Suit - Police killed autistic teen by sitting on him

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A teen with autism died after Louisiana deputies sat on him for 9 minutes, parents' lawsuit says

Sounds familiar. But will there be protests?

Yeah?

they also murdered Elijah Mclain an autistic black man, and no justice has been served yet in that case.


Did this killing of the autistic teen occur before or after Elijah Mclain? not that it matters that much seems the police can murder at will without facing actual consequences regardless. Last I heard even after it was public knowledge that the police who killed him uploading mocking pictures hat his grave site that they sent to other officers who also had a good laugh. Yet so far none of those cops who murdered him are facing any actual charges....they freaking beat a person who was trying to cooperate and then overdosed him with ketamine.

All he was doing was walking home after he had gone to get a drink from the nearby gas station and for that he was killed. simply for walking while black and autistic was what they brutally executed him on the streets for.

Generally there are two sides to every story. So what is the other side?

"While the Sheriff's Office understands that all deaths are cause for sadness and a time for grieving, this lawsuit is rife with false claims and malicious accusations against the first responding deputies.

"This case centers on a severely autistic teenager diagnosed with numerous other mental conditions which caused him to have frequent violent outbursts. The teenager violently attacked his father in a Jefferson Parish parking lot. The teenager beat and bit his own father, causing significant visible bloody injuries. A bystander called the Sheriff's Office to respond to the scene.

"Once deputies arrived, they tried to control the violent teenager's outbursts to prevent him from again attacking his parents and first responders. Deputies allowed the teenager's mother constant access to remain close to her son on the scene so that she could help first responders in defusing her son's violent behavior.

The lawsuit says that the Jefferson Parish coroner identified Eric's cause of death as "Excited Delirium due to an Acute Psychotic Episode in the setting of Severe Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Disruptive Behavior Disorder."

The suit says the coroner also identified contributing factors to his death that included morbid obesity with prone positioning and cardiomegaly.

The manner of death was classified as an accident.

Source: Parents of teen with autism who died during arrest in Jefferson Parish files suit against sheriff, deputies

Whenever i have been arrested, the police were nothing but courteous.

So this teen was violent while black victims are never violent when dealing with police. Look at George Floyd.

But if I carried a taser to tase my child every time they attack me, I would be charged with child abuse for self defense.

Sorry, everyone here who has known me long enough know I hate violent people, including those with severe mental illnesses or severe autism.

Maybe in America It's bad. Where its run like a gestapo. But here in UK, Police are generally unarmed and polite, if you dont try to mess with them that is. I personally never had any problem with Police.

I hope that people get together and protest. Those of us at WP should start a protest and see how many people join us.

This is an interesting subject, and interestingly enough, I perhaps have useful experience which may help with this particular incident.

I say this as I have autism spectrum disorder with prominent sensory impairment which causes significant hypersensitivity to auditory sensory information but also visual sensory stimulation, although, to the greater extent, duet to correct medication (old school tricyclic antidepressants called clomipromine), the frequency in which i have meltdowns is considerably less than when i was on normal NT modern antidepressants that raised the level of Norepinephrine (the neurotransmitter that increases hyper vigilance and fight and flight response).

I am also experienced at being man handled by the police when having a meltdown, in some cases, I have been assaulted without reason by several police officers at a time.

I also am a qualified instructor and coach in Judo, and am qualified to teach the entire white to black belt syllabus including (and perhaps especially) strangulation techniques. I also understand the safety risks and understand how dangerous such techniques are if done incorrectly.

In my experience, police officers generally do not have a good understanding of ASD and do not know the difference between antisocial behaviour and ASD caused sensory overload "meltdowns".

Meltdowns, you will know if you suffer from them, can look very much like antisocial behaviour but are in fact completely different for the following reason.

Antisocial behaviour is bad behaviour that is chosen by the person exhibiting the anti-social behaviour.
ASD sensory overload meltdowns, however, are involuntary neurological reactions caused by dysfunctional brain development which in turn can cause an individual to exhibit what looks like tantrum like or even violent behaviour.

Due to the cause being caused by ASD neurological dysfunction, meltdowns are NOT chosen BAD behaviour, but
as mentioned, involuntary and hard to avoid, as well as in some cases, hard to predict.

In my experiences, if a sensitive individual is exposed to sensory triggers (which can also include people having a go at them causing psychological distress or confusion), then it can take literally even just a few seconds to cause a meltdown.

When a person with ASD has a meltdown, the meltdown can not be stopped by an outside person using normal strategies and instead, are best treated in a "wait till it boils over" strategy.

During a meltdown, the individual with ASD enters the fight, flight and freeze response, and usually is stuck in FIGHT mode, and will remain in FIGHT mode and hyper vigilant until the Meltdown dissipates.

The best strategy is to allow the person some space and to get out the way of the firing line.
Wait for some time, and the person will eventually return to normal, perhaps due to exhaustion.

If people approach the individual in FIGHT mode and attempt to CONTROL that person using restraint,
the individual in FIGHT mode will perceive you as a threat to his/her well being and will likely FIGHT back.

So. In the case mentioned, in my opinion, what the police officers did was incorrect.

Now, with regards to using a strangle / choke hold to restrain an individual.
I do not understand why the police officers felt it necessary to use such a strategy, as chokes/strangles are fairly extreme but effective method to use to tame an assailant.

Strangles can be used safely, if applied for the appropriate amount of time. For example, 10 seconds of a full strangle (that blocks both of the main carotid arteries to the brain) should be sufficient to put most people under regardless as to the size of the person.

A person usually needs to keep a strangle on for an extreme amount of time before it causes death.
The time I have been advised on (as i have never killed anyone with a strangle) is 2 minutes.
After 2 minutes, it is possible for a person to survive, but the 2 min time period is what paramedics advise that will cause brain damage.

If the law enforcement agents used a choke technique instead (chokes apply force to block a persons airway).
Such use of Chokes, I personally advise against (although are still legal in competitive Judo), as if someone applies too much brute force against someones airway, i.e. their trachea aka windpipe, then there is always the danger of that the victims trachea may swell up from the inside and cause the victim to suffocate.

Without further information as to what occurred during this incident, I can see that there is a possibility that either of these scenarios may have happened.

Nonetheless, it is my opinion that regardless as to which of the two above scenario's did in fact happen,
neither were good police work and both, in my opinion are regarded as excessive force and incompetence on the part of the law enforcement officers.

This thread simply makes me even more adamant that some of us vulnerable "meltdown" ASD folk
need a safe sanctuary, where the people around you understand your condition and understand why you act in certain ways during certain circumstances.

But also to avoid the NT world, who simply do not understand the condition that you suffer from to be able to treat you in the appropriate manner.

After all, if someone had an epileptic fit, and someone choked them out, it would NOT BE ACCEPTABLE>

If any one tried to choke me out when i was having a meltdown, they may end up getting the tables turned on them,
as I am pretty good at strangles and chokes, the difference is, I won't cause their death through heavy handedness or incompetence.