The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Death
 gangs kill sign language users




Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: hsm@unislc.slc.unisys.com (Helge Moulding)
Subject: Sometimes they don't hear the bullet!
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 20:55:29 GMT

I posted, some weeks ago, a mention of a story my 12-year old son related to me. He had heard in school that a deaf woman was shot by a gangster who thought that her sign language was gang signals.

I commented that it sounded to me like a modification of our old favorite, the Lights Out! UL. I mentioned that there had been a case of random shooting involving a deaf couple, but that the conclusion that the assailants mistook sign language for gang signals was speculation on the part of an officer, reported as fact by the media.

So my research department, despite the fact that all her paychecks over the past twelve months bounced higher than the USAn national debt under a Republican administration, set to work and retrieved a number of news items:

There were 4 articles found in this particular search, three regarding one incident, and another regarding a second incident. None of the articles provide specific proof that sign language was *in*fact* mistaken for gang signals.

The first incident, in Pico Rivera, on February 4, occured when a pickup truck with seven "youths" followed a deaf couple into a parking lot. One of the assailants jumped from the truck with a rifle and fired "several rounds" at the victims through their car's windshield. A 22 year old woman was injured. (This incident wasn't reported for over a week. Why? Does California have a policy regarding the reporting of gang activities, to lessen their "publicity value?")

The second incident happened almost three years earlier, when a 19 year old deaf woman was murdered, and her deaf boyfriend "seriously injured" on July 2, 91. In this case the assailant fired in true blue Lights Out fashion from a white Jeep Cherokee, driving by at night with its lights off. (One wonders if the original Lights Out! UL started here.)

All of the articles contain statements like, "While a motive for the shooting has not been determined, the gunman may have mistaken the couple's use of sign language as the flashing of gang symbols -- a common challenge among street gangs, authorities said." (LA Times, 1991)

"A woman communicating in sign language with her fiance as they drove to dinner was shot in the face by gang members who apparently thought she was flashing gang signs." (Washington Post, Washington Times, 94)

"Neither the woman nor her boyfriend, both of whom are deaf, is a gang member, and a motive for the shooting has not been determined, Sheriff's Sgt. Pat Fallis said. But American Sign Language hand gestures have occasionally been misconstrued as gang signs." (LA Times, 94)

Sadly, the 91 LA Times item makes no identification of the "authorities" they are referring to. There is, in my opinion, good reason to identify Sgt. Fallis as the source of the facts for the more recent claims. Although the good sergeant may be referring to what he knew from three years before.

What I think is remarkable in all of these items is the notion that sign language can in any fashion be confused with gang signs. I have seen people communicate in ASL and SEE, and in no way see a similarity to the flashing of gang signs. (Although I don't know if there are gang signs that happen to correspond to isolated hand shapes in sign languages...) The attitudes of the participants in sign language are so different from "flashing gang signals," and the incidents are *way* to isolated -- I'd say this is a fairly clear argument for

F. Sign language can be confused with gang signs, and

may get you killed.
-- 

        Helge "I'd credit my research department properly,
        but then I'd have to pay her..." Moulding
        (Just another guy with NO CARRIER

AT...


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