18yr old Autistic boy tased by police

[motherofmolly]

They should of left him alone unless he was hurting or threatening someone.

what was the exact call and the reason the police were there???? i am sure they were just walking by and saw him standing there doing nothing and decided to confront him.

[motherofmolly]

I run a social skills group for chidlren with autistism and aspergers every week. This situation is just nuts!

Some police departments now have special training that helps them recognize those with all mental illnesses because run-in's with mentally ill people happens ALOT. They can distinguish if the person really is violent or has other mental issues going on-maybe off their meds. I think every police dept. needs this training to prevent situations like this form happening.

been thru that training and i learned more from talking to those that work in the inhouse facilities.

[motherofmolly]

He has a broken tooth, not missing teeth. I'm not trying to be wenchy, but lets state the facts as they are.

which can be an after effect of the taser...one is tased and loses the ability to move, majority fall forward...

[MrsStunner]

what was the exact call and the reason the police were there???? i am sure they were just walking by and saw him standing there doing nothing and decided to confront him.

Tybee Island has something they call a "Bum Day Parade" that's basically a huge water fight. They basically drench anyone who comes down the street with water balloons or water guns...whatever. Of course he draws a large crowd and with large crowds comes the police. There were police everywhere.

The reason the brother stopped at a bar to get food is that is all that's available on the island. If you want any type of 'fast food' you have to go into a bar to get it. My DH has been complaining about that fact for weeks now. AND, the brother told the officers repeatedly that his brother was autistic and they ignored him.

and I was wrong before, PP was right, not missing teeth...broken.

[MrsStunner]

Of course he draws a large crowd and with large crowds comes the police. There were police everywhere.

I meant to say IT draws a large crowd. not he.

[MrsStunner]

GBI examining Tasing of autistic teen on Tybee, police say | savannahnow.com

[motherofmolly]

Tybee Island has something they call a "Bum Day Parade" that's basically a huge water fight. They basically drench anyone who comes down the street with water balloons or water guns...whatever. Of course he draws a large crowd and with large crowds comes the police. There were police everywhere.

The reason the brother stopped at a bar to get food is that is all that's available on the island. If you want any type of 'fast food' you have to go into a bar to get it. My DH has been complaining about that fact for weeks now. AND, the brother told the officers repeatedly that his brother was autistic and they ignored him.

and I was wrong before, PP was right, not missing teeth...broken.

i take it that if you are under age you cant get into the bar to get food?

and from the officers (if i remember correctly 3 officers) reports, it says the brother came out after all was said and done and then told them his brother was autistic...i want to say one of them was a sgt or a lt who said the brother came out and said he shouldnt of let him stay by his self and that he was autistic...but by then the boy was in cuffs....

and the boy was 6 foot 9...

and dont get me wrong, i am all for talking appropriately to people and using words to descalate (? sp on that one) a situation...but police are trained to be professional and to use a professional tone...they are not taught to talk to people like people and to change their tone of voice....and women are better at talking and bringing the "edge" down 4 or 5 notches to calm everyone down....

but, until the cities determine that the police dept's need more money, this is the way it is going to be...my local pd is included...they think that more training for weapons of mass destruction (mob and terrorist attacks) are more important then putting quality officers to train the newbies and properly training those officers to do so...the training put on by the mental health people isnt that great...if they are going to train officers right they need to train them in hostage negotiations. hostage negotiators are thoroughly trained in mental health issues and dealing with the unstable individual (since most hostage situations are with the mentally unstable).

[neglectarino]

This made me want to throw up. I do not understand why tasing is a first resort. Last summer a mentally ill man died in NYC after he fell off the ledge he was standing on because he was tased. He wasn't hurting anyone, he just required more time &/or resources than the responding officers wanted to expend. And I assume that the NYC officers had more training than the two who tased this poor boy. These two geniuses were in a big fat rush to get onto the next thing. Thank goodness this didn't end worse.

[MamaBird06]

if this boy(urh, man, he is 18 after all) couldn't handle answering simple questions about himself, he shouldn't have been left alone.

I was at the zoo with my dh and ds and there was a large group of mentally disabled/autistic adults and i saw one man just start punching a woman for no reason. Now if that was a non-disabled person being attacked by another non-disabled person, i imagine the police would be called, but the caregiver calmed him down and that was that. When autistic children grow up, they become autistic adults and if they are prone to violence or cannot answer questions alone in public, they need to be supervised. Maybe the cops set him off in a rage, maybe they thought he was high, or drunk, but this was not a small 8 year old boy, this was an 18 year old man, regardless of his mental state, a rather large man at that.

But with the rising rate of autism, (there is an epidemic occuring) and more of the autistic generation is hitting adulthood, the issue will have to be addressed in all aspects of public concern, and this is a prime example.