Sitting + black & autistic + bad cop = 10yrs prison sent

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Apple_in_my_Eye
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14 Mar 2011, 1:45 am

For those who remember from about a year ago, Reginald "Neli" Laston, who was guilty of "sitting while black and autistic" (if you want to argue that, please make another thread), has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. There is still a possibility of an appeal (I gather), and his mother has a petition to try to get some media attention about what has happened.

The petition is here http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/autism-and-racial-injustice/.

For those who don't know about this and want to know more, here are some articles:

http://avoiceforneli.com/
http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=638
http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/1146
http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/1137

Neli’s story
June 15th, 2010 · 9 Comments · Narrative

Reginald Latson loves to walk.

“He’ll walk five or ten miles, it’s nothing to him. Sometimes he walks five miles just to grab a bite to eat at Chili’s,” says his mother, Lisa, of Stafford, Virginia. “Walking is his release.”

Neli, as his family calls him, is 18 and has Asperger’s, a mild form of autism. Three Mondays ago, he rose early and left home without telling his mother. “When I entered his room at 6:30 am and didn’t see him, I assumed he had gone for another walk,” she says. It was a school day.

Four hours later Stafford authorities had ordered a lock down for eight schools, and Neli was in police custody, facing one count of malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer, one count of assault and battery of a law enforcement officer, and one count of knowingly disarming a police officer in performance of his official duties. The cascade of missteps that led to the arrest suggest a combination of public racial profiling and the over reaction of law enforcement officers who are unfamiliar with autistic behavior.

After Neli left home early that morning he walked two miles to Porter Library on Parkway Blvd. “He goes there frequently. There’s a teen room there, and he enjoys it,” says Lisa. The library was closed, so he sat under a tree, in the grass, at the front of the building. The parking lot at Park Ridge Elementary, about 400 feet to the west, was filling up.

According to officials reports, someone at the school called police at about 8:38 am to report a suspicious person sitting outside the library, “possibly in possession of a gun.” A bulletin went out with Neli’s description, and officials, concerned that a gunman was on the loose, ordered a school lockdown and set up a search perimeter.

When police arrived at the library, Neli was gone. Unaware of the report, and impatient for the library to open, he began walking in the direction of the high school. A forested green belt of trees some 500 feet-wide with a well-worn path separates the school from nearby homes. At about 9 am, a “school resources officer” who is also a Stafford County Sheriff deputy approached Neli. That’s when accounts begin to diverge.

Lisa said her son complied with a search, which failed to find a weapon. Police say Neli “attacked and assaulted the deputy for no apparent reason.”

Neli told his mother that the school officer threatened him, and that Neli said “You’re harassing me. You’re not allowed to do that. I know my rights,” then turned and walked away. According to Neli, the officer grabbed him from behind and choked him. Police reports say a scuffle ensued, during which the officer pepper sprayed Neli. The Sheriff Department version, which you can read here, says Neli then took the spray from the officer and turned it on him.

According to Lisa, Neli said he took the spray and ran into the woods. The deputy, Thomas Calverley, reportedly suffered a cut to the head and a broken ankle, and underwent surgery.

By this time sheriff deputies were combing the area with search dogs, and at least one TV news crew offered a breathless live report of the manhunt. Neli somehow eluded the dragnet for another 45 minutes before being spotted and arrested in the high school parking lot, shortly before 10 am.

No gun was found “and subsequent investigation has indicated that that a gun was not actually seen by the reporting parties,” according to the official report.

Lisa learned of the arrest at 10:30 am, when she called the police to report that her son was missing. “I was told that he was in custody and was currently being questioned but I was not told why,” she said. “They wouldn’t tell me anything, and wouldn’t allow me to visit him. I told the police that Neli has autism, but they didn’t seem to care.”

For the next 11 days, Neli was held without bail, and in isolation at the Rappahannock Regional Jail. Police allowed Neli’s school counselor to visit, and she relayed messages and information to Lisa, who was allowed only one visit. “He wasn’t able to speak or communicate with me. He appeared to be in a catatonic state”, Lisa says.

She is understandably frustrated and angry.

“The actions that were taken by the police that day were excessive in the least and grossly mishandled,” Lisa wrote on a website that she started to counter inaccurate local media reports. “Someone says ‘I see a suspicious black male’ and he ‘could’ have a gun, while all my son was doing was sitting in the grass at the library. And you shut down six schools and go out on a manhunt for this dangerous black man who was sitting in the grass. Anyone can read between the lines and see that this just doesn’t add up.”

[url=http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/1137](ARTICLE CONTINUES)

[/url]

http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/1146 wrote:
... Neli said he was first approached by a Stafford County sheriff deputy behind a high school, and was searched without incident. After no weapon was found, Neli told his mother, this is what the deputy said:
Quote:
“How is your mom? Did she find her baby daddy yet? Don’t worry champ, keep hope alive (pumps fist in air), bet your grandma still hasn’t found her baby daddy yet. What is she, 100 years old? Maybe she should call Tyrone and find out. Maybe you should go on Maurey and find out who your daddy is. Your dad is probably sitting on the corner at the liquor store drinking. I have a dream that one day all the little black boys and little black girls will know who their father is. I have a dream that one day all black fathers will stop running out on their whores to go rob a bank. I bet you all are glad that Barack Obama is President now. You get to get free fried chicken. You can rob a bank and get away with it. Maybe now dog fighting will not be illegal. He should have went to jail longer.

“Barack Obama is going to turn the White House into a strip club and call it the n****r house. He’s going to paint the White House black and put strippers on top of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a black b***h every now and then. But that’s not what the White House is about. Oh, I forget, it’s called the n****r house. How’s a baboon going to know how to run the White House? That’s why it’s called the White House, not the baboon house. Boy, I remember the good old days when we were cracking the whips on your backs.”

[url=http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/1146](ARTICLE CONTINUES)
[/url]



LuxoJr
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14 Mar 2011, 2:02 am

Humans nowadays.


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Todesking
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14 Mar 2011, 2:09 am

When I was 16 I was doing stop-motion on super-8 film but I did not have a tripod so borrowed my buddy's father's. I wrapped it in a beach towel so it would not get messed up durring the walk to their house when I returned it. A cop pulled me over because someone called the police saying I had a pellet rifle wrapped up in a towel so the cop snatched it from without asking what it was or giving me a chance to unravel it. He grabbed the towel and just let it unroll causing the tripod to smack on the sidewalk breaking it so it could not lock in place. The cop looks at me and says oh boy. sorry kid. He gave me a card with his name on it and tells me to have my friend's dad call him. He was cool until he found out how much the tripod cost so he tried to say I broke it and was blaming him for the damage it took my friend's dad 8 months to get his money after he threatened to get a lawyer involved.

All it takes is one as*hole to exaggerate while on a phone to the police to get you hasseled by the police. The cop shows up thinking they are dealing with an armed suspect due to bad information. They should make the 911 caller liable for everything that happened for giving false info.


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nostromo
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14 Mar 2011, 3:38 am

Do most people in the USA think the right to bear lethal weapons in public is a good thing? Just because it is inscribed in the constitution doesn't mean it is actually relevant to modern day.
As far as I know there are no longer wild bears roaming around the US..I could be misinformed



Molecular_Biologist
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14 Mar 2011, 4:50 am

nostromo wrote:
Do most people in the USA think the right to bear lethal weapons in public is a good thing? Just because it is inscribed in the constitution doesn't mean it is actually relevant to modern day.
As far as I know there are no longer wild bears roaming around the US..I could be misinformed


The 2nd amendment ain't about hunting.



DCxMagus
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14 Mar 2011, 5:03 am

The main problem in all of this(besides the blatant racism of the cops) is the fact that the American public is so ingrained with fear from the sensationalized local news reports they quickly assume the absolute worse case scenario when they see something out of the ordinary. Hell in my area if you are walking around past 7pm and a cop drives past you 9/10 you'll be stopped, searched and questioned like your doing something illegal.



ducky9924
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14 Mar 2011, 5:27 am

hmmmm anyone see any updated info. I'd be nice to know a more recent status of this case.



Apple_in_my_Eye
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14 Mar 2011, 5:39 am

Written by his mother (on the petition site):

Quote:
UPDATE: On Friday May 4, [2011] my son was found guilty and sentenced to 10 YEARS in jail!! Please sign the petition and others to sign as well.


http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/autism ... injustice/

I'm assuming she's trying to get publicity to get help with an appeal (that maybe the ACLU or someone will help with legal stuff if there's enough publicity in it for them -- she doesn't sound wealthy.)



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14 Mar 2011, 5:59 am

if she wants help she needs to be a lot more proactive then just starting a petition on the petition site.

She needs to contact the ACLU, some news media, something there are petitions on that site with tens of thousands of signatures that don't get squat done.



Apple_in_my_Eye
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14 Mar 2011, 6:04 am

Where does it say that that's all she has done and is doing?



nostromo
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14 Mar 2011, 7:15 am

Molecular_Biologist wrote:
nostromo wrote:
Do most people in the USA think the right to bear lethal weapons in public is a good thing? Just because it is inscribed in the constitution doesn't mean it is actually relevant to modern day.
As far as I know there are no longer wild bears roaming around the US..I could be misinformed


The 2nd amendment ain't about hunting.

I meant as protection from bears.



Gideon
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14 Mar 2011, 9:22 am

well abut six months ago a bear attacked my chicken coop...so yes wild bears are still roaming around. However we have the right to own weapons to defend ourselves from rabid politicians not wild bears.



auntblabby
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14 Mar 2011, 10:22 am

bearing false witness sucks, whether or not bears are involved.



kc8ufv
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14 Mar 2011, 12:00 pm

nostromo wrote:
Molecular_Biologist wrote:
nostromo wrote:
Do most people in the USA think the right to bear lethal weapons in public is a good thing? Just because it is inscribed in the constitution doesn't mean it is actually relevant to modern day.
As far as I know there are no longer wild bears roaming around the US..I could be misinformed


The 2nd amendment ain't about hunting.

I meant as protection from bears.

Most people recognize the correct term. Slang can get confusing.



Lecks
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14 Mar 2011, 12:33 pm

I hope this all gets sorted out, as someone who'd do pretty much the same thing as him it strikes a cord.



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14 Mar 2011, 1:05 pm

nostromo wrote:
Do most people in the USA think the right to bear lethal weapons in public is a good thing? Just because it is inscribed in the constitution doesn't mean it is actually relevant to modern day.
As far as I know there are no longer wild bears roaming around the US..I could be misinformed


My ex co-worker's cousin's 5 year old was attacked by a boar in their fenced in backyard he almost had to have his leg removed. This was in Georgia.

My father's 84 acres of land in Western New York near the PA boarder has black bears, moutain lions, and coyotes.

Its not uncommon for mountain lions to attack hikers and bicyclists in some California suburbs and rural areas.

Gideon wrote:
well abut six months ago a bear attacked my chicken coop...so yes wild bears are still roaming around. However we have the right to own weapons to defend ourselves from rabid politicians not wild bears.


We are having bear sightings in the suburbs here. We also have coyotes roaming behind a K-mart and a cemetary and this New York state.


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Last edited by Todesking on 14 Mar 2011, 6:16 pm, edited 3 times in total.