In the midst of this crazy summer of violence comes now another police shooting. This one really baffles the fuck outta me though. Click here for the full story.
This hits home 'cause I currently am, like the shooting victim, a caregiver for mentally handicapped people. Though it's never happened, it could be that I'd be in a similar situation if one of my residents needed to be escorted on foot back to their home.
In North Miami on Wednesday, the police responded to a 911 call about two men in the street, one with a gun saying they were going to commit suicide. When the police got to the scene, they thought the autistic client sitting in the road next to his caregiver had the alleged gun. (It was a toy truck and in the video it looked like a little metal 18-wheeler) The client is screaming and periodically bringing the toy up to his eye. Yes, it did look a little like someone aiming a gun but the caregiver, lying on the ground with his hands up in the air yelled to the cops what the situation was.
Maybe because I'm experienced having worked with behavioral autistic people for many years but I could clearly see it was someone visibly handicapped who was "going off" as we used to say and exhibiting typical autistic behaviors like holding objects or hands up near his face, bringing them down, then holding them up again repeatedly over and over.
Police should be given training in this behavior as it is not uncommon. They should have been able to ascertain what was up without being told.
But they either didn't hear the caregivers explanation of the situation, maybe they were busy on their radio calling the scene in. Or maybe they simply ignored what the suspected "perp" was yelling 'cause they just didn't give a fuck.
The really bizarre thing though...or maybe not...is: "Why did they shoot the dude lying prone with his hands up instead of the other guy with what they might have thought was a gun?"
Here's why: The autistic guy looked white to me in the video maybe he wasn't but he was definitely light-skinned. His caregiver though...yup, you know it...a black dude.
Luckily the victim sustained a treatable wound to his leg and is in the hospital recovering. I really hope he gets a good lawyer and sues the fuck outta the city of North Miami.
Just like ignorance is no defense when breaking a law, ignorance is also no defense when ineptly trying to enforce the law.
This hits home 'cause I currently am, like the shooting victim, a caregiver for mentally handicapped people. Though it's never happened, it could be that I'd be in a similar situation if one of my residents needed to be escorted on foot back to their home.
In North Miami on Wednesday, the police responded to a 911 call about two men in the street, one with a gun saying they were going to commit suicide. When the police got to the scene, they thought the autistic client sitting in the road next to his caregiver had the alleged gun. (It was a toy truck and in the video it looked like a little metal 18-wheeler) The client is screaming and periodically bringing the toy up to his eye. Yes, it did look a little like someone aiming a gun but the caregiver, lying on the ground with his hands up in the air yelled to the cops what the situation was.
Maybe because I'm experienced having worked with behavioral autistic people for many years but I could clearly see it was someone visibly handicapped who was "going off" as we used to say and exhibiting typical autistic behaviors like holding objects or hands up near his face, bringing them down, then holding them up again repeatedly over and over.
Police should be given training in this behavior as it is not uncommon. They should have been able to ascertain what was up without being told.
But they either didn't hear the caregivers explanation of the situation, maybe they were busy on their radio calling the scene in. Or maybe they simply ignored what the suspected "perp" was yelling 'cause they just didn't give a fuck.
The really bizarre thing though...or maybe not...is: "Why did they shoot the dude lying prone with his hands up instead of the other guy with what they might have thought was a gun?"
Here's why: The autistic guy looked white to me in the video maybe he wasn't but he was definitely light-skinned. His caregiver though...yup, you know it...a black dude.
Luckily the victim sustained a treatable wound to his leg and is in the hospital recovering. I really hope he gets a good lawyer and sues the fuck outta the city of North Miami.
Just like ignorance is no defense when breaking a law, ignorance is also no defense when ineptly trying to enforce the law.