Autistic Hamilton man Tasered in park a teaching moment for public and police
THIS IS A STORY ABOUT a young man with autism being Tasered and handcuffed by police at his neighbourhood park.
It is also a story about police arresting a young man appearing to masturbate in front of children.
There are many sides to this account, but all agree on one thing: the young man meant no harm.
“Autism is not bad, right?” He stammers.
He is a tall, lanky 21-year-old with autism.
He beat childhood cancer and, up until June, he attended high school where he did morning announcements and got a hearty round of applause at graduation.
He can read and write. He sometimes runs around in circles. He often flaps his hands and rolls his eyes, and when he speaks, he does so quickly in a stream-of-consciousness way.
He hates loud noises and does not like to be touched.
His social skills are at the level of a young child. He will never be able to live on his own.
To protect his privacy, The Spectator has chosen not to name the young man. However, his parents, who love him deeply, want this story told in order to educate the public and police about autism.
“He brings us joy every day,” his mother says. “He’s a nice person. He’s a good kid. He’s very outgoing.”
One of his favourite things is to go to the park near his Mountain home and fly high on the swings. His smile is wide as he glides through the sky.
He set out for the park on the afternoon of Aug. 27, with his father’s permission.
Soon after, according to a police report, a woman with her small children saw the young man near the swings with his hand down his pants. She took a video and called police.
A uniformed constable arrived in a cruiser, according to Supt. Will Mason. The officer spoke with the woman, who said she believed the young man might be drunk or on drugs. The officer watched the video and determined the young man was committing an indecent act. Mason, who has reviewed the video, says it clearly shows him masturbating.
By now, the young man had moved to a different area of the park. The officer found him and called to him. The young man bolted, running toward the road. Then he ran in circles.
“Sir, relax, calm down,” the officer said, according to a witness account cited in the police report. “I’m here to help.”
The report says the young man was swearing and agitated. The officer tried to grab him, but he wriggled free. Eventually, the officer got him in a “bear hug” and took him to the ground to prevent him from running into traffic. The young man fought hard, flailing his limbs and grabbing at the officer’s equipment. The officer called for backup.
At some point during this, Mason says, the officer realized he may be dealing with a person with special needs.
A plain-clothes officer arrived and used his Taser. Sometimes, says Mason, less harm is done to a suspect by Tasering them than wrestling them. The first time the Taser was deployed it didn’t work. The next deployment did work and the young man was subdued and handcuffed.
The scene is different from the parent’s perspective.
They do not believe their son was masturbating. He has a habit of putting his hand down his pants and they tell him not to. But they say neither they nor his teachers or friends has ever seen him masturbate.
“I wasn’t doing anything,” says the young man. “There were kids looking at me because I had one hand in my pants. Because it’s my habit.”
His parents did not know of the video until recently and they have not seen it. They have been told they must make a Freedom of Information Act request to access it and the police report.
The couple believes it ought to be obvious to anyone who sees their son that he has special needs.
The young man describes how he felt when the first officer approached him: “I got kind of scared because I don’t know when I’m going to get arrested. I was going to run or walk back home. I didn’t surrender or trust them, right? I was scared. When police attacked me, it’s because I didn’t surrender. I didn’t know if I was going to end up in prison, right? Or hurt, right?”
A neighbour, who saw the arrest unfold alerted the father, who raced to the park.
“I’m his dad. He has autism,” he told officers, but he says they “blocked” him from going near his child who was handcuffed on the ground.
Eventually, according to the father, an officer listened and began defusing the situation. He ordered the cuffs be removed.
An ambulance was called — standard practice when someone is Tasered — and the young man and his parents were taken to hospital to have the probes removed from his back, and his scraped face, knees and elbows treated.
Meanwhile, the woman who took the video learned the young man has autism. She told police one of her own children has au Planning tism, too. She and police agreed the young man did not intend harm. No charges were laid.
“Court isn’t the best way to deal with this situation,” says Mason. Police explained to the young man that his behaviour at the park was not acceptable.
The whole thing was “traumatizing” to him, his mom says. He didn’t leave the house for two weeks afterward.
“I always worry about (him) being attacked by a gang. But I never believed he’d be attacked by the people who were supposed to protect him. Honestly, I’m really happy he didn’t get shot.”
Police are trained to deal with vulnerable people, says Mason, with an emphasis on de-escalation tactics.
Mason understands why the woman called police about an apparent sexual predator. He understands why the young man was afraid and why his parents are demanding answers. But he also understands why his officers handled the call the way they did.
“These situations are very complex,” he says. “Officers have to make some decisions quickly, but they don’t necessarily have all the information at the outset.”
A recent report by the Public Health Agency of Canada says one in every 66 Canadians aged five to 17 has autism spectrum disorder.
That means we all have a lot to learn.