Disabled People Outside

by Leroy Moore/Illin n chillin

In May, I got an email that the Berkeley Police Commission might have an opening on their board. I attended Berkeley Cop Watch monthly meeting to get more information and to see if it was worth it for me to put my name in the running. What I found out in that meeting was the serious case of police brutality against local disabled activist and founder of Disabled People Outside. I interviewed Danny McMullan about what happened on Sunday April 30th at People’s Park in Berkeley, CA. Danny McMullan is a wheelchair user and founder of, Disabled People Outside DPO.

DPO is a volunteer organization that supports disabled people on Berkeley’s streets and teaching them how to travel through the beaucracy to get what is respectfully theirs; services, housing, disability income etc. He started this project in 1995 after a motorcycle accident in 1994 that left him disabled. The hospital gave him a pair of crutches and sent him on his way. Before the accident, Danny had very little connections with people who are homeless.

With no money, no insurance, and no medical insurance, Danny was on the streets for eight years. He just wanted the government to respect their side of the contract because when he worked he paid taxes and was on his parents’ insurance but the government didn’t respect their side when he became disabled and homeless. Danny spent eight years on the streets of Berkeley piecing his life together relying on the free box in People’s Park for food and clothes. At the time of the police brutality against him at people’s Park, Danny’s struggles were almost a thing of the past. He slept in front of Social Security and Section Eight Offices and got his section eight and SSI payments.

His experiences on the streets led to the creation of Disabled People’s Outside Program, a volunteer group that receives no money from the city operating on fundraising and donations. He works on two levels in advocacy of services for disabled people on the streets and on another level DPO got Mayor Bates to sleep outside, got the rain shelters started and a transition plan for people coming out of ALTA Bates Hospital.

Today he is married with children and working but on April 30th Danny was entering People’s Park with his two sons and wife to meet about the conflict with the city over the Free Box, free food and clothing organizations and people leave for people in need. UC Police had stationed themselves in People’s Park to cite people who drop off food and clothing for people in need.

On April 30th, road signs were blocking the entrance to the park but Danny’s sons removed these barriers. As Danny rolled through the barriers two UC Cops were on him twisting his arm, asked him to show his ID and spitting on him in front of his wife and children. Witnesses and members of Berkeley Cop watch told me that UC officers were pushing/yanking Danny out of his wheelchair down to the ground where 6 UC police officers got on top of him including one who repeatedly beat Danny in the stomach. Although Danny and many others at the scene told UC officer, O'Connor, that he is disabled with a false leg O'Connor insisted Danny lean over the back of the squad car which hurt him.

This abuse placed Danny in the hospital but UC Police continued to cit him on destruction of a road sign, one account of resisting arrest and two accounts on battering of an officer. According to Danny, the UC police said that he kicked him with his right leg, however Danny is an amputee with no right leg and spit on him but Danny stated that the UC Police spit on him and he was trying to get the officer spit off of him by spiting on the ground.

The charges are still on Danny! He emailed me the latest on his case. On May 31st. David A. appeared for Danny at the Alameda County Courthouse. None of the charges against Danny were filed but the police decided to go ahead with a probation violation thereby denying him a fair trial by jury. The police also put a $10.00 dollar bail against him. In a police report police stated that Danny never spit on anyone or destroyed any property. Danny told me that he is a target by UC Police because he is a long time advocate of Peoples’ Park for the free box and human rights for activists, people who are homeless and disabled.

To get more info about Disabled People Outside Project and to donate to Danny bail fund call him at (510) 688-2342 or danmcmullan@comcast.net

Danny is advising residents of Berkeley to call Mayor Tom Bates (510) 981-6900 and asked him that something needs to be done about police brutality by UC Police and to restore the Free Box.