Let's look at the harm of not listening to activists. From this platform, we have been talking about the injustices in Virginia Beach against neurodivergent and Black residents. We have dedicated a large amount of our resources and time to focusing on Virginia Beach.
On neuroclastic.com/freematthewrus…, we have highlighted-- solely using evidence from the prosecutor's office and @VBPD, the glaring human rights violations and mismanagement of handling Matthew Rushin's case.
We highlighted the injustices that happened to Champ Turner, a Black, undiagnosed Autistic father who was attacked by a 400 white man, got away, called 911, and was charged with and convicted of the same crime as Matthew Rushin neuroclastic.com/freechampturne…
Aggravated malicious wounding is in the same class of felony as premeditated first degree murder and has the same sentencing guidelines. We showed you who Champ Turner was as a shining light of the community: neuroclastic.com/2021/02/01/cha…
We showed you with video evidence how RJ Brothers, a neurodivergent man, and others were arrested with falsified charges for peacefully protesting: neuroclastic.com/2020/09/28/wro…
We showed you the parallels between what happened to Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, and Champ Turner and talked about how the thin blue line makes injustice impossible to confront: neuroclastic.com/2020/10/02/fre…
Then, on Friday night, @VBPD shot and killed Donovan Lynch, the cousin of @Pharrell. The officer who killed him is the same officer who assaulted and framed @BLM757 and then stalked him with a striking show of police overreach and abuse the next day in a dark, empty parking lot.
After this open letter to you about this terrifying abuse and an earnest ask that you do something, @Japharii's court date was moved. The offending officer who has demonstrated his violence and abuse on camera, remained on patrol. He murdered Donovan Lynch.
Champ Turner is Donovan Lynch's cousin. We submitted a pardon on his behalf and letters of support with it. Champ is in a facility where 90 men share five toilets. He had to stop taking his heart medication because the pills make him have to use the rest room too frequently.
Champ Turner is @Pharrell Williams's first cousin. Champ Turner was Donovan Lynch's cousin. He was killed by the same officer who has terrorized @BLM757. His appeals were denied by the same judges the prosecutors have in their pockets as those who denied Matthew Rushin's.
Had you removed Officer Simmons from the force, @PaulNeudigate, Donovan Lynch would be alive. You did not create this mess, but you accepted the position to be the @VBPD chief. It is your responsibility to deal with it, and more people will die if you do not act immediately.
@ColinStolle must be disempowered for the corruption that he upholds. @VBPD must prosecute Officer Solomon Simmons for the violent threat that he is to the community. @PaulNeudigate must not take a "both sides" approach to @VBPD brutality.
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I was so bummed by #SocialStories that gaslight #ActuallyAutistic kids that I made one that is not traumatic. It’s for ALL kids because it’s not necessary or healthy for minority groups to assimilate against their wishes and neurology. Alt text added to each image. 10 slides
I want to apologize for my responses to the Sia movie. Nonspeakers had replied, but I didn't see it. It was erasing their input by asking people to listen to them. I also should have used my personal account and not the publication account. (cont)
My personal perspectives are very affected by my experiences & are not universal among our contributors. I am really sad for all the constant pain & erasure & misrepresentation autistic people experience. I definitely don't ever want to invalidate any of that. We deserve better.
I (Terra Vance) will do better to use my personal account to respond to things that are not an issue that is pretty universal among our contributors and apologize for not doing that. I made mistakes and missed things that were relevant to inform a full and fair reaction.
I want to clarify a few points about my thread about the Sia movie because I think in my long thread, I still wasn't clear enough on a few points. I'll try to condense them to one thread at a time.
1. I wanted the point of the thread to be about how we as a community were addressing the issue was often using talking points and language that doesn't reflect the best language for nonspeaker rights.
2. Many of the things said about Sia were things that are tacitly ableist and can cause harm.
I’m having a hard time with the discussion about the movie, Music, written and directed by @Sia. First, everyone is referencing NonSpeakers as “non-verbal.” NonSpeakers are nonspeaking because they are apraxic, and that means they can’t coordinate their movements to speak.
They often also can’t coordinate their bodies. They do things without being able to control themselves. Asking them to act in a movie where they have to do very complex ordered tasks would be overwhelming.
It can take a NonSpeaker a week to write an article because of the difficulty of spelling to communicate. But when we publish articles by nonspeakers, nobody reads or shares them. They are our lowest traffic demographic despite that I put 10x more effort in promoting them.
Thread: I’m going to put a trigger warning on this for attempted suicide, but is good news. A couple days ago, I announced to Twitter what had been told to me: that someone I cared about profoundly had died from suicide. He was an autistic 22-year-old.
That was what the family was told. He had tried to save someone from an abusive situation, but it resulted in him being shunned and scolded and written off as a troublemaker. But what he did was brave and heroic, which I’d been saying daily. I was afraid this would happen.
But, and my details are incomplete right now, he is ALIVE. What happened (I think. Will confirm) was he was on a ventilator for his family to say goodbye, but he continued to breathe when they took him off the vent. He was triaged for 18 hours, & finally his vitals stabilized.
The people behind #CommunicationRights are not obstructionist behaviorists. @NeuroClastic has speech language pathologists, psychologists, educators, OTs, MTs, researchers, neuroscientists, & nonspeakers who communicate through AAC, spelling, & sign. #ActuallyAutistic#Autism
These people may have an aggressive approach to bullying autistics & our allies out of our own narratives & using their white (that's all white people) privilege to maintain the #monopoly on #Autism, but they are NOT allies. They are #oppressors. We can and do communicate. See?