Disabled people continue to experience violence across the nation. The most recent cases involve victims being set on fire.
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by Leroy Moore/Illin'n chillin It is again Summer and Californians are holding their breath, hoping that it will be a cool Summer to avoid fires. Although it’s been cool here in California, a different type of fire has been spreading from the East to the West this Summer. I’ve been writing about violence against people with disabilities for more than ten years. However, the recent cases are just shocking and sick! In June there were two cases from Florida to Oregon involving people with disabilities who were set on fire or had bleach poured on them that caught the media’s attention. These cases took place in Jacksonville, FL, Schenectady, NY, and Spokane, WA. However, before June there have been other cases of people with disabilities being set on fire. Last year during the Paris riots a disabled woman was doused with petrol and set on fire. And on March 6th of this year a disabled homeless man in Boston was kicked and set ablaze, according WHDH TV of Boston, MA. Newspaper reports identified the victims in the above Summer cases of 2006 as three men and one woman so far. All had physical disabilities and at the time three were reported to have survived and one died from being burned. The March case in Boston and the recent case in Oregon both involved victims who were homeless. The New York case happened in a home and was perpetrated by a stranger; the case in Florida was also in a home of a disabled woman who was forced to drink bleach and was then set on fire by her caregiver. As you can see there are similarities and differences in the above cases. I point this out because the public has to realize that these crimes against people with disabilities are not isolated incidents, but the frame of a distributing picture of violence against people with disabilities from Coast to Coast. Even though Congress passed the Crime Victims With Disabilities Act on Jan. 7th 1998, and the good work of the National Organization for Victim Assistance, which has a department on victims of crimes with disabilities has helped, the above cases continue to happen largely in silence. It is only July, the beginning of the 2006 Summer, and we must not only stop these fires, but bring them to the forefront in all of our work, advocacy, and organizations. We must voice our concerns and come up with programs and policies to deter the growing violence against people with disabilities! Sources 1) The Guardian 2) WHDH TV Boston 3) Channel 3 News New York 4) News 4 Florida |