I Apologize...
These were the powerful words by Chief Lansdowne at the San Diego Deaf Awareness Day.
He came to the DAD event at 3:10pm and walked around. He was very impressed as he walked around all the booths. What caught his eye though was the Video Relay technology. He did not know it even existed and he was mesmerized by it and even took some brochures and wants to look into how to implement VR technology within the Police Department in the future if there are any ASL-fluent officers in the future that could use this technology to communicate with the Deaf Community. We walked by a few more other booths and he was fascinated with the www.sayitinsign.com booth. The company is relatively new and they produce cards that are sort of "hologram" like where you see one image and as you turn it the picture changes, so it has pictures of children signing "thank you". It is really cute and Chief Lansdowne was fascinated by it. Then we walked to the stage area where he was introduced around 3:30pm.
Chief Lansdowne introduced himself and gave a quick explanation about the Deaf beating incident. He then explained that they had arrested the leader of the group and that he had 90,000 dollar bail and had confessed to the beating. The criminal confessed that he had beaten the Deaf boy because he did not respond and got angry so he threw a basketball at his head. He did not know that the boy was Deaf but instead thought that he wasn't being ignored and as a macho gang leader he initiated the beating. That alone made it not a hate crime since there was no intent but rather just stupidity on the behalf of the criminal and the Chief pointed out that the criminal had a long history of violence and that he would be facing a serious sentence of up to 15 years in prison in this beating.
The Chief then apologized. He delieved a very strong apology. No one videotaped the speech but I believe that he used the words "I apologize" at least three times. He explained that they were wrong when they did not assign someone who knew minimum ASL to the case when they should have since they did have a few officers on the force that know sign language. He then said that he wanted everyone to contact the Police Department whenever they had concerns and that if they needed to they could contact his office directly. You can find contact information at the San Diego Police Department Website on www.SanDiego.gov/police. He promised to respond within 1 business day.
Chief Lansdowne went on to promise that next year the Police Department would have a booth at next year's Deaf Awareness Day and provide 911 dispatchers and regular officers at the booth to answer any questions Deaf people may have about communicating and working with the Police Department. Then he went on to encourage the Deaf community to apply for jobs with the City of San Diego. At the end, I came up to the stage and gave him a 11x17 card saying "On the Behalf of the San Diego Deaf Community - Thank You Chief Lansdowne". Several people signed it before the speech and I presented it to him and the presentation ended.
As he walked out, Jared Evans was able to catch him and ask him to do a quick interview on camera so he could post it online. The Chief agreed and they taped for several minutes and hopefully by the end of the week the video will be online. When it is online Jared will let me know and we will post it on this blog.
My overall impression is that I am VERY HAPPY. I didn't expect the Chief to make a strong apology. I did think he would give a veiled apology but he gave a STRONG BLUNT APOLOGY and admitted that they made a mistake and WANT to work together and are committed to the Deaf Community.
This will be our last blog unless we get more information in the future. We will also post one last Vlog when Jared Evan's video is ready. So I want to thank everyone who sent in emails to the City Council, Mayor and Police Department. THANK YOU! None of this would have happened without your support! Thank you again to Ridor of RidorLive.com and Jared Evans! They both helped A LOT in bringing this whole thing to the internet and making all of this possible. Thank you!
-Pepe
He came to the DAD event at 3:10pm and walked around. He was very impressed as he walked around all the booths. What caught his eye though was the Video Relay technology. He did not know it even existed and he was mesmerized by it and even took some brochures and wants to look into how to implement VR technology within the Police Department in the future if there are any ASL-fluent officers in the future that could use this technology to communicate with the Deaf Community. We walked by a few more other booths and he was fascinated with the www.sayitinsign.com booth. The company is relatively new and they produce cards that are sort of "hologram" like where you see one image and as you turn it the picture changes, so it has pictures of children signing "thank you". It is really cute and Chief Lansdowne was fascinated by it. Then we walked to the stage area where he was introduced around 3:30pm.
Chief Lansdowne introduced himself and gave a quick explanation about the Deaf beating incident. He then explained that they had arrested the leader of the group and that he had 90,000 dollar bail and had confessed to the beating. The criminal confessed that he had beaten the Deaf boy because he did not respond and got angry so he threw a basketball at his head. He did not know that the boy was Deaf but instead thought that he wasn't being ignored and as a macho gang leader he initiated the beating. That alone made it not a hate crime since there was no intent but rather just stupidity on the behalf of the criminal and the Chief pointed out that the criminal had a long history of violence and that he would be facing a serious sentence of up to 15 years in prison in this beating.
The Chief then apologized. He delieved a very strong apology. No one videotaped the speech but I believe that he used the words "I apologize" at least three times. He explained that they were wrong when they did not assign someone who knew minimum ASL to the case when they should have since they did have a few officers on the force that know sign language. He then said that he wanted everyone to contact the Police Department whenever they had concerns and that if they needed to they could contact his office directly. You can find contact information at the San Diego Police Department Website on www.SanDiego.gov/police. He promised to respond within 1 business day.
Chief Lansdowne went on to promise that next year the Police Department would have a booth at next year's Deaf Awareness Day and provide 911 dispatchers and regular officers at the booth to answer any questions Deaf people may have about communicating and working with the Police Department. Then he went on to encourage the Deaf community to apply for jobs with the City of San Diego. At the end, I came up to the stage and gave him a 11x17 card saying "On the Behalf of the San Diego Deaf Community - Thank You Chief Lansdowne". Several people signed it before the speech and I presented it to him and the presentation ended.
As he walked out, Jared Evans was able to catch him and ask him to do a quick interview on camera so he could post it online. The Chief agreed and they taped for several minutes and hopefully by the end of the week the video will be online. When it is online Jared will let me know and we will post it on this blog.
My overall impression is that I am VERY HAPPY. I didn't expect the Chief to make a strong apology. I did think he would give a veiled apology but he gave a STRONG BLUNT APOLOGY and admitted that they made a mistake and WANT to work together and are committed to the Deaf Community.
This will be our last blog unless we get more information in the future. We will also post one last Vlog when Jared Evan's video is ready. So I want to thank everyone who sent in emails to the City Council, Mayor and Police Department. THANK YOU! None of this would have happened without your support! Thank you again to Ridor of RidorLive.com and Jared Evans! They both helped A LOT in bringing this whole thing to the internet and making all of this possible. Thank you!
-Pepe
posted by Pepe C. at 7:45 PM
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