This is a difficult read: AS, Violence, and MySpace.com
19-year-old Taylor Feuer was beaten and tortured by a group of six teenagers (two male, four female) who detailed the violence on MySpace.com, as reported in today’s PhillyBurbs.com. In June, Feuer had pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting four girls, indecent exposure, and corruption of minors; he was sentenced to time served in the county prison and immediately paroled.
Feuer has Asperger’s Syndrome; this is noted at the end of the article. He is currently at a center in New Hampshire for people with Asperger’s Syndrome.
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POSTED IN: Asperger's Syndrome, Crime, Weblogs
21 opinions for This is a difficult read: AS, Violence, and MySpace.com
Kassiane
Sep 23, 2006 at 10:03 pm
And what are these teenagers being charged with?
Nothing, because they’re NT? “Kids will be kids”?
I don’t think a day goes by that some snotwad kid or adult shouldn’t thank God that I live in the middle of nowhere, Montana. The wholesale violence against autistics (and I’m not sure I believe this one ACTUALLY ever did anything, ’say anything to get them out of your face’ism) really gets my hackles raised.
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I say again, NT teenagers are the best argument for a cure that I’ve ever seen.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 24, 2006 at 7:40 am
I can’t believe what they did to him—or that they posted it on the internet.
Kassiane
Sep 24, 2006 at 10:03 am
I have absolutely no problem believing that they did it, and put it on the internet. Teenagers, generally, are self centered pack animals. And, you know, since the victim was a (insert pejorative here) no one was going to care.
I hope there’s a prosecuting attorney and that they snagged screen shots of the detailed accounts before defense counsel has a chance to tell them to take it down.
Personally I think they should be tried for attempted murder, as adults. I mean, it’s THE VICTIM who they locked up. What’s wrong with this picture??
Kassiane
Sep 24, 2006 at 10:07 am
Adding:
And for SHAME on the adult who told them to toss the tape instead of turning them in. And for DOUBLE SHAME on the parents who raised them to think this is OK.
They would NOT want me on their jury, thats for sure.
Daisy
Sep 24, 2006 at 12:44 pm
There are some juries that I couldn’t join and remain objective. I agree, this would be tough to try. My life with autistic family members would bias me from the beginning. And I LIKE that bias.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 24, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Sad to say, you’re right, Kassiane, it is not unbelievable that the teenagers did what they did—-the story made me some vertigo, about how values and morals in our society have gotten quite undone.
Someone
Sep 25, 2006 at 8:43 am
“In June, Feuer had pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting four girls, indecent exposure, and corruption of minors”
Uh, hello? Did you guys ever think that maybe he was beaten up because he was terrorizing the young womanfolk? That he may have actually deserved it, or that at least it was his fault?
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 25, 2006 at 10:07 am
Yes, that has been taken into consideration; the article cited mentions this.
Kassiane
Sep 25, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Nothing deserves being tied to a chair, beaten with chains, acidic juice dripped into it. NOTHING. The UN doesn’t stand for it for terrorists/terror suspects and damned if I am going to stand for it happening to people HERE, regardless of past crimes. It takes a very sick individual to come up with what these teenagers did. Like, medicate heavily and send to therapy 3 times a week and still get nowhere since it’s in the shadowlands between conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder sick.
And clearly you are unfamiliar with the “agree with what they said and they’ll leave me alone” thing that’s so common in autism. I do it all the time. But I’ve never been accused (either maliciously & falsely, or truly) of any crime.
I’ve known many autistic/Aspie guys in this age range. THe vast majority may have come off as ‘creepy’ sometimes (that no eye contact/1000 mile stare thing) but every.single.one.of.them was scrupulous about not physically crossing boundaries-to the point of asking “may I hold your hand?” and “I know you like hugs. May I hug you?” (after said person had given me over 100 hugs in the past and had done other deep pressure stuff for me).
I’ll believe he did it when he coughs up details-note that he was paroled IMMEDIATELY, and they don’t DO that if they think you’re actually a threat. And regardless, I would delightedly send the 6 NT “vigilantes” to adult prison for the rest of their lives.
Britt
Sep 27, 2006 at 2:12 pm
I am 17 years old and I went to school with Taylor and one of the girls indicted in this case. Sami, the 16 year old being tried as an adult is a year below me in high school. I am familiar with Aspergers Syndrome because a child I have been baysitting for 5 years was diagnosed about 3 years ago with Aspergers. Initially hearing the news, I was outraged at the crimes committed against these girls. On the other hand, I was sympathetic to his disorder and recognized that help, not prison, is what he truly needed. When this story of “vigilante justice” was reported in our local newspaper I was once again appalled. I believe in the justice system and not in personal action. Also, I have known Sami Simantov indirectly and I am aware that she has a reputation for being extremelly cruel. On one hand, I understood that the girls must have felt intense anger. On the other hand, they were aware of his disorder and they still had no sympathy for him. The fact that they were able to torture another human being so violently was sickening to me and many others at my school. Fortunately in this case, many indictments are being brought upon the girls and boys, and Sami the “ring leader” is being tried as an adult at the age of 16. This decision was appropriate for if she has the mental capabilities to commit such acts of cruelty I believe she is legally an adult. Fortunately, the stupidity of teenage girls led to their arrest and hopefully justice will be served. I would like all to know that the public opinion towards these “vigilantes” is that of outrage and many are being sympathetic to Taylor’s struggles. This is the first occurence of teen violence our town has seen in many many years. Living in such an affluent and predominatly white neighborhood I have found myself sheltered from the prejudice that exist all over the world. In this case, I think our town has become more aware of the prejudice agaisnt Autism and the understanding that many lack.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 27, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Kassiane, there are plenty of things that Charlies does that would puzzle and even offend those who did not know; he is certainly not doing these things, as far as I can tell, to trouble anyone, but to help himself manage in the world.
Britt, thank you very much for commenting here and sharing about the response in your town and school—it is more than appreciated. If I may ask, is your school providing some means for students and the school community to talk about what happened?
Britt
Sep 27, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Although no specific program has been designed to talk about this tragedy, my school has a program called C.A.R.E.S. which allows students to leave class and voice their emotions and concerns to trained professionals on all matters. C.A.R.E.S is commonly used by students in relation to the death of a friend or family member or any other emotional issues one may face. Although we have this program, many students feel uncomfortable going to C.A.R.E.S because of its association with severe emotional problems such as suicide and self mutilation. Many students fear that others will assume they are suicidal if they utilise this program. The only other course of action that the school will usually take is sending a letter home to parents to explain the emotional nature of what has happened and the programs available for students. Unfortunately there is no venue being offered to discuss the events as a community so it is inevitable that prejudices and misunderstandings will occur.
Kassiane
Sep 27, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Britt,
Thanks for being a compassionate individual. And for sharing that there are others like you, who care. Who see that it’s wrong. Thanks for restoring a bit more hope that autistics and non autistics can learn to live with each other.
I’m sorry you had to be so close to the tragedy…but someone always is. Thanks so much for your viewpoints.
(see. I can be nice. I’m just..uh…passionate)
Autism Vox » Guilty: Man convicted of assault against autistic person
Sep 30, 2006 at 6:01 am
[…] Earlier this week I posted about 19-year-old Taylor Feuer who was violently assaulted by teenagers in This is a difficult read: AS, Violence, and MySpace.com. More and more, there seem to be stories about violence against autistic persons in the news and here, sad to say, is another one. […]
amanda
Oct 29, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Did anyone consider that Taylor was innocent? The girls who came forward in the prelim hearing were lying, it was clear to the DA and that is why he offered a deal… The girls who did have sex with him wanted to, later did not want to be known as having had sex with him and screamed rape. Taylor spent almost 3 months in jail for having relationships with people he thought cared about him and then was almost killed by them. All of the people involved have/are pleading guilty. Sami will not be tried as an adult but as a juvi. They are sick and if not this time these are the type of people to murder. The press is slanted… where are the questions about if they were truthful when accusing Taylor? Innocent people pled all the time so to move on with life.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Oct 29, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Amanda, thank you for commenting here—-I did think of what you posted—I would like to find out how Taylor is doing now.
Chris
Feb 28, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I know sami and I am good friends with her. I believe what she tells me because she wouldn’t lie to me. She said she wasn’t involved like everyone thinks she was. She wasn’t the one who did all the bad things. Shame on all you people who don’t even know what really happened and who sami is. Yea sami might come out as a cruel person but that isn’t who she is. She is very sweet and caring believe it or not. I am proud to call her my friend
Kassiane
Mar 1, 2007 at 4:55 am
OK Chris, I’ll bite.
What was your buddy doing torturing a guy with a developmental disability? Is she coming up with the next miracle cure for autism? She was IN THE VIDEO. It was ON THE INTERNET. People positively IDed her. So yeah, she was there and she was part of it.
So what’s her excuse? And would you look a bunch of autistic people in the eye and say that what she did was right and argue her case?
Chris
Mar 5, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I am a volunteer at a school and I work with the autistic kids. It wasn’t right what THEY did but you have to hear the whole story before you say stuff you don’t even know. THere has been worse things that have happened. Look up a guy named “Ed Gein” and you want to talk about not right.
Me
Mar 5, 2007 at 4:17 pm
ok, for all of you, just to let you know. There WAS NO VIDEO. I should know, im one of the girls. What we did was wrong and i understand that, but at the time we were young and immature girls. Taylor DID rape them and actually the CONFESSION was filmed. None of the videos were posted. Im not saying that it was right. It was very wrong. What should have happened is that we should have gone to the police instead of take justice into our own hands. But people now think im this really bad person when in reality half of the things they thought i did was the things i didnt take part of. SO maybe you should try talking to the actual girls instead of believing rumors.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 6, 2007 at 12:02 am
Thank you for the clarifications—they are more than appreciated.
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