Posted on 02/18/2014 7:24:56 AM PST by BenLurkin
HAWTHORNE (CBSLA.com) — Jonathan Meister was retrieving some stuff he was storing at an ex-roommate’s home when he looked up to find several members of the Hawthorne Police Department approaching.
The South Bay man claims officers didn’t give him a chance to explain what he was doing before placing him in handcuffs, beating him and using a stun gun to shock him into submission.
The problem began when police reportedly misunderstood Meister’s attempts to speak in sign language as threatening gestures.
Moreover, officers didn’t realize that when they handcuffed Meister, who is “profoundly deaf” and non-verbal, they took away his ability to communicate.
Now, the architect from Manhattan Beach is suing the city of Hawthorne, its police department and several of its officers for what happened that day.
The incident began on the evening of Feb. 13, 2013, when Meister arranged to get some things his ex-roommate was holding for him on his back porch. Someone saw Meister hauling items, thought it looked suspicious, and called police.
Officers met Meister on the sidewalk, where he “tried to tell them that he was deaf, using gestures to explain that he was there to pick up his stuff, but it didn’t seem like they understood,” Meister’s attorney Anna Rivera said.
The situation deteriorated from there.
Police put Meister in handcuffs and officers say he began struggling.
“If the primary way you communicate is to use your hands, and you’re looking at somebody when you speak, when you go to grab somebody without explaining what’s happening and take that method of communication away from them, Mr. Meister became afraid,” Rivera said.
The suit claims the officers’ response was excessive. The suit alleges police used a stun gun to bring him to the ground and beat him.
He was arrested and taken to the Hawthorne police station, where he communicated in writing.
Police initially charged Meister with assaulting officers but those charges were eventually dropped.
Meister filed his case Wednesday with the Disability Rights Legal Center, suing for compensatory, statutory and punitive damages.
“It’s a civil rights case about officers discriminating against someone just because they have a disability, and that they don’t recognize someone is deaf,” Rivera said.
Hawthorne police provided a copy of the police report showing they recognized Meister was deaf early on and that he tried to resist.
Meister’s hand-written account to police says he didn’t mean to resist.
River says officers should have tried to communicate with Meister using a pen and a piece of paper.
Police released a statement that said, in part: “Officers make every effort to communicate effectively…In almost all cases, it is the person’s behavior and actions who we contact that dictate police response rather than the communication barriers present. That is certainly the case in this specific matter…”
Hawthorne police also say they officers already receive training on handling situations where communication proves difficult.
What? No shoot the dog???
They are just dumb cops that can’t read or write. That will be their defense.
Uh, threatening gestures? They Stunned him for threatening gestures?
Wow, what were they afraid of? Someone might see?
If I had seen a couple of dozen PSAs describing the gesture I would think he was deaf.
Aside from wearing a patch on clothing stating that ‘I Am Deaf’, which is demeaning in and of itself, there isn’t much I can do except point to my hearing aid when in a public situation, like at a cashier’s station waiting to pay for something. That seems to be the only way to communicate that I can’t hear well.............
Sounds like good reason for a public service advertising campaign about a universal gesture.
You want to talk about “overstaffed”?
The municipality next to where I live had, on a public trail: two cops on bikes on the trail, two cruisers at a road where the trail crosses, and 4 cops on foot stopping folks and handing out $138. fines to every cyclist not wearing helmets!
There are only 100K folks paying the salaries of the above mentioned cops, at $80K + per year each.
If we have so little actual crime that we have manpower enough for such petty enforcement of a ludicrous “law”, we have FAR and away too many thugs with badges on the street.
not wearing A helmet. OOPS
It would also help in medical emergencies, tho perhaps one of the medic-alert bracelets wouldn’t hurt either.
Back in the day, when I read one of these headlines, I just figured it was about some police state nightmare unfolding in a foreign 3rd world dictatorship s*#thole. Not anymore. Land of the Free...Home of the Brave...now, pretty much a myth.
Post of the day!
Gulag
Gestapo
What is wrong with these people? Put them in a uniform and give them a gun and everything changes.
huh - color me surprised the police didn't de-escalate the situation as is the normal case / sarc
Too many oral boards have been hiring candidates who say that they want to be “police officers,” “because” they “want to see some action.” That’s a public corruption flag, and the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Dept. will, sooner or later, start doing its job again in putting the corrupt in federal prisons.
Gestures are threatening? Who is hired as police officers who are threatened by a gesture? There was a story a while back some little kid wasbeaten and arrested for a “threatening look.” People still trust police? I sure don’t.
Drop the delusional paranoia. I described something voluntary.
Having actually researched the topic, as opposed to knee-jerk hyperbole, I suggest you refrain from such instruction.
It didn't work. That means the system could be improved. I'm not excusing the police in this case; they belong in jail, and impoverished. Nevertheless, the deaf could do a better job than expecting everybody else to research and learn to read their signs. PSA advertising of at most two or three emergency signals would go a long way to improving their situation. It's up to them to come up with the signals.
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