Journalist – Historian – Speaker
I spent the morning at Equip for Equality in Downtown Chicago, learning from attorney Amanda Antholt as she discussed policing and disability. “Where we see police misconduct, it’s the same sort of set of events. Gave an order, you didn’t comply, so I’m escalating.” @equip4equality — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) March 30, 2016 Antholt has …
Here’s a big study on taser use from Maryland, thanks to the hard work of the Baltimore Sun. In reporting Taser incidents to the state, police departments must record the reason for discharging the weapon. Officers have only three options: “non-compliant and non-threatening,” “use of threat” or “use of force.” Of all incidents from 2012 through …
Michael Marshall is the latest victim of the Cult Of Compliance. Last November Marshall, who had schizophrenia, was placed into prone restraint and died, choking on his own vomit. This piece discusses the technique and links it to the death of Ethan Saylor and Eric Garner. Notice how the DA places blame for Marshall’s death …
Sureshbahi Patel was beaten by an Alabama police officer for, as near as I can tell, not speaking English. I like to think of this as akin to other situations in which people do not process verbal commands – whether through hearing loss, not speaking English, ear buds, sensory processing, etc. The man who beat …
In response to the recent shooting of Quintonio Legrier and Bettie Jones, embattled mayor Rahm Emanuel has made a decision – give all cops Tasers. Chicago’s mayor and police superintendent will announce Wednesday afternoon that every police officer who responds to service calls will be equipped with a Taser and properly trained to use it …
Cincinnati has a new red and white placard that deaf and hard-of-hearing drivers can place in their car to inform police officers of their disability. Here’s an image from a local news tweet. .@CincinnatiPD & students at @uofcincy help design traffic stop safety placards for the deaf & hard of hearing. pic.twitter.com/M6C6fOcGvn — Angela Ingram …
I’ve been out of town so haven’t been commenting directly on the Laquan McDonald killing. Two major points. First, I believe that the elected officials of Chicago tried to cover this up and delay justice for political gain. The Cook County prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, must have had probable cause to indict Officer Van Dyke for …
There is new video of the death of Linwood Lambert. If police want to have TASERs, which they do and they should, then the people who abuse them have to be held accountable. When three Virginia police officers put Linwood Lambert in a squad car around 5 a.m. on May 4, 2013, they said they …
This case is from 2012, but I first noticed it on this DailyKos diary. It’s a perfect example of the “cult of compliance,” a phrase I’ve been using since 2013 to link otherwise discrete incidents of police brutality, creeping authoritarianism, and broader examples of cultural discourse that venerate compliance as the greatest of all virtues. …
This is a video of a school bus driver attacking a child with disabilities. It’s hard to watch, but worth watching for the following reasons (and maybe more): The other kids are standing up for their classmate, telling the bus driver he can’t do it. One child was holding the cell phone that caught this …