There's lots to say here and others are writing importantly about the case, but I just want to focus on the disability issues. Terence Crutcher had a prosthetic eye and hearing loss.
- Video of his sister talking about his disability.
- Transcript of the relevant section
- Tiffany Crutcher (5:31): That's their side of it, and I just don't believe that. And one thing that people don't know about my brother, my brother has a very severe hearing issue in his right ear and a prosthetic eye. And I know my brother was scared, and people don't know that. All they know is that he's a bad dude, but my brother was disabled, and he was just trying to get his life together. So I can't say that's true, I was not there at the scene. But you know these things tend to be scripted, case after case after case, he didn't comply. They didn't comply. But the video tells it all. His hands were up. And that's what we are fighting right there. The fact that everybody saw his hands up and at that moment there was no need to execute him at all.
A third to a half of all people killed by police are disabled. Most of them are multiply marginalized, generally by race or class. If you fight for disability rights, you fight against police violence.
