Cops Taser Deaf Man and Beat Him Unconscious for Trying to Communicate in Sign Language

California cops needlessly tasers and beat a deaf man unconscious while he attempted to communicate to them in sign language, according to a lawsuit issued by the alleged victim Jonathan Meister.

According the the NY Daily News:

Jonathan Meister alleges officers discharged the electric charge into his body after mistaking his attempts to communicate via sign language as aggressive hand signals.

He claims four cops arrived at his friend’s house in Hawthorne the day before Valentine’s Day in 2013 after receiving reports of a burglary.

Meister “was removing his own property from the backyard of a friend’s home, with the friend’s consent” when he was initially confronted by two cops, according to the lawsuit.

“They ended up grabbing his arms and turning him around, and if you do that to a deaf person, it’s like gagging them,” his lawyer John Burton told the Daily News on Tuesday. “It would be like if I put my hand over your mouth if you try to tell me something.”

Meister reflexively pulled his arms away and jumped over a small fence to create space so he could better communicate, Burton said, but Officers Jeffrey Salmon and Jeffrey Tysl apparently took that as an act of aggression.”

Salmon and Tysl were joined by Officers Erica Bristow and Mark Hultgren, who all ganged up on Meister, his lawyer claims.

“The officers either failed to recognize that Mr. Meister is deaf, cannot hear, and/or failed to take into account that he communicates primarily using American Sign Language,” the lawsuit charges.

According to the suit, the cops “shot taser darts into Mr. Meister, administered a number of painful electric shocks, struck him with fists and feet, and forcibly took him to the ground. The officers then arrested Mr. Meister allegedly for assaulting them.”

The officers then executed a sleeper hold (carotid chokehold) on Meister, causing him to lose consciousness.  They transported him to a hospital where he was charged with assaulting a police officer.  You couldn’t make it up.

Meister is now suing the California Police Department for violating his rights under the American with Disabilities Act.  None of the officers involved had been given training in how to interact with a deaf person, and leapt to the conclusion that Meister was being aggressive and evasive.