Nightmare Come True: Police Training, Autism, and Down Syndrome
Posted: September 20, 2013 Filed under: advocacy, disability, Down syndrome | Tags: autism, Down syndrome, Ethan Saylor, Intellectual disability, Maryland, Police, police brutality 45 CommentsSometimes I spend time worrying about my infant son’s future. My son with Down syndrome. My son with a disability. My son, a human being.
Among the things I worry about is that the world will see him as nothing but a problem. An anomaly, a special circumstance, some thing to be “handled” and “managed”. I worry that people will take one look at him and hold him up to a stereotype, and he’ll never have a chance to be fully human. If he matches the stereotype, everything he says or does will be a foregone conclusion. If he deviates from the stereotype, he’ll be nothing but an even greater abnormality.
My fears became reality today. Read the rest of this entry »