The understanding of Autism clearly still has a long way to go!
My level of disgust for the incident on Altona Pier yesterday is off the charts. What did the poor girl do to deserve that bashing? NOTHING!! Being different is not an excuse for anyone to engage in this sort of conduct! She’s only 14 for crying out loud, and as the story indicated was just coming out of her shell when this happened. Now she’s too scared to leave her home let alone go to school. What’s worse is that it would appear that she knows the witches who attacked her!
She will need remedial help to overcome this serious setback to her mental health. And it should be paid for by the families of those who attacked her.
But this isn’t the only problem. Police – as of this blog entry – have not pressed charges. What bothers me is the fact that the attackers were all of African descent. Victoria Police have been having issues pressing charges against people from this community due to their general lack of controls over communities that close ranks and protect their own. It happens in other cultural communities as well – gangs form (something that has been going on for decades) and they give each other alibis.
The fact that there is video footage should overcome this in this case, but one never knows.
And News dot com dot au also annoyed me with their headline – “Teen with autism”. It’s not a bloody disease you idiots! It should read “Autistic teen”!!
The whole mentality against Autism has to change. It doesn’t help on a side note that idiots make videos claiming that Autism is caused by something outside of genetics (mercury for example – which has been proven to be unrelated). It all has to stop and it’s a further back up to the need for laws to protect members of the disabled community. This looks to all intents and purposes like a hate crime, and would be covered by the proposed vilification prohibition out of the Disability Royal Commission. Let’s support that law change so we have additional means by which the community can be punished for behaving like animals.
Edit March 5 – I am delighted to advise that the attackers have now all been charged.
Phil Gluyas: Autism News and Views 