Some 34 disability activist groups across the country have signed a statement protesting the police murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, expressing solidarity with their families and communities, and urging all to do so. (tinyurl.com/qabbdn8, Aug. 15)

This statement’s signers are both national and local groups, including organizations from Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, California, New York State and New England. They include the National Council on Independent Living and four local independent living centers; several autistic groups, including Autism Women’s Network; Little People of America; Queerability and other LGBTQ disability groups; several student groups; Help Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf; the Peoples With Disabilities Caucus of the Peoples Power Assembly; and Parents to Improve School Transportation.

The statement calls upon everyone to oppose “the criminalization and dehumanization of our citizens” especially of “communities viewed as ‘other’ to the American majority — young men of color, people with disabilities, LGBT individuals.” For these communities, “statements such as ‘they didn’t comply,’ they were ‘bad kids,’ ‘they were being belligerent,’ ‘they looked suspicious’ often warrant a death sentence.”

People with disabilities are themselves dramatically more likely to be killed by police. According to a 2013 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriffs’ Association, between 1980 and 2008 “at least half of the people shot and killed by police each year in this country have mental health problems.” (tinyurl.com/mjs67oa)