Another Autistic Child's Brutal Encounter With Law Enforcement,
Northern California

This is an account of the experience my son, Samuel Bowers, had
recently which points to the continuing issue of individuals who
work in law
enforcement needing more extensive education and training on dealing
with
persons afflicted with autism.
On Tuesday, July 4, 2006, my husband and I were invited to an
afternoon Bar-B-Q and we left Sam for a few hours with Joe, a
caregiver who
has worked with Sam for over 3 years and who knows him very well.
Joe and Sam were out in the community on their way to Target
and then
the park. Joe had Sam in the front passenger seat of his car instead
of the
back seat because he was in the process of moving and had belongings
in the
back seat. Sam suddenly got upset about something (possibly a
firework, the
sound of which scares him) and because he has limited expressive
language to
be able to express what was upsetting him, went into a tantrum
(crying,
kicking, etc.) Joe pulled to the side of the street and was trying
to get
Sam out of the car and calmed down. He was having trouble doing so
(it would
have been easier if Sam was in the back seat) when another motorist
pulled
up, saw Sam struggling with Joe and called 911. The first respondent
was an
off duty BART Transit police officer who then summoned the El
Cerrito Police
Department. (They were in El Cerrito, a small city just north of
Berkeley).
Soon, 3 police officers were on the scene. Joe specifically
stated
repeatedly: "Sam is autistic, if I can just have some help getting
him out
of the car, I can get him calmed down, and I have dealt with Sam
being like
this before."
What then happened was the 3 police officers roughly pulled
Sam out of
Joe's car, threw him to the ground and flipped Sam onto his stomach.
The
Bart police officer, a grown and hefty man then sat on Sam's upper
back as
another officer pulled Sam's arms behind his back and placed
handcuffs on
his wrists, while another officer bent Sam's legs back. This must
have been
very painful for Sam. This was all happening while Sam was upset,
struggling physically and not understanding what was being done to
him.
These actions made Sam more upset. Joe continued to tell them
Sam is
autistic and he could handle this. Then another El Cerrito police
officer
arrived with a full body restraining wrap like what is used with
psychiatric
patients and Sam was put in this full body restraining device and
placed in
an ambulance (which had been summoned by the police) and sent off to
the
Psychiatric Emergency room at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.
(El
Cerrito is just over the county line in Contra Costa County, we live
in
Alameda County) This action was taken without the knowledge or
permission of
Sam's parents who were never called on their cell phone by these
public
employees at any time before or after this incident. By coincidence,
this is
the hospital where I, Sam's mother, have been employed for the last
8 years.
We were called by Joe after Sam was already on the way to the
hospital
and informed of these actions. Joe was following the ambulance and
was very
upset about what happened and concerned for Sam's well being. We
were able
to get to the hospital within 30 minutes of Joe's telephone call. By
the
time we got there, Sam had been moved to the regular emergency room,
and was
sitting on a bed, calm, bewildered, unrestrained and much banged up.
He
looked as if he had been tied to the back of a truck and dragged--he
had
large saucer sized lacerations on both knees. large lacerations of
both
elbows, both shoulders, scratches on both sides of his face, various
scratches on his torso and handcuff shaped welts on both of his
wrists all
the way around. These injuries were incurred from how Sam was
handled by the
police--very, very roughly. Sam is a 12 year old autistic child, not
a
criminal. We found out that Sam was sent to the Psychiatric
Emergency room
by the El Cerrito police on a "5150", an involuntary 72 hour
commitment.
Before being able to leave and go home, we had to have a
psychiatrist "lift"
the 5150 or Sam would not be released.
Sam had great difficulty walking for 10 days after and still
has
healing bruises all over. He cannot verbalize the trauma he has been
through
and has had to forgo temporarily many activities he enjoys like
gymnastics,
swimming, etc. We are still not sure if any permanent injuries, such
as
internal derangement of the knee have occurred.
We have made a formal complaint with the El Cerrito police who
refuse
to give us their report on this incident or even talk about it. We
are in
touch with a few locally based disabilities advocacy organizations.
Sam committed no crime, was not hurting anyone, and was not on
psychotropic drugs. He was acting out physically on something that
was
upsetting him because he lacks the expressive language to
communicate in the
socially acceptable manner.
This is an incident that could happen to any one of our
disabled
children or adults in our community. Law enforcement has
consistently shown
their ignorance and lack of understanding on handling incidents like
this.
Sam was with an adult caregiver who knew how to handle Sam's behavior
eruption but was not allowed to.
May no family or individual have to ever experience this. Any
feedback, suggestions, etc. would be welcome.
- Linda Stevens, lbstevens49@...