Neli’s story (of racism, ill-trained police, and a young man with Asperger’s)

[HuckleB]

http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/1137

"Reginald Latson loves to walk. “He’ll walk five or ten miles, it’s nothing to him. Sometimes he walks five miles just to grab a bite to eat at Chili’s,” says his mother, Lisa. “Walking is his release.”

Neli, as his family calls him, is 18 and has Asperger’s, a mild form of autism. Three Mondays ago, he rose early and left home without telling his mother. “When I entered his room at 6:30 am and didn’t see him, I assumed he had gone for another walk,” she says. It was a school day.

Four hours later Stafford authorities had ordered a lock down for eight schools, and Neli was in police custody, facing one count of malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer, one count of assault and battery of a law enforcement officer, and one count of knowingly disarming a police officer in performance of his official duties. The cascade of missteps that led to the arrest suggest a combination of public racial profiling and the over reaction of law enforcement officers who are unfamiliar with autistic behavior.

...

“The actions that were taken by the police that day were excessive in the least and grossly mishandled,” Lisa wrote on a website that she started to counter inaccurate local media reports. “Someone says ‘I see a suspicious black male’ and he ‘could’ have a gun, while all my son was doing was sitting in the grass at the library. And you shut down six schools and go out on a manhunt for this dangerous black man who was sitting in the grass. Anyone can read between the lines and see that this just doesn’t add up.”

..."


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So many wrongs appear to be have been made. One can hope they are made right. (And, yes, there may be more to this story than is presented here.)

:(

[CBGLuthier]

1. Cops are not ill trained.They just don't give a shit.

You think they care? You do what they say or you will get a boot on your neck.

[HuckleB]

2. kick.

[hunter]

3. Oh man, that's a horrible story.

When I was 18 I was just like that, walking, running, sitting, whatever, anywhere, anytime. I was occasionally challenged by the police, sometimes "given" rides home or wherever, but I never got beaten up. Because I'm white?

[HuckleB]

4. Who knows for certain?

All I know is that Kafka comes to life far too often.