lol, this is the worst place for the worst idea in all of time. people with autism would be better fit wearing armbands. this is sickness.
You know, we could just, actually train the police officers…
Average US cop gets 3.5 months of training before going on patrol.
Meanwhile the average European cop gets 2-3 years of training before they go on patrol.
The ignorance is the point. They began as slave catchers, and they haven’t advanced past that.
As a german, i must say that marking people from specific groups with symbols and colours, is very familiar
How about a special accessory that people with autism could be required to wear when in public?
We already have that
In isolation, the bill seems decent. The problem is that the current administration seems to very much want to “cure” autism. There simply isn’t a cure, and that means there’s only one way to get rid of us. I, for one, don’t plan on telling Uncle Sam that I’m autistic.
Perhaps every person should have this, if it actually works the way they suggest. A better plan might be to, you know, take the psychotic behavior out of policing, because it only serves to harm civilians.
But then you would have to pass an IQ test and governments don’t want smart cops they want stupid and cruel ones, clearly.
I think everyone in this country really just needs to go after the unions and completely get rid of any civil forfeiture laws. Those both have turned the police into a Mafia.
The police unions don’t train cops to be good they train them to be giant pieces of shit that murder people and literally put bad cops above the consequences of the laws they are also supposed to adhere to. Police unions protect criminal police.
Okay but as an autistic person I love rules that I understand and road rules fall into that so I’ve never been pulled over. Plus I love trains so I avoid driving whenever possible.
(This is a joke. I know being an old white lady in a street legal vehicle is 90% of the reason I have not been pulled over).
Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Miami Democrat, called SB 418 “an amazing bill.” She noted that in her private work as a criminal defense lawyer, she has “created a niche practice area” focused on helping “different-abled people and people with mental health disorders.”
Wow I hate her.
This looks like it’s an overall positive bill to me. If you read the bill itself (see the text here) it says individuals may request an envelope, and the wording does not state any type of requirement. The bill also will require 40 hours of police training on how to work with people with autism.
While it isn’t perfect, education is a good thing - especially in a state where autistic people have been beaten by cops for not reacting the way cops expect.
The largest problem I see with it is for undiagnosed people or people that don’t choose the blue envelope. It might make cops think certain types of behavior are only okay if you have the blue envelope to prove they’re okay. This is compounded by perceptions that autism is too broad or over-diagnosed.
It would be better to teach the cops to behave better with everyone. And stop teaching them that avoiding eye contact means someone is lying.
Go after the police unions and civil forfeiture laws then. Those are what are making the police a Mafia gang
Well, I carry an autism card with me at all times when I leave the house, because I’ve had some not so great experiences with law enforcement due to the communication issue.
As long as it is optional, and isn’t used against the person I don’t see how this is a bad thing.
Is this bad? (As long as not mandatory)
A recognisable card in my wallet that i can non verbally show to officers to help them understand why i am not responding/communicating as they expect sounds like a boon.
I believe in the Netherlands there are places where they have lanyards with sunflowers motive that signal hidden disabilities in general. Its purposefully subtle, mostly only service workers and others that need them know to recognise it.
A too identifiable armband specifically for autism sounds to visual and public, especially considering people with autism make great targets for the criminal minded.
What does strike as odd in this bill is removing the clause for training to collaborate with an autism supporting organization… but considering they chose blue, which is the color “autism speaks” uses for us, which is a very toxic and damaging organization in the us that may be understandable.
It shouldn’t be on the person with a disability to teach a police officer how to deal with their disability. It should be the responsibility of the police to learn tolerance and not resort to violence if someone doesn’t immediately react to violent threats the way they expect them to.
It shouldn’t be on the person with a disability to teach a police officer how to deal with their disability.
They’re not though? It just make it easier for the e.g. police to know that there is a disability so they can act according to it with the training they’ve already received.
They literally are. If they weren’t, this could have been done entirely with deescalation training.
Because NDs respond so well to cookie-cutter training generally made for interaction with NTs…
Knowing up front that your regular training will/might need some adaption would be a benefit.
My point is that knowing that your training is incomplete and needs to be supplemented with compassion, patience and empathy could also be a part of training. If they have training that says “look for this card”, it could just as easily be retooled to say “look for these symptoms”.
A simple blue card is just infinitely easier to identify than behavior that people are either consciously or subconsciously masking.
I would be afraid to reach for my wallet around the cops tbh
I agree but I think the best practice for now is to ask before you move. Along the lines of, “My wallet is in my front pocket, may I get it?”
Which a nonverbal autistic person totally has the ability to do… What’s the point of the blue envelope if they can already respond calmly to cops?
I don’t understand what the problem is. It’s optional, so if you have concerns you can not participate. There’s no central registry, so it’s not like they’re building a list of people. Heck, you could be non autistic and participate just to get officers that deal with you a bit more carefully. Why precisely is the feedback here so negative?
Maybe because it seems crazy to anyone not born in the US that you would need a special card as an autistic person, just so they don’t “accidentally” shoot you to death during a traffic stop.
How’s that different from the non autistics getting shot during traffic stops? Far as I can see the only thing that helps is being white.
Have you completely missed the ranting from Brainworm Kennedy about wanting to put autistic people in concentration camps?
Probably, since I’m not American.
Also, previous point about there being no central registry. I don’t think you actually addressed any of the points I mentioned, come to think of it.
