Supplemental: Punished for wearing a hoodie while black!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014

Post tells familiar story:
Yesterday morning’s Washington Post included a fascinating letter.

It came from a reader who became upset while reading a recent column by Ruth Marcus. Marcus’ column started like this:
MARCUS (11/16/14): Reginald Latson’s path to solitary confinement began four years ago as he waited for the public library to open in Stafford County, Va.

Latson, known as Neli, has an IQ of 69 and is autistic. Teachers and therapists describe him as generally sweet and eager to please.

He is also a black man, now 22, who on the day in question was wearing a hoodie—which prompted a concerned citizen to call police
about a suspicious person loitering outside the library.
According to Marcus, Reginald Latson, then 18, was wearing a hoodie as he waited for the library to open. His hoodie prompted a concerned citizen to telephone the police.

Four years later, Latson remains in jail, in solitary confinement. Marcus’ column concerns the way people with autism are treated by the law.

As a general matter, Marcus’ column may well make good suggestions. Still, one reader was disturbed by the role the hoodie played in this tale.

She wrote a letter to the Post. Eye-catching headline included, here’s what her letter said:
Punished for wearing hoodie while black

I cried as I read the story of Reginald Latson in Ruth Marcus’s Nov. 16 op-ed column, “Cruel and unusual punishment for the autistic.”
This tragedy began with a call to the police by a neighbor who deemed suspicious the sight of a black male wearing a hoodie waiting outside a library. What about this sight raised suspicion?

Was he wandering around the building in an apparent attempt to break in? Was he trying windows and doors? Was he trying to break a window? No. Apparently, a black male standing in front of a building in a hoodie is cause for suspicion.

Mr. Latson’s autism is characterized by rigid thinking and exaggerated fight or flight instincts. He attempted to flee when questioned by the police. He was placed in a choke hold and began to fight. Four years later, he’s incarcerated in solitary confinement—cruel and unusual punishment merely for being autistic.

As a black woman whose son, stepsons, nephews and friends’ children also wear hoodies and who wait in front of buildings, I also feel compelled to point out that one’s physical appearance should not be adequate cause for suspicion. We need to become a society ready to look beyond appearances to specific behavior.

What if the neighbor who made the ill-advised call had learned to look beyond a hoodie and a man’s skin color? The call might never have been made, and this person would instead have seen Mr. Latson peaceably enter the library when it opened. What if the dispatcher who responded to the call had asked more questions to determine whether Mr. Latson’s behavior or actions seemed suspicious? Perhaps the officers might never have been sent—and Mr. Latson would be spending his days at home.
This reader cried as she read about the young man who was “punished for wearing a hoodie while black.” Her letter appeared in yesterday’s Post. Plainly, the letter advances the assumptions Marcus encouraged at the start of her column.

Can people get punished for wearing a hoodie while black? Obviously, this narrative became familiar during the public discussion of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Marcus was ringing familiar bells at the start of her column.

Yesterday’s letter made us curious. What was the fuller story behind this incident, which dates to 2010?

Starting with yesterday’s letter, we began to click back through the reporting which has appeared in the Post. It gave us our latest lesson about an important question:

Where do narratives come from?

You can click back through that material too. Tomorrow, we’ll show you what we found when we did.

71 comments:

  1. Yes, the unfortunate reality is that he was, in fact, a dangerous "thug" who deserves to be kept away from society, a fact you will discover if you bother to click back through the links as Bob apparently did. Whether through his own free choices or the result of a mental defect of which he had no control, he was a dangerous individual prone to extremely violent outbursts. He could very well have killed the arresting officer.

    But facts be damned, the narrative must go on ...

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    1. Oh, good God, he's got autism and he has an IQ of 69.

      You ever call an autistic white boy a "thug"? Didn't think so.

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    2. Benny the scumbag is back for the holidays.

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    3. Well, TDH will move right along from Ferguson (nothing to write about here) to multiple posts about the wicked, culture-melting "hoodie" narrative, complete with today's missing "links." Unless Bob postpones it for a Procrastination Conference update. Can we talk? That thing really ticked me off.

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    4. Neither autism nor a low IQ is a sufficient excuse for beating the living shit out of a police officer or breaking and entering and attacking an occupant.

      The vast majority of people with autism, and the vast majority of people with a low IQ, do not experience "irrestible impulses" to violently attack people.

      The ones that do, unfortunately, need to be effectively controlled or isolated from civilized society.

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    5. It's amazing, the Nu-libs can't bring themselves to find fault with the actions of a person who habitually brutalizes others, that's apparently okay, but call said person a thug and they become indignant.

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    6. I don't think I am a Nu-lib. I'm a pretty old liberal.
      I'd call David Koresh a thug. Care to join me?

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    7. I think of Koresh more as a charismatic sociopath.

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    8. So, you are being your crazy little self. He quoted what Marcus said. He doesn't have to repeat it all in his later paraphrase. That isn't any kind of lie. Go away.

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    9. majneb, you don't know a damned thing about autism or mental illness. Stop pretending you do.

      This is one of the big downsides of the Information Age and how it negatively affects "american discourse." Too many people of barely average intelligence think they are a fucking expert on everything and lack the intellectual curiosity to learn. They already know everything, including how Latson brutally beat up a cop's ankle.

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    10. Autism means never having to say you're sorry.

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    11. Autism means not recognizing that you're supposed to say you're sorry.

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    12. When someone is too impaired to participate in society without being a danger to himself or others, he should be (1) treated until able to so participate, or (2) confined someplace for safety. An autistic person who hits his caretakers is a danger to himself and others, even if that hitting is taking place in a home, away from scrutiny. It is a problem that this man attacked a cop, but that arises from the foundational problem that he has been permitted to hit others in his home. If autistic kids are not to be held responsible for their actions, then their parents should be. It is unacceptable for cops, neighborhood school children, librarians, store employees, bystanders on the street, siblings, or anyone else to be hit out of frustration by someone large enough to do such damage. This is wrong and it is appropriate that this young man was incarcerated, and kept in solitary confinement if he cannot be safely placed in the general prison population. His parents could have prevented imprisonment by seeking better treatment for him when he was younger (or more appropriate placement in an institution as an adult). This situation is definitely not the cop's fault.

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    13. Who said it was?

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    14. Marcus abd some anonymous commenter.

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  2. And you have totally missed the point.

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  3. Was that a parody of a post made by a "pseudo-liberal?"

    It's hard to tell lately.

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  4. The unfocused, frothing rage was a nice touch.

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  5. Hey white boy. Chew on this.

    If Reginald Latson were a privileged white boy from the suburbs like you and the guy who does your thinking for you, he wouldn't be in jail no matter how "violent" he was.

    And if Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown were privileged white boys from the suburbs, they'd be alive today.

    Oh, I forgot. They were black boys. Had to be thugs.

    Well, punk. Welcome to the Klan.

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  6. Ruth Marcus sarcastically writes, "Apparently, a black male standing in front of a building in a hoodie is cause for suspicion." Unfortunately, that statement is true. The hoodie is a outfit associated with black thugs.* Now, that doesn't mean that every person wearing a hoodie is a thug. But, IMHO it does mean that ignoring the hoodie requires an act of denial.

    *This statement comes from The Uncivil War by Taleeb Starkes

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    1. David, lots of people wear hoodies. What you are talking about here is context. Wearing a Halloween mask in a bank means something different than wearing it on your front porch on Oct 31.

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    2. David apparently doesn't get out much. Nor does he seem very familiar with college campuses. Guess there's lots of hoodie-wearing "thugs" just about on every campus.

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    3. Taleeb Starkes would find DinC a delight for afternoon conversation over tea.

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    4. Didn't Rocky wear a hoodie in the first movie?

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    5. I don't know about Rocky. I do know a little about David in Cal. He wrote:

      "Ruth Marcus sarcastically writes, "Apparently, a black male standing in front of a building in a hoodie is cause for suspicion."

      The problem is she didn't write that. Using the logic displayed in this post, the only source that could have given David in Cal that misimpression about what Ruth Marcus wrote is Bob Somerby.

      Do you notice any Somerby defenders jumping in and correcting David in Cal? Or blaming Bob Somerby?

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    6. The unidentified author of the comment quoted by Somerby says what David wrote, not Marcus and not Somerby. It is a small mistake of attribution, since the quote is otherwise accurate. Why blame Somerby? It wasn't his mistake. I do think Marcus was in sympathy with the commenter, which may account for David's confusion.

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    7. Anonymous @ 1:01 almost anyone with two IQ points to rub would understand this simple fact. But David in Cal got this stupid riff in his head and decided to comment after reading this recent post by Bob Somerby. Plainly, the comment advances the assumptions Somerby encouraged at the start of his post.

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    8. And how exactly are those assumptions incorrect?

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  7. You think white people (who you call boys) never go to jail. That belief sounds racist to me, especilly given crime stats.

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  8. I know a racist white boy when I see one. And now I see two.

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  9. I am (1) not a boy, (2) not racist.

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  10. "If Reginald Latson were a privileged white boy from the suburbs like you and the guy who does your thinking for you, he wouldn't be in jail no matter how 'violent' he was."

    Really? Privileged white boys can beat cops almost to death and not go to jail? They can commit violent home invasions and not go to jail?

    Gee, you're right, I guess we really do live in an evil, racist society. My bad.

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  11. I see the store where Big Mike boosted his cigars got throughly looted. Serves that little man right for dissing the Gentle Giant.

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    1. According to a conservative blog, this was not a coincidence. The blogger alleges:

      The arson, looting and rampage in/around Ferguson is not random, it’s targeted.

      The groups, organizations and businesses are targeted for specific reasons. “The 187 Police Is In Charge” This has been happening since Day #1 when the Quick Trip was first thought to have been the business who called 911 about the cigarillo robbery.

      Following the Quick Trip, on the day the police released the CCTV video from the Ferguson Market and Liquors, August 15th, they too became the target for looting and arson.

      When the call comes to “burn this bitch down“, there is a group of very specific entities who know where exactly to target their activity. This is not random. Nor is it disconnected from the fact that Louis Head and Mike Brown Senior have been at odds historically.


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  12. OMB (Let the One True BOB Lie Like Our Lady of the One True Channel)

    "According to Marcus, Reginald Latson, then 18, was wearing a hoodie as he waited for the library to open. His hoodie prompted a concerned citizen to telephone the police." BOB

    "And apparently, the two of them got into a fight on the ski lift....Insults were exchanged. Punches were threatened."
    Our Lady of the RHODES


    As BOB pointed out before his long, secret mission train ride: "There never was a fight."

    As we will point out after rereading Marcus, she never said his hoodie prompted anything. She said he was a young black man wearing a hoodie, waiting outside an unopened library and that prompted the call to police.

    By leaving out several things Rachel did to describe the less than physical nature of the incident involving the two white guys on the White slopes near Whitefish, BOB was able to declare it not to be a fight. By leaving out Marcus's description of age, circumstances, and, most importantly, color, BOB was able to declare that Marcus put the blame on the clothing.

    We wonder if BOB traveled north to consult Our Lady of Rhodes on how to mislead the flock.

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    1. Somerby quotes Marcus. Are you saying the quote was inaccurate? It says the hoodie prompted the call. You think other things Marcus said somehow changes that quote. It doesn't. But anything to make it seem like Somerby is the liar here, noy you, you stinking turd.

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    2. Somerby includes the part where Marcus says he is black (see his post above), so what on earth are you talking about KZ?

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    3. No, We are not saying BOB's quote of Marcus is inaccurate. We are saying his later paraphrase, which is what we quoted, is a far bigger lie than anything Maddow told about the fight in Whitefish Montana.

      We are glad to have this opportunity to clarify this for you because many a Bobfan has been accustomed to being told things which others write are fuzzy when in fact they are merely mischaracterized as such by a serial prevaricator.

      Bob doesn't seem to be lying. He is. We are not suggesting he is lying. We are stating it as fact.

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    4. My response to you got posted above. Somerby isn't lying. Go away.

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    5. Anon @ 12:16.

      "His hoodie prompted a concerned citizen to telephone the police." BOB

      "According to Marcus, Reginald Latson, then 18, was wearing a hoodie as he waited for the library to open. His hoodie prompted a concerned citizen to telephone the police." Longer BOB


      BOB uses a headline written by someone working for the Washington Post, placed on a letter written by someone in reponse to Marcus's letter. In fact he uses it repeatedly. What comes first in that headline and its repeated reuse? Black or hoodie?

      Where in the letter does the woman use the word "punish?"

      Was Marcus's column so strikingly wrong that BOB wrote about it when it was first written, as he did today with youngish Ms. McDonough of Salon? Or did he wait until the "hoodie" headline caught his fancy?

      We don't know. We do know that Maddow included many things to describe the events between the neo-con and "fucking racist pussy" in Montana that clearly indicated the nature of the dispute. Bob discounted them and focused on her use of the word "fight."

      We discount his presentation of Marcus in her own words and focus on his simple declarative sentence after his bad paraphrase of her work. We'll repeat it again in case you missed it.

      ""His hoodie prompted a concerned citizen to telephone the police."

      It didn't.

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    6. Go away. You are a piece of crap.

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    7. Punished for Claiming He Invented the Internet

      We were struck by comments made about Vice President Al Gore back before the 2000 campaign. They came from Republicans.

      Gore's comments came in response to a question about the differences between himself and Senator Bill Bradley. He made statements meant to focus on his achievements and included this:

      "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system."

      According to Gore, as a member of Congress he took the initiative on many issues. Some moved us forward on the economy, the environment and education. One initiative resulted in creating the internet.

      As a general matter Gore's efforts may well describe issues on which he took a leading Congressional role. Still, Republicans were bemused by the role creating the internet took in this tale.

      They began to make jokes about it and it quickly became shortened by the press into Gore saying "I invented the internet."

      As this narrative unfolded, Al was punished for being a liar. He did not claim he invented the internet. He did speak the truth about his many initiatives. One was his initiative creating the internet.

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    8. Being black and wearing a hoodie cost Latson his freedom. Being black and wearing a hoodie cost Trayvon Martin his life.

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    9. Silly me, I thought it was their actions while wearing a hoodie that did that.

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    10. Right. Latson was standing in front of a library while wearing a hoodie. Martin was walking home from a convenience store.

      Might as well shoot one, and throw the other into solitary confinement.

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    11. And don't forget those skittles. That's why they were targeted, not their actions. Those cute little boys never did anything wrong and the mean white people picked on them for no reason.

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    12. According to the article, Latson beat up a cop who was investigating complaints about an aimless adult loitering near an elementary school, possibly with a gun, scaring kids.

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    13. You didn't even read the article.

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    14. Of course I did. He had the cop on the ground and beat his head against the concrete, causing copious bleeding. The ankle was shattered and had to be held together with pins. Latson reacted this way because the cop tried to arrest him by placing his hands behind his back, as is standard arrest procedure. Latson attacked him at the point that the cop put his hands on him to arrest him. Of course I read the article. did you? Or are you talking about some other article, such as one excusing autistic kids from normal standards of behavior? The one I read talked about how routine it is for parents of autistic young men to be beaten by their kids and their concern that something similar may happen to their sons. I found myself wondering how parents could overprotect their sons to the point that they would allow themselves to be regularly beaten up. Something is very wrong with that. I reminded me of the recent report on the Sandy Hook shooting, where the son received no mental health treatment and was being sheltered by a mother who was also being abused by her son. If this is widespread, it is a public health problem that needs to be addressed. This is not the way for families to be dealing with their children's autism.

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  13. IMHO the US does have a problem dealing with mentally ill people. At one time they were put in institutions. But, these institutions were regarded as "snake pits" and were mostly closed during the 60's and 70's. Unfortunately, the alternatives aren't particularly good either. Many of the mentally ill are not capable of living a normal life. So, they wind up committing crimes and get sent to prison. Prison is also an inappropriate place for a mentally ill person.

    In a situation where there appears to be no good solution, it's all too easy to criticize whatever is being tried.

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    1. There are no alternatives except medication, which some mentally ill people refuse. There were supposed to be community mental health centers but they were not funded ( Republicans). Now they either live on the streets or haunt the comment sections of blogs.

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    2. Right. Take a pill. You're all fixed up.

      Do you have any idea what this medication costs? Or what it does to your brain?

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    3. Much better to inflict your symptoms on everyone else..

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    4. Even better to have a clue about what you are talking about before you shoot your mouth off.

      You know, instead of continuing to embarrass yourself by revealing your utter ignorance about mental health and the ways to treat it (Hint: It's not as easy as taking a pill), take a page from David in Cal. Tell us you have a second cousin who is a psychiatrist, which thus makes you an expert in the field of mental health.

      It's about the only way left you can become even more foolish and ignorant than you already are.

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    5. Just put on a hoodie. Then you can claim it's all racism if your symptoms get you shot.

      If people here are too ignorant for your tastes, feel free to go somewhere else. Take KZ with you.

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    6. What? And miss the droll comedy of Bob and his sycophants pretending to know everything about everything that ever happens?


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    7. What an odd way to yield an argument -- accuse others of being too right.

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    8. I prefer those who tell people to go away and call them turds. They really know how to yield.

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    9. You can't argue with a schizophrenic turd.

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    10. KZ has developed a delusion system that has Somerby at its center as someone who engages in deception. His claims are becoming stronger about Somerby's so-called lies. Given time, he may develop them to the point that he will feel he must do something about Somerby. I hope at that point someone on his end intervenes, or Somerby has his home address well-concealed. KZ seems harmless but he is not, because he is not rational in his thought processes. It is early days and he is building up steam.

      You cannot argue with a schizophrenic because when you confront the core of their delusion with facts, they slide away from you (mentally speaking). There is an excellent example of this in the movie, The Ruling Class, in which Peter O'Toole maintains the delusion that he is Christ and attempts are made to dissuade him of that. This delusion that KZ has about Somerby is a symptom of his illness. He needs to take it away from here and find something else to preoccupy himself with. This involves an innocent human being that does not deserve to be targeted by a mentally ill person.

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    11. We will know the day you fear is upon us when KZ does a series of six or seven comments about how
      Bob Somerby almost got somebody killed. That said, the next time he mentions that our intellectual culture is melting but few can see it, we should take notice.

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    12. During the pre-pledge drive, KZ was the only troll who stopped posting in order to keep Somerby from having more donations. He wants to hurt Somerby. The other trolls have other motives. KZ has genuine malice. Others here do not seem to. Pretend this is a joke if you want. I think there are good reasons to ban him -- for his sake and because there are past instances where innocent people caught up in the delusions of the mentally ill have suffered in real life because of it.

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    13. During a four day period KZ, David in Cal and deadrat were all gone at the same time. People pretended that was a joke. Some said I was crazy for noticing it, @ 7:40 but seeing and reading is believing.

      Others think KZ makes 95% of the comments and is the Faces of Rachel guy too. How do we know you are not just another liberal making mental health excuses for thuggish trollery?

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  14. Cops should let people beat on them until it becomes clear they might do real damage, then and only then fight back. And cops should never try to restrain someone who might attack a little old lady library patron instead of themselves because those old ladies are tougher than they look and it is wrong to inconvenience mentally ill people just because they're scaring others.

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  15. I read the article too. Larson didn't beat the cops ankle. He beat up the cop, who was on the ground being repeatedly punched. Larson hit the cops head on the concrete and took his pepper spray. The shattered ankle, requiring metal pins to fix, was a permanent injury, not his only injury.The overall article is about how frequently autistic kids beat their own parents. You sound like you are arguing that autistic boys should be allowed to beat anyone who frustrates them. That is not an acceptable solution. Nor is minimizing the very real injuries involved. Even autistic kids need to control their behavior or be removed from society.

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  16. Sorry -- autocorrect keeps changing Latson to Larson.

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  17. "You sound like you are arguing that autistic boys should be allowed to beat anyone who frustrates them. That is not an acceptable solution."

    And you sound like someone who can't argue with what's written, so you just make up things that "sounds" like something completely different.

    That's Somerby's little lame trick, too, although he uses the word "seems" than "sounds." You should choose a better master, little grasshopper, instead of a guy who can now add blogging to his long list of life failures.

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  18. I'm not making anything up. Go read the articles linked to about Latson. This young man attacked the cop because he put his hands on him to arrest him. He beat the cop up. The article goes on to describe how the parents in many families with autistic sons are beaten by their sons when they become frustrated. I didn't make that up.

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  19. According to the article, the kid in this news report didn't have autism, he had Asperger's which is on the autistic spectrum but not the same as autism. It doesn't generally result in violent behavior, so there is perhaps more to this story.

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