7 police officers versus 1 autistic girl

[Green777]

https://metro.co.uk/video/teen-girl-autism-arrested-telling-officer-looks-like-lesbian-nana-2995683/

AIBU to think these Police officers should be disciplined for arresting this autistic

girl for a ‘hate crime’ then dragging her out of her home kicking and screaming?

The police officer who the girl said looked like her ‘lesbian nana’ seems very unprofessional.

Unfortunately 16y don't always make the right choices when it comes to drinking and not coming home when they're supposed to. It's unfair to blame the parents simply in that point. The family, sister I believe, did call the police for help getting the girl home safely.

There is nothing to suggest the girl is known to the police - from the police statement or from the family, at this point. It's unfair to suggest that without more information to prove that point,

People really don’t owe the police the benefit of the doubt anymore. They just don’t.

Caring for teenagers with autism is very difficult. It’s a balancing act I wouldn’t wish on anybody. All the things you manage with NT teens are made a lot harder as there can be impulsivity, black and white thinking, sensory issues, communication difficulties, bolting…. The answer isn’t to stop them going out but to support them. My autistic daughter has drank to excess and needed to be collected by us. We were lucky in that we found her without needing the police on that occasion. We have needed the police hit bolting under distress though and they were fantastic. She is slowly learning how to handle the many things that make modern day living so hard for those with autism.

Lovely, ignore the video and the statement from the police that back up was caused due to 'hurty feelings'

Sorry I disagree. As the mother of a gay 16yo I would expect the police to take any homophobic public order offences against him seriously, not go 'wah, wah, hurty feelings'. I really can't believe that you are reducing homophobia down to 'hurty feelings'. I presume you feel the same way about sexism too? How about ablism? Wah, wah hurty feelings right?

I too have a gay teen and absolutely would have been livid if his autistic sister had been treated like that with an officer saying they don’t care about her disability.

It’s the lack of complete autism awareness that is worrying. You don’t get to say you don’t care about disabilities protected by law. Nobody does, least of all law enforcers!😳

This is disgraceful. I’m not anti-police, I come from a family of police and work with police officers regularly in my work as a safeguarding lead in a secondary school.

This is not representative of how the police that I’ve worked with with deal with autistic teenagers. These officers need some serious training. As a general rule, I think British police are really good at deescalation, compared to police in most other countries. Why these officers escalated this situation to this point is beyond me… there was never going to be a good outcome. I have to say, I generally find the police to be very good in situations where autistic kids have run away or become dysregulated in public. I’d expect there to be some action on this, although WYP do seem to have a particularly woeful record on responding to complaints.

@Green777
Since when is homophobia ok? And how can the office be sure someone is autistic.
And - if she called for back up it's because someone was being aggressive / violent - of course colleagues responded.

Are we saying autistic people don't stab or physically assault others?
Officers physical safety comes first here!!!

And the story given isn't the police's version of events - would LOVE to hear their side before everyone starts slagging them all off!!!!

They've made a statement @Jellyx. I posted it further down the thread.

They haven't said she was violent or aggressive or that the officers feared for their safety and, given they've included a lot of irrelevant detail, I'm sure they would have done.

Takoneko

I totally agree. Our experience of the police as regards understanding and handling autism in our area has been fantastic. The NHS on the other hand….

Absolutely outrageous behaviour. People with such a fragile ego shouldn't be in uniform.

Really worrying that 20% of voters that think this was justified.

Jellyx

The girl was cowering in a cupboard in her own home. Where was officer safety at risk?

And re ignoring hidden disabilities- wow! Seriously.

We are all different. Personally I would understand that the victim of my child's abuse was just reacting in that split second and tried to diffuse the situation by apologising for my child's behaviour not screaming in the face of the people who brought my drunk child home

Maybe it is just that the whole situation is really out there for me because none of that would have happened under my roof but I just can't imagine being 'livid' at the person my child abused after they brought my drunk out of control child home in the middle of the night.

@FuppingEll can you explain how an autistic teen saying that the policewoman looked like her lesbian nana is homophobic?

And public order offence? She was inside her home!

That's assuming she has an appropriate adult. We know nothing about this family except what we have seen which is that they let a vulnerable, disabled 16 year old go out drinking to the point the police need to get involved and instead of calmly trying to de escalate the situation or focus on their daughter in anyway they were shouting and filming the police.

The mother has updated that she was not allowed to be the child’s appropriate adult, but the police provided another (adding to the child’s distress).

Short of putting bars on windows and locking doors (which would be wrong in all sorts of ways) how do you suggest those of us with autistic teens keep them from going out?
Plenty of teens go out and get drunk, because for a lot of teenagers this is the normal time to push boundaries, whether you have loving engaged parents or not! Being autistic doesn’t mean you don’t also have normal teenage behaviour to deal with, but made more complex because they are autistic.

Once the police woman swept in to arrest and called for back up, all the mother was doing was trying to get them to back off from her daughter who was having a meltdown and was hurting herself. The police escalated this, not the mother!
The male police followed the poor girl into the cupboard, blocking her in! Have they had any training whatsoever?

But anyway, another day on MN, where parents of autistic children will be blamed no matter what.

Maybe it is just that the whole situation is really out there for me because none of that would have happened under my roof but I just can't imagine being 'livid' at the person my child abused

Again, where is the abuse?
An autistic teen comments that the police woman looked like her nana, who is a lesbian - in what world is that abuse? How is this a hate crime?

If you have an autistic child there are certain things, as a parent, that are out of your control, so you do your very best to manage that. Unfortunately it’s all made far more distressing by utter ignorant pricks who clearly don’t understand autism.

The police statement backs up the mother’s side. There may be more backstory, but nothing makes the handling of this by the police acceptable. They’ve screwed up here.

@FuppingEll can you explain how an autistic teen saying that the policewoman looked like her lesbian nana is homophobic?

All I have seen in the police saying that Upon returning her to the address, comments were made which resulted in the girl being arrested on suspicion of a homophobic public order offence. The nature of the comments made was fully captured on body-worn video. It doesn't say what the comments were? Did the mother release another video showing the daughter abuse?

Well when you have a child who can’t help her disability and see with the same disability deliberately heightened and dealt with completely out of proportion and in the wrong way in their own home whilst having officers of the law saying they don’t care about laws there to protect her maybe you’d envisage being livid.

I, can't understand why they had to persist in taking her at that moment. Why she had to go into a cell for 20 hours to be questioned.
And it's still unclear what about? Is it really lesbian nanna?

Aby didn't they black off and say they would come back later?

That clip looks horrific but doesn't give any context including why the police were there in the first place. I hope it is investigated properly and if wrong has been commited it is dealt with but I don't agree with making assumptions of what's going on from a snippet at the point of arrest. I would want to know what she was actually arrested for as that bit had no sound....

The mother explained that the teen had said she looked like her lesbian nana. That’s not abuse by any stretch of the imagination.

Again we don't know what the comments were.

If you have an autistic child there are certain things, as a parent, that are out of your control, so you do your very best to manage that.

Spot on. You don't let your vulnerable teen go out, get drunk and have to escorted home by the police. That obviously will lead to situations thay get very out of control so you manage it.

I wonder if we ever post the 10000 good things police do. Or we just take every opportunity to slate them.

Are you guys all perfect in your job?

Yeah, sorry after seeing her behaviour towards her daughter I'm not taking her word for that.

The arrest was before that point.
According to the mother (whose version of events have been backed up by the police statement) the girl commented that the police looked like her lesbian nana, which the police overheard, and swooped back in to arrest.

The film showed the resulting fallout after backup had been requested, probably due to the teen going into meltdown.