Suspicously Sitting While Black and Autistic

[Trigger warning for violence.]

Via Feministe comes this HuffPo post about an 18-year-old African-American young man with Aspergers, who was assaulted, arrested, and is presently institutionalized as a result of suspicious sitting behavior.

Reginald 'Neli' Latson was sitting on the grass under a tree, early one morning, in front of the library, waiting for it to open. About 400 feet from where he sat was an elementary school where kids were arriving to start the school day. Someone from that school called police shortly after 8:30 a.m. to report "a suspicious person sitting outside the library, possibly in possession of a gun". There does not seem to have been any reason for the caller's suspicion that Neli had a gun in his possession (he didn't), nor does there seem to have been anything "suspicious" about Neli other than his complexion.

This call set in motion a cascading series of events in which police ordered eight schools locked down; Neli, who did not know police had been called, tired of his wait and moved on toward the nearby high school; he was confronted by a County Sheriff's deputy who also worked for the school district; and a physical struggle ensued between Neli and the deputy.

Neli says the officer threatened him; he tried to walk away, and the officer grabbed him from behind, choked him, and sprayed him with pepper spray. Neli took the pepper spray from the deputy and, according to the police report, sprayed him in return and fled. The deputy sustained a broken ankle which required surgery.

The police say Neli "attacked and assaulted the deputy for no apparent reason." That seems rather against the odds, given that Neli was not expecting any trouble, while the deputy was actively looking for a suspicious, possibly armed, person meeting Neli's description. Of the two, the one primed for aggression was the deputy. But perhaps, purely by coincidence, Neli "attacked and assaulted" the deputy "for no apparent reason."

The story gets worse from there. Neli was charged with malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer, assault and battery of a law enforcement officer, and knowingly disarming a police officer in performance of his official duties. When Neli's mother, Lisa Alexander, reported him missing several hours later, she learned he was in custody and being questioned.

Police would not tell her why, would not allow her to see her son, and seemed uninterested when told Neli is autistic. They held the young man in isolation for 11 days without bail, allowing his mother to visit him only once.

His condition has deteriorated considerably during his incarceration, according to his mother. He has been transferred to a state mental hospital for a 30-day evaluation period. Ms. Alexander has set up a web site, A Voice for Neli. There, his mother tells a bit of the story of Neli's life and of her and her husband's struggle to secure for him the services and educational support he needed.

Lisa Alexander is searching for legal representatives for her son who have a good understanding of his circumstances. She is also asking that people sign this petition, which she hopes to use to interest national radio shows and/or TV news networks in reporting her son's story. The local news reports which have been printed thus far have come from the police.

As of 5:36 a.m. PDT (US time) there were 317 signatures on the petition. Ms. Alexander is hoping for at least 1000.