[Access] misplaced outrage

[jeannemarie moore]

Who is this being sent to?  Yep I was struck by it all when I read it.
j-m.
 
 


  _____  

From: access-bounces at uueugene.org [mailto:access-bounces at uueugene.org] On
Behalf Of Mary Otten
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:46 AM
To: Access Issues and Discussion
Subject: [Access] misplaced outrage


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 act! ions 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 -- s! egregate 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 t! o 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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