Most people have probably read the article in the Chaska Herald entitled “Mental health advocate criticizes handling of arrest” and many have heard me mock Chief Knight for his full uniform which has so many bells and whistles that I don’t know if he’s running the Police department or the Confederacy but given the way his officers tackled me and beat me in the woods like I had run away from my plantation I would assume the latter. Others have stated that tackling me was about the worst thing they could've done, why were they so aggressive? to which I responded because Chaska is like 1800s Alabama where I'm 3/5 of a person and they thought 3/5 of a person should be easier to take down then a whole one. I joke, at times probably semi-distastefully but the unfortunate reality of this situation is that our local governing units in Carver County are revealing themselves to have a problem with Institutional able-ism and institutional racism and the 2 go hand in hand
Typically, after police officers discharge their weapons and are, subsequently, bombarded with questions about the motives behind using excessive force against a suspect, the officers in question will make some attempt to rationalize their actions. Most of them you may have heard before: “He resisted arrest.” “I felt like my life was threatened.” “He was reaching for his gun.” “He made a threatening gesture.” something.
However, about 2 weeks after the death of Philando Castille , an incident occurred out of Florida that just may have many a sharp and intelligent person thinking, justifiably, that we’re reaching a point in this centuries-long struggle with police brutality where no explanation at all on the part of officers is needed. That we, as a society, are beyond that now. That we’re but a step away from officers admitting, with all the frankness they can muster, “I shot this person because he was black.”
This time it was a behavioral therapist by the name of Charles Kinsey was shot by police accidentally while trying to protect his autistic client, 21-year-old Arnoldo Rios. When asked about why he shot Kinsey, the police officer in question first said, “I don’t know.
I don't know. wow
”
It was later he mentioned that he was trying to shoot Rios, who had escaped from an assisted living center. Despite the fact that Kinsey wasn’t the actual target, it still did not make it better. Because in the end, rather then reach a conclusion based on communication, the cops just wanted to go out and shoot someone who was marginalized.
This is not the first time that police officers wanted to perpetuate violence against disabled folks. In another case from 2013, a 22-year-old man by the name of Gilberto Powell, , suffered police brutality after officers attacked him for having a “bulge” in his bag — that turned out to be a colostomy bag. This is one of many more incidents where the intersections of anti-blackness and ableism come into play.
2 months ago I had a PTSD episode in Chaska the Chaska PD showed up yelled at me and when I got more agitated they yelled louder and when that didn't work they proceeded to attack me and tackle me to the ground. I was walking down the block to my Dads church of all places. They stopped somebody on their way to church what a public service. You should give them a medal or something maybe a gold star cuz everyone's a winner..everybody except minority communities that is
I was sitting in Court the other day and the County Attorney and my public defender even though they knew the Chaska Police tackled me to the ground and punched me in the face prior to me flipping out, informed me it was unlikely that they would throw out the charges against me entirely because I had the audacity to question the treatment of the mentally ill and Chaska would have to admit fault. Remember when Justice used to be about doing the right thing instead of saving political face? I’ve reached the conclusion that defense Attorney Clarence Darrow wrote that “the problem with law is lawyers” he was right in part. The other piece of the equation is grossly incompetent law enforcement agencies.
The other argument used by the County Attorney’s office is that I put myself in the situation because I walked away and didn’t tell anyone where I was going and if I had stayed with my friend, Corey Magstadt he could have supervised the situation, The fact that Mark Metz thinks we have to supervise our police officers to ensure they act in a reasonable manner is appalling, If you’re having a heart attack do you want to have to sit there and tell them how to perform first aid? No you probably want them to have some form of training to do so. I would pose this question to Assistant Attorney Peter Ivy If a college girl walks into a party wearing a mini skirt and she gets gang raped by the entire football team, is it her fault because she put herself in the situation? do you intend to prosecute her too? Fathers keep an eye out on your daughters because clearly the Carver County Attorney’s office and our friends in the first judicial district are apparently about to enter into the business of defending rape culture.
The truth of the matter is this case isn't about right or wrong, It's really not even about legalities, the case is about politics, someone has to take the blame for the continuance of this statewide problem and it's easier for County Attorney Mark Metz and his office to continue to victimize belittle,degrade and bully members of the disability community then it is to talk about what are we going to do to address the problem. That's not Justice that' s institutional Able-ism meaning the Government is deliberately acting in a prejudiced fashion against an entire demographic of people.
People are told that police officers are here to “protect and serve,”and Prosecutors are here to pursue Justice and defend victims but what they do instead is invoke fear and perpetuate a variety of -isms that result in them using violence and intimidation to assert their power. They are often not equipped to address the issue a disabled person has in crisis mode instead they just go out and shoot them or in Chaska's case they drag them out back in the woods and repeatedly assault them.
So here’s the bottom line: just because an autistic person was the officer’s target and not a black person this does not make it okay. As someone who is autistic and black I'm coming to recognize the fact more and more that I can do everything right and their going to treat me as a second class citizen and slam me around anyways and nobody's going to do anything about it.In my case the Chaska police officer would’ve shot me 5 times and called it an accident like they did on 212 in an effort to silence a prominent and long time critic. Black people and disabled people are the least valued. Intersect the two and then you are are invisible from both communities.
It shouldn't be normal and it shouldn't be ok.
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