Are Apies Likely to be TASERED More Than NT's?

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Is the Aspie personality just less likely to know the norm, and in not knowing, infurirating taser-toting law enforcement officers?

Winnipeg man shot dead after Taser malfunctions
CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2007

A Winnipeg man is dead after he was shot by police during a violent altercation late Monday night.

Police were called to an apartment building around 10:45 p.m. Monday to find a man armed with a firearm and a bat. Two officers ordered the man to drop the weapons, but he refused, Winnipeg police Sgt. Kelly Dennison said Tuesday.

One of the officers used a Taser in an effort to immobilize the man so he could be safely arrested, but the Taser didn't work. Dennison said he could not comment on why the Taser did not work.


The man still did not drop the weapons and one of the officers, fearing for their safety, fired his pistol at the man. Police would not say how many shots were fired, but people in the area report hearing as many as three or four shots.

"He was told to put the weapon down and he continued to confront the officers," said Dennison. "All of the attempts to get the individual to stop obviously didn't work, and our officers were forced to discharge their firearms."

The man was taken to hospital where he died early Tuesday morning. The two officers in the shooting have been placed on temporary administrative leave. They each have two to five years of experience in the force, Dennison said.

The case is being investigated by the Homicide Unit and a provincial inquest will be held to determine if the circumstances leading up to the shooting were justified.

The man's name and age has not been released. Police said the deceased man did not have a criminal record.



http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/new ... d3&k=38288

What does not cooperating have to do with AS?


They said to drop the weapons. What is there to not understand?

Among others?

Asperger's Syndrom and Social Interactions

may come physically too close to others, step on other's feet, or get "in their face"
may have difficulty offering comfort or may become angry when others are distressed

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

may have difficulty listening to others
may have unusual facial expressions or grimaces, especially when angry
may have difficulty understanding the emotional meanings of facial expressions and gestures of others
may have difficulty with taking the perspective of others, understanding what others may be thinking, what they know, or why they do things
may have difficulty keeping eye contact
may have difficulty understanding the tone of voice indicating irony or sarcasm

Range of Imaginative Activities
may have an extreme interest in one or a few particular (often
may be very resistant to change and have tantrums when plans or the environment are changed suddenly
may lack common sense

Responses to Sensory Input
may be either unusually sensitive or insensitive to sensory input, like loud noise, commotion, moving objects, colors, tastes, smells, touch, and pain
may resist being touched or hugged, or often hug from behind or without putting arms around the person being hugged
may use repetitive behaviors when anxious, to block out other excessive sensory input

Other Biological Effects
may become anxious more easily than typical
may have difficulty with attention deficit and/or hyperactivity, especially when anxious


http://home.swbell.net/jim-rand/checkli ... teractions

Yes, police contacts with people on the spectrum may result in higher incidence of harm to the individual. We are now in a day where police are just starting to be trained on ASDs and how address them when out on a call. If you want to be proactive about the issue, at least in the US, you can contact your local 911 dispatch and inform them that you or a loved one has an ASD. That way, if the need for assistance ever arises, they will have it in their database automatically to approach with consideration of the person with an ASD.

But maybe a gun would not be a good thing to carry around as an Aspie? I would not trust myself. And a gun is always intimidating.

Well, sometimes I carry a pocket knife, but I was instructed on early age to use it as a tool. And that lesson still stays. And a swiss army-knife is not really a thing I can use when I am mad anyway. It is to difficult to get out of my pockets and open it when I am annoyed or mad; my motor control gets terrible. In 20 years I never considered using it as a weapon.

may have difficulty listening to others


Aren't we literal? We should have no problems listening then.

If aspies are so literal, then they should do as told. If I were told to put something down, I'd do it no matter what, even if I didn't understand why. They're police officers so I must listen or I might get into trouble. I've seen what has happened to criminals and other people who wouldn't obey.

I think the issue is not difficulty understanding instructions, but deciding whether to follow them. Our priorities may different. And sometimes, when I'm in a certain mood, I get that I-don't-have-to-listen-to-you attitude, and I just don't do what I'm told. Of course a gun pointed in my direction would change that, but who knows what was going through this guy's mind.

Also, is there any actual reason to believe that he's an aspie, or anywhere on the spectrum? It's not in the article. So is it in another article that you failed to mention, or is this just another red herring?

Let's talk about something real. This thread is now about the stupid generalizations people with ASD/PDD make about themselves. Go!

I don't see how AS has anything to do with carrying deadly weapons and refusing to drop them when ordered by the police. What are the police to do? Wait for the guy to shoot them first?

Looks like it may have been a "suicide by cop."

Plenty of non-aspie people get tasered every day, but I suspect some people might be more likely to get tasered than others. I would think that some people with AS might get flustered under the VERY stressful situation of having cops yell loudly at them and very rapidly. The result might be that some people might not comply fast enough or might "freeze" up or might do the wrong response--- and many cops aren't prepared to deal with this sort of thing. Cops deal with many non-compliant people ( who then get tasered) such as people on drugs/alcohol, belligerent couples/families and felons. Most of these people are non-asperger as well. So I don't know who gets tasered the most.

NTs are that way too. I think it's human behavior, not aspie.

Maybe police officers should start using tranquilizers so that no one gets hurt.

I agree that an AS might freeze up in such a situation -- I could see myself doing it, and if I were in circumstances where cops told me to do something immediately, I might get the taser dart. But then I wouldn't be waving around deadly weapons in the first place.

From what I've read, the Taser is a dangerous weapon and police are often too quick to use it. Recall the (unarmed) Polish guy in the Canadian airport who was creating a disturbance, and died after he was Tasered. A few years ago near my area, an unarmed mentally ill man was in public threatening to kill himself. He went down to a beach and walked waist-deep into the water and refused to come out when ordered to by the sheriff's deputies. One of the bonehead deputies went into the water and Tasered the poor guy, killing him on the spot. Fortunately, the deputy was prosecuted and convicted of manslaughter.

Heres a story about not feeling safe around weapons and tasers.

I once went out to a questionable bar years ago with my dads taser on my belt. I got a little nevous at one point and as I was reaching down to switch off the saftety accidentally tasered myself. Well stunned( it was an old stun gun) so then if there had been trouble I couldnt have even walked away becuse my legs were stunned asleep.

I dont think its a good idea for AS people to own deadly weapons. I no longer collect bayonets and sold my guns to my brother.
Not only do we by definition have a mental disorder the frustrating and depressing side effects of being AS can make us a danger to ourselves and possibly others.

Mace pepper spray isnt deadly and hpefully a cop wont shoot you for having it.

Not unless they are disturbing the peace or holding a suitable weapon. In few occassion, if you were a body builder, you were more likely to get tase if prove to be threatening.

I know that because I saw the Demo DVD of the Taser products. It really cool and a conservative way to deal with threat. Way better than getting shot by a rubber bullet.

I personally have carry and fires a firearm without any problem.

Pepper spray can (and does in recorded cases where it was overused) cause not-so-temporary blindness, and it can even cause asphyxiation/death. Seems to me that any weapon used to incapacitate others well enough to apprehend them is always mortally dangerous in the hands of anyone, even those who have been thoroughly trained/disciplined in how to use them.


Also, if those TV shows about cops are any indication, when they all rush in and start yelling, I can never understand a word they're saying. If I were ever to be in such a situation I'd freeze up not knowing what to do, it'd be like getting assaulted by police who speak another language entirely. Police are rarely sensitive about sensory issues.

I'd say autistic people in general are more likely to be tasered (or subjected to other things like that) than NTs who are not also part of a group that are really likely to be tasered or subjected to other things like that. We're one of many groups of people that's more likely to happen to. Others include deaf people, other people with conditions (especially ones that the police don't understand), people of color, poor people, etc.

And not only more likely to be tasered but also to be shot at. Where I used to live there was a woman who had some kind of psych label and was Asian-American, and the police were told she was acting crazy or something, but they knocked on the door and she was peeling potatoes so she came to the door with a potato knife or something, and they shot her because they insisted she was waving a giant knife at them (she wasn't, she was just peeling potatoes so she just had the knife which was actually quite small). And a lot of deaf people have been shot for not responding to officers' instructions right away (this can also happen with CAPD, I'd imagine, but haven't heard of it yet).

In most of my encounters with police, they have gone badly because police so often grab me from behind. You'd think they'd know that just about anyone who was grabbed from behind would fight, but when they grabbed me from behind they felt like they had to subdue me because I was then "violent", when of course police were among the ones who taught me to struggle if someone grabbed me. Go figure that one out. Ugh.

I still can't figure out why I'm a police-magnet. The last outdoor encounter I had was actually where I was sitting waiting for a staff person in Watsonville, California. People kept walking by and asking if I was okay. I nodded. And then they'd ask again. And I'd nod again. Finally someone called the police. The staff person pulled up right after the police did, and one of the two cops already knew me (I'd given him a copy of Dennis Debbaudt's book on autism and police), so he verified that I lived there (they'd kept asking if I lived there and not getting it when I nodded) and I got to go off with the staff person. I still don't know what the big deal was. That time I was not even having a meltdown like some of the times (and I can sort of understand police investigating a meltdown), nor was I walking around (which some people call the cops to report as "wandering" for some reason). I was just sitting waiting for someone, which I thought wasn't illegal or anything.