Half the People Killed by Police Have a Disability

The police have become the default responders to mental health calls, which is a problem considering that half of the people who die at the hands of the police have a disability. Often, police officers presume that people with psychiatric disabilities are dangerous to themselves and others, but instead of knowing how to de-escalate situations, police often resort to brutality and lethal force. Even situations where the police are there to transfer the patient to a mental health facility can end in the police shooting the patient dead.

When law enforcement doesn’t recognize a person’s disability, that disability can be misunderstood and even criminalized. People who are diabetic are often mistaken as threatening or drunk, deaf people are frequently treated as non-compliant and tased or beaten by the police, and the list goes on. Pseudo-science led to myths linking disability and criminality, devaluing disabled people when the reality is that disabled people are much more likely to be the victims of violence.