PRESS RELEASE: Study by the Ruderman Family Foundation reveals that half of all recent high profile police-related killings are of people with disabilities, revealing a disturbing trend often ignored by media when reporting on police brutality
The Ruderman Family Foundation, a national leader in disability inclusion, again reiterates its call for police officers to receive better training when interacting with people with disabilities, after Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old man with disabilities, was fatally shot by police on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“According to the lawyer for the family of Keith Lamont Scott, Mr. Scott had a disability,” said Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation. “A recent study by the Ruderman Family Foundation found that half of people killed by police have a disability and that disability played a role in the incidents which led to these fatalities.”
In a statement from Justin Bamberg, an attorney for the family of Keith Lamont Scott on Thursday night, it was revealed that Scott had a disability following a near-death motorcycle crash last year. According to his mother, Vernita Scott Walker, this had caused him “to stutter his words, and sometimes he couldn’t remember what he said.”
Unsettling just-released footage showing the moments leading up to the fatal shooting taken by Scott’s wife, also show her stating, “He has a T.B.I.” — an abbreviation for traumatic brain injury. “He’s not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine.”
“What is clear is that police across the United States need better training in interacting with people with disabilities in the course of their daily policing duties in order to reduce incidents of police killings,” Ruderman added.
The Ruderman White Paper on Media Coverage of Law Enforcement Use of Force and Disability released last March found that half of all recent high profile police-related killings in the United States are of people with disabilities. Despite this being the second fatal police incident in Charlotte, North Carolina, in less than a month, involving a person with disabilities, this unfortunate growing trend continues to be widely overlooked.
For all inquiries contact: Dvir Assouline at (646) 266-4532 or Dvir@Rudermanfoundation.org.
About the Ruderman Family Foundation
The Ruderman Family Foundation is an internationally recognized organization which advocates for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in our society. The Foundation supports effective programs, innovative partnerships and a dynamic approach to philanthropy in advocating for and advancing the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout America.
The Ruderman Family Foundation believes that inclusion and understanding of all people is essential to a fair and flourishing community and imposes these values within its leadership and funding.
For more information, please visit rudermanfoundation.org
Thanks for backing Americans with disabilities.
The issue of police interacting with disabled persons is an important one and needs to be addressed.
HOW ABOUT POLICE GET BETTER TRAINING to deal with EVERYONE. Their encounters are being filmed and their “shoot to kill” trigger happy policies are being brought to light; hence constant rioting and public backlash!
Indeed, better training is needed for police officers interacting with all segments of the community.
The police need training, not only for disabled persons like you said. But, the focus should be there. We all know that disabled people can become far more aggressive in these awkward situations. Police are usually normal people, at least in my town, normal family people but in these stressful situations when they confront aggressive people everyday, they can easily make a mistake. I met few disabled people, different types, whether on Social Media whether on disabled dating sites and what I can say is that there are too many problems for these people. Problems with police, with clerks, with almost everybody (people do not understand them).
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