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tv   Our World  BBC News  October 7, 2018 9:30pm-10:01pm BST

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this is bbc world news, the headlines. top officials in track you say the authorities have concrete evidence that it well known journalists, jamal khashoggi, was killed inside the saudi consulate in istanbul. saudi officials have called the accusations baseless. they have said the election is the most polarised contest friday. one candidate was stabbed on the campaign trail. and in using officials say the number of people missing has sought to 5000. so far, more than 1700 bodies have been recovered. police in new york state have confirmed that 20 people have died in good traffic collision on saturday. it is reported that limousine carrying a wedding party and in other vehicle but involved. at ten o'clock, we will have the
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full round—up of the day's news. first, at our world, don't shoot, i am disabled. . police in america are often in the spotlight, accused of abusing their power. but there is a disturbing trend that rarely gets talked about. put your hands behind your back. 0k! i'm sorry! a huge number of people injured and those killed by the police in the us each year have a disability. in this investigation, as unthinkable as it sounds, we find people with serious mental illness, learning difficulties or physical impairment in fear of their lives. but why are so many dying at the hands of the police? woman on phone: this is the police.
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caller: there is a young man here standing naked in the hallway. is hejust naked, nothing else, he's not carrying any weapons? no weapons, he is saying something about his brother. police, we want to make sure you are ok. can you open up the door? this is your last chance, we need you to open up, we just wanna make sure you are ok. otherwise we will have to come in. 0k, stand clear of the door. after responding to a call from a neighbour, police broke into the apartment of adam trammell, who it appeared had been having some sort of breakdown.
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his family said when he got stressed he took a shower to calm down. that is where they found him. we can see exactly what happened from one of the police body cameras. and what it is about to show is very distressing. police say they wanted to check how adam was, but when he doesn't respond to commands and splashes water at the police, he is given an electric shock. brandon, we need you to come out. you are going to get tased. screams. now you need to relax, ok. we don't want to tase you again. adam, not brandon as they were shouting, gets distressed and is tased many more times. screams. he is later dragged out
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of his apartment, several officers on top of him, as he screams one word over and over — jesus. he is sedated, but moments later, the 22—year—old stopped breathing and died. he is not breathing any more. where is the imminent danger? there was none. for him to suffer like that for no reason at all. he didn't deserve it at all. you don't tase him 15 times, there is no threat, you are saying "oh, oh, we were waiting for backup." he is in a tub, dying. but even after seeing the same footage we have, the district attorney said that in his words there was "no basis
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to conclusively link adam's death to the actions of the officers." i'm sure we are all left with so many questions after seeing something as shocking as that, and a little later we will hear about how the police involved justified their actions. as extreme as that seemed, it is a staggering proportion of the people of killed by the police in america each year who have a mental illness like adam, or a physical disability, or an intellectual one. 26—year—old ethan saylor had downs syndrome, and idolised police officers. he even wanted to be one. one evening he had been at the cinema with a carer, but at the end of a film he went back to his seat, wanting to see the movie again. hearing someone was inside the next screening without a ticket, three off—duty police officers went in.
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ethann‘s mother takes up the story from evidence given in an investigation. by all reports one of them said to the other gentlemen, "come on fellas, it looks that we are going to have a fight on our hands." at some point it becomes "you need to leave or you will be arrested." and ethan still doesn't move, and so the officers put their arms under his arms to lift him up and to remove him from the theatre. so somehow in those next seconds or minutes, ethan ends up on the floor, face down, and is not breathing. ethan was restrained, handcuffed and had been crying out before he died — though the circumstances were not made clear to his family, who thought he had just passed away from a medical complication. a week and a half to two weeks later we were called to the sheriff's department,
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the autopsy was back and they told us the medical examiner had ruled this a homicide, and the death was caused by asphyxiation. that was probably the most dramatic and traumatic moment in all of this, was realising he had been killed. at the time, ethan's death did spark a debate in the us about police interactions with people with disabilities. but the deaths keep on coming. we are in oklahoma city to look into the case of a man who was confronted by police in front of his own home. he was carrying what they perceived to be a weapon — actually it was a piece of steel piping, and they shouted instructions to him to drop it, but he didn't. that confrontation ended with him being shot and killed on his own front lawn. the problem was, as all the neighbours around here were shouting at the police, he couldn't hear their instructions, and that is because he was deaf. in oklahoma city, authorities launched an investigation
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after police shoot and kill a deaf man. police say it is unclear whether the two officers heard what the witnesses were yelling. they both discharged their weapons after sanchez did not respond to verbal commands. police said they went to the home of the man because they suspected his father had been involved in a hit—and—run incident where someone had been injured. surveillance footage from the house across the street from magdiel sanchez‘s home shows that he did at one point run towards officers before walking away again, pausing at one moment to point the pipe. the officer follows him away and moments later, out of shot, he was killed. i came to the window after the shots were fired, and i looked down and seen the young man and the two offices. but what was clear, speaking
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to neighbours like regina, was that magdiel sanchez, as well is being deaf, also had learning difficulties. i knew it was him because i know his build, and i have seen the back of him. i knew it was him. and i was like, what could he have done? what kind of person was he? he was a special needs child and he was deaf, and he was real timid, and he was an older boy, but he was like a child. the question many had was, why was he holding a piece of pipe? we met the neighbour who encouraged him to carry it. he would see me going up and down the street with a stick, and one day, one morning, he came by the house and he held his stick up and he smiled, he goes, you know, and gave me the thumbs up. you inspired him to carry the stick? idid. why was he carrying the stick? the dogs scared him. under the circumstances at that moment, what they had to work with,
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it was the best possible outcome. police said the officer killed him in self defence. he knew they were police officers. even if this person could have heard, ithink he was in a position... he may have known they were police officers, but if he was deaf and had learning disabilities, he may not know how to interact, and what was happening, he obviously would have been startled. ok, i'm not going to argue with the level of disability that he had. in our findings, in looking at it, this person was capable of understanding what the situation was. already this year, right across the us, at least 130 people with a range of disabilities are confirmed to have been killed by police officers. these are just the ones we know about. in hundreds more cases, it was never determined whether the person killed had
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a disability at all. but what of the officers who have taken the life of someone with a disability? i was involved in this critical event where i had a subject who was armed with a knife outside a school, and... i was forced into a situation where i made a choice to shoot and kill the individual, we were outside a school, she was armed with a large knife, she was not responding to my instructions. after the incident was over, i was able to be told that she had a history of mental illness. i didn't know that at that time, i didn't understand what was going on at the time. you said at the time you felt you had no choice, do you feel differently about that event now? no, i don't feel differently about it now. outside of that event, outside of the pressure cooker, outside of those milliseconds that the officer has to make a decision, many people
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have the benefit of looking back at that with minutes, if not hours or even days to contemplate what they would have done, and then theyjudge the officer because, they didn't do the thing that i would have done. the sergeant told me of his anger at those who believe police officers in the us are too eager to use their guns. the reality is is that no one wants to be involved in that moment, where they have to point a weapon at another individual and pull the trigger. then why does it happen so often, with so many people with disabilities killed by the police? well, all police here are of course armed, and they face members of the public who are as well. often. show me your hands! you get a sense of why police would be on their guard, and so much of their training
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is geared towards protecting themselves. when you talk about police killings in america, of course the biggest stories over the last couple of years have surrounded those that have sparked massive race riots. butjust because we are talking about disability, it doesn't mean that race and poverty don't also play a part. they do — in a lot of cases we are looking into, many of the people killed by police with disabilities happen in low—income areas. that is partly because of the greater police presence and greater potential for violence, but also according to people who look into this issue, the attitude of police when they come into contact with people like this. chicago's southside is predominantly
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african—american, has serious challenges in terms of crime and poverty and is one of the most heavily policed areas in the country. the complaint from many here is that officers too often command and control, shouting orders then physically taking charge, especially when someone does not immediately comply. and that can include the use of lethal force. the problem is, some people, as we have seen, just can't comply. candice works with young people who have autism, schizophrenia and learning impairments. she sees a clear reason why so many may be injured or killed in interaction with officers. if they do encounter police, it's a scary situation. they don't know this person, they never seen who's this person with the gun, or in blue, or why these lights are flashing.
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these loud sounds — what are all these things? another reason is because, again, that enforcement of control on the body, like i have to control you. if i'm not used to that, then i'm going to respond in a way that would look as if i'm being defiant. the parents of adam trammell, who saw their son repeatedly tased in that bodycam footage, can relate to that. there were times where you couldn't touch adam. he would get withdrawn and excited. i would listen to him, back off of him, and say, "think about it." he had that understanding. but if i went in and used my authority like "i am your father, do this and this," it didn't work. don't get up. don't move. larry says his son, a schizophrenic, would often have delusions and hallucinations,
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and that the police could not have done a worse job of handling that. they escalated it and the point is if adam was going through one of his emotional things is that when the police came in, and he looked at them, he might have not thought that was them. relax, relax. and by calling them by different name, that fed into it. by calling him not adam, he was thinking it was not real. brandon, can you listen to us? if you hold on one moment, i will put the district attorney on. great. this is john chisholm. after weeks of trying, we finally managed to speak to the district attorney who ruled adam did not die as a result of the actions of the officers who tased him numerous times. they're not doing this because they wanted to harm adam. it is the exact opposite, right?
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but it doesn't look like that, does it? but it does, though. their expressed intent any number of times is that they were there to help him, that they wanted to get him out of that... they kept saying that as they tased him. right, right, because they had to get him under control so they could get him to some medical attention. you are saying that it was not unreasonable that they tased him? that's correct. not based on their training. if that's what their training tells them to do, there's clearly a problem. this ain't a big deal, i promise. but more and more because of a mental health system widely thought to be failing, police are being forced into encounters that trained medical professionals should be handling. put your hands behind your back real quick. i'm sorry! can you please let me go?
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and so many people go untreated because of a lack of access to healthcare. i guarantee i'll smoke you. i guarantee it. but if the police are the first to be called, how can things improve so that no one gets harmed? didn't work, did it? patty saylor took the devastation caused by her son's death and has tried to turn it into something positive. the world is frustrating to somebody with an intellectual disability. today, she's taking her first full training session with police officers, to teach them how to deal with people with disabilities. it includes lessons from what happened to her son. ethan didn't have the cognitive ability to recognise those officers needed an explanation. like, oh, officer, i'm going to watch this movie a second time, my mum is coming and will pay
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the ticket when she gets here. he would not have known in his mind that they needed an explanation. see how complex it can be? sadly, the department whose offices were involved in ethan's death has not engaged with patty. the made a financial settlement with her, but never so much as apologised or admitted any wrongdoing. they refused all our interview requests. we are going to be en route to a husband who has called in on his wife, he believes that she needs help with a mental health issue. 1 adam 1—22 we'll respond out to there with adam 70. not every police force takes steps like training to try to stop its dealings with disabled people going disastrously wrong. but sergeant nooner now has been
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trained to be one of those called out to such incidents... you are the homeowner so you need to walk us in. ..often dealing with those with serious mental illness. i think your family is worried about you. i get it, but they are not in my head. and who are, as in this case, delusional. it's an anomaly, i see it on the computer, i see the tick, and unlike, oh, they're watching me. so we have to take you to the doctor so you can talk to the doctor about what is going on. you don't have to do that. they are taking me without consent. ok, that's right, you're not consenting. i did not consent to this. that's clear — you're not consenting. i am leaving voluntarily. but disability, mental health history, or not, people often still and up in handcuffs. i am a crazy woman. even officers who have had disability training ultimately fall back on what they've been taught in their basic police instruction — much of which is based on personal protection. as sergeant nooner knows from the incident when he felt
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he was forced to kill a schizophrenic woman. i need to make sure i can go back to my family at night. so whether a person is mentally ill or not, they have a knife, they are pointing at me and walking at me and i am turn them to drop the knife, drop the knife, stop, just stop, my priority has to be my safety. then we can talk about the actions that will force to intervene with. once these issues are addressed. but that still sounds like people who — who can't comply, for whatever reason, could still get harmed almost before police could compute that there is a problem there, a mental health issue. absolutely they can. for some, there is only one major way police across america themselves could help bring down notjust
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the number of people with disabilities killed by officers, but also the hundreds of others who in these exchanges every year. the immediate reaction should not be to pull out your gun or your taser or to yell or scream. so i think all of those policies need to change. i had to watch everybody else play sports because i was in a chair half the time... but as things stand, candice says the young people she works with, such as tj, who has autism, and theirfamilies, are looking at all these deaths and wondering who might be next. it has made people fearful of calling the police. it is also made individuals with disabilities themselves fearful of being around police. i am an organiser, so i organise young adults, and immediately the plan centres around
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what will we do about the police in this case, how do we protect ourselves? it is extraordinary to hear you talking about groups with disabilities having to talk about walking through how to defend themselves against police, but that is where things are. yes it is. so with few hopes of a major shift in police culture that could save disabled lives, where de—escalating situations is really their focus and even fewer expectations that mental health provision will radically improve here, some of the most vulnerable in american society are being left to work things out themselves if they are not to be added to the grim numbers that are growing across this country all the time. the weather this week is like the
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personal seasonal selection box. just about every variety of conditions coming our way. we start the week where timed windy in the north—west. once an sunshine body with us before more wet and windy weather arrives by the tide be finished to beat. it is all due to the spec and deleting jet stream at the. we have got it to the north of us the. we have got it to the north of us at the moment, but in this run of strong winds, it will drag a rider system continuously to watch part of the north and west of the country, with increasing risks of flooding across and west of scotland. on monday, a brighter start in the
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highlands, but it will not last long. rain at times in northern ireland, but better in the morning. further south, other than one to isolated showers, most will have a day of variable amounts of sunshine, and temperatures will climb back up into the high teens. it will be a chilly start. on tuesday, another ripple in the by the front. i tend to in the north—west of scotland, nearly 150 millimetres over the next few days in the highlands and islands. still some rentals to northern ireland. england and wales stick with the drier weather. temperatures climbing back up into the lower 20s. into wednesday, the weather front moves north, the lower 20s. into wednesday, the weatherfront moves north, and the lower 20s. into wednesday, the weather front moves north, and the drag an airfrom the weather front moves north, and the drag an air from the south. more widespread once to the middle parts of the week, and more once after what could be a fairly misty start
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across parts of england and wales on wednesday morning. this sunshine comes out. then early on across the happy days and the islands. lots of sunshine through the afternoon. temperatures in parts of scotland and northern ireland and above 20 degrees, but is more widely, though to ned 20s. on thursday, southerly winds. for the time being, the main weather fans will keep at bay, but with southerly winds, we could see a few areas of showers. most will be dry until later the day. after drive spells in southern areas, the town of some rain. but it stays mild on thursday for just about all. on thursday for just about all. on thursday night, the weather front will work its way northwards. showery rain across most parts of the country. as the jet stream gets to what is, dry start on widespread
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deals expected, and the timings of rain bands pushing north than these. it set it seems that after it acquired myrtle park to debate, it will time stormier towards the end, with wetter and windy weather quite widely. that will continue into the weekend, did jet stream moving down to the west of us. as he go into next week, the jet stream has a flatter ripple on it, and that tends to give us more changeable conditions. uncertainty next week. no pressure to the rest. at the moment, it looks like the west and east will be that little bit drier. nicola sturgeon says scottish nationalist mps would back another public vote on brexit. boosting the campaign for a second referendum — she also says scottish
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independence is inevitable. we're on a journey that will end with independence. i think brexit brings the issues around this very sharply into focus. we'll be looking at the significance of the snp move, as brexit negotiations move into a final phase.
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