It’s just heavy handed policing by any standard, the kid wasn’t bothering anyone so what’s wrong with the cop, I suppose he thought he’d be an easy target to bust because he wasn’t behaving ‘normally’.
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There really should be some sort of list of unlawful things. And maybe a training course you can attend to learn about it.
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Most police officers in this country are no longer peace officers. They are soldiers in a war. This is how they are trained. This is how they are armed and geared. This is how they see themselves. Because of this, anyone they interact with on any given day will immediately be classified as either an enemy combatant, a brother in arms, or a civilian. And because the war began, and still largely is, the war on drugs, anyone they see who reminds them in the slightest of anything having to do with drugs, including odd or eccentric behavior, will instantly be identified as an enemy combatant and be dealt with accordingly.
I knew all this on some level before, but it was made crystal clear to me at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival this past weekend. There were police there on duty, which was fine. They were armed and in body armor, which was not fine. Not to me anyway. There was no need for armed police in body armor there. Nothing happened, but it just really bothered me.
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I may be biased, because I have both an autistic nephew and two twin nieces with a degenerative neurological condition, but that officer could have figured out the kid wasn’t drunk simply by taking more than 5 seconds to talk to him before attempting to detain him.
Why wasn’t that attempted? Is the standard procedure to put someone in handcuffs before they begin to assess the situation? If the kid was physically intimidating, why didn’t the officer call for assistance before attempting to restrain him?
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The thing that really gets me is the repeating of “So you don’t have nothing on you?”
After the officer has already established that’s he’s autistic, would it have been so hard to ask “Are you carrying any weapons or anything dangerous? Are you carrying any drugs?”
Many of the people with autism I’ve met take a lot of things very literally. Think of what could have happened if the kid had replied with “I’ve got my clothes on me” and the asshole cop thought he was being a smartass.
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Sorry, that’s too much to ask from an officer who has received special training to be a “drug recognition expert.” You just can’t make this shit up. From the NYT article:
As a graduate of Arizona’s Drug Evaluation and Classification program, Officer Grossman is certified as a “drug recognition expert.”
Also, this murder was committed last night:
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The cop’s reaction was fine. Yes, he went for a takedown faster than I cared for but, as the parent of a 19-yr old autistic boy with behaviors extremely similar to Connor’s, I know that I have a biased opinion and, after pausing to think about, I think the officer did a respectable job. He saw a person who appeared to be on drugs and acted accordingly. He was not “trigger happy,” he did not get angry, violent or otherwise aggressive. He actually took seriously the word of, what was to him, a passing stranger and adjusted his behavior accordingly. It was even noted that the police there do watch for medic alert ID, but Connor did not have one. Yes, it would be wonderful if more police departments could provide more training for situations like this, but so would a million other things. Realistically, training for every potential situation would take a lifetime.
At least he wasn’t killed.
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About insanely disproportionate overreactions on the part of the police, perpetual abuses of authority and never facing any real consequences for their actions?
Why on earth should people ‘bitch nonstop’ about that?
We should all just shut up, sit there and take it, because might makes right, right?
SMFH
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Given a choice between the two, I’d rather see headlines for the occasional false negative leading to civilian-on-civilian crime rather than the routine headlines–and they are now routine here in Freedom Land™–of false positives in which police and LEOs beat or kill the very members of the public they purportedly swore to protect.
Given more than just those two choices, of course, I’d like to see a return to a nation that feels protected rather than threatened by their local law enforcement divisions.
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No, not at all. The situations you posted pics of most certainly do need attention brought to them. But this situation was not anything like those.
This time; luckily.
The point is that ‘this situation’ could all too easily have turned into one of ‘those situations’, in a heartbeat… and that’s the problem.
There are numerous accounts of police using excessive force in situations that do not merit it, on people who were no threat to them; people who are physically or mentally impaired, even people were sleeping in their own freakin’ beds.
These incidents are becoming more common not less so; just yesterday in Oklahoma, a deaf man was shot and killed for ‘noncompliance.’
O_o
Like someone elsewhere on the net said, it doesn’t matter that you’re not one of the ‘canaries’; you’re still down in the ‘coal mines’ along with everyone else.
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Exactly. It could have, but it did not, because THIS cop was NOT like all of those other assholes who should be, at a minimum, out of their jobs and preferably in jail. Certainly, there’s no telling where this situation could have led if the woman who knew Connor had not been there (and I’m not all that optimistic about that), but I’m not going to go crucifying this officer for what could have happened, I’m going to give him credit for reacting to what actually did.
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That you know of, anyway.
One instance where a cop didn’t go as far as he could have is no indication that he’s somehow not part of the same culture of excessive force and abuse of power with no consequences.
That folks like you seem to think it is only demonstrates just low the damn bar has really been set.
O_O
Lastly, your comment about people ‘bitching nonstop’ was the cavalier marginalization of a detrimental problem that threatens the existence of the so-called “civilized” society we inhabit.
Sorry, but I’m done with the trite ‘whataboutism’ and lame justifications for today; it’s not ‘just a few bad apples,’ the whole damn barrel has rotted down to a maggot-infested ichor - the system itself is broken, and I have no time for anyone who willfully refuses to see that.
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And I have no more time for anyone who wants to persecute people for what others have done, or for what evil they could have done but didn’t.
No more time for persecuting COPS for what other COPS have done, or for what evil THE COPS could have done but didn’t. THAT WOULD BE WRONG.
But persecuting a weird teenager for what other weird teenagers have done, or for what evil the weird teenager could have done but didn’t?
That’s the exact thing you’re here to defend. It’s just victim blaming and licking the boot.
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I couldn’t have said it better myself; thanks.
Kow-towing didn’t save the kapos then, and it won’t save enablers and apologists now.
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Here ya go. They all start from the same place.
The officers forget they’re still civilians. They are.
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