15 year old teen with Autism shot and killed by police.

Originally posted by HallamFoe
Why call the police in to deal with a kid with autism? I don't get it. Why didn't they call a specialist/doctor?

Because none of them come to the house. They tell you to make an appointment, which is usually days or weeks away. By that time the situation has calmed. The doctors will then throw more meds at the child to see what sticks. (Speaking from experience. My daughter has been a walking, talking pharmacy.)

Originally posted by ShadowAngel85
reply to post by needlenight

 

Agreed, if someone with a knife jumps at a cop there's a good chance the cop will protect his own life. I would do the same if someone armed jumps at me. I doubt they had the time to see what the knife was.

The more interesting question is why the father can't handle his son and needed police help. Looks like bad and lazy parenting.

You seriously have no idea, do you. Please, walk a mile in mine, and Pax's shoes. Then, we'll have coffee and talk. My sister couldn't take 8 months of my daughter. Imagine dealing with it for SIXTEEN years. Not days, not weeks, not months. Years. Please, take one of these children into your home for 2 weeks, no 3, then call me. I guarantee you will lose your mind. I forget where mine is. (Now where did I put that damn thing?)

Originally posted by Starchild23
This was a matter of the person calling 911 neglecting to point out, "Oh, this boy is autistic. He's a little out of control, but just talk him down." Nope, they didn't say that. So when police show up expecting a thug with experience in fighting, you can't blame them for shooting an armed suspect who appears to be dangerous. And it is, right now, an opportunity for people to get mad at armed forces because they are one example of societal control in a life where nothing mortal is controlled, and so they need someone to blame and get mad at.

Moral of the story: if the kid is autistic, try to remember to mention it. The police don't know everything, and they have specific guidelines regarding how to proceed, especially if innocent civilians are involved. And this kid OBVIOUSLY had a history, so I don't blame the cops one bit. If someone came at me with a knife, no matter what the situation was, you can bet I'd pull the trigger too.

edit on CFridayam585859f59America/Chicago03 by Starchild23 because: (no reason given)

Actually most of us do tell 911. They relay it to the officers, then once they arrive you also tell the officers yourself. I've had officers tell me I should do whatever my autistic daughter wants (even if you don't have the money), or getting beat is what happens to me and I know that how she is so why didn't I give in to her demands. If you give in to a child's demands, no matter how unreasonable, every single time, THAT is going to create problems as well. Until you live it, most of you really don't know what we parents go through. We don't call the cops because we are bad parents. We call because every other system has failed us, and our child and we just want help. That's it in a nutshell.

My daughter beat me so severely Thanksgiving Day because her father didn't call her to wish her Happy Thanksgiving, and in her mind, I should know what's going on in his house in PA, even though I'm in NC. I called 911 ELEVEN times that day. I was choked. My hair was pulled. I was punched. I was kicked in the stomach so severely I pulled my stomach muscle. She ripped my hair so severely my scalp hurt for days afterwards. Yet the sheriff who came to my home told me I must not be hurt because I was still standing. Sometimes you get nice ones who want to genuinely help but are powerless as well, and sometimes, well sometimes you get *&*^!!! I can't tell you how many phone calls I made, how many times I showed up in someone's office to remind them they needed to get on the ball. I asked for a psychiatrist for my daughter back in Sept. Do you know when she finally got one after getting through the waiting list? February! There is no help. You are you're only resource.

If you're child doesn't feel like going to school or has a massive breakdown because you can't find her favorite shoes (because she hid them the day before), or a toy she wants to take with her is missing. You're at fault in the school's eyes for not getting her to school on time. If she acts out at school soon after you drop her off and they call you to pick her up to calm her down, but she's not officially suspended, you're at fault for her being out of school. I went through ALL of this. And then some. All of us parents of special needs do, There is no help. There is no hope. And people wonder why we get depressed sometimes.

Originally posted by olliemc84

Originally posted by paxnatus
reply to post by olliemc84

 

I have a 3 year old boy. My cousin has a 5 year old that suffers from autism. Without getting into details all I can say is she needs all the help she can get so I go over and make sure that that child is getting as much love and attention that I could provide. He has been placed in a special program where he goes to school 5 days a week and it seems to be working wonders. I understand that every autism case is different and some kids act out in their own ways, but to have to call the police 10 times? I think it is pretty god damn ridiculous.

Where was the department of social services on this one? My son broke his leg a few months back from jumping off his bed and I had to sit through 5 interviews with CPS just so they could rule out child abuse. Why are they not involved with intervening in this child's behavior and his parents complete lack of responsibility or understanding for their child's disorder.

I never claimed that the child was responsible for this. I said that the parents were responsible for this first and foremost for using the police as a crutch. What did they expect would eventually happen? This kid would either be locked up or, unfortunately, killed.

Usually they are. They're just as overwhelmed as us parents and expect the problem to fix itself. The school may be working now for your cousin's child. But wait till they're going through puberty and the meds don't work anymore so doctors use pills as darts and the kid is the dartboard. Let's throw everything at them and hope something sticks(works). What would you have us do? Who would you have us call when everyone tells us to call the police? We're stuck. Us parents are on a merry go round we didn't sign up for and we want off the ride. We do the whole process of going through the channels for the channels to pass us to the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and rinse repeat.

Calling the cops is not worth it anymore. We had our 6 year old Chihuahua killed by a neighbors dog a few weeks ago. The pitbull/sheppard mix jumped the fence in to our yard and killed her with on bite. My neighbor called the cops on himself and that just made things worse.

My wife was very upset and crying trying to explain what happened and the cop told her to calm down and was very rude about it. A few of my neighbors saw and heard this and they were very surprised at his attitude. They saw my wife with our Molly girl all the time. They did everything together so they knew how close my wife was to Molly.

I took my wife into the house and then came back outside to deal with the cop. I told him I thought he was rude and lacked compassion and I asked him to leave my property. I said this from my porch as he stood on my front lawn. He said he needed to get into my backyard to investigate. I told him I had no trespassing signs on my fence and in my front window and that they were clearly visible. I told him I considered him a trespasser and I did not need his assistance. I told him I didn't call him and I refused to cooperate with any investigation.

At that point my other neighbor walked up on my porch and stood beside me. He didn't saw a word, he just stood there and looked at the cop. I was very surprised by his gesture. We were really just "hi and by" neighbors but he stood by me like a friend would. After seeing the united front that was forming, the cop went back to my neighbors house and investigated from his backyard. He could clearly see where the dog jumped the fence and saw the blood on the grass. He really didn't need to get into my yard and he knew that but he was just being mean and uncaring.

Animal control showed up and they asked to get into my backyard to dispose of our Molly Girl and I refused them as well. I explained that I did not call them, did not need them and I asked them to leave.

In the end my neighbor got a $500.00 ticket and his dog was put down. We never asked for anything. He brought that all on himself. All he had to do was get rid of the dog and we would have been ok with the apology he did give us. He was very sorry for our loss so we saw no reason to take it any further and nothing we did would bring our Molly back.

All of my neighbors came over to console my wife after the cop left. It was a wonderful display of compassion that brought tears to my eyes. We all agreed the cop was very rude and just couldn't believe his attitude towards my wife. I did tell my next door neighbor later that calling the cops was the wrong thing to do and it just made the situation worse for all of us.

In the end we are still friends with my neighbor next door. My other neighbor is a bit more of a closer friend after standing with me like he did. I am very proud of him for that.

reply to post by TruckDriver69


And you wonder why the police have an attitude...
Are you going to treat them that way whe someone breaks in and steals your stuff?

knife = danger to life
aspergers = even more volitile person

I would do the exact same thing... I'm tired of people thinking that we are #ing ninjas who can just fight off people with weapons like in the movies... no, you attack us and we fear for life, you will be shot and you probably will die...

mental illness or not, if you can't be convinced to drop your deadly weapon and you attack, you will get shot.

PLAIN AND SIMPLE

I'm not going to die because I hesitated and said to myself, "self, it's ok, he's sick in the head so he doesn't really mean it, he won't hurt me... besides, I'm a super ninja and can Jackie Chan my way out of this"...

People are sooooooo stupid it's disgusting.

Originally posted by samkent
reply to post by TruckDriver69

 

And you wonder why the police have an attitude...
Are you going to treat them that way whe someone breaks in and steals your stuff?

Treat them what way? He belittled my wife when she was grieving. I could care less about his attitude or what he thinks. I didn't call the idiot cop and he had no business speaking to my wife in that manner. He was told to leave and he was not welcome on my property.

Maybe you should read my post before making such an ignorant comment. All of my neighbors agreed he was an idiot. You in fact sound just like him...

people don't understand......autism taxes you. i'll admit to having tantrums before because there's just too much...too many sounds, too many colors, and too much movement, all at once. it drives you to a breaking point where all you can do is scream and lash out like a baby because it isn't going away.

i think the police should have physically subdued him instead of using lethal force, but i also understand what a teen freaking out over things can look like.

it's a sad story. i think this kid could have benefitted from mood stabilizers such as antidepressants combined with an anti-convulsant like valproic acid.

reply to post by CaptainNemo

I'm surprised this one took so long to make the boards.


Now they are stating that the butter knife was a 'steak knife', on the local channels.

Initial reports had my head spinning. It sounded as though the first shot was to the leg, but since the target was 'still moving', the other officer 'shot him in the haid' (sic).

What do you expect, when you call the cops?