Jail Prison and Deaf People: Damon's Story

In police situations, there are often times when a Deaf person with speaking privilege (or a hearing person) takes advantage of this to influence how the police view the incident, which usually results in the police assuming the Deaf non-speaking person is guilty. Damon shares his story about encounters with the police in which he experienced discrimination as a Black Deaf man whose primary language is ASL. #blacklivesmatter #blackdeaflivesmatter #blackdeaf

Transcript: [id: - Damon is sitting inside in front of a brick wall, signing his story.]

Hi! This is my story abut my experience with the cops. To be clear, I’m not going into great detail here about all of my experiences – if I did, it would take two hours, and two hours is basically equal to 5 years. So, I’m going to share about one situation.

This happened whenever my ex-partner and I got into an argument, and she called the cops. My ex-partner spoke something aloud to the cops, causing them to become concerned and ready to intervene by arresting me. This happened again and again, with me being oppressed in this way. I tried to explain that it really wasn’t any of the cops’ business. It was a personal conflict between me and my ex-partner. No one was physcially hurt. It wasn’t a big deal. My ex-partner, who was oral, kept speaking with voice and turned the tables on me.

Also, when that woman physically abused me, I called the cops. The cops showed up and tried to arrest me. They had already arrested me before. It was how she talked and something she said that led the cops to think that they had to threaten me. They stuck a gun in my face, even though I was already handcuffed. That was disgusting. This happened in front of my daughter, who saw everything and was wondering what was going on and what to do.

There’s a long history of my ex-partner using her speaking privilege to talk to the cops and get herself excused from the situation. This makes me the bad guy. It has destroyed my life.

I’m a felon now, because of her. Some other people have made false 911 calls about me. One guy who was my ex’s ex-boyfriend called the cops on me right before I was about to take off on a flight. That was unbelieveable. The cops arrived and gave me an attitude, even though I cooperated and said nothing, while everyone was talking around me.

I’ve been struggling with anger for a long time after seeing what has been going on with the police, BLM, and many different issues. The police were so arrogant and oppressive, even when I had done nothing. Every time I was taken to court, the cases were dismissed. In court, they tended to speak to me. They wouldn’t use pen and paper. My ex-partner would speak and that would be the end of it. The police would arrest me, I’d go to court where I had to wait for an interpreter to show up before I could see the judge. It was such a waste of time for nothing. At the end, I’d be sent home.

There’s a lot of ugliness, anger, and rage consuming me. That’s all I can say for now. If you want to know more, you can click the link. Anyway, thank you for watching. Thank you for listening.

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