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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

449 replies

Immoralplant · 10/08/2023 08:10

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
loislovesstewie · 10/08/2023 15:13

@DdraigGoch I agree 100%, I'm so worried that the thought police are actually here.

HorseyMel · 10/08/2023 15:16

We get told that we have "policing by consent" - whatever that actually means.

Maybe we should write to our MPs listing clear abuses of power by police over recent years, and tell them that we don't consent to that kind of policing.

We can collect a huge pile of "fob off" letters then escalate from there.

Fuckingfuming1 · 10/08/2023 15:17

Wallabyone · 10/08/2023 08:26

I can't believe what I've just seen-except it keeps happening, doesn't it? The police behaving in a completely disproportionate, inappropriate way?

Its going to get worse. We are sleepwalking into this.

DdraigGoch · 10/08/2023 15:18

miniaturepixieonacid · 10/08/2023 08:35

I don't know, tbh, I think there must be more to it. That number of police officers don't arrive at someone's house for something as simple as saying 'lesbian'. There's only the shouty mum's word for it that she didn't do anything wrong. The female officer is nasty when she says 'I don't care' but the mother is very belligerent. The other officers are calm when in the house and one seems to sit and gently coax the girl out. The scene outside looks concerning but why cut the sound? May be trying to make the police look worse. They do need to get the girl in the van and they didn't use huge amounts of force. I'm not sure what else they could have done other than not arrest her at all. And we don't know whether that would have been best because we don't know what the girl did or did not do.

Why did they need to get her into the van? Plenty of arrests are done by appointment these days, there's no reason that her mother couldn't have taken her to the station in the morning for an interview.

FuppingEll · 10/08/2023 15:20

PowerTulle · 10/08/2023 14:03

That statement by West Yorkshire Police is disgusting. No wonder the police get away with so much. Even with video evidence to the contrary they insinuate the officer was suffering abuse and justified.

Is there video evidence of the whole thing somewhere public? The video in the OP just shows little bits?

PowerTulle · 10/08/2023 15:36

FuppingEll · 10/08/2023 15:20

Is there video evidence of the whole thing somewhere public? The video in the OP just shows little bits?

Show quote history

The statement by WYP says that a public order offense was suspected after the child was returned to their home. The video shows the child in their own home. The officers are not lawfully able to renter the home and start dragging people about just because they hear some words and claim it was a public order crime. It’s just fabricated nonsense.

Fuckingfuming1 · 10/08/2023 15:55

I called and ambulance for my autistic daughter when she was threatening suicide. Nine offices turned up on my front door. Luckily the first one through the door was the Sergeant with a brain. Basically she talked to me and then talked to my daughter and everything was fine again.
But nine of them, where the fuck did they find Nine from?

WILTYjim · 10/08/2023 15:56

@miniaturepixieonacid ive said it on the other thread.

Six police officers arrested me for allegedly posting “don’t they just” on an instagram story which said “good things take time”. I don’t even have an instagram account. They knew this.

I’m a fat middle aged woman. Six of them turned up.

When my neighbour was burgled, guess how many turned up. Go on. Guess.

They are bullies and I have no respect for them.

Dropthedonkey · 10/08/2023 15:59

The police statement shows there wasn't anything more to the offence - she was arrested because of a "homophobic public order offence" if she'd been violent or whatever they would have mentioned that surely.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 10/08/2023 16:03

Yes. It strongly implies there was literally nothing else to it.

ntmdino · 10/08/2023 16:04

It's just difficult to comprehend how completely they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here.

Had they done their job properly, the story would've been about how they found a vulnerable girl at the request of her worried family, and delivered her safely back home. Instead, it's about a violent arrest of a vulnerable disabled girl for a misunderstood comment made in the safety of her own home, performed unlawfully because the officers don't actually know the laws they're supposed to uphold, and then effectively admitting as much in the statement your PR department puts out.

I mean, if you're going to fuck up at work, I guess you might as well go the whole way and involve half the force in it.

DdraigGoch · 10/08/2023 16:16

I'm normally pro-police but in this case I hope that the mother can afford a good lawyer.

CoffeeWithCheese · 10/08/2023 16:17

RubyJack · 10/08/2023 13:52

On WYP's Twitter.

This is also a fucking horrendously inaccessible format statement. Busy background, excessively high level of language used, difficult to read font choice, too many words and not enough white space.

Shows EXACTLY what they think about those with communication needs.

inloveonholiday · 10/08/2023 16:19

I am so upset reading about this. The girl was factual at all times. At no point was it a slur.

If my autistic daughter had made a factual comment and been dragged out because it was misinterpreted she would probably not recover from the mental distress.

She would have trauma probably for the rest of her life and a deep mistrust of police.

Disgusting when autistic young people need supporting and because they are vulnerable they need to know they can ask for help.

It's likely that after this even paramedicsi in uniform will trigger a trauma response after this.

The damage done is significant. Bloody uneducated, misguided people with authority.

I am appalled but sadly not surprised.

MrTiddlesTheCat · 10/08/2023 16:28

DaisyAndDonaldDuck · 10/08/2023 13:33

Actions have consequences. Maybe she’ll learn to not be so rude in future. If this lesson had been taught earlier it needn’t have got to this point.

Quite right, because everyone knows you can cure autism by terrorising it out of them. FFS!

MrTiddlesTheCat · 10/08/2023 16:30

inloveonholiday · 10/08/2023 16:19

I am so upset reading about this. The girl was factual at all times. At no point was it a slur.

If my autistic daughter had made a factual comment and been dragged out because it was misinterpreted she would probably not recover from the mental distress.

She would have trauma probably for the rest of her life and a deep mistrust of police.

Disgusting when autistic young people need supporting and because they are vulnerable they need to know they can ask for help.

It's likely that after this even paramedicsi in uniform will trigger a trauma response after this.

The damage done is significant. Bloody uneducated, misguided people with authority.

I am appalled but sadly not surprised.

And they have violated her safe space so she'll likely never feel truly safe again.

Dontcallmescarface · 10/08/2023 16:34

As my WPC friend told me "if the worst thing said to that WPC was "you look like my nana who's a lesbian", then she should consider that a good day".

Soubriquet · 10/08/2023 16:45

I hope that when the police officer was dragged into HR and the woman whines “but she called me a lesbian” the HR replied “I don’t care”’

Badbudgeter · 10/08/2023 17:07

Soubriquet · 10/08/2023 16:45

I hope that when the police officer was dragged into HR and the woman whines “but she called me a lesbian” the HR replied “I don’t care”’

😂 to be a fly on the wall.

WanderingWitches · 10/08/2023 17:16

alloalloallo · 10/08/2023 14:38

The mum says "she's autistic" and the police officer says "I don't care." That's more of a discrimination and hate crime than anything the girl said.

I agree. “I don’t care” is an appalling response and I hope the officer faces disciplinary action for that.

As a mum of an autistic teen, this stuff terrifies me. My DD also has Tourette’s and unfortunately her tics can sometimes be racial/homophobic slurs, insults, offensive and inappropriate. It is a disability, she is completely devastated by it, hates these things that sometimes come out of her mouth that she has absolutely no control over. It’s so scary to think what could happen

I have 2 autistic kids and am autistic myself but what's been running through my brain today is kids with tourettes. So fucking upsetting.
Fingers crossed your kids never have to deal with this shit Flowers

54isanopendoor · 10/08/2023 17:19

@alloalloallo Thank you for that suggestion.
He wouldn't have taken that option as he was on a College trip & doesn't like being 'different'. But I intend to fly with them both later this year & we will use 'disabled assistance'. I have mobility limitations so it can officially be for me but it will be very helpful for them both (both ASD) too to put that fear aside.

DrasticAction · 10/08/2023 17:41

Is this the same forces responsibile for Rotherham?

Surely our whole police needs looking at?? I'm beyond horrified

Soubriquet · 10/08/2023 17:42

Well now apparently the police have called social services cos the girl was being aggressive

link

https://twitter.com/TheJesseJinx/status/1689598348032950272?s=19&t=XePX3fxxNwEwKFTKDViwtQ

WanderingWitches · 10/08/2023 17:44

DrasticAction · 10/08/2023 17:41

Is this the same forces responsibile for Rotherham?

Surely our whole police needs looking at?? I'm beyond horrified

Similar but Huddersfield. Huge cover up.

DrasticAction · 10/08/2023 17:45

@Firstworldprobs unfortunately it seems that telling something police you have any issue they won't be able to understand at all..

I think this should be the catalyst for immediate urgent training