Law in Contemporary Society

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MaryamAsenugaFirstEssay 8 - 11 Apr 2021 - Main.MaryamAsenuga
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To be Deaf in the Criminal Justice System is to be Ignored

It was not until my second viewing of Switched at Birth that I realized that Deaf people and I share something: fear of the police.
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During an emotional scene, two officers apprehended a Deaf character. As it was nighttime, the character could not understand the officer's lips, which is pertinent as lip reading is a major way Deaf people understand Hearing people who do not know ASL. Thus, the officers grew agitated and handcuffed him. Being handcuffed may be inconvenient for Hearing people, but it is especially painful for some Deaf people whose main form of communication is with their hands.

The National Association of the Deaf supported this point in a report that stated, "Deaf and hard of hearing individuals face greater legal challenges due to communication barriers that are typically not recognized by lawyers, courts, or police.” The injustices occur at arrest, trial probation, prison, and parole (Vernon and Miller, 2005). To further understand, I read about the real account of a horrible, and almost fatal, encounter between Mr. J (a Deaf man) and a police officer at a diner. Despite Mr. J knowing he had a legal right to an interpreter for encounters with the police, guaranteed by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, the officer refused and Mr. J was incarcerated without proper representation. Approximately 40% of deaf individuals experience communication barriers similar to Mr. J, but these experiences do not only occur within the criminal justice system.

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The National Association of the Deaf supported this point in a report that stated, "Deaf and hard of hearing individuals face greater legal challenges due to communication barriers that are typically not recognized by lawyers, courts, or police.” The injustices occur at arrest, trial probation, prison, and parole (Vernon and Miller, 2005). To further understand, I read about the real account of a horrible, and almost fatal, encounter between Mr. J (a Deaf man) and a police officer at a diner. Despite Mr. J knowing he had a legal right to an interpreter for encounters with the police, the officer refused and Mr. J was incarcerated without proper representation. Approximately 40% of deaf individuals experience communication barriers similar to Mr. J, but these experiences do not only occur within the criminal justice system.
 

Despite its Barriers, the Deaf Community is Richer than the Hearing World Understands

Connecting These Lessons to my Legal Path

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Deafness has illustrated that there are various ways to achieve something. From an early age, I gained a love of learning new languages. I am conversationally-fluent in two languages. Now, I have begun the process of learning ASL. Not only has it been teaching me how to beautifully form words and ideas with my hands, but it has also taught me the importance of intimacy in communication - something the Hearing world lacks. Due to how visual ASL is, I noticed how the Deaf people I observed always make eye contact with one another, can read someone’s body language intuitively, etc. That type of intimate communication is something that I rarely experience in my Hearing community. Learning ASL has taught me that there are always different ways to achieve a goal, whether that goal is communication or occupational success.
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Deafness has illustrated that there are various ways to achieve something. From an early age, I gained a love of learning new languages and this has culminated in my recent process of learning ASL. It has also affected my development as a lawyer. As a child, the desire for advocacy came early. From then and from watching Law and Order: SVU, I knew I wanted to be a civil rights lawyer who defended the most marginalized amongst us.

The problem is - without any lawyers in my immediate family, I wasn't sure of the specifics of what it means to be an advocate and attorney. It was through growing up with this show depicting the Deaf community and ultimately learning ASL that my development into a lawyer cleared my visions and solidified my goals. Yes, I have learned how to beautifully form words and ideas with my hands, become even more of a visual learner, but what has been the best part of this journey is how it's taught me how to be an authentically empathetic advocate. This has occurred because through learning ASL, I have had to learn and think about different ways to communicate that falls outside my comfort level. I have been forced to think about the daily inconveniences Deaf people go through when trying to converse with Hearing people who haven't forced themselves out of their comfort level to pick up a few phrases in ASL.

The reason why this lesson has been one of the most monumental in my development is because I understand that to be a lawyer is to be an advocate. I cannot claim to be an empathetic advocate if I am not willing to remove myself from familiarity to understand the struggles of my clients in efforts to craft intentionally strategies to win their cases. This is what learning ASL has taught me and I am grateful for that. The dominant language in my small world is English, but I took myself out of that bubble of comfort to be able to communicate with future clients who could be Deaf or hard-of-hearing. I must start equipping myself now with the tools to meet my future clients where they are at, not where I am at due to hearing privilege.

Learning ASL has taught me that there are always different ways to achieve a goal, whether that goal is communication or occupational success.

 

There’s More than One Way to Skin a Cat

My respect for the Deaf community has made me further reflect on my life. I have always wanted to be an attorney who fights for people. However, as I grew older, I realized that to reach that goal, I had to make a pathway to it. But, I had no idea what that path should look like.
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In The Path of the Law Holmes states, “When we study law we are not studying a mystery but a well-known profession”. I disagree. It may be well-known, but I still am not clear on what path I should take in the legal field. Since August of 2020, I have been inundated with the information that to be successful and comfortable, one must work in corporate law. This consistent narrative has made me believe my lifelong goal to become an attorney who advocates for marginalized communities was fallacious. However, after observing and learning from the Deaf community who have created and reinvented new paths from themselves, I choose to do the same in my career. There is no reason to believe that only one “conventional” legal career can lead to greatness for myself and future clients. Just as there are more ways to experience and communicate within the world, there is more than one way to be an emphatic yet unyielding lawyer.
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In The Path of the Law Holmes states, “When we study law we are not studying a mystery but a well-known profession”. I disagree. It may be well-known, but I still am not clear on what path I should take in the legal field. After observing and learning from the Deaf community who have created and reinvented new paths from themselves, I choose to do the same in my career. There is no reason to believe that only one “conventional” legal career can lead to greatness for myself and future clients. Just as there are more ways to experience and communicate within the world, there is more than one way to be an emphatic yet unyielding lawyer.
 

Revision 8r8 - 11 Apr 2021 - 19:28:53 - MaryamAsenuga
Revision 7r7 - 27 Mar 2021 - 12:48:34 - EbenMoglen
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