Since September 2020, 23 people have reported being blinded by “‘less lethal’ munitions used by the police to disperse protests” – many of whom attended protests to document the violence.
Photojournalist Wil Sands started a quest to interview them all. He calls it the “Shot in the Eye Squad.”
From rubber bullets to foam rounds to cloth-wrapped lead pellets, “softer” ways to shoot have been implemented by police at protests. But these projectiles cause, for folks hit like Frank Hunt, not only blindness but conditions like PTSD, insomnia, and paranoia.
“I don’t have a doubt in my mind that they tried to kill me,” he remembers.
“It’s ironic as hell that I was protesting something and that same thing happens to me,” said John Saunders, another Black man who was hospitalized for a stress-induced, life-threatening diabetic condition after being blinded.
But Saunders’ irony is two-fold. Now that he’s disabled, he’s more susceptible to situations like Claude Ruffin’s – a blind Black veteran who was wrestled to the ground by police who didn’t even care to identify themselves.
That lack of care is intentional. Black disabled people suffer the brunt of police violence.
Police have an agenda of not only injuring but silencing – journalists, photographers there to document their violence, and protesters who commit the “crime” of being Black. But we cannot stay silent!