okay. This has to be the stuff of my nightmares: getting out of the bath, opening the bathroom door, and finding a posse of police pointing the business end of a gun at you. Granted, it wouldn’t happen in the UK unless i was holding a gun (armed response officers are only called out when a firearm is involved, most policemen are not routinely armed) and i’m not so stupid as to do that, whether in the bath or no, but still. At least i, even without my hearing aids, can make myself understood. This guy couldn’t, couldn’t make them understand that he was deaf and couldn’t hear them and then the police shot him with a taser anyway. Original news report can be found here. It brings up a more serious matter, though, although this man was shot was a taser and thus, once he recovered, was uninjured (and was apologised to), you have to wonder, in places where police are armed and can shoot to wound, is it possible for a deaf person to be fatally shot by mistake? I don’t know. but it makes me glad the UK’s police force isn’t routinely armed.
Some things just leave you speechless. And I tell you one thing. if i take a bath when Michiel isn’t in the house, i’m going to make damn sure i lock the door.
December 7, 2007 at 7:31 am
Yes, it absolutely has happened that deaf people have been shot and killed by the police. Perhaps also in your country too, I don’t know — the relative lack of armed police over there must be a factor in your favor.
The locked door doesn’t matter. If they think they have probable reason, they’ll bust the door down.
But yeah, I Just. Cannot. Imagine.
December 7, 2007 at 6:22 pm
oh absolutely it doesn’t matter, if they had probable cause. The problem is i can’t think of a probable cause in the UK. To be honest, its automatic when guns are being aimed at you, to put your hands to the sky, right? the problem some deaf people then have is being unable to talk to the guys with the guns, but at least they shouldn’t be shot as long as they keep their hands in the air and don’t do *anything* to aggravate the situation, to give the police time to figure out whats going on.
What scares me far far more is the thought of walking down the street, minding my own business, having a policeofficer yell at me to stop, and me not hearing them. I always thought, however, given the fact that policeofficers are not routinely armed meant that the likelihood of that happening is rare.
In the light of the de menzes shooting in london though.. i have to wonder how long it will be before it does happen. *sighs*