 Green Mountain Support Services to empower neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Major support also includes Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Ala Israel. All people know limits. Welcome to this edition of Abledon Arnair, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently-abled. For eight seasons here in Vermont and beyond. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Eileen Seiler. We would like to thank our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health. On this show, it's more like a commentary on this particular episode of Abledon Arnair. Recently, there's been a lot of police brutality against people with special needs and normal people. Better listen out there. Recently, there was a police firing. Back in 2014, Eric Gardner was a young man in the streets of New York. He had gotten choked by an NYPD officer. According to the Guardian newspaper, there is a situation a couple of days ago this month. The officer was fired due to the choke hold that he gave to Eric Gardner. If someone says, I can't breathe, you cannot breathe, you have to let go. You want to say anything to that? Yes, because the officer shouldn't have put him in a choke hold. He shouldn't use so much force. You should have said, okay, you can't breathe, you can't breathe. She needs an acid pump or something. But you don't use your police brutality against people. Why? I'm glad the police officer, I'm glad that the police commissioner in New York fired him. He had to do something because I think the police commissioner in New York did the right thing. According to the Guardian easing, 1,860 days after Eric Gardner, back in 2014, was killed on the streets of Staten Island in New York, his family finally received a sliver of justice. This past Monday, by the way, if this is a tape program, so Monday the 19th. On Monday the 19th, the New York Police Department NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill announced that the NYPD would fire and they did. They fired Daniel Pantaleo, who on that hot summer's day in July 2014 placed an unarmed 43 year old man in a banned choke hold that contributed to Gardner's death. The decision followed years of protest, stalls, investigations, and secrecy in the case that came to embody the fractured relations between communities of color and police, not just New York City, but around the US. And Pantaleo's firing, the Gardner's family insist, was only the beginning of the process. At a rally outside New York City NYPD headquarters in lower Manhattan on Monday, the 19th of August, Gardner's mother Gwen Carr struck a defiant tone. We are not finished. We have other officers that we have to let go after. Okay, you should hurt, you have heard the names and know the wrongdoing they have done. And she showed pictures at the press conference. The family had long demanded that in addition to Pantaleo, several other officers involved in Gardner's arrest should be punished for their roles in the incident. And Gardner's mother wants them to lose their jobs. But even after the announcement of Pantaleo's dismissal on Monday, the fates of the other officers remain largely opaque as NYPD internal disciplinary procedures remain shrouded in secrecy. Okay. I know that there are situations like the thin blue line where cops must protect cops, but this needs to stop. There's been a recent case in Montpelier about a week and a half ago where a 62 year old man named Mark Johnson died at the hands of one police officer who shot him because the police officer was scared of a pellet gun. You do not shoot a, going to this case, you do not shoot a mentally challenged man. Last week I had a chance to go to city council and I had spoken on behalf of the public in city council. There needs to be more crisis intervention when it comes to shooting people with mental and physical disabilities. There either needs to be a taser involved or a non-lethal way of putting down somebody in terms of non-lethal ways. Montpelier police department only has one non-lethal way of putting someone down. One altered gun of which when you shoot the gun turns out to be a bean bag to disable the suspect. Okay. There has to be more non-lethal ways. You want to say something about that? Yes. The police officer didn't do the right thing. He should have waited for Washington County. Should have called Washington County right away. And that's how they can get the problem solved instead of shooting a person who's disabled. You cannot turn around and shoot people. There's been other incidents of non-lethal ways that police deal with people. Somewhere in the Midwest, sometime back a couple of years ago, someone got tased on a bus when the police officer got scared or the bus driver got scared in terms of the person not paying their fare or didn't see the person paying their fare. You can't just tase someone. There's been instances with tasers and tasing autistic people. You can't walk into a movie theater. This happened out west a couple of years ago also. You can't walk into a movie theater if someone wants popcorn. An attendant in a movie theater can't get scared of a person with autism and called the police. So the police used a taser against this person with his nurse there. So why are people so scared with special needs? This is absolutely ridiculous. Too many people with special needs are dying at the hands of police. This needs to stop. The man with the badge needs to get fired. There's been numerous cases with this. When police officers become police officers, they take an office. When police officers become police officers, or before they become police officers, they take psychological exams. Before you give the man a badge, make sure he's able, mind-wise, to become a cop. Because when you shoot somebody, you know, you're doing the wrong thing. There's been nine cases of people in New York City that have become cops. And now those cops have committed suicide. Protect the cops, but protect the people first also. You can't shoot first and ask questions later. There's two in cases like Mark Johnson. When you're given a gun, you have to know how to use it. I know that Vermont, and I'm speaking against the Second Amendment. I know people from the NRA are going to hate me later, but who cares? Who gives the rats behind? When you handle a gun, you've got to know what you're doing. This is not a camera where you forget to take the lens cap off. When you handle a gun, you've got to know what you're doing. And there was a case where someone walked into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas and shot out people on a Saturday or weekend and they were doing back-to-school shopping. He shot a lot of people. There was a case in Pennsylvania, you know, these synagogue shootings have to stop. These church shootings have to stop. These mosque shootings have to stop. We all have to band together and get rid of the right to bear arms. If we're going to get rid of the right to bear arms, there's a case now pending. Burlington City Council is trying to turn around and have the police not have guns and just try to have them as peace officers. There are cases in the United Kingdom where there are peace officers. If a peace officer needs someone with a gun, they call the cops with a gun. But if you're going to learn how to use a gun, use it properly. Years ago, back in Little House on the prairie days, 1800s, 1900s, people used guns to hunt for food. Let's go back to that. There are situations in Vermont where people can't get to a grocery store and they have to shoot to eat, okay? Don't shoot people. You can shoot an animal or disable it without really, you know, killing it. You can disable it to eat it. There's just other ways of doing things. We need to love people, not turn around and go into a Walmart and shoot people. This just cannot happen. I don't know what Donald Trump is doing. This is one for the crapper. Talking about Donald Trump, he's doing so bad now that there are animations or pictures of him of Trump toilet paper. Our president on a piece of toilet paper is one for the crapper. As they say, the shit hits the fan. The shit is going to hit the fan if we don't stop killing people with guns. This country, this beautiful United States of ours was founded on immigrants. Don't get rid of the immigrants. There's a lot of people that came to this country that had nothing. My father-in-law included and he made a life for himself. Get rid of ICE, get rid of the guns, get rid of the Second Amendment and find a way to use guns properly. I think it also has to do with mental health. Trump just overturned the mental health law that Obama had put in place. If your social security check, and this is the last thing, if your social security check is used for mental health purposes, medication, other services, you should not have a gun. More mental health checks need to be done on people that want to become police officers and carry steel weapons. You cannot just open fire whenever you feel like it. This just does not work. You want to say something? I think that police here are trigger happy. The police in Vermont are trigger happy. People in Vermont are trigger happy. They use guns. Yes, the police officer in terms of Mark Johnson was scared, but talk to the person. Have a negotiator. Don't just turn around and shoot somebody. This just does not work and will not work. We are able to sound off with the victims of shootings, the victims of El Paso, the shootings in Ohio, the shootings in New York, the shootings in Pennsylvania. This needs to completely and totally turn a 360 and a circle 360 and not happen anymore. This puts an end to this commentary of gun violence. By the way, there are more people with special needs that die at the hand of gun violence than mostly everything else. Perfect effects can happen with gun violence. You shoot somebody, they immediately have traumatic brain injury. This puts an end to this commentary of Ableton on Air and gun violence and Rest in Peace, Mark Johnson. Rest in Peace, all the victims of gun violence. People that die at the hands of gun violence on a yearly basis. I'm Lauren Syler. I'm Lauren Syler. See you next time on the next edition of Ableton on Air. We would like to thank our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health. Ableton on Air's major sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services where hope and support come together. Ala Israel. All people know limits.