I recently had a run in with the police. Don’t worry, I actually did nothing wrong. It was something that I had APPARENTLY SAID but NEVER SAID!!!
I wanted to write about this as I had an awful experience with the police. I was not only accused of something I didn’t do but the fact that I was dealt with and how the police handled the situation made me open my eyes to the fact that how the police deal with autistic people isn’t great and they need to be trained in how to deal with anyone they question or deal with that are autistic.
How are police allowed to be able to use our autism as a weapon against us?? How do they think it’s OK to try to use our autism to try to confess???
I ask this as this happened in my experience recently so now it’s story time with me, Crazy World Online.
So just under two weeks ago, the police came to my house about something I had APPARENTLY SAID but I had actually NEVER SAID that had been flagged up to the police.
So picture this.
I’m in my bedroom, just reading one of my new graphic novels that I had bought the day before. Suddenly, my stepdad pops his head into my room, telling me the police was here and they wanted to talk to me in my room in private. Me, wanting to be cooperative, let them into my room despite how uncomfortable I was feeling. A police officer came in then. Only one? I was very confused. They then sat down on a small chair that sat at my desk that I use to blog. They tell me apparently I’d seen someone earlier that day, making quite serious allegations. Me, not knowing what they were talking about, denied it all. That’s when my stepdad stepped in. He had informed the officer before they had entered my bedroom that I was autistic.
It’s like a light bulb turned on in their head as the atmosphere suddenly changed. They started asking if I could have had an outburst, said something without realising, trying to use what they view as how autistic people apparently behave against me. You can probably imagine, I was NOT happy at ALL! I insisted that I didn’t do anything but they kept asking and asking repeatedly if I could have said it during an outburst. I kept answering no over and over again. The nerve to then ask me if, because I have autism, could I have done it without realising???
I was fed up at this point, I was getting angry, emotional and tired of being asked the same questions. I was tired of giving them the same answer. I wasn’t comfortable with being questioned by only one person. For me, I find it intimidating to be questioned one on one as I get overwhelmed if I get asked the same questions repeatedly.
It took my stepdad, who is not autistic, telling them none of us, including me, knew nothing about the situation in question. Why didn’t they believe ME, an autistic person who knew the truth??? I don’t know but either way, no one should have their autism used as a weapon by police officers. I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone else so why is it being allowed to happen??
All I know is these types of situations should NOT be allowed to happen. The police in my eyes need training on how they handle such delicate matters to not allow incidents like to happen again.
Many people like with autism have probably had similar situations and might understand that I have lost my trust in them, they’re supposed to keep everyone safe after all.
Thanks for reading.
G2G,
Crazy World Online
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