Officer Gives Disabled Woman A Ticket For A Crime That Would Be Basically Impossible For Her To Commit
PeopleImages | Shutterstock Despite advocacy and inclusion efforts, ableism still runs rampant in society and causes many able-bodied people to feel uncomfortable and unsure of how to act around those who are disabled.
Logically, you would think that there are some people who are above that kind of reaction, like medical providers and first responders. But based on one disabled woman’s encounter with a police officer, that is far from the truth.
The woman was given a ticket for a crime she couldn’t commit, and the officer refused to back down when he realized he made a mistake.
The disabled woman and adaptive athlete shared her story on TikTok, where she goes by the username @slightlyoff.balance. She was able to get access to the police officer’s bodycam footage, which told a story that was beyond strange. The officer could be seen exiting his cruiser before approaching her car and identifying himself as a deputy with the Pompano County Sheriff’s Office.
“This is why you’re being pulled over,” he explained. “In the city of Lake Worth today, we’re doing an operation for distracted driving, and you drove past me holding the phone with your right hand, manipulating that phone.”
The driver had quite the surprise for the officer, who seemed very confident with his story. She held up her right arm, revealing that she does not have a right hand. “Obviously not,” she said while laughing.
Despite the fact that this woman could not hold a phone in her non-existent right hand, the officer doubled down. He admitted that the phone was “perhaps not” in her right hand, but he still saw one nonetheless. Another video showed him giving her a ticket and telling her she could contest it in court.
Thankfully, the case went nowhere, but that doesn’t make the circumstances any less troubling.
When the officer handed her the ticket, it sounded like he said that he did not specify in writing that the phone was in her right hand. When she pressed him, he admitted, “That’s what I said I saw.”
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The woman understandably decided to take the case to court, and she offered a final update in a video she called “the finale.” “OK, so we had court this morning, and … dismissed,” she announced. “I cannot make up the reason behind why it was dismissed. It says ‘lack of evidence.’”
Holding up her right arm, she sighed in frustration and said, “Bro, we knew that already.” This must have been an unimaginable situation for her to find herself in, but it seems that some good has come of it. Her videos about the incident have garnered millions of views, and she is scheduled to appear on "CBS Mornings."
As sad as it may be, this was probably not the first time this woman experienced this kind of behavior.
It might not have led her to court before, but she is surely familiar with the unfair feeling. In a 2018 study, researchers examined the life satisfaction of young disabled Canadians. They found that adolescents with disabilities did report lower life satisfaction, which was made even worse by the discrimination many of them had experienced.
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Disabled people have unfortunately grown used to discrimination. It’s wrong, but it’s also typical for how society treats anyone who is considered different in some way. We obviously can’t achieve an equitable world this way, but it’s hard to hope for change when even the President of the United States has publicly mocked people with disabilities.
As for the deputy, police officers can face disciplinary action and even criminal charges for filing a false report, although it’s not clear if this would meet the criteria for that. Of course, anyone can make a mistake, but it would have gone a long way if this officer actually admitted to doing so when he realized what he thought he saw was simply not possible.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
