Force against mentally retarded?

[Hal]

I have no problems using whatever is necessary on a perp that's trying to do me harm, but I have mixed feelings about someone who's missing quite a few marbles...

Your thoughts?

My thoughts are that ignorance , prejudice and sterotype are quite alive and well.

 

[Jeff White]

Albert,

Don't hesitate, use whatever force is necessary to stop the attack and defend yourself. As a private citizen you aren't under the same expectations to take the persons mental state into consideration as a caregiver or peace officer might be.

We have a care facility for the developmentally disabled where I work. When I first started on the job they had a different type of client there then they care for now. Within the first couple weeks I took my first call for assistance from the staff. As we pulled up and stopped the squad car, my partner handed me his weapon and said, "lock it in the trunk, put yours there too." I looked at him with kind of a shocked look on my face and he said, "there is no one in there you can shoot, and you're going to need both hands to take care of this, you're not going to want to worry about protecting your weapon from a grab by another client." By that time, the rest of the shift had arrived and all four of us went in, unarmed. It took the four of us and a couple of staff members to get the client restrained and medicated.

Restraining any combative subject, especially one with a disability like that is generally a team function. You can't be expected to handle it by yourself without injuring the subject. Treat it like you would any other self defense situation.

Jeff

 

[JohnBT]

Temper tantrums are not a symtom of mental retardation. Of course, any human being can have a temper tantrum, but it's not something that I've seen very often in a 29-year career working with individuals with disabilities.

Sounds like your neighbor has at least one other diagnosis, too. The DSM-IV is full of diagnoses - psychosis, neurosis, behavioral problems, etc. Could be anything, or nothing out of the ordinary, but it sounds as if you've seen this behavior more than once or twice. (I had a neighbor in Baltimore when I was kid. If his mom wasn't home when he got there after school he would strip naked and pee on the front door. If you put your hand on 'his' fence, he'd whack it with a croquet mallet. I now know that he was not retarded, just seriously disturbed.)

The typical person with mental retardation, including those diagnosed with Down's Syndrome, make excellent employees when trained on the actual job by someone who knows how to structure the work and teach the coworkers and bosses the ropes. For instance, a good entry-level job can be bagging groceries and taking them to the car - but the boss can't decide to put the person on the register because somebody didn't show up that day. Isn't going to work. You would think that this would be obvious? Ha. There's no underestimating the stupidity of so-called normal people.

I now return you to the usual good advice on self-defense issues.

John