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.

It's all in the police statement if you don't believe the mother's account.

The child was in town and the police were called to assist getting her home safely.
The drunk and disorderly matter was over and done with, no arrest, no caution, nothing. Child was handed over to the parent at home.

It was after this that the incident leading to the arrest and custody took place - the police were present as they'd brought the child home.

You do know that CAMHS is so underfunded that they literally tell parents to call the emergency services when a child is in meltdown.

It is frankly appalling that you and at least one other poster are choosing to side with the police on this.

It is indefensible. They should apologise and agree to engage in diversity training.

No-one is to blame for this except the heavy handed police.

They let their child go on a sleepover

She snuck out and went drinking

If you have ever let a teenager go on a sleepover then you have made the exact same parenting choice as these parents

Do you also need a parenting course if that is the case?

@FuppingEll
Letting your 16yo autistic child go out on the piss and be brought home by the police does not teach life skills. The parents clearly weren't at work, they were right there yelling at the police, inflaming an already inflamed situation. Absolutely nobody is saying people with disabilities should be locked up and if you can't see a difference between letting a vulnerable disabled teenager go out on the piss and locking them up then I suggest some parenting courses. There are plenty of age-appropriate, safe activities that teach appropriate socialisation and life skills that a 16yo can be involved in and none of them involve being out pissed at 1am and being brought home by the police.

This is all nonsense.

She was supposed to be at a sleepover. She went out to find her elder sister who was worried about her. She called her mum as it was 1am but her mum was asleep and didn't hear the phone. So she called the police to ask them to take them home. Her elder sister is the other person in the video.

The only people at fault in this whole scenario are the police.

You do know that CAMHS is so underfunded that they literally tell parents to call the emergency services when a child is in meltdown.

Sorry that's not quite right, police should be called when there is a situation where they are a danger to themselves or others.

In this case the only person in danger from the child's actions was herself.

Hundred percent does and I reiterate again I can’t member whether I said it on this thread or on the other one but the police do not have the right to be in your home without a warrant unless they suspect loss of life is a real danger. If you ever find yourself in that scenario where your child is, returned home to you by the police, you thank them for their time, take your child and shut the front door. A police officer that wants to come into your home and continue. The dialogue does not have good motivations in my opinion.

And to add in the case of an autistic young person home is often the safe space.

This child was made to feel so unsafe in what should be her safe space that she had to retreat under the stairs.

Because she made a comment about a police office looking like a lesbian.

This is wrong on so many levels. Saying someone looks like a lesbian should not be a hate crime worthy of arrest in any society. Anyone who thinks that this is appropriate be careful what you wish for.

This is a bit like the women who have been arrested for stickering, a complete over reaction.

Peicing together the information which has been made available from various sources I think the sequence of events went something like this:

The teenage girl was out in the city center with her older sister. She had been drinking. Something happened and the older sister became concerned but was unable to get hold of her parents so she called the police. The police were made aware, either at the time the sister called them or when they arrived, that the 16 had autism.

The police attended and took the 16 year old home and, presumably, her older sister too as she appears to be in the video footage.

The mother takes her daughter into the house and is walking upstairs with her when the girl comments that the female police officer looks like her lesbian nana.

The police officer enters the house to arrest the girl for homophobia. This triggers a melt down and in order to make the arrest the officer calls for back up. Several other officers arrive which escalates things further.

The 16 year old is physically removed from the house. The mother makes the police aware that her daughter has scoliosis and the way they are handling her daughter will be painful for her.

The girl was held for 19 hours before being released on bail.

The video is posted on line and the police release a statement saying that the teenager was arrested for making homophobic comments.

The police have reported the family to social services.

This would suggest that there was nothing which happened prior to the girl arriving home which necessitated an arrest otherwise she would have been taken to a police station.

How or why she was in town and had been drinking is not relevant to the reason for the arrest.

Looking like a lesbian is only homophobic if you think being a lesbian is a bad thing.

If I saw a distressed teenager with autism, possibly intoxicated, hiding in a cupboard with 7 police officers trying to arrest her I think I would be be quite vocal in trying to advocate for her too. To say that the mother was shouting and therefore unreasonable is ridiculous, she sounded frightened and desperate to me.

Anyone who thinks the police should be given the benefit of the doubt clearly has not been paying attention to what they've been doing over the last decade. Anyone who wants to find out more should check out We Are Fair Cop and what happens if someone reports you for a hate crime.

https://www.faircop.org.uk/

This is an appalling abuse of power. If an arrestable offence had been committed then there were far better ways for the police to handle it.

Getting arrested for saying a police officer "looks like her lesbian nana" would be absurd. If that's all that comes out of the full footage from the PO's body-worn cameras then the officers involved have acted inappropriately and/or the law is stupid.

That said, once police officers have decided to arrest somebody they don't usually let a shouty mum or hiding in a cupboard prevent them from doing so. It's pretty stupid not to comply with police officers.

Autistic ≠ stupid

The police were aware that they were dealing with a drunk child with autism, in their own home, feeling that this case is an instance of 'hurty feelings' is not the same as disregarding homophobia.

However I don't believe any words warrants 7 police officers and being dragged out whilst drunk and detained for 20 hours.

To all those wittering on about public order offences - s.5 does not apply in a dwelling. You can call a police officer (or anyone else for that matter) all the hurty words under the sun in your own house and you have not committed a public order offence. The clue is in the name : PUBLIC order.

The police officers know this full well but decided to punish the girl anyway by arresting her and banging her up for a few hours. The process is the punishment.

Not unless you’re a fragile, homophobic piece of shit on a power trip like those officers.

Sure, you can be autistic and and act stupidly. But nobody's claimed the mother is autistic and all she did was make matters much worse.

FuppingEll · Today 09:17

"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?"

There is no evidence of homophobia in this case at all so far. Neither did the remark that annoyed the police officer happen in public. Lesbians are threatened and assaulted in public all the time, often in the presence of police, and nothing is done. You only have to watch the LWS events to see this.

This assault by police on a vulnerable, disabled child is shocking.

Stupid?

This child has a disability that makes her try to hide ina cupboard to be safe.

It's like the police telling a paralised person to stand up, would you call them stupid too?

I'm sorry no she did not. She was frustrated, quite rightly, that the police officers were being heavy handed with her autistic daughter. She knows that their actions were escalating the situation and were entirely unnecessary. The police should not be arresting anyone for saying someone looks like a lesbian FFS.

Neither mother nor daughter were 'acting stupidly'.

Stop victim blaming. The police should issue a formal apology and there should be an investigation.

I really don't know what you are on about. Someone was arrested for a homophobic offense. You think that lesbians should be threatened in peace because its just hurty feelings? Or you think because some lesbians are threatened and nothing is done nothing should ever be done about it? Good for you. I disagree.

No lesbians were threatened in the situation being discussed on this thread.
An autistic child mentioned to her mother, in her own home, that a police officer looked like her Nanna, who happens to be a lesbian.
I don't think anyone could really take that as a threat.
The fact that police generally (at least in London, Manchester, Wales and Scotland) do not take death threats, rape threats and physical assault on lesbians seriously, suggests double standards to me.
However, nobody is forced to agree on that point.

Nope. I haven't made the same decisions. And my child has never had any involvement with police or social services so it's working well for us. As an aside I have also taken parenting courses, knowledge is never a bad thing 🙂

This 16 yr old was drunk in a public place. Her sister called police asking that they escort her home. {Why didn't the sister escort her home?}

Being autistic surely. doesn't absolve anyone if they have done or said something wrong- otherwise anyone on the Spectrum could go round saying what they want and claiming 'Disability is my excuse.. Police can't touch me because I have {insert disability here}.

It would be a free pass to do so many things.

Oh has the video with the child's remarks come out now then? I've been busy so haven't seen. I'll go take a look.

I heard an interview with a former policeman now consultant on LBC this morning and he thought the mother did not resist the unlawful arrest enough! He said as the arrest was unlawful it was technically a kidnapping.

I have also heard the mother is autistic but I don't know if that is true. Autism is genetic but nobody has confirmed it either way. What I saw was a mother trying to protect her scared, vulnerable child from violent home intruders.

So your child/ren never gets to go on sleepovers?

To all the people who've said that autistic teenagera shouldn't be let out at night.....you know that autistic teenagers turn into autistic adults right? You know we're all allowed out nowadays rather than beimg locked in asylums, yes?

We evil autistics walk amongst you mwahahahahahahahaha 😎