Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl
the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects,
then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and
observations.
Today's article gives us a grim warning about interactions with the police, and highlights the needs for training for both the police force, and the populace in general. Firstly, according to this study, any given person in the US has a 30% chance of being arrested by age 28. That's nearly a third of the population. Does this seem problematic to you? It kinda does to me.
Now, let's add having a disability into the picture. Your chances of being arrested before age 28 are now 44%. Let me underline that: you are nearly 15% more likely to be arrested if you have kind of disability, be that an emotional, physical, cognitive, or sensory disability. Your chances of being arrested before age 28 are now close to half. One out of two disabled people is likely to be arrested.
Also, God himself help you if you happen to be black. The arrest rate for black men with disabilities is 55%. The article naively terms this "the disability penalty," which I think is just adorable considering arrest rates for African Americans in general. The researchers, naturally, consider this a problem and suggest police training should include a stronger focus on de-escalation, minimal use of force, and understanding implicit bias and structural racism.
And me? Let me summarize my interactions with the police. I attended the miserable failure called the DARE program in three different school systems, and I've been pulled over four times in my life. Once for a speeding ticket. Once for having a headlight out. Once for not moving out of the way fast enough to suit a police officer, and getting ticked when he shone his brights in my face. Once for having an out of date registration sticker on my car.
Of all those interactions, two of the officers struck me as dutiful, well-meaning, justice-driven officers. The first was the dead headlight. It was near midnight in a suburb of Detroit, on New Year's Eve. He pulled me over, merely meaning to address the problem, and I had the mistaken impression that I should get out of my car to speak to the officer. He did not take it well. I have no doubts that if I had been male and black, I would have been shot. Or at least loudly threatened with a drawn gun. I am female and white, fortunately for me.
Once he calmed down, the officer was nice enough, explaining to me my mistake and even commenting that the city listed on my driver's license was where he was from. I did not get written up, presumably for a lot of reasons which included, "cooperative, not drunk, bigger fish to fry this evening." The second was the speeding ticket. That was a pretty short interaction. The officer seemed polite enough, and I wasn't going to dispute the matter- I had been speeding, albeit not in a dangerous fashion, and I really just wanted him to go away.
The third interaction was less pleasant. The officer who noticed my expired registration sticker didn't care what I said or felt, he just wanted to write me a ticket and get on with his life. Which was exactly what he did.
The last interaction... kind of took the cake, and it's what I remember when asked about the police. I was driving to another city for work. It was before the sun rose, making it rather dark outside still. A car zoomed up behind me in the passing lane, so I started looking for a space to get over. I apparently did not do so fast enough, because the car flashed its brights in my eyes repeatedly. I made a "go away" motion, which was not taken well, and the lights went on.
When I pulled off, the officer put this massively bright, painful light on me, causing me to hunch and squint in pain. He then proceeded to swagger, yell over me aggressively when I tried to say anything, and demand everything he wanted loudly and arrogantly. I was cooperative and polite, but he didn't give a crap, having decided I was a troublemaker. The blindingly painful light stayed on my car, despite my repeated requests for it to be turned off.
Officer Sunnuvabitch had nothing he could actually write a ticket about, thankfully, so all I have from the encounter is an ill-will towards cops in general and some personal evidence that screenings for who can become a cop and who can't are clearly not sufficient. As far as I'm concerned, Officer Sunnuvabitch belongs in a rehabilitation program for violent and aggressive sociopaths, not toting a gun and wearing a badge.
The DARE program I mentioned above was a miserable failure, statistics-wise. It (accidentally) taught neurotypical children that drugs were for older (cooler) children, which naturally did not end well. As I'm not neurotypical, it didn't have quite the same effect on me. I listened soberly, and not knowing I should be distrusting the police, was sufficiently warned off drugs so as to not try them. I was, however, not offered a chance to do so until I was 19, so I'm not really sure that's a success.
I mention the DARE program here because one side effect it had was introducing police officers to children. I wasn't really reading body language at the time, but in retrospect I think those officers were probably pretty uncomfortable. When you're used to handling what you see as the worst of humanity, and suddenly you have to manage children... it's maybe not surprising the whole thing was an awkward experience.
I don't recall particularly liking or hating the police officers that came to teach our classes. But I do recall their analogy for divisions in humanity. The policemen explained that people fell into three categories: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Most of humanity was sheep- not aggressive, not harmful, simply needing guidance. Some of humanity were wolves- aggressive, dangers to society. Those were the criminals. And some of humanity was also aggressive, but was trained to protect and serve, using those instincts for the safekeeping of the sheep. Those people were the police.
I can't imagine the police really think of themselves in those terms, and it was just a illustration to get a bunch of 4th graders to understand the police a bit better. But remember that last interaction with Officer Sunnuvabitch, I kind of wonder if the comparison isn't more apt than it was meant to be, and whether the cops know they routinely invite wolves into their sheepdog clubhouse. That, or the sheepdogs go wolf after awhile and no one does anything.
Obviously, I haven't been arrested. That is because I am still relatively verbal, even while stressed out, and because I am white, and because I am female. Change any one of those variables, and I fully expect, given my experiences, that I would have ended up with handcuffs, or even shot. The police do not know how to deal with us, they consider anything deviating from "normal" threatening, and in some cases, shoot first and ask questions later.
I have nothing happy to say here, so if you are autistic/have disabilities, you might want to consider carrying this card around. If you're a caretaker, parent, etc, you might want to consider adding that card to your child's wallet or purse, and teaching them to present it slowly and carefully when interacting with the police.
If you're a cop or other emergency personnel and would like to speak to me on how to improve your training program, please email me at therealisticautistic(at)gmail(dot)com. I recognize most police aren't Officer Sunnuvabitch, and I would like to understand the police and other emergency personnel better. More to the point, I would very much like you to understand me and other autistic and disabled people better, because these statistics are unacceptable. Together we could help stop the needless deaths.
Today's article gives us a grim warning about interactions with the police, and highlights the needs for training for both the police force, and the populace in general. Firstly, according to this study, any given person in the US has a 30% chance of being arrested by age 28. That's nearly a third of the population. Does this seem problematic to you? It kinda does to me.
Now, let's add having a disability into the picture. Your chances of being arrested before age 28 are now 44%. Let me underline that: you are nearly 15% more likely to be arrested if you have kind of disability, be that an emotional, physical, cognitive, or sensory disability. Your chances of being arrested before age 28 are now close to half. One out of two disabled people is likely to be arrested.
Also, God himself help you if you happen to be black. The arrest rate for black men with disabilities is 55%. The article naively terms this "the disability penalty," which I think is just adorable considering arrest rates for African Americans in general. The researchers, naturally, consider this a problem and suggest police training should include a stronger focus on de-escalation, minimal use of force, and understanding implicit bias and structural racism.
And me? Let me summarize my interactions with the police. I attended the miserable failure called the DARE program in three different school systems, and I've been pulled over four times in my life. Once for a speeding ticket. Once for having a headlight out. Once for not moving out of the way fast enough to suit a police officer, and getting ticked when he shone his brights in my face. Once for having an out of date registration sticker on my car.
Of all those interactions, two of the officers struck me as dutiful, well-meaning, justice-driven officers. The first was the dead headlight. It was near midnight in a suburb of Detroit, on New Year's Eve. He pulled me over, merely meaning to address the problem, and I had the mistaken impression that I should get out of my car to speak to the officer. He did not take it well. I have no doubts that if I had been male and black, I would have been shot. Or at least loudly threatened with a drawn gun. I am female and white, fortunately for me.
Once he calmed down, the officer was nice enough, explaining to me my mistake and even commenting that the city listed on my driver's license was where he was from. I did not get written up, presumably for a lot of reasons which included, "cooperative, not drunk, bigger fish to fry this evening." The second was the speeding ticket. That was a pretty short interaction. The officer seemed polite enough, and I wasn't going to dispute the matter- I had been speeding, albeit not in a dangerous fashion, and I really just wanted him to go away.
The third interaction was less pleasant. The officer who noticed my expired registration sticker didn't care what I said or felt, he just wanted to write me a ticket and get on with his life. Which was exactly what he did.
The last interaction... kind of took the cake, and it's what I remember when asked about the police. I was driving to another city for work. It was before the sun rose, making it rather dark outside still. A car zoomed up behind me in the passing lane, so I started looking for a space to get over. I apparently did not do so fast enough, because the car flashed its brights in my eyes repeatedly. I made a "go away" motion, which was not taken well, and the lights went on.
When I pulled off, the officer put this massively bright, painful light on me, causing me to hunch and squint in pain. He then proceeded to swagger, yell over me aggressively when I tried to say anything, and demand everything he wanted loudly and arrogantly. I was cooperative and polite, but he didn't give a crap, having decided I was a troublemaker. The blindingly painful light stayed on my car, despite my repeated requests for it to be turned off.
Officer Sunnuvabitch had nothing he could actually write a ticket about, thankfully, so all I have from the encounter is an ill-will towards cops in general and some personal evidence that screenings for who can become a cop and who can't are clearly not sufficient. As far as I'm concerned, Officer Sunnuvabitch belongs in a rehabilitation program for violent and aggressive sociopaths, not toting a gun and wearing a badge.
The DARE program I mentioned above was a miserable failure, statistics-wise. It (accidentally) taught neurotypical children that drugs were for older (cooler) children, which naturally did not end well. As I'm not neurotypical, it didn't have quite the same effect on me. I listened soberly, and not knowing I should be distrusting the police, was sufficiently warned off drugs so as to not try them. I was, however, not offered a chance to do so until I was 19, so I'm not really sure that's a success.
I mention the DARE program here because one side effect it had was introducing police officers to children. I wasn't really reading body language at the time, but in retrospect I think those officers were probably pretty uncomfortable. When you're used to handling what you see as the worst of humanity, and suddenly you have to manage children... it's maybe not surprising the whole thing was an awkward experience.
I don't recall particularly liking or hating the police officers that came to teach our classes. But I do recall their analogy for divisions in humanity. The policemen explained that people fell into three categories: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Most of humanity was sheep- not aggressive, not harmful, simply needing guidance. Some of humanity were wolves- aggressive, dangers to society. Those were the criminals. And some of humanity was also aggressive, but was trained to protect and serve, using those instincts for the safekeeping of the sheep. Those people were the police.
I can't imagine the police really think of themselves in those terms, and it was just a illustration to get a bunch of 4th graders to understand the police a bit better. But remember that last interaction with Officer Sunnuvabitch, I kind of wonder if the comparison isn't more apt than it was meant to be, and whether the cops know they routinely invite wolves into their sheepdog clubhouse. That, or the sheepdogs go wolf after awhile and no one does anything.
Obviously, I haven't been arrested. That is because I am still relatively verbal, even while stressed out, and because I am white, and because I am female. Change any one of those variables, and I fully expect, given my experiences, that I would have ended up with handcuffs, or even shot. The police do not know how to deal with us, they consider anything deviating from "normal" threatening, and in some cases, shoot first and ask questions later.
I have nothing happy to say here, so if you are autistic/have disabilities, you might want to consider carrying this card around. If you're a caretaker, parent, etc, you might want to consider adding that card to your child's wallet or purse, and teaching them to present it slowly and carefully when interacting with the police.
If you're a cop or other emergency personnel and would like to speak to me on how to improve your training program, please email me at therealisticautistic(at)gmail(dot)com. I recognize most police aren't Officer Sunnuvabitch, and I would like to understand the police and other emergency personnel better. More to the point, I would very much like you to understand me and other autistic and disabled people better, because these statistics are unacceptable. Together we could help stop the needless deaths.
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