Yet another example of why armed police shouldn't be the default response to calls for help: a woman called 911 because she was having trouble calming down her autistic teenage son. A group of cops came to her apartment, refused to put on masks, beat up her boyfriend for insisting, & arrested him.
Having had to call the police for insurance purposes after break-ins, I don’t think they protect property either, at least not when it belongs to regular people.
Calling the police to calm an autistic kid is just wrong. Calling the police is asking for the state to do violence on your behalf, and that's what they are going to do
i have a great deal of pity for people who have fallen through the cracks of our profoundly ungenerous support system, get in over their heads, and call the only people we, as a society, pay to "help"
I grew up with a sibling with severe autism and it can get really bad if they become agitated enough to become aggressive. It takes years to get PCA’s/DSP’s assigned, let alone trained, and they get paid really bad. These people were under the mistaken assumption that the cops are here to help them
We had multiple bad interactions with the cops in several communities because of her behavioral issues. A lot people don’t realize they are not trustworthy and don’t understand shit about autism
While that is true (armed police shouldn't be the default response), basic courtesy should prevent armed law enforcement personnel from beating up a helpless teenager.
Yes. Fire those guys, take whatever money they would have been paid, put it toward unarmed mental health specialists. Wash, rinse, repeat until the police force is the correct size to deal with actual explicit and imminent violent threats (and nothing else).
And they're claim 'qualified immunity' because beating up people for no reason is not something, based on past history, they'd have any chance of thinking might be illegal.
