Autistic Teenager Is Beaten by Deputies After Being Mistaken for a Prowler

[50 Freak]

This is just not good anyway you look at it.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBDXKXEM6E.html

Mar 22, 2005
The Associated Press

MOUNTAIN GATE, Calif. (AP) - An autistic teenager suffered a head injury and a broken elbow in a beating by three sheriff's deputies who mistook him for a prowler, authorities say. Pierre Cowell, a 17-year-old who does not speak, had wandered from his home early Friday.

A neighbor, who did not recognize him, called 911 after seeing him outside her home about 2 a.m., Capt. Tom Bosenko said Monday. The woman became alarmed when she heard the doorknob jiggling, he said.

As three deputies approached the house, Cowell ran toward them and bumped one of them, Bosenko said. When Cowell didn't respond to the officers' commands, they used a baton, stun gun and pepper spray to subdue him.

"The officers were very much concerned for their safety," Bosenko said, adding that the deputies thought Cowell was under the influence of drugs. He said that the officers did not know that an autistic teenager was missing at the time.

Cynthia Cowell said she was unaware her son had left their home Friday until deputies came to her door.

"He doesn't understand anything to do with danger. He has to have someone constantly with him," she said.

She said she was surprised the deputies did not know he was autistic until she told them. "Being totally nonverbal would be a clue," she said.

 

[RyanM]

Sheesh. Like police officers are supposed to know every single mental disorder there is? Not to mention that not speaking is not a very typical symptom of autism.

Most forms of autism are basically self-centeredness to such a degree that the person cannot function normally in society; oftentimes autistic people are also unable to understand the fact that other people are, in fact, people. Not too far off from antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy), except aggressive behavior towards others is not usually exhibited.

For instance, an autistic child, when asked to show a picture to another child, might show the back of the picture to them, being unable to understand that the other child has a unique viewpoint (literally and physically, in this case).

I can't really form an opinion of the officers' actions by just the information given, but blaming them for not realizing this kid was autistic is not very justifiable.

 

[TheFederalistWeasel]

Damn…

But lets look at this one,

Pierre Cowell, a 17-year-old who does not speak, had wandered from his home early Friday.

Sad but it happens from time to time.

A neighbor, who did not recognize him, called 911 after seeing him outside her home about 2 a.m., Capt. Tom Bosenko said Monday. The woman became alarmed when she heard the doorknob jiggling, he said.

Disoriented, or whatever the kid (person) is outside a persons home and tries to enter the home not his, at 2AM leading the homeowner to believe that a prowler is attempting to gain entry.

As three deputies approached the house, Cowell ran toward them and bumped one of them, Bosenko said. When Cowell didn't respond to the officers' commands, they used a baton, stun gun and pepper spray to subdue him.

Nothing wrong here, they reacted based on the information they had at the time, a prowler attempting to gain entry to a home, upon arrival a suspicious person takes flight evidentally making some type of contact with a Deputy in the process, Deputies react the way they are trained, verbal commands, OC then stun gun and or baton.

"The officers were very much concerned for their safety," Bosenko said, adding that the deputies thought Cowell was under the influence of drugs. He said that the officers did not know that an autistic teenager was missing at the time.

Absolutely!!!

Cynthia Cowell said she was unaware her son had left their home Friday until deputies came to her door.

"He doesn't understand anything to do with danger. He has to have someone constantly with him," she said.

Then maybe you need to keep a better eye on him, I doubt this and I bet the truth be known, this was not the first time he did this, wander off that is.

She said she was surprised the deputies did not know he was autistic until she told them. "Being totally nonverbal would be a clue," she said.

Oh of course but then again I can’t remember too many criminals I surprise in the middle of the night deciding to say much or stop to carry on a conversation with me. Besides most incidents like this happen so fast you just react and react the way you are trained which is exactly the way the Deputies did.

 

[RevDisk]

It's understandable that the police might have not recognized the teenager as autistic. If he went bezerk while being handcuffed, it's understandable that his elbow got broken. Most autistics I've met do not respond well to being forcibly restrained, and some can show strength equal to PCP users.

The kid's mom should have notified police ahead of time about his autism, but it's understandable that she didn't. My local PD has a file for Alzheimer patients, I'd imagine smaller police departments wouldn't have a policy for such cases.

If everything is how it says in this article, it sounds like a really unfortinate accident.

 

[cracked butt]

Hooray! That community is a much safer place now. Too bad the police didn't have a shotgun loaded up with bean bags to try on him also.

 

[Daemon688]

I think the police reacted properly, now if they killed this boy it would be a different story.

 

[dolanp]

Can't really fault the police on this one. Guy starts jiggling the handle to someone's door, doesn't respond to police orders, then comes at them? Whose first thought is "This guy must be autistic, we'll just play this one out..."?

 

[Andrew Rothman]

From the limited information given, there's no evidence that the cops acted inappropriately.

And calling him "beaten" in the headline is begging the question of whether the amount of force used was appropriate or excessive.

That's crappy journalism.

 

[GaryP]

Beaten is a poor choice of words in this case! How about Restrained by Deputies?

 

[Andrew Rothman]

The original story is here: http://www1.redding.com/redd/nw_local/article/0,2232,REDD_17533_3641064,00.html

And they used "beaten" too.

 

[sharpie613]

Autism is what I do for a living, such as it were, and if one of my kids ran into a cop, I would not expect that officer to know that the kid was autistic. There are over 200 indicators of an autism spectrum disorder and none of them are explicitly visual. It's not like Down's syndrome where there is a list of traits that one can mentally apply and put two and two together.

My kids are 6-8 years old, and I have to really muscle them down if the situation calls for it. I'm in pretty good shape, and an 8 year old with no concept of restraint can give me a run for my money if I have to hold him down. Three adults restraining one 17-year old...sounds like an even match. I will say that pain and compliance restraints won't work so hot, since autistics are either hypersensitive or hyposensitive to sensation. This is really a lose-lose situation.

 

[GaryP]

The original story is here: http://www1.redding.com/redd/nw_loc...3641064,00.html

And they used "beaten" too.

I expect no less from the Fuzzy Thinking Liberal Press!

 

[DonNikmare]

Autism is one of several pervasive developmental disorders. Onset is usually in the 1st or 2nd year of life. The brain(Cognitively) develops normally then stops and regresses. Some people with less severe autism learn to speak but those with the most severe are usually totally non-verbal, etc. etc. etc. However, it IS NOT a "form of self-centeredness".

I work on an inpatient psych unit and have spent many hours, days, and weeks with autistic kids 2-17 years old. They are the most challanging to work with out of all the different kids we see.

One of the best things a parent of an autistic child can do is to tell their neighbors, provide them with a brief expaination of what the disorder means, give them a piture of the child/person with autism as well as a ph. # to call in case they see the child/person unsupervised outside.

The parents should then do the same with their local police department. They could even do it as a formal inservice for the police officers.

Blaming the police is not right. Police officers are trained to protect people, fight crime, etc. while protecting themselves, and should not be expected to recodnize a mental disorder, at 2am in the dark mind you, and therapeutically manage behavior.
If there is anyone to blame it is the parents for not educating their neighbors, and local law enforcement.

Nik

 

[Bear Gulch]

My question: where were the parents.

If you have a special needs kid with this level of disability having the technology in place where he doesn't wander off at 2 am is appropriate. Doors can be alarmed , whatever it takes. Bottom line, this is mam and dad's fault.

I had to got to grad school to be able to diagnose autistic disorders. Why the heck do you expect the cops to be able to do so at 2 am in a dark yard. Maybe we're expecting just a bit too much?

 

[GW]

Accidents happen and this is all this is As for the word beaten it seems both accurate and inflammatory. To their defense--caring for an autistic boy 24-7-365 for 17 years well you can imagine its an awful lot of work and you know what happens.
Personally I think Mom & Dad should have notified the police of who their son is and his condition. Her righteous indignation would carry a little more water if she had taken that simple step. It is unreasonable of her to expect a policeman to run an mental health assessment on a person charging them at 2:AM when, from info available, she made no effort to notify even her neighbors of her son's condition.
If she had done that simple thing, she would have had 50 people all looking out for her son instead of a person frightened for her safety and police responding as they should in a life-threatening situation.

I'll bet she gets millions

 

[gotbass]

Knowing the Redding newpaper(fish wrap) -

it comes as no surprize that it would be reported as a beating. the county always comes out on the sort end with the local press.

 

[sharpie613]

There is no dad...which adds to the problem on many levels. Read the article.

Single parents with no outside help usually wind up putting their autistic children in group homes.

 

[johnster999]

Sorry the boy got hurt but it looks like the cops were in the right.

999

 

[GW]

Single parents with no outside help usually wind up putting their autistic children in group homes.

And some view it as abandoning their kids
Mom seems to have had a handle on this for 16.99 years but you only have to screw up once
As for being a single mom, Many marriages with disabled children break up. The strain is too much for some and most times its mom left with the disabled kid

This whole story is all just a terrible accident
but if you have an encounter and end up with a head injury and a broken arm, you've had a beating
And from what we've seen so far from this story, the cops were justified in giving that beating

 

[JohnBT]

You know, if I ran into someone who didn't respond to the spoken word and didn't speak, my first guess would be that they're Deaf. Or they're drunk, lost, confused and blinded by the flashlights. Heck, maybe they're drunk and don't speak English.

Anyway, looks to me like they got a little carried away if the head injury is really a head injury and not just a scalp laceration. Anyone have an opinion on where we draw the line on what constitutes an acceptable beating - 2 broken bones, 3, 4?

John

 

[buzz_knox]

Nothing wrong here, they reacted based on the information they had at the time, a prowler attempting to gain entry to a home, upon arrival a suspicious person takes flight evidentally making some type of contact with a Deputy in the process, Deputies react the way they are trained, verbal commands, OC then stun gun and or baton.

Aren't they also trained to use their heads prior to escalating the level of force used? There's nothing here to indicate that he did more than bump an officer, so unless you're privy to some information the rest of us aren't, there's nothing justifying your acceptance of this level of force.

People complain about the cops being harshly judged on limited information. Coming to their defense on similarly limited information is just as bad.

 

[Bear Gulch]

Buzz, I have been an army MP and a deputy with the so for a combined 8 years. They get the benefit of the doubt from me because I understand the conditions under which they work. Walk a mile in their shoes.

I stand by my original statement, this is largely mom and dad's fault. His not being there in no way absolves him of the responsibility of seeing to the safety needs of his child.

 

[buzz_knox]

Bear Gulch, I don't question the incredible failures of the parents. Not in the least. I just question the willingness to accept that three deputies felt sufficiently threatened by this person that they escalated the levels of force used, based on no evidence that this was justified. Would it have required them to shoot the kid in the back of the head before someone says "did it have to go that far?" Show me the kid was screaming, kicking, biting, whatever, and I'll accept it. Tell me to accept that three deputies needed to resort to these tactics without the evidence to support it, and I won't.

I haven't walked a mile in their shoes, but I've got friends who are cops and FBI SWAT. I've also represented my agency's police unit, which is a fully accredited federal law enforcement agency in its own right. So, I have a bit an understanding of what's involved. I also expect those professionals to act professional.

 

[Johnnybgood]

The Mom probably needed

a little help. I remember a saying "When your up to your __S in alligators it is hard to remember your first priority was to drain the swamp". What I am saying is maybe mom was so busy trying to be a mom to the kid, work, take care of the house....... that she just didn't think about electronic alarms, notifying police..... I am an RN working an Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit. We get autistic kids on the unit occasionally and I can tell you from experience that the parents are usually the most caring and involved parents. Much more involved and caring then some of the other parents I deal with.
Let's remember anything you read in the papers is suspect. Maybe mom was a little upset (?) and the papers changed it to insenced (?). Also things may have been said under the heat of the moment that aren't the true feelings of those who say them.
Yes, the police did what was necessary and as they were trained. But let's give mom a break here too.
Smack the reporters up along side the head though.

 

[jefnvk]

I'm gonna fall in on the side of the police on this one. They had no way of knowing he was autistic.