Published on 12, July, 2020
Firstly: As the (annoying) commentry indicates we don't know all the facts here.
Secondly: It's a "zero hedge" article featuring PJW, so will be utter anathema to some people.
Thirdly: It's morbidly interesting, and somewhat thought provoking.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/arrested-saying-lesbian
That video was a very uncomfortable watch.
The girl was cowering under the stairs, screaming in distress. The mother clearly told officers that her daughter is autistic and one of them responds with "I don't care". The mother clearly told officers that her daughter doesn't like being touched, as part of being autistic. The police still physically dragged her out and arrested her.
Was there not one officer there with some autism awareness training, who could have stepped in and stopped what was happening? There seemed to be a lot of police present. Shocking
Autonomistic said:Was there not one officer there with some autism awareness training, who could have stepped in and stopped what was happening? There seemed to be a lot of police present. Shocking
The teenager was drunk in public (aged 16 so was drinking illegally) and the police response was decent to start with (ie we're taking you home) then what we are told by the media is that the girl used a phrase that borders on a hate crime in our warped society and the police woman took exception to be told she looks like a lesbian.
Two minor strikes should not have escalated to the end situation but we don't know the whole story.
The police are using body cam footage to review what actually happened so we can see if this is being blown out of proportion by the media in search of a sensationalist story. I expect the truth lies between the stories told by both sides.
Being autistic is not a "get out of jail free card" and the police officer is entitled to take exception to the perceived insult. Comon sense should have prevented the escallation though, but what if the police officer was also autistic? Would that have made a difference in how she is being villified now?
I don't know if the police get training on dealing with autistic people, ADHD people, bipolar people or any one of the many conditions & illnesses out there - I supspct not as this would take time and money.
In the end I expect this will just get swept under the rug of an internal investigation by the police.
It does highlight the fact that we need better ways to educate society on the different spectrums to facilitate our interactions.
Iain said:Being autistic is not a "get out of jail free card"
I don't think anyone is suggesting that. However it shouldn't take in depth training to realise that crowding around and forcibly arresting an already distressed and overwhelmed autistic person isn't going to de-escalate the situation. As you say, common sense should have prevented that happening.
Iain said:what if the police officer was also autistic?
I very much doubt the situation would have escalated in the same way if that was the case. An autistic officer would have been aware that an autistic person can offend without meaning to and that they needed space to calm down. The classic double empathy problem.