Estée Klar » Blog Archive » Autistic Boy Struck By Police for Standing

Autistic Boy Struck By Police for Standing

Filed Under (Activism, Discrimination) by Estee on 25-04-2009

April, 25, 2009, Chicago Tribune:

Days after Chicago police promoted their expanded training for dealing with people with autism, a teen with the disorder was allegedly struck by an officer who ignored the family’s pleas that he was a “special boy.”

While Chicago police refused to discuss the incident, relatives of Oscar Guzman detailed the alleged assault and said it was an example of why more officers need to be trained in handling people with special needs.

Guzman, 16, was standing on the sidewalk Wednesday night, taking a break from working in his family’s fast-food restaurant in the Pilsen neighborhood. He was watching cars go by when a police cruiser pulled up and two officers began asking him questions, his family says.

Guzman didn’t understand the questions, said his sister Nubia, 25, and looked down, away and eventually began walking away. Diagnosed with moderate autism at age 4, he doesn’t like confrontation, his sister said.

This story comes on the heels of the other incident in Newfoundland several days ago, where an autistic boy was arrested for walking. Due to the difference in his gait, the officers thought he was drunk. In both instances (see previous post) officers deny the allegations, excusing as “an honest mistake,” or “not commenting until further investigation.” If these statements don’t infuriate parents and autistic people, I don’t know what will. Seems to me that our society values deceipt (covered up as “honest mistakes” and “further investigations), more than honesty and goodwill.

In this Chicago incident, the report states that Easter Seals gave them a training list. Sounds like paper to me. If we don’t get autistic people in there training our police, and some parent allies as well, I’m not sure a document will do the trick.

5 Comments

Comments:

Kent says...

Unbelievable. I’m going to do a video about this. It’s my contention that police , as a whole not as individuals, are dangerous to the health and well being of autistic people. I also don’t care much for Dennis Debbaudt’s training either as he distinguishes treatment between LFA and HFA without accepting that there isn’t a clear line.

Posted on: 25/Apr/2009@8:18 am

sanabituranima says...

*cries* This just happens to much. It’s really depressing.

Posted on: 25/Apr/2009@11:45 am

Kajoli says...

outrageous

Posted on: 27/Apr/2009@1:45 pm

Aura Castro says...

One more time, I’m calling all parents or families having an Autistic child to get united. It doesn’t matter if you are in Canada and we are in USA. This is happening all over and our children are on risk. Let me tell you that when a minor is arrested you can not bail the minour out. If by any stupid mistake that kid is been arrested with a false complaint, but a criminal case the child do not have the right of PAROLE. Our children are in dangers. Thank Gods there are more people getting strong and posting their commnets with simmilar cases. Those children diagonosed at ages of 2,3,4,5 will grown one day, and they are exposed to Police brutality, Child Study Teams that only care for their salaries, Prosecuters and Judges misconducts. Please let’s support each other. Let’s go out and demmand respect to the dignity of our disabled children.

Posted on: 28/Apr/2009@10:00 am

Huriya says...

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this but this article is giving me shivers.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/03/26/bauer_autism/index.html
Estee please let me know what you think about this.

Posted on: 30/Apr/2009@8:31 am