On Saturday we went to the Fall Festival at Will’s school. There was a policeman there. I assume because of some Massachusetts Police Union reason and not because the town feared a mass uprising of autistic kids taking over the government. Naturally, I went over to chat with him.
Overview: He admires parents of children with autism a lot. He has a two year old daughter. I said I was glad he was there because the more familiarity police have with autism the more likely they are to appropriately interact with them. I mentioned that Will is going to be huge and I worry about policemen misinterpreting his behavior as threatening. He looked at Will. “Eleven. Yeah, he’s going to be big.” He agreed. Then he waxed poetic about how much better tasers are than batons or bullets. Which, yes, I grant him but just the thought made my head explode. Then I refrained from saying that anyone who tased my son was in for a massive amount of grief. Are you proud of me?
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In defense of the cop (never thought I'd ever write those words) I think he was implying that a taser may be more humane than beating someone senseless with a club. Still, I am proud you didn't take his baton off his belt and pound him. I have the same fears since my son is on his way to being enormous as well. He doesn't have the mind set nor the fine and gross motor skills to hurt a fly. But, I fear some of his stims and behavior may someday be misinterpreted.
He was. He had been tased. He said it really hurt but five minutes later he was fine. He was happy to have a non-lethal and less injurious option.
My dad was a policeman for 25 years. He says that it's a lot different now -- more dangerous for Will in some ways. When he joined there were size and weight requirements. There was an expectation that policemen would to be able to subdue people physically or intimidate them physically. Now some have to rely more on tasers, batons etc.
Funny story: when I talked to my dad about this he told me the story of when he had to arrest someone so big that the handcuffs didn't fit around his wrists. Now I don't think Will will ever be that big or need to be arrested. But if he is I want someone who he doesn't intimidate physically to show up.
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