Autism Vox

July 9th, 2008

Hans Reiser and the Asperger’s Defense: Troubling

I’ve been following the trial of Hans Reiser, the software engineer who developed code for the Linux operating system and who, in April, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2006 disappearance of his ex-wife, Nina Reiser. The case has been troubling to me on a few levels: They lived in the Oakland Hills — […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 20 comments

June 22nd, 2008

UCB Cop Taunts Protester with Asperger’s

While out in California last week, I spent some time in Berkeley and saw the site of the tree protest outside the University of California’s Memorial Stadium: Treesitters have been protesting about the University’s plans to cut the trees for the past 18 months and things have gotten volatile.
Nathan Pitts, a “disability rights advocate (particularly […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 0 comments

May 17th, 2008

JRC Records Seized by State Police

This past Thursday in Virginia, a 24 year old autistic man was tazered by James City County police after he was to “become unruly with employees at Wilsons Leather at the Prime Outlets-Williamsburg shopping mall,” according to the Daily Press. It was only after the man was placed under arrest and charged with […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 3 comments

February 10th, 2008

Tased

15-year-old Tony Presley, who has high-functioning autism, was tased by police on January 28th for “getting out of control at school,” WDIO reports:

Assistant Police Chief Charles LaGesse says on January 28th, Tony got out of control at school. A police report says the school liaison officer wrote Tony a ticket, but then Tony started kicking […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 15 comments

February 1st, 2008

Handcuffs in Middle School?

11-year-old Gunnar Moody was handcuffed by school police because he would not leave a P.E. class at Bret Harte Middle School. As reported yesterday by NBC11.com, Gunnar said that he was singing while doing sit-ups and handcuffed and dragged out when he did not respond to requests to leave.   

Gunnar’s parents said what happened at […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 38 comments