A California mother openly criticized the Stockton Police Department for how they allegedly treated her disabled son during a traffic stop earlier this year.
Tiktoker Shante Butler, @shantebutler00, claimed that the agency had targeted her son multiple times. In February, she shared a one-minute video of an interaction between her son and an officer.
It appears to show the son sitting in the driver’s seat while the cop held his hand, attempting to pull him out of the vehicle.
“He can’t walk!” a bystander said. “Why do you keep touching him?”
“He shouldn’t be driving if he can’t walk,” the officer responded.
The son and the bystanders continued reiterating that he couldn’t walk while the officer grabbed his arm.
“You got to hold me up, my legs,” the son said.
At the end of the video, the cop could be seen patting down the man while he held his body up with his hands.
Butler explained that her son is a victim of gun violence. She accused the department of failing to “provide reasonable accommodations as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.”
The law provides protection and equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities, including in public accommodations, employment, and state and local government services.
The US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division website noted, “Training, sensitivity, and awareness will help to ensure equitable treatment of individuals with disabilities as well as effective law enforcement.”
Butler slammed the officer for how he responded when he was notified about her son’s disability. She said she wanted to seek justice and was looking into hiring an attorney. Atlanta Black Star reached out to Butler and Stockton Police for comment.
“The officer proceeded to forcefully remove him from the car causing great distress for both him and any witnesses present,” she wrote. “They should have made modifications as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, but they didn’t. This is not acceptable and there are repercussions for everyone’s actions.”
A similar scenario happened to a paralyzed man last year when Maryland deputies caused him to fall out of a car and sit on the ground during a mistaken identity arrest. It was captured by his wife, who informed officers about his condition. The officers eventually put him back inside the vehicle while his wife grabbed his wheelchair. Despite the couple telling the officers they had the wrong person, the man was handcuffed but later let go after they admitted they made a mistake.
In Dayton, Ohio, a paraplegic man, Clifford Owensby, received $125,000 from the city in a settlement last year after claiming he was discriminated against by police officers, local news reported. During a traffic stop, he alleged that officers pulled him out of his car by his locs, injuring him. He also accused them of illegally seizing more than $20,000 of his money out of the vehicle.
One officer involved said that they were conducting a drug investigation at the time, per the report, and claimed that Owensby was “being actively passive-aggressive, non compliant, [and] didn’t listen to any of our commands.” The officers didn’t find any contraband in his vehicle.
