Four Hawthorne police officers recently used a taser on a deaf man, Jonathan Meister, and beat him until he was unconscious.
Meister was retrieving boxes from a friend's house when police officers Jeffrey Salmon, Jeffrey Tysl, Erica Bristow, and Mark Hultgren were in the neighborhood responding to a possible burglary. When Meister, who is deaf, did not repsond to their requests that he stop loading boxes into the car, the police grabbed him by the hand -- while he was using American Sign Language to speak to them.
Meister was charged with assaulting the officers; these charges were later dropped.
The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness is filing a lawsuit on Meister's behalf. According to the suit, the Hawthorne police violated Meister's civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, due to not providing officers with "training and resources to serve people who are deaf or hard of hearing."
The treatment of Meister, and the charges of assault initally given to him, are more than ample evidence as to why the Hawthorne police must have disability training.
