Virginia cops taser autistic man for arguing

I was once on the wrong end of a pepper spray stream during my idealistic phase. I sat down and resisted arrest and they sprayed me for what they called "compliance". It hurt. Had they have had tasers, I probably would have been hit by that instead and I can only imagine how much more painful it would have been.

Now that I live in the real world, I may still harbor a dislike of anyone who has the power to harm and get away with it but I can see their side of it too, well sorta.

I understand that for them it's easier to just taze a person who they even remotely think poses a risk of being violent, but on the other hand, they get paid to risk their lives so unless they are being physically threatened, it just doesn't cut it.

Thank White Jesus! Virginia's jigsaw puzzles are safe once more!
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Perhaps if the taser could debilitated the subject without the pain, it wouldn't seem so violent. We have computers that can fit in our pockets. I think we can make tasers that don't leave burn marks.

Quick draw that used it should have it shoved up his butt and triggered. The caretaker of the handicapped individual should get the same. Most autistic people look normal, they just can't act normal. You don't let them go it alone because of that very thing. Even in a small town where they are known it isn't safe for them. Sometimes "normal" people are stupid.

I guess its still better then getting the crap beat out of you with a nightstick.

You mean to tell me that the cop was able to hold on to his jelly-filled donut, and taser an autistic man at the same time? Talk about morbid multitasking.

Yeah Ricky, good point. DONT TASE ME BRO!

If this is already described as one of the most painful things you can experience imagine how it must have felt to an autistic person who experiences these sensations 10 fold.

They must have forgotten the motto serve and protect. I guess criminals and citizens have the same meaning...

I heard many similar stories like that before. I hope Police Officers start to use cameras to show the general people at large what really happens at the scene upon their arrival. The basic lack of respect for an Officer these days has gone beyond limits. There are many out there using their disabilities to provoke Officers thinking they have some kind of immunity just because their are "autistic" or something else. If you have any mental disability, please do not leave home without an assistant help to begin with it. If you do, you are in your own and you are responsible for your actions! Police Officers will do what they are being trained to do! Therefore, when you hear and see a Police Officer giving to You a voice of Command; be respectful and obey until you have a chance to calmly explain yourself! Do not call him or her names or start to argue with him or her right way! Be calm, listen and obey to his/her command! Most of the time, everything gets resolved without any altercation from You or the Officers.

Autistic or not, if this guy was being aggressive, it was perfectly reasonable for the cops to use a taser. How does the fact that he's autistic make any difference? Is it because he's incapable of seeing reason? Cops sometimes have to tase people who are very drunk, and they're not capable of reason at the time either.

Tasers exist to help end an escalating situation without causing permanent harm to either the aggressor or the police. Yes, they have been misused before, but I don't see how it's a misuse to tase a large, aggressive man just because he's mentally handicapped. Being autistic doesn't make him any less capable of resorting to physical violence and doing harm. If anything, he's more of a risk because it's that much more difficult to reason with him and calm him down verbally.

If anyone screwed up here, it was whoever let the autistic man out of the house unsupervised. If he'd had a caretaker with him, the caretaker would likely have been able to calm the man down and diffuse the situation before the police had to be called in the first place. As it is, the police had no way of knowing he was autistic. The fact that people are making disparaging comments about the police over this is a little disturbing. What, are they supposed to be psychic?

Asperger’s Syndrome: “Those afflicted with this syndrome have difficulty understanding what those around them think and feel. As a result of this, they often behave inappropriately in social situations, or do things that may appear to be unkind or callous.” I dated a gal who’s brother has Asperger’s and he's an Air Force jet mechanic.

“The man...became combative with police and refused to leave the store.” How would you handle the situation in an outlet mall store with kids around?

Crying wolf only hurts victims in the long run.

i still dont hink its right to shoot people with electricity unless your trying to revive them.

Tasers are lethal weapons, and cops are using them as a first resort for crap like this. We need to get them out of the hands of the cops ASAP and we need to hear more stories about how they're misused and dangerous.

Stopnoise, was that directed at the Autistic people, who probably wouldn't know what you're saying, or at the people who should be with them. Your argument would make sense if it took into account that the guy is AUTISTIC. Not pretending to be!

"There are many out there using their disabilities to provoke Officers thinking they have some kind of immunity just because their are "autistic" or something else."

What like a deaf person saying, What? I can't here you!

Autistic or not everyone has the right to feel safe, a violent man with a disability, mental issues or just angry has no right to intimidate others.

This story doesn't provide enough information on the incident, so it seems to be almost a Rorschach test for the commentators.

It does not define what exactly confrontational means in this context.

We know that he was acting irrationally and being verbally agressive. We do not know if he was threatening violence or behaving in a physically threatening manner.

From all we know from this story, he could have threatened violence, or he could have just loudly demanded that he won't leave the store until he received a refund.

I think it's wrong that people are jumping to conclusions automatically assuming what transpired.

I also think it's wrong that people automatically assumed that man was violent, and that because he has asperger's that he needs to constantly be followed around everywhere like a dog.

Asperger's patients are generally high functioning and as pwdrskir said, they have a hard time recognizing social cues.

There's a joke that people in the mental health profession tell that goes you should never ask a person with asperger's how their day is going unless you have alot of time on your hands.

Perhaps he threatened violence, but according to the story he was only charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, so it leads me to believe that he did the same thing that many people do everyday: put up a royal fuss, but since he appeared and behaved oddly, was treated a little differently than normal.

Interesting comment and true conclusions jumped too. Although general comments still stand that people felt intimidated and the case the police felt it necessary to use force, not that the police have never abused power (that’s a different subject) but the automatic reaction that a man, dealing with difficult circumstance or not, should be treated differently in that exact same instance because of his disability, than one without, seems to be what was implied. Outrage that a disabled man can be tasered is ridiculous, although appreciate more awareness would be of benefit are we saying disabled people can’t break the law? Or if they do should not be punished, sounds a little like discrimination.

Neghie,

What I am saying is: "If you have some kind of physical, mental disability, please follow the rules specially with Officers. Do not argue, pull up a gun or anything else!" The point is that society DO WANT to accommodate individuals with special disabilities on it but We should be very Aware to NOT Let the Disable abuse us with their Policies of Noise and therefore do not passively accept it just because they are disable. That is why I suggested that they should leave home with an assistant help!

We all are being abused here in San Francisco because of the wrong acoustic polices proceeding from the Government Transportation that was lobbied by the Disability Community. They are doing it without questioning if any of these wrong polices hurts other people or not. They have been alerted by but decided not to correct the Mistakes. The reality is that They all lobbied into it! Now the mistake it is here and it is taking us over 7 Years to STOP it! That is not something we should ignore!

Ps: There are some incidents that a guy pull up a gun aiming at the Police Officer and I read in the News his mother saying: "Oh, my son is a good kid, he did not meant to do that, is was not going to shoot." The Officers use excess of force and kill him! Come on! Your son it is a good kid with a gun in his hands? Oh! Please!

What I'm saying is that posing an actual threat is reason to use a taser, not simply resisting arrest.

I have my own conclusions that I indeed did jump to, but because of the vagueness of the article I will not assume that what I believe transpired actually did.

I do believe that if a "normal" person started shouting and resisted arrest, he or she would have been forcibly restrained and arrested and not tased unless they resisted while being restrained.

I also believe that the police in this instance were pre disposed to believing that the man was violent solely because he had an emotional disability.

I feel that if he did indeed pose a physical threat then the tasering was justified, but if he did not, then it wasn't, and I feel that the cops perceived his disability as evidence of physical threat.

I also believe that unless he made a verbal or physical threat he should have been physically restrained with the taser being a last resort if they cannot restrain him.

Of course, I don't know what really transpired, but this is what I believe. Hope that clears things up.

It's really sad that you hear more stories like these. Some police officers abuse this tactic far too often and more people are dying each year. Police officers can’t tell if the person can really handle the current ripping through the suspect’s body. I understand this maybe used as a last result if pepper stray has no affect, but how many more people must die before something is changed.

We have a class of people here in the City that want to do everything wrong in the book. When they get caught in the act, they scream at the Police and the Media: "You're using excess of force on Me!" Accusing the Police of this and that. It is just one more tactic to defame our Police work and bypass the Law. Now, the Media go ahead and only show their side of the story, not the risk that Police Officers have by dealing with this kind of Situation. It is a Jungle out there! People lie a lot! Use discretionary caution, please!

F him - he was buying ( or trying to , until he got abusive over the high price ) a cheap leather jacket at an outlet mall .

In physical appearance, nobody stopped to put a handicap placard on him? I blame the parents for thinking he was normal or specially normal. Oh that's right, the scarlet letter syndrome requires a universal ID. Dee Dee Dee!

Some of you folks need to get familiar with people- first language. People first language focuses on the person, not the disability. For example rather than saying "an autistic man," how about saying "a man with autism." These are people like you and I and we need to see them this way. So remember they are people who happen to have a disability and not disabled people.

thanks!

The problem is that the majority of police officers don't attempt to defuse the situation, they attempt and seek to control it. The result is chaos.

Why not sit down with an upset man and give him a little time to calm down and explain himself - have someone with a "cool head" listen. Why must it automatically turn into an adversarial confrontation resulting in charges??

What a was of time, of the people's money and disrespect for the average citizen. Don't assume that just because the guy was arrested he deserved to be, or that the officers aren't guilty of unnecessarily and inappropriately escalating the situation.

If "Don't tase me, bro" guy provoked as much of an outrage as he did then surely a mentally disabled person warrants a hell of a lot.

It's important for police officers to be able to protect people in the heat of the moment, but when they start to rely on dangerous and dehumanizing methods for everyday conflict resolution, that's the opposite of what we want.

Excellent

It's not that he refused to leave it's that he had a "Meltdown" common in all people with autistic related disorders.

Stopnoise

"What I am saying is: "If you have some kind of physical, mental disability, please follow the rules specially with Officers. Do not argue, pull up a gun or anything else!"

The fact that you wrote this shows how very little you know about people with any type of disabilites, do you really think a person with autisim or say down syndrome knows what "The Rules" are. And how the HELL do people with mental disabilites abuse any type of laws. I mean hell I see kids screaming and not listening in the stores all the time, maybe we should tase there asses as well, teach them to follow "The Rules."

Having a sister that has down syndrome, more than qualifies. Cops know about as much about the human condition, as their totalitarian system of "protect and serve' allows them. And in a small town, that shouldn't be the case behind a itchy trigger finger. Again, the laws in this country are very greylined when it comes to it's own justifcation of excessive force, abuse and murder. Those are the finite rules of engagement, unless we really think we live in the suburbs. Other than that parents first have the responsibility, the community comes second.

maybe the cop did not know he was autstic when he tasered him but learned afterward

Maybe the cop should drop a toaster in his own bathtub. Is intelligence a job requirement?

these taser-happy cops are nothing more than the schoolyard bully, all grown up with a license to beat on the poor kid, the retarded kid, the ugly kid, the weak kid, the brown skin people and the vulnerable female...

they are mini-me versions of Karl Rove