For the FTP's amongst us

It's wise to put a bracelet or something on your child identifying them as autistic if there is a need to leave them alone in public. I'm a parent of an Aspergers kid and I'm fairly educated on what people on the spectrum are like and let me tell you...you can't always tell. Some of them could easily come across as a junkie, just nerdy, or sometimes completely normal until they are put into a social situation that they can't understand or deal with, only then can you tell that something is different.

Having family and friends in law enforcement, and family that's autistic, my perspective is one of totally understanding how that situation in the news story went down. In fact I have a kid in law enforcement, and a kid on the spectrum and even them growing up together doesn't make them able to deal with each other. So imagine a cop and an autistic kid who are strangers.

When they (people on the spectrum) are put into a situation like that, they don't have the ability to comprehend what is happening or what to do. I've seen the awkward social situations play out and it's heart breaking. When you see these things happen you wish you could get in their head, just tweak a setting, and fix them but sadly that can't be done. So if the cop doesn't know what's up, the situation can get ugly fast. They can also come across as real aggressive and it's sad because they don't understand what they are doing or the danger from their aggressive behavior. Some autistic kids physically attack their family members, and don't even understand what they are doing wrong, that's sad. I mean it can be gut wrenching to see...very tough to deal with. Some of them have really high IQs like my kid so they learn to compensate and deal with social situations, but it can go to hell real damn fast and in spite of their high intelligence.

I've learned this year that in MN, law enforcement is getting training about dealing with people on the spectrum. But I'm here to tell you, no amount of training will make you able to always spot them. It's great to have the training but it won't always work. Some of them are very high functioning and are totally cool until put into a situation, then all hell breaks loose. I mean parents go through counseling and support groups to try and figure out how to deal with their kids, it's actually pretty ridiculous to expect a cop to go through a little training and be able to handle all these situations.

 

Two things.
1. What was this kid doing that was illegal that necessitated police intervention?
2. In another case, where the female officer shot the guy she knew was on PCP because she had taken a class, I suggested she could not have known any such thing, and everyone said I was wrong.
Here we have another drug expert who knew this kid was on something due to his expertise, and it seems he was completely wrong.
Sadly, it doesn't make any difference that this kid ended up with serious injuries for doing nothing more than standing on the street, it's okay because drugs might have been involved. Turns out they weren't, but hey, them's the breaks.

The war on drugs is a worse scourge than the drugs are.

I'm sure that kid will have great memories of Officer Friendly.
The saddest part is that the PD didn't see a damn thing wrong with what the cop did, so they will do nothing to keep it from happening again.
Roughing-up an autistic 14-year-old, what a hero. A day to be proud of.

 

Well thought out. I have 2 sons on the spectrum, ages 10 & 11. Situations like this we take as learning opportunities for my kids.

I just don't see any reason for detaining this kid to begin with. Was he harming anyone or damaging property? Pretty certain if the cop had spent a minute talking with the kid he could have realized his disability.

 

I agree, not sure why the cop needed to make contact here, and that feeds into the war on drugs debate. This situation sucks for all involved. If the cop is a decent person, he will feel bad about this and learn from it. If I was that cop, I would spend some time trying to help the kid not be afraid of police to make up for it and I would get autism experts come in and train my department.

 

Serious injuries....some scrapes that will be cleaned and neosporined not broken bones or gsw.
Illegal activity...fleeing while being questioned for illegal drug and resisting.

 

Right. That's probably why no firefighters died in the WTC. Nobody was shooting, so it was safe.

 

Seems like a dangerous gig to me.

https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/firefighter-fatalities/

Of course IIRC, more traveling salespeople die on the job than cops or firefighter.

 

Yeah, let's just ignore the fact that I specifically referenced being targeted with weapons.

But to your point, most people didn't believe the buildings would come down. This is in NO WAY intended as a knock on their actions, but I fully believe they would've been much more apprehensive about going in/up had they known the possible outcome. That was like the Titanic going down at the time. The focus likely would've shifted to clearing out the surrounding areas to reduce the collateral damage on the ground. Still would've been in harms way, but still not the same thing as dealing with psychos with weapons specifically targeting them.

 

The craziest are those smoke jumper guys. Met one the other day and he was just exhaustingly intense.

 

The first thing a Firefighter will try to do is save someone if possible. The last thing they want to do is anything that would place their brother firefighters in a position that would entail increased risk because of their actions. It doesn't always work out as intended.

 

The video posted on their website earlier in the day showed the full length interaction between the cop and the kid. At no point in that video does the child seem like he's on drugs, or is a danger to anyone/anything. The kid is stimming and the cop clearly had no reason to try to detain and cuff the kid. The child didn't try to flee. His parents have asked for a face to face apology, that's the least the cop can do.

 

Oh, forgot to add earlier. We've tried to have my sons wear medical bracelets showing their condition but they hate wearing them and don't want people to immediately know that they are different.

 

What is "stimming"?

 

When a person with autism does a repetitive motion as a coping mechanism. My kid bounces on his feet constantly and flicks his fingers in a snapping motion.

 

Can you find that video? I would like to see it.

 

Knowing autism and stemming, the video looks normal, without knowing it looks like drugs. Turning away and starting to move is fleeing, the cop caught him before he took off on foot. The cop thought it was drugs no matter what you think.