Christine Horner, copy editor

CW: police brutality

On April 5, Idaho police received a 911 call from concerned neighbors about a drunk man with a knife, according to CBS News. Upon responding to this call, the police fatally shot this “drunk man” nine times without first trying to de-escalate the situation. The “drunk man” needed his leg amputated and fell into a coma for a week before being taken off of life support. 

So who was this “drunk man?” Actually, he was neither drunk nor a man. He was Victor Perez of Idaho, a 17-year-old nonverbal, autistic and intellectually disabled child with cerebral palsy, states CBS News. Leading up to the incident, he had gotten ahold of a kitchen knife and was carrying it around in his yard. His loving family members were trying to take it from him so that he wouldn’t injure himself, but his neighbors assumed otherwise. When the cops saw Victor, they didn’t ask his family questions or try to calm him down. Instead, they shot him down like a firing squad behind a chain link fence only 12 seconds after arriving at his house.

Victor should be alive right now and the police never should have been called in the first place. His neighbors should have known better than to jump to the conclusions they did. They should have known — and now, reader, hopefully you do too — that regardless of how much disability and autism training cops receive, it will never outweigh the racist and ableist roots of policing. Cops will continue to kill Black, Brown and disabled people because they aren’t here to protect us, they’re here to do a job and go home. That’s it. 

On top of that, their job responsibilities don’t include enforcing the law for the sake of safe communities and crime reduction or whatever the hell MAGAts claim. Their responsibility is to instill fear and even increase disability rates. The Boston Review states, “Domestically, shootings, beatings, tasings, high-speed chases, and tear gas create and trigger physical impairments, blindness, depression, anxiety, and psychological trauma. During residential raids, cops use stun grenades that cause blindness, deafness, and other injuries.” Cops always have access to these weapons and will keep using them regardless of how many times we tell them “no, no, no,” just like Victor’s mom did.

Nothing will bring Victor back, but fortunately, there are alternatives to calling the police in some areas that can prevent further police brutality against Black, Brown and disabled folks. Look into dontcallthepolice.com — this site is organized by location, and it lists resources based on category, like food insecurity and wellness checks. Minneapolis itself is home to a number of fantastic resources. The city of Minneapolis offers the Behavioral Crisis Response (BCR) as an alternative to police dispatchers for those who need immediate mental health crisis intervention. BCR responders can provide “crisis intervention, counseling and referrals and connection to support services,” according to their website. 

Don’t call trigger-happy cops on someone who is struggling. Call people who actually care, who have the training, knowledge and compassion to handle a mental health crisis.