To think an autistic child should not be treated like this by the police?

[Immoralplant]

I don’t know the background to this video, but at no point is there any suggestion by the police that this autistic teenager has done anything other than say words the police didn’t like.

I am absolutely shocked that this is happening in Britain.

IABU - that’s an appropriate police response to homophobic words
IANBU - those police officers should be sacked

Warning: the video shows scenes of an autistic teenager being hurt.

twitter.com/SineadKelly113/status/1689176155562143744?s=20

Well, while you're waiting for that information, perhaps consider the fact that she was released without charge - meaning that the officers' assessment that the situation warranted an arrest was incorrect.

Not quite. Arrests are a part of an investigative process. Many many arrests lead to the person being released without charge. That does not mean in and of itself that the arrest was unwarrented.

No idea whether the person who shared this is racist but I do note she is Irish and uses the tag #BinTheBill, so I assume her comment here relates to the hate speech bill that is currently working its way through Irish parliament. This bill has been widely criticised by people across the political spectrum as draconian and amounting to the creation of 'thought crimes'.

I couldn’t see any one individual officer behaving unprofessionally though. All looked calm and appropriate. The inappropriate behaviour was from the woman behind the camera.

In the past I would give the police the benefit of the doubt, but those days are gone

I first watched the video a few days ago on. It was posted by the mum and then shared by other Sen mums. From the Mums comments the police were taking her home after she has been missing. The police barged in whilst mum was trying to take the girl upstairs to calm down in a safe space. The girl them ran to the cupboard.
When I watched the video mum was still waiting for a call from the police to go and sit in the girls interview. She had been held at that point for 12 hours.

Someone on feminism chat posted this photo. How smug does she look. She truly believes she’s in the right and I hope she’s torn apart on SM

'She is autistic' says the mum 'I dont care' says the police office.

'She has scoliosis' says the mum, the police drag her by the arms.

Contrast that with the very polite and gentle arrest of a trans activist with a significant record for violence and attempted murder, just a couple of weeks ago.

That is what inclusion in the British police service looks like.

I don't know. I'll wait until more information comes out from somewhere that isn't racist twitter.

A shame. I was interested in learning what she could have done that would make the police terrifying and hurting a disabled teenage girl ok.

My understanding from watching that video is that the police had brought the girl home, the officer was then leaving the property. As the girl went upstairs she said the lesbian comment to her mum. The officer overheard the comment, stormed back in and arrested her, then called for backup and is clearly furious.

An absolutely appalling abuse of power.

I am not sure why it was deemed reasonable for a child to be arrested for calling someone a lesbian. If this is what should be done then our police stations would be full. Police should be skilled at deescalation and walking away from kids trying to wind them up. As a teacher I would be walking away and reporting it to be dealt with later.

That's awful and it sounds very plausible. I have an autistic DS who used to go missing sometimes as a child/teen and sometimes the police would have to be involved. I'm very fortunate they were always understanding and it never escalated to a situation like this.

It feels a bit 'by the grace of God' because my DS could be factually blunt sometimes too.

What power do you think the State and their agents have over you and your family or friends when having a conversation in your own home?

Should an agent of the State be allowed to assault you while forcing entry into your home?

How about entering your home without an arrest warrent?

But, in this case, there are extra guidelines that officers should follow because the girl is autistic. See here:

https://s3.chorus-mk.thirdlight.com/file/1573224908/63296026948/width=-1/height=-1/format=-1/fit=scale/t=446220/e=never/k=420e7a4a/NAS_Police_Guide_2020_17092020.pdf

Specifically, pages 16-19. In particular:

"Don't...Rush into making an arrest unless it is the only option."

By your logic, arresting her must have been the only way they could investigate. But...investigate what, exactly? When the mother was objecting, they only mentioned the "lesbian" comment as a reason for her arrest, when they are supposed to give all the reasons for the arrest. Logically, it was the only reason - assuming they aren't breaking other rules they must obey when performing an arrest.

And, had they followed the other guidelines in that document (can you spot how many others they broke?), there would have followed a calm conversation where they asked her what she meant by the comment, and it would all have been resolved peacefully.

If that is true that she reacted when she should have ignored the comment again this officer should be arrested for a hate crime as she is the one who finds it so offensive to be thought they might be gay.

Police have form for poor handling, particularly with autistic people.

Anyone remember this?
My own personal feelings on this is that if someone can be so triggered by an autistic teen shouting out twice that they need compensation, they probably shouldn’t be in the police.

When it comes to inclusion the police are all over lgbtq issues to the point where in many cases they have been weaponised against women. They forget that inclusion should mean that disabled people are treated fairly, taking into account their disabilities. It looks like this is routinely being overlooked.

There seem to be no attempt to de-escalate in this video. I would have asked the police officer who was allegedly targeted to leave and let other officers handle the situation.

When it comes to inclusion the police are all over lgbtq issues to the point where in many cases they have been weaponised against women. They forget that inclusion should mean that disabled people are treated fairly, taking into account their disabilities. It looks like this is routinely being overlooked.

This. There is only one form of "inclusivity" the police care about.

This.

Clearly Yorkshire police have spent very little of their equality, diversity & inclusion budget on disability. They have no understanding of autism and admitted they don't care. I have two autistic daughters. They don't look autistic. My youngest once in a meltdown needs to be left alone and kept safe. This child was do distressed she was self harming. She was cornered in her safe space by a male officer trying to negotiate with her whilst in a meltdown. You cannot negotiate in a meltdown it only makes it worse. The complete lack of understanding and knowledge is so apparent it's shameful.

I don't care what the back story is, or who the original poster was. I can see with my own eyes a distressed child.

Interestingly over half of hate crimes in 2019 prosecuted the victims were the police. Article here from 2021.
https://archive.ph/iUume

I don’t care how the mother was acting. Do you truly believe this was a way to handle a 14 year old autistic disabled child?

who had no weapons on her, wasn’t resisting arrest deliberately, she was having a meltdown and the police were showing absolutely no understanding.

There seem to be no attempt to de-escalate in this video. I would have asked the police officer who was allegedly targeted to leave and let other officers handle the situation.

IME unless someone “looks” disabled there is (what feels like) great glee in pushing autistic people to breaking point.
It’s like posting on MN about difficulties parenting an autistic child, and there are always posters who blame parents for lack of discipline, or suggesting that you smack the child, or take draconian measures.
I’ve come across this throughout my autistic son’s life. No one wants to help him because they’d rather punish him, even with an EHCP spelling out why he behaves the way he does, and how to de-escalate.
I dread to think how police would react to him, but watching that video doesn’t give me much confidence in them at all.

You think trying to drag a distressed child along the floor by the arm is appropriate policing?

IME unless someone “looks” disabled there is (what feels like) great glee in pushing autistic people to breaking point.

When I say this I mean police, teachers, anyone in a position of authority. Alongside anyone else who has a limited understanding of autism.

As an autistic adult, I'm terrified of an eventuality when I'm in a stressful encounter with the police - while I'm usually the epitome of Zen calmness in most situations, I absolutely know I'm not going to behave exactly the way they expect. Unless I get lucky and end up with the one officer in the building who's got an autistic kid, I'm pretty sure it's going to go south reasonably quickly.