Posted on 10/05/2007 6:07:30 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
FORT WORTH -- A store cashier struck a deaf customer in the head with a crowbar after he mistook the man's silence for rudeness and disrespect, police said.
The cashier, Ricky Benard Young, 20, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The customer, Cody Goodnight, 31, suffered "a large knot" on his head during the incident, which occurred Saturday at the Family Dollar Store at 4117 E. Lancaster Ave.
"I can't believe someone would hit him for not speaking," said Goodnight's mother, Kay Goodnight. "When you're deaf, you don't make a point of starting conversations with people."
Young's defense attorney, Mark Price, said Thursday that he was recently assigned the case and declined to comment.
Kay Goodnight called police after her injured son returned home from the store late Saturday morning. When officers arrived, she translated her son’s story to officers using sign language, said Lt. Dean Sullivan, a police spokesman.
Cody Goodnight said he had walked several blocks from their house to the Family Dollar to buy a soft drink for his 5-year-old son. Inside the store, he put the soda on the counter to pay.
The cashier tried to speak to him but got angry when Goodnight didn't respond, Goodnight told police. The cashier threw Goodnight's change at him, scattering it on the floor.
As Goodnight picked it up, the cashier hit him in the side of the head with the crowbar, Goodnight said.
Officers went to the store, where Young immediately asked if they were there about what "happened earlier," Sullivan said. The cashier told officers that he had tried to start a friendly conversation with Goodnight but that Goodnight wouldn't acknowledge him.
At one point, Young told officers, Goodnight mumbled something that Young thought was racial in nature, Sullivan said. Young told officers he struck Goodnight because he thought Goodnight was going to assault him.
After officers told Young that Goodnight was deaf and unable to communicate verbally, Young responded "Oh," Sullivan said.
"Upon further investigation, it appeared the suspect became frustrated when the victim wouldn't respond or acknowledge his attempts to converse," Sullivan said. "He became outraged and struck the victim in an unwarranted attack." The store's surveillance tape was erased or taped over before the officers got there, Sullivan said.
A corporate spokesman for the Family Dollar Store did not return a phone message Thursday.
Cody Goodnight was treated at the hospital for his injury but still has pain in his head and neck, Kay Goodnight said Thursday.
Deaf since the age of 2, when he suffered a high fever, Goodnight speaks in guttural sounds -- "deaf speak" as his mother calls it.
His stepfather, Barry Adair, said Goodnight doesn't like talking to strangers.
"He gets embarrassed because people make fun of the way he talks," Adair said. "He's not trying to be rude or unfriendly. You just can't understand him unless you're around him a lot."
Emily Robinson, a Fort Worth deafness resource specialist, said that while it is unusual for a deaf person to be attacked, misunderstandings are common. People sometimes take deaf people for rude when they are unresponsive, she said.
"It is a really big problem," Robinson said. "Businesses should be professional and sensitive to deaf people. There are training workshops about the deaf culture and what to expect in interactions with us."
Thanks for the ping, wallcrawlr.
Well I was mad and the plunger was handy:), but I was thinking, it was a good thing I didn’t leave the baby in there. The doors on the stalls go all the way to the ground and there would have been no way I could have gotten the woman’s attention to get the baby out had she gotten in there and locked the door. It was just a weird situation. I was also thinking, why didn’t someone come in with her to help her out, but as I was leaving I saw a man standing in the hallway waiting for her. That’s when family bathrooms come in handy.
A little comon sense is needed on both sides.
Suppose the clerk had greeted you instead of your wife, and it was you who was rude to the cleck by ignoring her.................
Unless the deaf hang a sign around their neck, some awkward moments are sure to occur.
So, are you suggesting that if deaf people want to avoid having a crowbar slammed against their head they should wear a sign around their neck saying, “I’m deaf”? Or are you suggesting that deaf people will just have to live with the consequences of getting the head bashed in one once in a while because it’s rude to ignore the clerk at the cash register? What kind of common sense is that?
I sense idiot Young will feel the wrath of a few Tarrant County prisoners for a few days to then be discharged on probation with a large bill for restitution to the victim.
BS on both counts. ...but not surprising that Young would play the race card when backed into a corner -- that's what he's been taught to do by the likes of Sharpton and Jackson.
I used to have some neighbors, a mother and her grown son, who both seemed to have an anger control problem. One time they accused me of being incredibly rude and snobby because I had not responded when they greeted me as I came outside to mow my lawn. It turned out that I had been wearing earplugs and hadn’t even heard them.
http://www.d-pan.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=45
This is the D-PAN interpretation of John Mayer’s song “Waiting on the World to Change”.
Since you brought up the common sense angle, let’s start there.
Use some common sense and just a bare touch of reading comprehension and you will see that I was responding to a specfic situation encounted by the poster I was responding to.
Using just a smidgen of common sense, I can see that you may need a second cup of coffe too!
Yes, and pounding on innocent people with heavy metal objects is one of the best ways to gain respect too. I mean, think about it. Don't all the people you respect in your life do that to others?
Wasn't there once a very wise teacher who said:
The clerk in this case is a criminal for his actions both during the incident and especially afterwards. He obviously has an attitude and anger management problem that he can work on while in jail.
I can see race becoming a component if he, the black cashier, was assuming that the white customer’s determined silence was a refusal to acknowledge him as a human being. Racists, on both sides of the racial divide, routinely do this. Of course, even encountering REAL stony silent contempt doesn’t justify a crowbar blow to the head if no other aggresive act accompanies the silence.
However, the attacker’s “Oh” in response to being told the victim was deaf atleast hints at a realization that he had made a whole lot of wrong assumptions on his way to assaulting him.
I wonder if this entire incident could have been avoided if the deaf person, on becoming aware that someone is trying to speak to him or her, signed back to the speaking person (essentially talking back to him or her in the language that they speak) the words “I’m deaf” (or some similar phrase). Such an act would serve to acknowledge the speaking person’s attempt to communicate and put them on notice that their assumptions (that the deaf person can hear and speak) are wrong.
At one point, Young told officers, Goodnight mumbled something that Young thought was racial in nature, Sullivan said. Young told officers he struck Goodnight because he thought Goodnight was going to assault him.
Obvious BS.
After officers told Young that Goodnight was deaf and unable to communicate verbally, Young responded "Oh," Sullivan said
I truly believe this POS thought that it had only to say,"A white man used a racial epithet" and the police would say, "Well, then , that gives you a perfect right to brain him with a metal crowbar". I've lost count of the cases I've read about here on FR in which a white person is assaulted , and the accused is quoted as saying the victim "used a racial epithet" as if that gave it the right to commit an assault! Remember when that trespassing Hmong man murdered several white hunters, and tried to use that as an excuse? Even recent immigrants to this country seem to believe they can do whatever they want to a white person if the white person uses a "racial slur" (or they claim s/he did).
I hope this POS's life is destroyed . I hope it not only does prison time, it loses every asset it owns in a civil case.
That's one reason why deafness is often called "the invisible handicap". You can see a wheelchair, or a seeing-eye dog, but unless a deaf person is signing, one's disability is not noticed. Even hearing aids today are so small you can hardly see them.
A dear friend of mine who was blind once remarked to me that she would rather have been blind than deaf. Surprised at the notion, I asked her why. She said that being blind, she can at least communicate with the world through her ears; she felt that deafness is a terribly isolating disability.
I usually don’t talk much in public. I talk only as much as I feel is necessary. Nobody should have the right to make me. We were talking about respect or disrespect. There would be a severe problem if some jackass clerk disrespected me by trying to hit me with a crowbar.
I understand your point on the “what if” question here and I don’t disagree with you, however, why must anyone, deaf or hearing, feel obligated to go into a store to spend money and have to be concerned about striking up a conversation with a store clerk? I agree people should not be rude, but in my case I happen to be deaf and I use ASL to communicate. I can use my voice and can talk reasonably well because I was born hearing and became deaf later in life. The situation that this deaf man encountered is something that I encounter almost every week when I go into a store or restaurant. When I pay my bill I’m focusing on getting the money or credit card out of my wallet and not looking at the clerk. Often when I do look up at the clerk after putting my pin number in the swipe thing or getting my cash together I look up to find the clerk staring at me as if I said something offensive to him/her. Because I have encountered this so many times I know it’s usually because the clerk said something to me (e.g. how are you, nice day, etc), and I did not respond in a timely manner. Normally I just smile and say thank you unless they act like they are still waiting for me to answer them then I will tell them I’m deaf and to please repeat to me if they said something. That generally takes care of it and all is well. But sometimes I just get a rude cold stare from them and go about my business because I don’t feel I need to spend the rest of my life explaining to clerks that I’m deaf and I’m not ignoring you, etc, etc. I’m the customer—I give them my money and all I want back from them is a smile and thank you. I owe the clerk nothing beyond a smile and thank you back. Why should I have to look over my shoulder and hope someone doesn’t bash my head in just because someone is offended by my non-response to their comment to me that I did not hear? On rare occasions when the clerk asks me something and I didn’t answer them they sign “thank you” to me as I leave because they assumed that I was deaf. In my opinion the clerk should either assume their customer is deaf and smile and wave goodbye, or they could assume that their customer is rude and simply ignore their "rudeness". Is that asking to much? Apparently for the guy who bashed the deaf guy’s head in it was.
I can so relate to that story having organized, helped out, and participated in a number of running events. Drivers can often exhibit this same mentality when we’re trying to keep intersections on the roads safe.
I can hardly stand going places anymore to buy things. If the person is younger than 30, instead of saying “you’re welcome” when thanked, they reply “No problem.” It really irritates me.
“100 days community service at a deaf school”
I don’t want this kid near my kid at a deaf school until he has a YEAR at least of education behind him.
Hey you!
Sometimes if someone says “Excuse me” to my daughter, and naturally she does not hear them, I feel like I should run up and say “she’s deaf; she is not being rude!” I usually do, depending on the tone of the person saying excuse me.
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