Black People with Disabilities Are More Likely to Be Killed by Police than White People with Disabilities
Black people with disabilities are treated worse than white people with disabilities within the criminal justice system
We have a duty to shine a brighter spotlight on these undeniable truths
On June 18, 2020, we sent a letter to Congressional leaders voicing our support for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, legislation to reform policing in the U.S.
You can read the letter to the leadership of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives below or download a PDF of the letter at the bottom of this page.
June 18, 2020
Re: Support for the Justice in Policing Act of 2020
Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, and Leader McCarthy:
Disability Rights Oregon upholds the civil rights of people with disabilities to live, work, and engage in the community. The nonprofit works to transform systems, policies, and practices to give more people the opportunity to reach their full potential. For more than 40 years, the organization has served as Oregon’s Federally authorized Protection & Advocacy system.
We strongly support the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, new legislation introduced to reform policing in the United States. We urge you to enact the bill as soon as possible.
The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Lorenzo Dean, and others focused the world’s eyes on a repugnant fact: Black Americans are killed by police because of their race, and very often the people who commit those acts of racist violence are not held to account.
Disability Rights Oregon vehemently condemns racism, police brutality, and rejects white supremacy. First and foremost, we recognize the humanity of Black Americans and the fundamental human rights with which every individual is born. And we recognize that, Black Americans, and people of every race, religion, and gender, are part of the disability community.
The convergence of both race and disability puts an individual at enormous risk of becoming a victim of police violence. According to some estimates, nearly half of police killings involve people with disabilities, including Deborah Danner, a 66-year old Black woman with schizophrenia in New York City, Michelle Cussaux, a 50-year old Black woman who experienced mental illness in Phoenix, Andre Gladen, a 36-year-old Black man killed by police in Portland, Oregon who experienced blindness and mental illness, and Keith Lamont Scott, a Black man with a disability in Charlotte. All were killed by police in recent years. Black people with disabilities—whether they’re deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low vision, have a mental illness, or experience an intellectual or developmental disability—are at heightened risk of being killed when interacting with law enforcement.
Through Disability Rights Oregon’s police reform work, we’ve witnessed the glaring racial disparities in whether a person with mental illness who is in crisis gets taken to a hospital for treatment or gets locked inside a jail cell. We’ve seen the need for our community mental health system to do a better job of including people of color and offering culturally informed care. Our investigative reports pointed to data indicating significant racial disparities across multiple areas in the Multnomah County Detention Center, including how Black people are overrepresented in Multnomah County jail’s population. For example, African American people appear almost twice as likely to be disciplined, twice as likely to be subjected to physical force, and almost twice as likely to be “voluntarily” restrained.
The police are not the right responders in those circumstances. Their uniforms, weapons, the inherent threat of force and arrest, and the profoundly painful history of recent and recurring killing of Black community members makes the mere presence of law enforcement at the scene an escalating and fear-inducing factor.
Police need clear expectations, policies, and procedures for interacting with people—whether they’re interacting with a Black person, a person in mental health crisis, or a Black person in mental health crisis. And if officers fail to follow proper procedures they must face serious consequences. Deadly force is unacceptable. Choke holds are unacceptable. Strangleholds are unacceptable. If a police officer kills a person, accountability for deadly force will serve justice, deter the future use of force, and engender community trust.
In doing our work, Disability Rights Oregon is dedicated to the intersections of injustice that plague people with disabilities, including police violence against Black Oregonians with disabilities. As we work to protect the rights of people with disabilities, we recognize our duty to shine a brighter spotlight on and call out the undeniable truth—that Black people with disabilities are more likely to be killed by police than white people with disabilities and are treated worse than white people with disabilities within the whole criminal justice system.
We urge you to immediately consider and pass the Justice in Policing Act of 2020.
Sincerely,
Jake Cornett
Executive Director
Disability Rights Oregon
Take action
We recognize our duty to shine a brighter spotlight on and call out these truths.
We're also asking you to take action.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but is stalled in the U.S. Senate. Please write an email to Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham using the form on his website and to Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein using the form on her website.
We've included a sample message to get you started. We encourage you to customize your email to express why you feel this is important.
Sample Message:
Judiciary Chairman Graham/Judiciary Ranking Member Feinstein:
We urge you to take up and pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. This legislation is badly needed to ensure police have clear expectations for how they interact with people with disabilities, especially Black people with disabilities.
Sincerely,
Thank you for taking action to bring these truths to light and advance the cause of equality.