When Antonio Love failed to heed orders to come out of a bathroom at a Dollar General store, Mobile police used pepper spray and a Taser on him — ultimately arresting him for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and failure to obey a police officer. The problem is that Love, 37, is deaf and mentally disabled.
Store employees called officers complaining that Love had been in the bathroom for more than an hour with the door locked. When Love did not respond to their knocks, police used a tire iron to pry open the door — which Love tried to keep closed. They then used pepper spray and once inside shot him with a taser.
A magistrate refused to accept the charges. Love’s family was never told that he was in custody and has filed a complaint in the case.
Police insist that they did not know about Love’s disabilities until after they dragged him from the bathroom — but they still hit him with a list of criminal charges.
This is not the first such case of a deaf or disabled person tasered or beaten for failure to respond to verbal commands, here and here and here and here.
A lawsuit is expected in the case.
For the story, click here.
Kudos to George for the tip.
NPO,
It’s a little known fact that the amount of time that one is allowed to spend in a bathroom is actually the lost 11th Commandment.
Kudos to the police officer!
I always thought the police would never arrest, fine or tase one of their own. Good thing they proved otherwise this time around, the law should be there for everyone.
NPO, thank you for making a valid point. That man may have been engaged in any number of dangerous activities inside that restroom. It’s people like you who should be running things around here, and making the country a safer, and more hospitable place for true Americans.
God Bless You, friend ..
Freedom is not absolute and entails certain responsibilities, whether it is freedom of expression, moving around, etc. In this case, the guy disrupted a business establishment, and caused concern, if not fear in employees, and possibly the patrons in that establishment by his “freedom to move”. Freedom of moving about does not equal occupying the facilities of a restaurant for that length of time. Staying one hour in a public bathroom does raise legitimate concern about possible suspicious activity and public safety.
NPO,
This might come as a shock to you, but in the United States, people are free to move about as they please. Yes, even mentally disabled deaf people.
His family didn’t fail him at all. They had no idea that a trip to the store was going to end up with him getting tased, pepper-sprayed and arrested.
If you feel the police need to protect you from deaf men who spend an hour in the bathroom, write your local congressman and get some laws passed. Until then, Antonio Love was doing nothing illegal, and certainly nothing that merits such treatment from the police.
Buddha Is Laughing,
I guess it is probably easy to judge others from comfort and safety of your place. I am not an LEO, I just hate people who feel entitled and are abusive towards the society. The handicapped man has been failed by his family and society, otherwise he would have been kept under supervision. Being drunk, drugged, or mentally ill, is not a carte blanche to inflict abuse on society or LEs. LEOs have to ensure their own safety first, when confronted with potentially dangerous situations. There is no way of telling what the “suspect” in the bathroom might have done beforehand. Monday morning quarterbacking anyone?
NPO, if you think “stupid” people should stay inside, then by all means: I hope you’re happy to lead by example…
Buddha A’int Laughing. I hear you. Thanks for that. I couldn’t have said it better. Like in the Gates case, these guys do not know how to disengage. When Crowley realized Gates belonged at 17 Ware Street he should have backed off. But no. Mr I am an expect at racial sensitivity continued on knowing full well no crime had been committed. The officers here realized the guy was deaf and had mental issues and yet they still tried to charge this man. Something is wrong with that. But worst look at how they treated him after the fact. They dropped him off in his apartment parking lot and then sped off. Damn! That’s effed up. Thankfully he was able to relate what happened to him. Yea Buddha, I am pissed too. And Obama thinks a few cold beers is gonna solve this shit. Please.
Btw, those of you who are still commenting about Gates and racial profiling really need to study the issue before you comment any further because ya talkin’ out ya neck all wrong.
Reality-flash:
You don’t have to be a genius to figure out someone is deaf and mentally disabled either. You just have to pay attention. And if you’re so damn stupid that you can’t, you sure don’t need to be carrying a badge or a gun. This isn’t a matter of medical diagnostics. It’s a matter of common sense. Something none of the cops here displayed. They showed who they thought had the bigger penis, sure, but they showed no thought whatsoever other than “we’ve been disrespected so we’ll retaliate” like a lot of the mental midgets we hire for street cops in this country. If you’re as dumb as these guys and you work as a LEO, you really need to be at a clerical job where the amount of damage you can do is contained somewhat. Bad training isn’t even a excuse for this. Even untrained people would be able to tell something was wrong with this man and it wasn’t criminal.
This is simply STUPID. The victim has a medical excuse for his behavior. The cops have no excuse. I hope the family cleans them out personally and hits the department for a nice large sum too.
I’m sorry, but picking on the handicapped just pisses me off.
If someone is disabaled to that degree, then may be they should not be let out by themselves. How do the police know the individual in that bathroom is not dangerous? Newsfalsh: Police is not an expert in diagnosis on the spot.
“A lot of Black bloggers are surprised the same thing didn’t happen to Professor Gates.”
Francis,
Once he knew that Professor Gates taught at Harvard, tasering was out of the question. However, that didn’t stop him from arresting one of our most distinguished American’s, just to show him the price of being uppity. To me although the ever present, yet constantly denied American racism, still runs rampant it needn’t have been about Prof. Gates’ race. The police have arrogated to themselves the need for “citizen” deference at all times and will punish anyone who doesn’t comply. What so angers me about this is that in the discussion of racism, which is a discussion that this country must honestly have, what gets lost are police forces that are being trained to act as the people’s overlords. Sadly, some in middle class white America are beginning to learn the lessons that were taught to humans of color and those in poverty, years and years ago, about who the police really work for.
Tony,
WTF? You are an asshole. The officers weren’t being abused. The man did not know how to properly respond. Once they realized they were dealing with a special needs person they should have tried to contact his family. There was no point in charging him. At least the magistrate had good sense not to accept the charges. As a mother of a deaf/autistic/mentally retarded African American teenage boy, my fear for him has increased 20 fold. My God, what kind of training do these people get. Damn!
A lot of Black bloggers are surprised the same thing didn’t happen to Professor Gates. It obviously was inappropriate in the case of this deaf and mentally disabled man, and at Gates’ age pepper spray and/or a 50,000 volt jolt with an electrocution device might have been a pre-trial, extrajudicial death sentence and execution that, many police might be surprised to learn, is not within the scope of their authority.
I’ll post the information you’ve provided with a link over at the Electrocuted While Black blog.
You didn’t mention whether the victim in this case was Black. Do you know for sure?
Atty. Francis L. Holland
P.S. I don’t practice in the US. I live in Brazil. francislholland@yahoo.com
Tony Zirkle 1, July 28, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Police should not have to take abuse just because the criminal is disabled.
“When Antonio Love failed to heed orders to come out of a bathroom at a Dollar General store, Mobile police used pepper spray and a Taser on him — ultimately arresting him for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and failure to obey a police officer. The problem is that Love, 37, is deaf and mentally disabled.”
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Did you somehow manage to read the story and forget the above? Wow, COMPASSION. That is your word for today. Get a Dictionary or go to Dictionary.com if a book is too heavy and type in for search, Compassion. It does not matter if they are all upper case (Capital) or lower case. Read the meaning of Compassion and then please come back and comment.
Police should not have to take abuse just because the criminal is disabled.
I had a supervisor like that one time.
It did not take me long to learn that my only hope for financial survival in the last daze of the American empire was to buy stock in beer companies, textbook companies, and shredder companies.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/07/buy-stock-in-textbook-companies.html
Reminds me of the Fort Worth Cops that Shot a person that was deaf when he was going for the card that read ” I am Deaf” I cannot hear…..
The Department now has it all worked out after a hefty settlement with the family of the deaf person.
What did you say?
foo 1, July 28, 2009 at 4:58 pm
We will only see this influenza of shoot-first-ask-questions-later tasering when a member of Congress or a movie start gets hit. Things are only a problem if someone famous or powerful is affected.
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Ya don’t say. The drunk driving Laws would not be as harsh if it were not for MADD. Some people get extra special treatment until they have a wreck in a city owned vehicle.
Custody laws are changed after a few legislators got screwed over.
We will only see this influenza of shoot-first-ask-questions-later tasering when a member of Congress or a movie start gets hit. Things are only a problem if someone famous or powerful is affected.