. I then went to the nearest New York State police department and
there was no wheelchair access to this building either. Eventually I
found a police station that was accessible -- that is unless I was
arrested. All the holding cells were impossible enter. This was
comforting and alarming. I asked the officer who took my prints about
wheelchair access and his reply was "don't get arrested and you will
not have a problem". These were not comforting words. What I did not
and should have said to this officer was that buildings housing police
offices were required by the ADA circa 1990 to be accessible, a law
that the town has ignored for 15 years.

The second thing that sprang to mind when I read and saw the raw video
of a fellow crippled man being dumped out of his wheelchair was how
common this has become. Here I am not referring to a horde of paralyzed
people who are dumped out of their wheelchair by the police but rather
the phenomenon and term "wheelchair dumping" itself. This phenomenon is
not restricted to people that use wheelchairs. I consider "wheelchair
dumping" to be a broader term that refers to all those who have a
physical or mental deficit whose existence is no longer valued. The
people that are dumped are generally poor, many elderly, often have no
home to go to, lack adequate health insurance, and are estranged from
family and friends. The people that are dumped are not wanted by a host
of institutions such as my local police station, jails, mental
institutions, rehabilitation hospitals, half way houses, homeless
shelters etc. Sterner is thus far from unusual. Indeed the only
surprise was that the actions of the officer that arrested him were
caught on videotape. No tape no story. 

This is not speculation. This is a fact. "Dumping" is a convenient,
cost-effective way of eliminating people who have no social standing.
Such events appear in the news with alarming regularity but are quickly
forgotten. They are never perceived as a violation of a person's civil
rights. For example, last month Gabino Olvera, a mentally ill
paraplegic man was dumped on Skid Row. Hollywood Presbyterian medical
Center "discharged" Olvera in a soiled hospital gown without a
wheelchair. Several witnesses reported that Olvera was clutching
hospital documents between his teeth and was crawling back toward the
van that dumped him on the street.

Wheelchair dumping is the antithesis of inclusion. Disability rights
activists coined the term inclusion over the well-known concept
mainstreaming. For nearly two decades disabled people have fought to be
included, their existence valued. This effort has met stiff resistance
-- especially in the court and educational system. Disability rights
activists have fought for inclusion because it reflects the idea that
all members of society are equal and capable. In theory this idea is
accepted but rarely if ever put into practice. It's easier and cheaper
to ignore the rights of disabled people and "dump" all those who don't
fit in. In the past we had institutions to dump people into -- most of
which were closed in the 1980s, thanks to Ronald Reagan. In their place
we have a host of inaccessible facilities, like my local police
station, or other government facilities, many of which contain
"resource rooms". The vast majority of these rooms accomplish what
institutions once did -- segregate those that are not wanted. It is
easier for institutions such as public schools to "dump" all children
with learning disabilities into a "resource room" than include them in
classrooms with other children. If the parent or child balks, they can
deem the child disruptive and the district can literally force the
child out of the district and into "special programs". It is up to the
parent to hire experts and prove their child is not a disruption to
other students. To me, this is the legacy that Reagan should be known
for because he took dumping to an extreme -- especially for those with
mental illnesses who were dumped on urban street corners across the
country. 

Since the 1980s, I have seen this phenomenon of dumping spread
inexorably. All sorts of people from police officers like the one who
tipped Sterner out of his wheelchair, to hospital and school
administrators, can now dump people they deem objectionable. The
Sterner case is out of the norm in that the abuse he was endured was
caught on videotape and involved a man who was not afraid to assert his
rights (Sterner was the former director of the Florida Spinal Cord
Injury Source Center and is currently working on his PhD). Sterner was
arrested on a traffic related charge. Last fall he blocked an
intersection with his car, was accused of fleeing an officer, and did
not show up for a court appointment. Sterner readily admits he made
mistakes that led to his arrest. He also says that when he was in the
booking room of the Orient Road Jail, he told the arresting officer
that he was a quadriplegic and could not stand up. According to
officers, Sterner made a number of stupid comments, hardly
justification for abuse. Apparently the arresting deputy did not
believe Sterner was paralyzed and became agitated when he said he could
not stand. This is when Sterner was unceremoniously dumped out of his
wheelchair to the ground and frisked. The local sheriff in Tampa has
publicly apologized to Sterner and the officer that arrested Sterner
and those present when he was dumped out of his wheelchair was
suspended and has now been charged with a third-degree felony, abuse of
a disabled person. In his apology to Sterner the sheriff pointed out
that over "72,000 inmates were processed through central booking, more
than 230 of them came to jail in wheelchairs". I sincerely doubt these
words are comforting to Sterner. 

Two thoughts: why was Sterner not using his own wheelchair instead of a
markedly inferior jailhouse special. 

Sterner, so often the nameless cripple, contrasts with Rodney King, a
name that has instant recognition. Unless the media radically changes
the way it has covered this case, Sterner will remain anonymous,
reduced to "paralyzed man", a secondary assault Mr. King was never
subjected to. 

Wheelchair dumping is not a new phenomenon. As noted in a history of
the Black Panthers, in February 1945 Blues singer Blind Willie Johnson
died of pneumonia after being denied hospital treatment. He was barred
from the hospital not cause he was black but because he was blind.
Wheelchair dumping is also not to be confused with "patient dumping".
There are laws against patient dumping. There are no laws to protect
disabled people from wheelchair dumping. This has not prevented Florida
Attorney General Bill McCollum from asking his Office of Civil Rights
to review the video (the Hillsborough County Sheriff Office will
cooperate fully). If McCollem's office finds deputy's violated
Sterner's civil rights it could sue on his behalf for up to $10,000 per
infraction. 

In spite of the obvious civil rights violation not one mainstream news
outlet has stated the obvious or framed the story within the realm of
civil rights. Sterner and other disabled Americans are routinely
discriminated against yet of the hundreds of stories I read only one
has a direct quote from Sterner stating as much. In a February 13
report by KXAN Sterner is quoted as stating "Do I believe people with
disabilities have been getting the shaft for a long time? Yea. Do I
want to do something about it? Yes. Absolutely." 

Within the disabled community there is much outrage -- shock really,
and the grim reminder that somehow the rights of those that have a
physical deficit are somehow different. There is no question in my mind
that Sterner was the victim of a hate crime. Why, I wonder, is this so
hard to accept? Instead, replies posted to news reports all harp on the
same thing, pity: no police officer should hurt a poor defenseless
disabled person. There is outrage but it is grossly misplaced. What
needs to be done is clear: first, disabled people must assert their
civil rights -- even if under less than desirable conditions -- and
their bipedal peers must support this effort. Second, we should follow
the lead of the British disability rights group Disability Now and
create a highly public hate crime dossier. 

Disability Now has created "No Hiding Place" as part of their website
that consists of a dossier of crimes against disabled people. It is
categorized by impairment and lists the responses given by the Crown
Protection Service (police forces involved). This is hardly a solution
to hate crimes against disabled people but at least represents a start
toward framing the issue as a civil rights violation.

William Peace is an independent scholar and is writing The Bad Cripple,
to be published by CounterPunch Books. He can be reached at
wjpeace at optonline.net. 


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