"It's a shame he wasn't thrown off the roof along with that fire extinguisher!" writes one commenter. "He's just a retard looking for attention ..."
When I was interviewed on BBC News on 27 May, and before that in December 2010 following the protests that had seen me dragged out of my wheelchair by the police, I never could have imagined the sheer amount of disablist prejudice it would raise from the public. In the comments section below the YouTube videos, I am told to "stay at home and live off benefits" ? the benefits that the government are currently so intent on cutting ? while others complain that it is "depressing to think my taxes fund this nonsense ...".
It seems that my actual existence is a very difficult reality for many to bear. That I dare to have political views which I am willing to express is even more of a burden. When some people's denial of me even having a disability becomes so delusional that they have to suggest I am drunk in the interview, you know times are desperate. But the comments ? ridiculous and often comical in their content ? do expose an ugly underbelly of society. We look down upon those we perceive as weaker than us.
As with any form of discrimination, inequality is at the root of the issue. We supposedly live in a well-developed, "democratic" nation, yet, as a person in a wheelchair, I do not possess the right to travel on the underground like every other citizen. Some people think this is irrelevant and most simply do not care, because they have never experienced it. After all, if disabled people are not even afforded the same rights as every other citizen, then why should we respect them? Perhaps if it were not for my skin tone, the level of public sympathy would have been even lower.
It is not sympathy I am looking for, but justice. When I travel past Brixton police station every morning and see pictures of Sean Rigg and Ricky Bishop ? just a few of the many people who have died in police custody over the last decade ? it is difficult for me to expect to ever receive any kind of justice from the Metropolitan police or the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), especially when they are, ludicrously, investigating themselves.
Let me be the first to say how shocked I was when I saw police officers pulling him out of the wheel chair and dragging him on the floor, and the IPCC I can tell you they are not fit for purpose.
I am on your side keep on fighting mate.