A deaf Black woman was handcuffed in North Las Vegas in front of her children while the girls were asked to interpret for police. Video of the encounter has caused outrage across the nation. Andrea “Dre” Hollingsworth told FOX 5 Las Vegas, she started livestreaming on Facebook during her incident with North Las Vegas Police last week.

The officers were wearing face masks and since Hollingsworth is deaf she could not read their lips. Therefore, she couldn’t understand them.

“I don’t know, I’m being pulled over and he is interrogating me … I am black, I am deaf, George Floyd just happened,” Hollingsworth said. “The police officer pulled my arm … and I was like, ‘whoa, why?’ I have never experienced anything like that in my life,” Hollingsworth said.

In the video, the officer can be heard telling her 11-year-old twin daughters to get out of the car.

“I will have you come with me so you can talk,” the officer says. But Hollingsworth couldn’t communicate with the officer.

“I’m saying, ‘Look at this. We need to text, we need to write,’ and he just kept on talking,” Hollingsworth said.

The officer then proceeds to tell the girls he is investigating their mom. Hollingsworth says she on her way to get rent money back after moving out early, however, the landlord called police.

“She is just here because she needs her money back from her friend,” one of the 11-year-olds told the officer. Hollingsworth says she was forced to sit on the curb with the officer forcing her to sit down. Hollingsworth daughters were heard screaming as she is put in handcuffs. She could no longer sign at that point and dropped her phone.

“Tell her to put her hands behind her back,” an officer is recorded saying to the 11-year-olds. “One of you guys need to talk some sense into her,” the officer said a few minutes later.

Andrew Rozynski a deaf rights attorney with Eisenberg & Baum in New York says the kids were put in a position they should have never been put in.

“Requiring an 11-year-old to interpret in a police situation is against the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are regulations in there that expressly prohibit children from being used as interpreters,” Rozynski told the news station.

Several police departments have 24-hour interpreter services for multiple languages, which includes sign language.

“There are services out there such as video relay, in which someone can bring up an interpreter on an iPhone or iPad,” Rozynski explained.

“I never thought this would happen to me because I am not a criminal,” Hollingsworth said. Hollingsworth says her daughters were traumatized.

“My kids are afraid because of all the incidents that have been happening recently. They are raised Black in this community, so when they see a police officer, they are also on high alert,” Hollingsworth said.

Hollingsworth is now demanding change so the incident won’t happen again.

“I really want all of Las Vegas police to change, because it is really scary how deaf people are treated. If my kids weren’t with me, then I would have died that day. My kids saved my life,” Hollingsworth said.

NLVPD says they’ve investigated the circumstances, saying Hollingsworth “initially refused to comply with requests and was briefly detained until police completed their investigation.”

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