ICE Bands/Autism alert bracelets

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I ordered just the plate and made my own bracelet. I don't expect it would be useful if the police are being as*holes, but in an emergency situation, it may help.
And if it never gets used... well. It's pretty. :-p

Just noticed this thread. Seems pertinent to point out that it was MY face that the police decided to ram into a wall. They describe it as "controlling the suspect against the building line.." (Have to love euphemisms..)

For the record, its rather irrelevant what I was actually doing when the police decided to take me in, as they failed to follow either standard arrest procedure, nor the procedures that apply to the arrest of disabled members of the public, nor the guidelines as to how to approach autistic members of the public.

The actual charge as it reads on the charge sheet is: "causing harrassment, alarm and distress". If "leaving the area when requested to do so by a police officer" is considered to be such a thing, then yes, i may be guilty as charged. My "crime" if there is one, is standing too near to Cooplands at 2am on New Years Day, such that I (and friends) were asked by the night manager to move out of rthe way of other customers. It should be noted that not only were some of our party purchasing food, but I was considering making a purchase myself. His manner was brusque, rude and confrontational, and attracted the attention of a nearby officer, who asked us to move away. I responded with "I didnt realise it was illegal to think about buying some f*****g bread, but whatever, Im leaving." Which I then did.

Having read the statement of the officers involved, it became very clear that my actions after that were almost wholly misinterpreted by OTHER officers. What was described in the statement as "puffing out my chest in an aggressive manner" was in fact me tying my hair back in a bobble.. which involves reaching behind my head in a manner which causes my chest to jut out.. (try it yourself, it does do that.) This, my GENERAL APPEARANCE and my rapid walk AWAY from the scene was judged by other officers to be grounds for making an arrest under section 5 (anti-riot) legislation. I was approached FROM BEHIND and pushed face first at speed into a wall. (The aforementioned building line). I was not told I was being restrained for arrest by the Police, so to the best of my knowledge, I was being attacked by unknown assailants who were within my personal space and engaged in copious amounts of physical contact. I was not aware that I was being arrested by the police until AFTER I had been restrained and thrown bodily into a van, as I was being screamed at by several different people at once, over the top of other people also shouting. Thus I was unable to process most of the instructions I was given, or even differentiate one instruction from another. Its worth noting that after being dropped bodily ON MY FACE I was rendered unconcious for an unknown period of time, and the officers attempt to bring me round involved shining a police issue Maglite directly into my eyes whilst shouting at me and lifting me by my arms alone. (Try it, get some friends to lift you up by your upper arms alone, without assistance from you, it hurts and it leaves marks and in my case permanent damage to my shoulder-blade area.)

It should be noted that the statement reads that I was continuously appearing to be aggressive and resisting physically. It should be noted that I appear to be aggressive (at least facially) almost constantly. My control of my facial expressions is such that I constantly appear to be very angry. It should also be noted that my INSTINCTIVE reaction upon physical touch is to attempt to break that touch. It also describes me as being a good 2 inches taller than I actually am (though to be fair ALL of the arresting officers were substantially shorter than me at 6ft tall.)

Throughout the "arrest" the officers were informed again and again that I was autistic, and that by applying very simple (and sensible) actions, could easily resolve the problem without any of the violence or argument. The official police response to that was to SCREAM in my partners face (and this by the only officer over 6ft tall to a girl only 5ft 6" tall, of slight build.) and then ask "well what are we supposed to do about it?"

SYP as recently as September underwent a high profile training program specifically designed for dealing with autistic people in the criminal justice system. As has been mentioned, WE KNOW the woman who was involved in the training, and we also WORK WITH others involved in it. WE KNOW EXACTLY what police process is supposed to be when engaged in arresting an autistic suspect. Its written out at length on the NAS website and at NO POINT does it suggest that snashing the suspect face-first into a building and the pavement is an advisable course of action ( amongst others.) For that matter, behaviour like that isn't considered acceptable in a regular arrest.

I have barely scraped the surface of the litany of abuses I was forced to suffer, merely picked a few choice highlights off the top, but its worth noting a few pertinent points about the whole event.

1) The police believed I was drunk at the time of the event. This is categorically not the case. However, had I been drunk, I was rendered unconcious by a blow to the head. Thus I should have been checked by a medical professional, as head-wounds to inebriated people can be extremely dangerous. (As evidenced in the UK triage system.) This did not happen. Thus the acted in a manner which endangered my life.

2) SYP have been known in recent times to use Section 5 legislation (which is deliberately vague) in order to affect arrests against drunks to meet targets which give the impression that they are controlling the problem of public drinking. It relies on the possibility that you MAY be involved in criminal behaviour, or are giving the impression you are doing so. You do not actually have to BE engaged in criminal beaviour to be arrested for it. (Essentially, if you LOOK like you are committing a crime, you ARE committing a crime.

3) The charge I was given is SO MINOR that by the admission of the Desk Sergeant and the Arresting Officer it is not even legally cautionable. It ranks on the same level of criminal behaviour as littering or spitting, or wearing a Cradle of Filth Vestal Masturbation Tee-shirt (google it to see why).. so if the "crime is so minor" how is it justifiable to use such excessive force to engage in an arrest for it? They could as easily have approached me clearly and from the front, and issued an on the spot fine, quite peacefully for this minor a charge. That is in fact what they SHOULD have done. But instead they chose to engage in what (to anyone else but the police) would be considered assault, pure and simple. Clearly even if Autism is ON their training, Irony isnt.

4) SYP can and do engage in such arrests regularly, against both male and female "suspects".. they are NOT more gentle with females. Had they engaged in a similar arrest against my partner (who has greater touch sensitivity and hypersensitivity issues than I do) then there is a good chance they would have caused her great inhury or even caused her death. Had they attempted the same on someone with Kanners or LFA autism the results would have been devastating.

My MAIN concern is not injustice towards myself, or even the damage and degradation caused to me, nor even them affecting my otherwise completely clean record. No, my main concern is that if the police insist on acting in this manner with disabled "suspects" then they WILL kill someone, and as I have autistic children and friends, I fear for their safety in the hands of the very people who exist to PROTECT them.

As for the wristbands.. whlist I am very cynical that any item of warning would be ignored (up to and including tattooing IM AUTISTIC on my face) , I do believe that a wristband would be undeniably visible to arresting officers and thus give an autistic person greater legal defence. Ignore it they might (and probably would) but when presented during an official complaint, it would be an extra layer of retrospective evidence. There is even the possibility that an officer might pay attention BEFORE engaging in a swift dose of 70s style policing.