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How would you react if the police decided to confirm your identity by stripping you in the lobby of the police station? What if they kick you in the genitals? How would you defend yourself — or should you, risking further injury?

Having such an incident recorded on videotape as proof would help if you decide to prosecute, but what if there is no physical evidence? Should the accused be arrested? Should they be fired?

Or would a fat settlement be enough? No.

Inflicting bodily harm on a person under arrest is nothing new. Depending on your race, gender or sexual orientation, you might suffer serious injury — or nothing at all. But Brian Sterner, a quadriplegic dumped from his wheelchair Jan. 29 by sheriff's deputies in Hillsborough County, Fla., in a widely publicized story, endured a threat to his very his life — and no one realizes it.

When deputies arrested Sterner at his home for traffic violations, there were no indications he was in mortal danger. But upon arriving at the sheriff's booking area, a deputy reportedly didn't believe he was quadriplegic. The deputy calmly went behind him, grabbed the handles on the back of his wheelchair, lifted and dumped him on the ground, as if he were a wheelbarrow full of manure.

Sterner first tried to avoid having his face hit the ground first and turned his shoulders as the floor rose up to meet him. While he lay helpless, two deputies frisked him, while other sheriff's personnel looked on unperturbed, laughing and making jokes. Stern complained he might have broken a couple of ribs. What if he suffered a punctured lung when deputies threw him on the floor?

While Stern tried to explain how to put him back into his wheelchair correctly, another threat to his life occurred: Not knowing if he had suffered internal injuries, deputies could have inflicted some by picking him up.

I'm not exaggerating. Injuries sustained by people with disabilities can end their lives quickly. When you have no feeling from your injury site down to your toes, there isn't a back-up warning system. Spinal-cord injuries cut off such signals to the brain completely. Unless you hear bones snapping or see blood, you have no idea you're hurt — or how seriously. Swelling does little to alarm you, because edema is a normal part of a paraplegic's or a quadriplegic's life.

Throwing someone out of his or her wheelchair is attempted murder in my book. People with disabilities lose their defense functions and cannot tense up muscles to sustain a fall. Wheelchair users without sensation of their legs, trunk or arms are at risk for fatal injuries from the slightest impact. Bones are brittle because of the lack of muscle use that keeps them strong. Our skin is thin, our flesh is soft, and our bodies are nothing but dead weight. We are at the mercy of others to keep us safe, no matter how many defensive moves we use.

Sterner should press charges. Educating the able-bodied about disabilities can be a dangerous line of work.