Pearl Pearson is a Deaf, Black man who survived a brutal beating by Oklahoma Highway Patrol in 2014. Not only were the troopers cleared of wrongdoing, but Pearl was also charged with resisting arrest. This is his story.
Watch Part 1:
Watch Part 3:
Watch Part 4
Three years later, Magdiel Sanchez was shot to death in his front yard in the same city. Though neighbors told officers that Magdiel was Deaf and couldn’t hear their commands, they still shot him five times. The officers were cleared of wrongdoing, and the district attorney instead filed charges against the victim’s family.
Note: When “deaf” is capitalized as “Deaf,” it’s referencing the Deaf community, an important and empowering distinction to those in the community.
Transcript available in the comments.
If you know someone in law enforcement, you can share this video with basic info on how to interact with people who are Deaf:
Archival material courtesy of Pearl Pearson, the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, the Oklahoman, CBS News and KWTV News9.
Music tracks courtesy of APM and Audio Networks.
Special thanks: Noelia González, Melissa Elmira Yingst
Resources: Alexander Graham Bell, Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race.
source
Transcript Part 1:
TEXT: Oklahoma City
[sound of police sirens]
Trooper Eric Foster:
Eric Foster: Roll down the window! Roll down the window! Hands out the window. Hands out the window. Hands out the window – both hands – both hands out the window! Stick both f*cking hands out the window.
TEXT: Trooper Eric Foster pulls over 64-year-old Pearl Pearson.
[Pearl yelling]
Foster: It says “hearing impaired” on the thing.
Other trooper: Oh sh*t.
Eric Foster: Like deaf.
TEXT: As many as half of all people killed by law enforcement are Deaf, have a physical or mental impairment, or another disability. Pearl Pearson survived.
Source: Ruderman Family Foundation
TITLE:
Untold America
Deaf in America
Black and Deaf
[Visual description: Road in Oklahoma City with a sign that says “Welcome to Oklahoma City.” Another sign that says “Deaf Church Oklahoma: Sundays 3:00 p.m., Wednesdays 6:30 p.m..” Shot of Pearl Pearson standing in front of white building.]
Lower Third: Janice Woods, Pearl’s Daughter
Janice Woods: My dad, he's probably one of my most favorite people on this earth. He is gentle and kind, and it's genuine.
Lower Third: Pearl Pearson, Jr.
Pearl: My name is Pearl Pearson Jr.
Interviewer: Do you have a name sign?
Pearl: Pearl. I love jokes. I love making people laugh.
TEXT: In 2014, Pearl was pulled over because of a minor traffic accident. He was repeatedly punched in the head, knocked unconscious and his shoulder dislocated.
Pearl: My brain was damaged from all of the blows. I had been hit and I almost blacked out. My eyes were damaged. It was difficult for me to breathe. I was trying to tell them to stop. I was choked up. I couldn't breathe. My head – I was dizzy because of the trauma that was happening. I curled over in the fetal position, just trying to make it stop.
Before that, I had gone to a Deaf coffee event at Starbucks, and they closed at 10 and I left about 9:30. I said bye to everybody. And I left. And [I was] driving. And then there were some police lights behind me. I didn't know where we were going. So I pulled over, and the police pulled up behind me. I have a placard in my car that explains that I’m Deaf I was getting ready to get that, I had my hands on the wheel, and the policeman came up, with his gun drawn, around the side of the car.
And I rolled down the window and the police started talking to me and I pointed my ear to say, “I am Deaf, just, just a second.” And I was going to reach for that paper, that placard that I had that explained I’m Deaf. And when I reached down, his fist came through the window and then his other hand grabbed my wrist.
Trooper Kelton Hayes: Get outta the car. Get out the car. Quit resisting. Quit resisting.
[sounds of struggle]
Janice Woods: When they pulled his arm like that, it dislocated his shoulder. So at that moment, before he even got out of the vehicle, his right arm is completely out of socket.
Pearl: So they finally got the door open and got the seatbelt off and pulled me out onto the ground, and then were beating me. And the police say that it was 7 minutes, but it really felt more like 10 or 15.
Janice Woods: They, at one point, had him in a choke hold. We learned that he had a concussion. My dad believed that he would die.
Kelton Hayes: Give us your hands.
Pearl: [yelling]
Kelton Hayes: Give us your hands!
Pearl: [yelling]
I was yelling, “I'm Deaf, I'm Deaf.” And I was angry and I was upset trying to make them understand.
I tried to talk and I tried to tell them, but they kept, they kept beating me. They kept hitting.
[sounds of a struggle]
Pearl: And so I just had to go back into a fetal position. I was screaming, I was screaming.
Janice Woods: You can't follow commands if you can't hear them. You can't put your arms behind your back when you've got one arm dislocated and hanging out and the muscles that are attached to it torn. It's not physically possible to do that.
Trooper: Hey, you know why he was resisting you? Because he was trying to grab this f*cking card.
Eric Foster: Oh, that’s what it was.
Trooper: That’s what it was.
Eric Foster: I knew it.
[Pearl yelling]
Trooper: Yeah, his face is jacked up.
[laughing]
Other trooper: Hey, make sure you report, you put that there was nothing identifying him deaf whatsoever …
Trooper: Right.
Other trooper: … on the outside or inside. That, that was in the f*cking side pocket. And he never even, he never said sh*t about it.
Other trooper: Right.
[laughing]
This is such a disgusting act from such evil people.
" Them Cops Ain't du' Nuffin' " 😂😂😂
It takes a disgusting piece of shit to put on a police uniform to go and abuse people unpunished.. and you wonder why people of color all over the world call you the devil! These day are over!
It's like the entire police force of the US is "panicky" …. and their response to everything that scares them is violent force. Kill first and ask questions later. SMH….
I wish I could crack them with their own night stick in the face
Did I miss something? I don't see anything funny about beating a deaf man!!! WTH?
Outrages
that's sad those cops are that stupid and heartless to beat up and old deaf man , their souls gonna burn hell for that God is not blind
How do these cops get away with such bullying
Start with have the cops been sacked or are they working in different police force.cops laughed at him.punching a old man that is so so sick.the cops should be in prison
Why didnt the hospital put his arm back in. That would of been extremely painful. Made me cry when they laughed. I hope karma gets back at them. It has for Derek Chavin.
To laugh about it is appauling. Then they get away with it. Thats why they can do what they want to the public. They are never made accountable by their superiors or the Court's. Its all corrupt and unfortunately always will be.
Imma say this; you can give all the training, all the classes to learn the law, you can educate them all the way to doctoral status; none of that will matter and none of the brutality will change until accountability is enforced, until punishment is enforced, until denial is erased, and individuals rights are respected. You got cops that do not care about being videoed because they know that someone higher up will cover their asses and the courts and procecutors look in the other direction towards modern day lynching and torture by the hands of cops; White, Black, Hispanic or other. No kind of "Sit-down-class-is-in-session" training is gonna work as long as these cops are given the green light allowed to do whatever they want, to whomever they want.
I need to talk with someone from this company A&J
Wow
Its not just being deaf, its being deaf, being a man and not being white. So you aren't listening to them, you're physically a man and equal matched or greater and a threat because your black/brown. Thats the most dangerous man on the planet to a insecure white male in a position of authority. It all boils down to racism first and discrimination second.
Absolutely disgusting… as a man of color this broke my heart… they lie and ruin people's lives. We marched=same treatment, we peacefully protest=Same treatment, now we're sick of it and hitting back literally and folks are losing their shit…sadly we let out violence=a thought about change…😷🙄
Title should say survivor not "victim" of police brutality. We are no longer victims. We will be victorious. Evil never wins!
department of motor vehicles wen issuing a tag to deft and mute person they need to ad a comment that they are special people so they don't act wild and stupid like they do wen police call in the tag it should say he is hearing impaired but it's a failure of the city when they issued the tag
it's the D.M.V fault for not Putin a special report about the tag of the person so they kill you and it's fine so your crime is been deft and mute wrong it's call murder
The government will not do anything now until people start fighting back, then you see the useless government talking.
Just see how they were laughing after beating an innocent man, a deaf man for that sake and you are telling that these fools, animals do not deserve to die? when you allow idiots into a police force, people who are sick in the head putting on a police uniform.
Police mhata dzenyu
The police force in U.S should revaluate where they stand in terms to serve and protect. All I see is mob wannabes with free pass hiding behind badges.
This is another case they need to revisit to hold these cops accountable for this atrocity.
When the one cop said he's deaf and the other cop said, "Oh, $#it" that is the phrase is equivalent for a lawsuit for the gentleman.
Yeah. Cops now a days are getting more and more ignorant. I conclusively would say that for all thats happening today? The cops shits and the likes? I mean i used to adore them but now? I dont know. Im pretty sure theyre more chickens than being brave. I mean not all of them but most of them are bunch of pre.mature uneducated narscists individuals. Theyre expected to be resilient. But i donno the world had grown faster than they can understand. I mean. The world has gottn complicated than they ever imagine. I think what they need to do is to throw themselves back to schooling, enrol themselves to psychology class. SPED (special education) so theyll learn about different stuffs like ADHD AUTISM DOWN SYNDROME DEAF BLIND so fort. i think this is easier than being cocky roudy and being scared.
I mean? Laughing? Isnt this a manifestations of people who are uneducated?lowlife indicidual? Hiw did they get in the force in the first place? Go back to school idiots? This is exactly the reason y people dont trust you anymore they is exactly y u lost your sense if authority in the public coz u inflect fear instead of respect you are such an embarrassment to humanity to the force to the honest police(if theres such) shame to humanity. Shame. This vid is probably watch by the entire world and most likely this can be seen by my highschool student now your making my job more difficult coz im gonna be spending extra time in my class explaining y there are people around like you guyz exists and why like you guyz(in uniform) behave like such.. Coz in the long run if we look at this in a different perpective kids worldwide esp in places that needs more guidance?would provably think youre behaviors normal (news flash) it isnt normal. Your not normal i may seem to think that you are but youre not. Those people who are mentally challenged physically challenged psycholically challenged? Are way better than you are. You are no better than the true criminals in fact youre a criminal yourself. Uneducated cops have no place in this world. Turn ur badges and your guns you dont deserve it.
Yeah. Cops now a days are getting more and more ignorant. I conclusively would say that for all thats happening today? The cops shits and the likes? I mean i used to adore them but now? I dont know. Im pretty sure theyre more chickens than being brave. I mean not all of them but most of them are bunch of pre.mature uneducated narscists individuals. Theyre expected to be resilient. But i donno the world had grown faster than they can understand. I mean. The world has gottn complicated than they ever imagine. I think what they need to do is to throw themselves back to schooling, enrol themselves to psychology class. SPED (special education) so theyll learn about different stuffs like ADHD AUTISM DOWN SYNDROME DEAF BLIND so fort. i think this is easier than being cocky roudy and being scared.
Yeah. Cops now a days are getting more and more ignorant. I conclusively would say that for all thats happening today? The cops shits and the likes? I mean i used to adore them but now? I dont know. Im pretty sure theyre more chickens than being brave. I mean not all of them but most of them are bunch of pre.mature uneducated narscists individuals. Theyre expected to be resilient. But i donno the world had grown faster than they can understand. I mean. The world has gottn complicated than they ever imagine. I think what they need to do is to throw themselves back to schooling, enrol themselves to psychology class. SPED (special education) so theyll learn about different stuffs like ADHD AUTISM DOWN SYNDROME DEAF BLIND so fort
This shit has to stop I’m white raised black; with siblings and cousins mixed race, community all black only one beaten by these bigot bastards!! And it’s black cops too don’t get fooled into this racial shit of divide and conquer they need us to fight each other. Man they are trained to hate all ppl in the poor communities, and if u have a house in a decant area they hate u too. Believe your not rich enuff to protect and be respected this is what’s real. They don’t wanna fix this as a whole problem, just want to be able to tell these law enforcement agencies to calm it down and the few thousand that will still exist after this movement won’t be heard; it’s voting season watch when the Democratic Party either gets voted in or don’t get voted in the movement and rise up will all fall on deaf ears… We as the ppl need to form beat down parties for these crooked bastards and demand not to be beat on treated as ignorant distractions to their society. We together are the society united paying them to hate and beat on us and our children as they get older.
People who do this type of things and cover it up, has no fear of GOD. The day of reckon is almost here from GOD. And I will not have pity for them. Pray for the destruction of our enemies.
That DA needs to be given commands in Black American Sign Language and every time he gets it wrong he gets tased, his arm wrenched, his face and body beaten and/or he's shot. And when it's eventually over, he can be taken to an emergency room, handcuffed, and all but, say, three injuries can be treated at random. Because you don't need to understand BASL to know when you're being told to "listen up."
Police disgust me,seems to me there are more than "a few bad apples",right now
just about the whole crate stinks,the police Unions share a lot of the blame.Cowards
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