Thread by @JessMFH

Yesterday, Salt Lake City police shot an unarmed 13-year-old autistic boy & the Rochester chief of police stepped down amid protests over the murder of #DanielPrude, another neurodivergent Black man in crisis.
nbclosangeles.com/news/national-…
cnn.com/2020/09/08/us/… 1/

This is why we need to say #BlackDisabledLivesMatter & #BlackAutisticLivesMatter. This is why we need to make sure that disability is a part of conversations about police brutality, because it's a part of the story at least 33-50% of the time. (See rudermanfoundation.org/white_papers/m…). 2/

This is why I focused on the cases of #NeliLatson & #MatthewRushin for my first contribution to #ScholarStrike.

Because their stories are not unique.

#FreeNeli #FreeMatthewRushin #RushinToBringMatthewHome 3/

Today, the second & last day of #ScholarStrike, I want to build on that video presentation. It's a starting point, but the urgency of this moment demands more.

I want to bring in the work of @kerima_cevik, because her voice is vital for moving us forward. 4/

.@kerima_cevik, your unrelenting & incisive work is a force for disability justice like no other. Thank you for challenging me to confront my inaction & envision models of community care. Thank you for offering the following ways forward. 5/

Tweeps who aren't familiar, @kerima_cevik has written a lot about police brutality against neurodivergent BIPOC at theautismwars.blogspot.com &elsewhere. 2day I want to amplify some excellent points she made in an interview w/@kriphopnation @poormagazine poormagazine.org/node/5510 6/

Çevik talks about why police crisis & disability training don't work & she offers ideas to "reduce police engagement & increase community supports that limit the need for police contact." If you wanna talk about #DefundPolice, read the interview👆. 7/

https://twitter.com/TananariveDue/status/1303352013560795137

Actually, every1 should read it. I'm about to quote the heck out of just one paragraph. The whole interview is so good.

I'm going to stop tagging so as to not bombard her mentions more than I have already, but tbc all quotes below are @kerima_cevik's words. 8/

When autistic people are killed, hurt, wrongly imprisoned, people often talk about police training. We see articles like this one arguing that police brutality against neurodivergent people is due to a lack of training. However... 9/ spectrumnews.org/features/deep-…

"Training has been done. Trained officers used deadly force in encounters w/ clearly identified disabled teens &adults...the police officers that shot both #PaulChildsIII & #StephonWatts were thoroughly trained &also knew the victims prior to the fatal encounters." 10/

CW: suicide

The police dept that booked #MatthewRushin had a crisis intervention team, but the team was never called in even though the arresting officers said they thought Rushin had just attempted suicide. 11/

So what can we do? Listen to @kerima_cevik:

We can move "from a fear based post Columbine mentally of policing on steroids ...& return to the role & scope of the law enforcement officer as [some1] there to help the community by enforcing laws & protecting & serving the public."

We can "establish a 911-type number for mental health emergencies/psychiatric disability related crises & more community crisis response teams to answer them."

Evidently, this is being tried in Denver with some success.

https://twitter.com/EliseSchmelzer/status/1303354576750346241

13/

We can challenge "the myth that after the Willow brook scandal, we just opened the doors of mental institutions & threw the patients out to wander the streets, & that ...those same individuals are [still] out there being a danger to themselves & others." 14/

We can refuse victim blaming in reports that suggest victims were killed by their disabilities, not police.

nytimes.com/2019/05/16/nyr… 15/

We can give "funding demanded for the return of the ..mental institution model of mental health treatment, research, & ‘residential care’ ..to desegregated, community supported mental health solutions that work in accord with the Olmstead Decision."

ada.gov/olmstead/olmst… 16/

We can "build on peer mentoring & peer respite centers."

peerrespite.com 17/

We can "[increase] healthy inclusive school environments for neurodivergent students ...by paying school support staff wages that retain them & training them, not calling SROs to handcuff autistic children to squad cars." 18/

I'll stop there, but @kerima_cevik goes on to talk about how to improved police interactions with all disabled people. Seriously, read the article now. poormagazine.org/node/5510 19/

I know friends whose work I respect very much have performed police trainings. Maybe those trainings made a positive difference. I certainly hope so.

But the systemic, intersecting injustices we're facing are too big. So much training doesn't work. People are still dying. 20/

CW: violence, death

We need systemic change to ensure that 13-year-olds in crisis won't be shot by police. To prevent Black men in crisis from being suffocated. To protect Black autistic children waiting for the library to open from being wrongly incarcerated... 21/

To ensure Black autistic college students aren't criminalized for getting into a car accident.

We need to shout that #BlackAutisticLivesMatter & #BlackDisabledLivesMatter & work together to change this murderous mess we're in. fin/

Apologies for missing some CWs in this thread.