Back in the 90's a group of us in the Bay Area, Idriss Stelley Foundation (ISF), POOR Magazine, Disability Advocates of Minorities Org, DAMO, Caduceus, Coalition on Homelessness and the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper got tired of seeing more and more police shooting of Black & Brown disabled people. We held rallies, open forums and talked to our political leaders but it kept on going on. We realized back then that nobody were collecting data on this issue except a very few activists.
Then a light went off in our collective heads, that was how about using the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on the issue of police brutality against people with disabilities. We met a couple of times with Marykate from Caduceus and myself from DAMO, Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia of Poor Magazine taking the lead and we made some progress researching it and come to find out at that time in the 90's there weren't a case or history of activists using the ADA in police brutality cases involving a person with a disabilities. Also because the Bay area at that time was in the heat of cases of police killing of Black & Brown people with disabilities, we were too busy holding our communities and families to continue with our research and goal.
Now in 2017 another group of activists and families have another opportunity to see if the Americans with Disabilities Act will be apply to not only a transgender, mental health disabled poet/writer, Kayla Moore of Berkeley, CA. but to finally set a standard and a record of this issue under the ADA. If this happens then the question is that the ADA has been on the books since 1990 what took so long and what about the othher victims of poliice brutality since 1990? Please don't get me wrong, I'll be happy that Kayla will get some justice and will be glad that Kayla will set a standard for the future!
This is the only way that I will celebrate the Americans with Disabilities Act if the court in Kayla Moore case rule that Berkeley police valiated Kayla ADA rights.
Stay tune for the upcoming court date for Kayla Moore's ADA trail.
[Image description: The graphic shows a drawing of Kayla Moore, a large black trans woman. She has shoulder-length brown hair, and she is smiling and flashing a peace sign. Her shirt is purple and black with a blue heart, and the words “Justice for Kayla” appear in orange on her shoulder and neckline. Above her face are the words, “We remember Kayla Moore” in a purple and teal banner. Below the banner, the text reads, “4-17-71 to 2-13-13. Poet, singer, sister, daughter, genius, friend, black trans woman with a mental health diagnosis killed by Berkeley Police in her own home. They tried to blame her death on ‘obesity’!!! Shame on BPD!” Drawing copyright Nomy Lamm.] Leroy Moore and Al Osorio next to the poster of Kayla
