News / Human Rights

Police kill hundreds of disabled Americans every year: ACLU

Sunday, 22 March 2015 7:00 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 22 March 2015 7:01 AM ]

Civil rights advocates protest outside LAPD headquarters after a homeless man was shot by police.

Hundreds of disabled Americans are killed in police encounters across the US every year, many of whom are people of color, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The ACLU filed a brief to the US Supreme court on Friday arguing that hundreds of Americans with disabilities and mental disorders die every year at the hands of police and many more become seriously injured.

“Many of these deaths and injuries are needless, the tragic result of police failing to use well-established and effective law enforcement practices that take disability into account,” the ACLU wrote.

The civil liberties advocacy group filed the brief in support of a mentally ill woman who is suing San Francisco police for shooting her five times. The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case on Monday.

In the case of San Francisco v. Sheehan, Teresa Sheehan argued that police shot her five times even though she was experiencing a “psychiatric emergency.”

Sheehan argued that when police came to her room in 2008 to take her to a hospital, they violated her Fourth Amendment rights and her rights under the American Disabilities Act.

During the police interaction, Sheehan threatened police with a knife. The encounter escalated and officers ended up shooting her five times.

Sheehan survived and eventually sued the city of San Francisco. At issue for the US Supreme Court is whether and how the American Disabilities Act applies to encounters between people with disabilities and police.

The case comes amid an increasing number of incidents about police-involved shootings of people with mental illness.

Experts say cuts in funding for mental illness on state and federal levels are creating a national crisis.

But the accurate figure of deaths is hard to obtain, as The Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 was allowed to expire in 2006 and the Bureau of Justice Statistics collects data on a voluntary basis.

AHT/HRJ

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