Soledad wrote:
I am black and I have had an encounter with the police before. This was for me having a meltdown in the middle of an open field by a grocery store. i was really upset that day. I saw a car over in the parking lot and I guessed that was the person who called the police. The police checked me for weapons, but didn't do anything after that. They told me they cared about me, but it was bs, they just saw me as a threat. If i didn't calm down, I had the feeling I was going to be tased, and that would not have been good. Now I know I'm a black man so I have to not have meltdowns like that. I can't get away with what a white aspie or female aspie may be able to get away with because I'm black. and when the police sees a black man, they don't think aspergers or anything else, they think threat. Last saturday I went to an asperger/police meeting in PHX and the police was telling us how they are training cops for these types of incidents to help preserve life. I kept my mouth shut, because I know even a police trained for this type of incident wont even care because I'm black. I don't like cops because I know they don't like me. I may sound small minded, but I've been open minded about stuff like this long enough. I did community service with the police once (it was for school, not in trouble) and they said so many racist jokes about arabs, Obama and so on. I don't like police.
Soledad, as a white woman who is a fellow aspie, while I will never understand what it's like being black given that I'm white and the oppressor who gets off easy with the police, however, I do feel your pain. Random Clinton quote there with the I feel your pain. I know this is going to sound racist and I apologize in advance if I've offended you by saying this, but to this white aspie girl who grew up in a small hick town in South Jersey having AS is pretty much the neurological version of being black before the civil rights era (to a white person, anyway)was born. In both cases being treated as if one was a second class citizen was involved. Once again, I apologize if I have offended you in any way. Growing up, I was able to relate to the struggle that blacks went through in past times and still go through to this day. The only difference is is that I feel that the struggle that black people have endured throughout 5+ centuries is far more significant than my own personal struggle for equality. Well, that equality in my case is neurological based equality, yet the struggle of black people is far more important.
The cops aren't too thrilled with me either because I'm different neurologically and one of my biggest fears when it comes to traveling this country is being stopped for some bogus reason and getting tasered because I didn't listen to directions. However during a traffic stop one time, about 5 years ago, I was speeding driving home from class. Apparently the police were following me because of that and I didn't recognize them because they weren't traveling in the standard car. They were driving in a goddamn police issue SUV, which to me then could've been an ambulatory one a sheriff or a fire marshal or something of that nature would drive, therefore no big thing. Apparently having AS and ADD to these guys means I'm a bigger threat on the road than a drunken driver or someone who's driving with a suspended license and also drunk. Anyway, when I was driving home from class, I had noticed that the SUV was following me for some time. When they finally put their sirens on, I realized that it was the police. Since it had dawned on me that I wasn't helping matters by not pulling over when I should have when I first saw the SUV following me, but like I said, I wasn't aware that police can actually drive around in one of those gargantuan things. I tried signaling to them that I was going to pull over when I found enough room for me to do so without wrecking someone else's car that was parked on the side of the road, but it's not good enough. Apparently when I did find sufficient space for me to pull over, I calmly tried to ask the officer what the problem was. No good, apparently because the next thing I knew I was asked to stand against the damn car that I drive and was about to be arrested. I was asking why was I being arrested, and frankly, I was freaking out because I didn't know what was going on then. However, I ended up avoiding arrest after explaining why and I honestly disclosed that the only thing I had taken within that timeframe was my prescription medication I take for ADD, which is Adderall so they could eliminate the possibility of being under the influence. Then again, I often wonder if I got off like I did because I was a white aspie woman. Had I been a black aspie woman, I probably would've wound up in a holding cell for until someone I knew came and bailed me out.
Once again, I apologize if this sounded racist.
02 Jul 2010, 1:08 pm
