Teen with Aspergers convicted of transgender hate crime, he asked is that a boy or a girl.

[HairyPotter]

www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/uk-news/duty-transgender-police-officer-left-17652064

While I completely understand it must be awful to be misgendered, it can’t come as a complete surprise that some transpeople don’t ‘pass’. If you can’t cope with people asking a perfectly reasonable (in their eyes) question, then maybe a job as a PCSO isn’t for you. I’m certain that the vast majority of officers have been called far worse with feeling the need to prosecute them. Maybe a different job or a thicker skin is required.

God, I get harassed all the time while I’m out. The other day I got followed and repeatedly asked by an aggressive young man, ‘are you blind... are you blind... are you blind!’ I ignored him so he called me a miserable bitch and said ‘I hope you walk in front of a bus.’ I also get asked if I’m a man or a woman all the time, and straight up homophobic comments. I didn’t know they were all hate crimes, I just ignore them because, well, because I’m sure the police have better things to do with their time than have me on the phone every day tattling about some rude twat I encountered on the street.

I’d try calling them, but I doubt they’d be much interested, seeing as I’m one of those cis privileged female oppressors, and besides, I’ve got better things to do than devote my life to arseholes.

Maybe I should start? I’ll let you know how I go on shall I?

Incidentally, if there are any Thames Valley police reading this thread, what are you doing about the 5 lads who launched a campaign of bullying and assaulting my son, culminating in them jumping him, beating the bejesus out of him and nicking his bike? I still haven’t heard anything about that and it’s been 5 months now.

I have 3 children with ASD, this worries me alot my daughter's is in secondary school and has already got into trouble at school for 'misgendering' and 'deadnaming' they have a strict uniform policy and now the girls who says they are boys can wear trousers, my dd feels this is 'unfair' as she would also like to wear trousers... She also finds it difficult to remember the new names as she has used the previous names for a couple of years, now she is worried she will say something wrong and get into trouble...
She has also suggested a number of times she might be trans as she would like to wear trousers to school... Tbh I am very concerned staff members will hear this and lead her down the path saying she is trans.

I expect this thread to be misrepresented so just for the purposes of clarity, the general concern here is that the Public Order Act 1986 says:

A person is guilty of an offence [of causing intentional distress] if, with intent to cause a person ... distress, he uses ... insulting words [or distributes or displays to another person any writing, sign or other visible representation] ... thereby causing that or another person ... distress..

and that in the vast majority of cases the Police will ignore you if you ask them to enforce this law but in certain cases, if the Police and the CPS consider you to be on their list of special people, and it suits the Police and the CPS, then they'll push hard on enforcement of the law.

The problem is there's a stupidly broad law that is only enforced according to the whims of the Police and the CPS meaning that if they don't view you favourably, for example you're a woman getting street harassment, you don't get protected. It's simply bad for the law to operate like that.

Could the boys parents appeal? Seems a grossly unfair decision which does not take into account the fact he has ASD, I imagine his legal representation was crap, if he had any at all.

Could the boys parents appeal?

Sounds unlikely from this (near the end of the piece):

The court heard Armstrong, who acts as a carer for a man he considers his father..

my dd feels this is 'unfair' as she would also like to wear trousers...

She’s damn right that’s unfair. Next logical stop is claiming to be a boy so that she can. Child/teen behaviour is often ‘functional’ (ie, it meets some kind of need, often unconscious).

Anyway, having slept on it I’m more angry than ever. As someone said on Facebook, if we could all get those who shout comments at us in the street on a curfew, the world would soon start looking like the opening scene from 28 Days Later.

And it seems the first to be confined and denied participation in public life will be the ASD kids who don’t really get the unspoken rules of social life (and worse still, the ones like my lad who is both ASD and ADHD, and the ADHD mostly manifests as a problem with impulse control).

Autistic people have only really had their struggles recognised in recent years, with people starting to understand that it’s not always possible to just ‘stop being so rude’ or that rigid/logical thinking isn’t belligerence, but simply neurodifference.
Well, It seems like the Woke Police are going to shit all over that understanding. We can’t let that happen.

The more people such as this who are recruited into the police force, the more money will be wasted on certain "hate crimes", leading to more serious crimes being overlooked.
Our council tax is funding this.

And it seems the first to be confined and denied participation in public life will be the ASD kids

Yes and this teen has already been given a curfew.
I can not belive that he has been given a fine of 590 pounds and a curfew for shouting is it a boy or girl.
I wonder how he will understand what has happened?
I wonder what autism groups are thinking about this.
Snowblight come on please, do you really believe that this teen with aspergers was trying to be hurtful? He was saying something as he saw it.
Try to have some empthay for anyone who has aspergers autism or their family.The posters on this tread who are afraid for their children or themself's because of this.
How did we get here? People with developmental disorders are crimalised for speaking.

I wonder if this isn't a direct action opportunity - report every incidence of street harassment, so they understand the magnitude of what women put up with as a matter of course.

What's next? Pronoun jail for toddlers? Because good luck getting them not to do the "mummy is that a man?" thing.

I’m still struggling to get over the figures: less than 2% of rape cases prosecuted vs 84% of hate crimes. Christ.

And YY Errol it doesn’t sound like he is well-supported . I doubt anyone thought to even look out for him as at 19 he’s not going to need an appropriate adult is he. If the police force is all woke then being dragged in for upsetting one of their Very Special PCSOs isn’t going to fly. I wonder how many of them in custody privately thought it was all a bit fucking much but felt unable to say so publicly. I think that’s a total cop-out (excuse the pun) but I can see how it might happen. That poor kid. I also think FFS, he’s already got significant hurdles to clear to gain employment, have a social life etc. He’s a carer. And now he’s got a hate crime conviction. 19 years old and he doesn’t stand a chance. TOTALLY FINE with young sportsmen raping girls though, wouldn’t want to throw the book at them in case it ruined their career, hey CPS?

TBF, the PCSO looks and sounds totally male to me and I don't see anything about him that would lead anyone to guess he was trans.

So if the guy accused really did say repeatedly 'Are you a boy or a girl?' it does not sound like an innocent mistake of social misunderstanding. It sounds like he knew Freel was trans and was trying to upset and humiliate him. It's possible he didn't understand the full impact of his words, and maybe he shouldn't have received a criminal charge, but it does look very much as though he targeted Freel deliberately I'm afraid.

maybe he shouldn't have received a criminal charge

Maybe? Even if it was 100% deliberate people should not be facing criminal charges for this. This is Orwellian nonsense even before you get to the futility of trying to get Aspies to lie bit.

Echobelly how can you possibly decide he deliberately targeted the PCSO? Honestly. Are you this lad’s doctor? Because if not you haven’t got a bloody clue.

Maybe she's borrowing Layla's soul reading device.

So a hate crime is a crime if the victim says they feel a crime was committed?

Could we have that for rape?

Instead of being humiliated for days in court, told we wore the wrong clothes, spoke too nicely, let the man in, didn't fight hard enough, so it wasn't really a crime...

...how about if we feel we were raped, then we were?

TBF, the PCSO looks and sounds totally male to me and I don't see anything about him that would lead anyone to guess he was trans.

In person, perception is often different. One of my trans friends looks like a glamorous fashion model in photos but doesn’t pass in person due to proportion and scale, especially noticeable when standing beside other people.

Besides, I’ve been asked if I was man or a woman before, and I’d say I’m obviously female but I had just come out of the gym in sweats with a hood up, so had no gendered signifiers. The person who asked was a child, rather than a neuro diverse adult, but even if the asker was an adult, I wouldn’t have called the cops.
I just said ‘a woman’ and smiled, no biggie.

less than 2% of rape cases prosecuted vs 84% of hate crimes.

There was a whole thread last year about women who have been called 'Sir' or mistaken for a man.
Sex is a protected characteristic, but misogyny is not a hate crime.

Echobelly, that doesn't follow. We can all just make shit up. What about this:

Friend: Hey, I know her/him, she used to be a girl but now he's a man.
Autistic lad: What d'you mean? Are you talking about that police man?
Friend: Yeah, but he wasn't before. She was a girl.
Autistic lad (incredulous and confused): What do you mean? Is it a man or a woman?
Friend: Both, really.
(More of the same confusing shite)
Autistic lad: I don't get what you mean! Just make sense! IS IT A MAN?! OR IS IT A WOMAN?!

^^Just as imaginary as your input, but benefits from being a completely familiar exchange many of us can imagine from personal experience of being autistic or having relationships with autistics.

Are you a boy or a girl?' it does not sound like an innocent mistake of social misunderstanding. It sounds like he knew Freel was trans and was trying to upset and humiliate him

What a load of nonsense.
How humiliating and upsetting to be asked if you are a boy or girl.
The next time someone asks me if my short haired girl toddler is a boy I'm calling the police. Oh actually I'll give mermaids a call too and stonewall they'll back me won't they and I'm sure they will be very helpful.

He shouted at someone and asked if it's a boy or girl,twice.

This is not a drill.

He didn't even ask "Are you..?", he asked "Is it...?". Doesn't sound like he was trying to engage with the pcso at all.

A man once said ‘What the fuck IS that?’ to me
as I passed him on the train pavement.

Didn’t cal the cops.

If not, how do you assess intent to harrass from one incident which could simply be tactlessness?

Yes, or in the case of some with Aspergers/ASD - a simple factual, but blunt question.

And @Bonkerz - that is crazy. 6 years old! - beggars belief.

Dear police forces - please could you concentrate on real crime over hurt felings. Thank you very much.

Can I write to my MP about this? I'm obviously not in the lad's constituency, or connected in any way - but who is looking out for this vulnerable adult?? He wasn't inciting violence or anything like that - the only thing he did was hurt a PCSO's feelings - and that should not be criminalised.