Using the rubric below, rate and edit my american sign language essay. it is due within the hour.

rae robison
deaf research
asl 1
12.05.18

police brutality towards the deaf

it can be an extremely scary experience getting pulled over or approached by a police officer. according to marlee matlin, it is, even more, scarier because you can’t hear and you don’t really know what is going on around you. all too often miscommunication happens between the officer and “suspect” and the results vary from wrongful arrests, brutal beatings, and to sometimes homicide. it is an officer’s duty to make sure that they are following the law and making sure that they receive training on how to interact with a community. not all officers are aware that they will also be interacting with part of the deaf community. this doesn’t make it okay on how they treat the deaf though.
there are so many wrongful killings and beatings each year that are towards the deaf community. here are a few examples that are the most well-known ones. in the year of 2016, an 18-year-old hannah cohen, both partially deaf and blind, was assaulted by tsa agents as she was returning home from receiving cancer treatment. robert kim, who is a deaf motorist, was repeatedly tasered by an officer in st. louis while pulled over on the side of the road, fixing a flat tire when he slipped into a diabetic episode. jonathan meister, an architect who communicates using only asl, was handcuffed and also repeatedly tasered by police officers. he was moving a couple of things for a friend of his when the police thought he was burglarizing the house.
the most recent and popular assaults are on pearl pearson and magdiel sanchez. sanchez was shot on the spot in the front of his house after an officer came to investigate a hit-and-run. magdiel had no way to communicate with the officer so he used what he always uses to communicate, a short metal rod. even after neighbors shouted that he was deaf, they still shot him. pearson was pulled out of his car, his shoulder dislocated and knocked unconscious. he was pulled over for a minor hit-and-run and when pear reached for his sign that says hearing impaired, the officer punched him and pulled him from the car. when the officer pulled him from the car, pearson was yelling that he was deaf but the officer only beat him more. after the assault, police cameras show the officers cussing when they find out that he is deaf. the other officers coached the one officer who started the beating, on what to say in front of the court.
why do the police think they have the right to get away with this? according to resources, they have no right to treat the deaf, or anyone with a disability, with violence unless something against the law actually happened. when situations like this happen, the police should wait for their backup and try to actually interact with the “suspect”. it is not okay to arrest or assault a deaf person for them failing to listen and follow verbal commands, it is not their fault.
i am training to become a police officer when i graduate from high school and college. i feel really privileged to be in an american sign language class so that i can know how to diffuse a situation like what i had recently written. not a lot of people get a chance like this but i am willing to use the skills that are given to me and make a difference.