Police handcuffed a Black woman who is deaf and asked her kids to interpret. Advocates say that violates the ADA.
Newly released body camera footage shows Nevada officers repeatedly asking the children of a Black woman who isto interpret for her as she was being detained, which advocates say is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The North Las Vegas Police Department released the footage Thursday, nearly two months after Andrea Hollingsworth was handcuffed in front of her 11-year-old twin daughters.
The body camera video provides a new perspective on the incident, which was also captured by Hollingsworth on Facebook Live. Hollingsworth’s video, which now has more than 77,000 views, sparked backlash last month from the local chapters of the NAACP and ACLU and advocates from the deaf community.
The video shows an officer pulling Hollingsworth out of the car and instructing her to sit on the curb, as she tries to communicate that she can’t hear. The officer tells the family she was being stopped because a friend had reported Hollingsworth was “stalking and harassing” them.
The children told police that Hollingsworth had recently moved out of an apartment and was trying to get $200 of rent money back.
Officer Michael Rose described Hollingsworth’s attempts to communicate with American Sign Language as “constant erratic hand movements,” according to a police report obtained by the Las Vegas Journal Review. Rose wrote that when Hollingsworth would not sit down he grabbed her arm and pushed her to the ground.
Deaf or hearing-impaired? Here’s what to do when you get pulled over by police
Her daughters can be heard crying and screaming for their mother as an officer tells them to tell her to put her hands behind her back. He then handcuffs Hollingsworth.
“Settle down, stop this,” one officer said to the crying girls. “One of you guys needs to talk some sense into her.”
The officer tells the girls their mother has been “uncooperative” and that she wasn’t hurt as the children attempt to explain the rent dispute. Hollingsworth’s video ends shortly after.
Body camera footage shows the incident from the officer’s perspective as well as another officer arriving on scene who again asked the girls to “translate.” Officers asked the girls to interpret at least a dozen times, according to the Review-Journal.
“How can she sign with her hands behind her?” one girl asked according to video reviewed by the outlet.
Hollingsworth told KVVU-TV her daughters were scared because of recent cases of police brutality and she believes they were traumatized by the incident.
“I am Black, I am deaf, George Floyd just happened,” Hollingsworth told the station. “It is really scary how deaf people are treated. If my kids weren’t with me, then I would have died that day. My kids saved my life.”
Pro Bono ASL, a local organization that provides interpreters, started a GoFundMe for Hollingsworth to raise money for her legal fees, counseling for the children and basic expenses.
“The horrible events that occurred are in direct violation of the American with Disabilities Act,” the statement accompanying the fundraiser said. “Children should never be forced into interpreting for their parents, especially in such high stakes situations.”
An estimated 15% of American adults, about 38 million people, have some trouble hearing, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
“The vast majority of law enforcement receive either no training at all or only perfunctory training” to deal with people who have hearing loss, National Association of the Deaf CEO Howard Rosenblum told The Atlantic in 2017.
The Department of Justice said police departments are bound by the Americans with Disabilities Act and communications with someone with hearing loss “must be as effective as your communication with hearing people.”
A guide for law enforcement from the DOJ says officers should not ask family members or friends to interpret unless it is urgent and the only option. The department recommends officers provide aids or services including interpreters, an exchange of written notes, gestures, visual aids or the use of a computer to communicate effectively.
The North Las Vegas Police Department has sign language and oral interpreting services available 24 hours a day, police spokesman Alex Cuevas told the Las Vegas Review Journal. But Cuevas did not explain why an interpreter was not called during this incident.
No charges were filed against Hollingsworth, according to Cuevas. Hollingsworth and the police department have not returned USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Contributing: Gene Myers, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record
Source: Read Full Article