Police stalking and bullying
I want to know if anybody else has been stalked and bullied by the police like I have been. This is one such incident that happened to me. I was on a bicycle. Two police cars would be on the same road coming from behind and pass me, continuing in the same direction I am heading towards. Then they would drive into a side street and loop around and come out of another side street just as I was approaching that side street. One police car did that and then the second police car did that. When the second police car did that I screamed out to the cop "Are you following me?" The cop asked me what I said and I said to the cop that he is following me. He told me to keep pedaling or I would be down on the ground. I would like to have gotten down on the ground myself and said "ok, now what". But what I did instead was to just keep pedaling. I complained to the district attorney's office. They never did connect me directly to the district attorney. I spoke to a detective. I complained about the cops stalking me and the physical threat that a cop gave to me. The detective that I spoke to told me to never contact him again.
Autistic people exist on this earth, and police see us as easy targets to bully. When police commit crimes, we can't complain to the police because they look out for each other. There has to be an appropriate law enforcement agency to complain to when police commit crimes.
aspie48
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Location: up s**t creek with a fan as a paddle
John_Browning
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Autistic people exist on this earth, and police see us as easy targets to bully. When police commit crimes, we can't complain to the police because they look out for each other. There has to be an appropriate law enforcement agency to complain to when police commit crimes.
1) How do you know they were following you? They basically told you to go and leave them alone. Apparently they were busy with some other call. You don't make it sound like a pattern with the patrol officers.
2) Is there any chance you presented yourself to the detective in a way that might have come across like you might be a lunatic or a little ret*d? When dealing with the police it's easy to come off as a nutjob since they deal with so many on a daily basis.
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"Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars."
- Unknown
"A fear of weapons is a sign of ret*d sexual and emotional maturity."
-Sigmund Freud
Well, I've been messed with by police in similar ways. I didn't know I had Aspergers or anything, but yeah, similar experiences.
Anyway, to be honest, the only way you can solve the problem is to move to another town and hope things work out better there. Really, that's what I ended up having to do, and my hypothesis of it working out better in the other town was right. If not another town, another state, if another state, another country for all I know. But, if you don't get out, there's a kinda high likelihood you'll be in cuffs eventually, then possibly in jail on some bogus charges. This is only if you're getting constantly messed with by police, that I'd suggest this. But if it was just this one time, yeah, don't bother.
In the mean time, with police, try to, uh, if you see them in the future, be super courteous. Obviously, by you asking the cop if they were following you, you're setting yourself up. It's better to just be conscious of them, and just ignore them until they speak to you if they do. Also, to avoid making yourself seem suspicious, try to strike up small talk with various people in an area, or if you can't do that, talk on your phone with a friend or something, so you appear to be a bit more "normal." ALSO, one thing that helped me drastically with the police was switching my wardrobe around a bit. I basically go for "preppy" as possible now, whereas before, I liked wearing lots of military clothes, which made me a target. Military clothes, cargo pants, that sorta stuff. When it's sunny, you can wear sunglasses, too, in fact, wear sunglasses as often as possible, then people will not see your evil Aspie eyes!!111111
So yeah, that's my advice, try to get out of town, but other than that, try to be as "normal" as possible for your survival. No, it's not fair at all, but it's the way things are.
Oh yeah, and what you did is dumb as hell. If a cop is following you, stay calm, that's all. Just let them do their thing, and let them approach you. You basically "incriminated" yourself to the cop by saying he was following you. Bad idea, don't ever do anything like that again.
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This is something to consider. Just because their paths intersected with yours does not mean they were following you. If they had to cover the area because of a call they received, then it had nothing to do with you. But it was a bad idea (like 100knives said) to make it about you by asking if they were following you. That just makes you look suspicious, as though you are trying to get them to drive somewhere else so they won't see....something.
I once called the police because I thought I saw somebody in my backyard (it was night). The police went into my backyard and didn't find anyone. They looked all around the house and the neighboring houses. No one. That was the end of it for me but they did circle my block and the next block a couple times. If anybody happened to be walking or biking down my street at that time, they might have thought the police were following them.
What they gotta do is get Ali G to run the police instead (thought I'd lighten the mood for you):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF3iTxMuZBg[/youtube]
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ALi G lolz.
John_Browning
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Hey, it's common for cops to mistake autism spectrum disorders for other things. There are quite a few medical problems that can get mistaken for mental/developmental problems or drug use. Diabetics can get mistaken for being drunk, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia can get mistaken for stimulant drug use (and some have been shot that way), cerebral palsy can get mistaken for retardation, and autism can get mistaken for a lot of things, ranging from getting mistaken for someone that wandered away from their caregiver to seeming kind of slow, missing some marbles, and make people wonder if they might be dangerous.
But to get to the point, dude, your original post sounds like a bad full blown manic episode. You need to consider getting that checked out or you just might end up being a live enough wire to attract the cops to you for real this time.
_________________
"Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars."
- Unknown
"A fear of weapons is a sign of ret*d sexual and emotional maturity."
-Sigmund Freud
Sweetleaf
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Well...It could have been nothing, but yesterday I had two vehicles that looked sort of like unmarked police vehicles drive past me when I was walking home it's certainly questionable as to whether I should be concerned about that. But then later when I was taking the lightrail train to my friends house I had this guy dressed a lot like a cop but without any obvious markings keep looking at me when he thought I was not looking it was rather weird.
But other then that I had a cop approach me once because he thought I was smoking weed when it was just a ciggerette, I wanted to tell him that I was not stupid enough to sit out right in the open on a college campus and smoke weed...but I figured I did not want to aggrevate the situation.
hartzofspace
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Cops doing things like that are usually looking for collars; Otherwise known as their daily quota of hassling people in hopes of making an arrest.
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Sorry to nit-pick, but when I think "stalking" I think of something that occurs as a series of incidents over time. And also that the victim has been deliberately chosen by said stalker for some reason or other.
And, as much as I hate to say it, you're probably going have to shake off this incident as best you can and get on with your life. The cop was clearly acting like an anus, possibly even endangering you personally depending upon how close he was driving to you, and doubtless conducted himself like a walking turd with a badge. You have my sympathy, but that means nothing.
In an ideal world calling the DA's office (especially if they happen to have someone who works Civil Rights cases) would probably be a good idea. But, the harsh reality is that a DA prosecutes criminals. Criminals that cops arrest, meaning the last thing most DAs want to do is piss off a cop. Cops are a DAs bread and butter. Which is why,on the rare occassions a local police department is found out to be as crooked as a dog's hind leg, its usually the FBI, DEA, BATF, etc. who do it. Nobody local. I've sure as hell never heard of a local DA bringing corrupt cops to justice. Wouldn't surprise me if that's what accounted for the run-around you got.
Beyond that, if you tried to hire an attorney on your own, I doubt any one of them with a shred of honesty would take your case as some sort of civil action. What the whole thing would boil down to is your word against his, since it doesn't sound like there were any witnesses. And of course the city would pay his court costs, win or lose. Nice, even playing field, eh?
FWIW, there was a time in my life when I might not have even believed your story. Idiocy beyond belief on my part, but that's how I reacted to stuff like this. Then I personally got put through the ringer. Gave me an attitude adjustment towards cops, if nothing else.
I was driving a car with out of state plates(back then I lived in CT and happened to be in MA), and was stopped because my "right rear wheel touched the white line on the side of the road." Or so I was told. They asked if I had been drinking, and I had been. Something like two beers over four hours. I offered to take a breathalyzer, but, of course, they didn't have one.
So...I got put through every drunk driving test known to man...and some I swear they made up on the spot:
>>>The heel, toe, heel, toe thing (passed fine)
>>> The touch fingers to nose business (also passed fine)
>>> Some weird test where I had to raise one leg to knee level and straighten it...and then hold that position for what seemed like forever (I did it, but barely)
>>> the oldie but goodie, say the alphabet backwards (I think they stopped me around "g")
>>> count down from 100 by sevens (they stopped me in the 20s)
>>> list the presidents in reverse order (they stopped me at Taft)
>>> Some other ones I can't remember precisely, something like following a flashlight beam with my eyes, something involving me closing my eyes and turning my head quickly...I'm surprised they didn't throw one armed push-ups in the mix.
And after all that? They rather grudgingly let me go, but made my wife drive. If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, maybe a liberal is a conservative who was put through something like that experience? You know and I know and the whole world knows they teed off on me because of the out of state plates, and no other reason. They figured it would be someone without local connections and hence easy pickings.
I was ripshit about the whole thing for two weeks or so, but once I calmed down I followed the advice I gave above: let it go, and moved on. 'Course with a whole new attitude about cops. Even somebody as thick-skulled as I am is gonna change course after that.
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"The man who has fed the chicken every day throughout its life at last wrings its neck instead, showing that more refined views as to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the chicken." ? Bertrand Russell
Autistic people exist on this earth, and police see us as easy targets to bully. When police commit crimes, we can't complain to the police because they look out for each other. There has to be an appropriate law enforcement agency to complain to when police commit crimes.
Most cops do not understand the the autism spectrum for one. But if I look at the side of the cops, I have a tendency to focus hard on something I'm scrutinizing, and in the past have been accused of "staring" or "intimidating". Cop might be wondering why you're giving them "an evil eye". I have learned to observe without looking directly at them.
So it's not a real worry for me, but what I AM worried about is the day I have a meltdown and the cops are called.
It doesn't take a great deal of intelligence to join the police, so always assume you are dealing with the lowest common denominator until you see evidence otherwise. Yelling is always a bad idea - it can get you beaten, locked up or (more commonly in the USA where the cops have more guns) shot. If they don't interact with you, you don't need to interact with them. If you do, your presentation should be sweetness and light - "is there a problem officer?". Avoiding fast movement and threatening body language.
You can't assume that a police officer will know anything about autistic behaviour or make any allowances.
Complaints and lawsuits can always follow, but won't help you much if you are already beaten, in jail or dead.
You can't assume that a police officer will know anything about autistic behaviour or make any allowances.
Complaints and lawsuits can always follow, but won't help you much if you are already beaten, in jail or dead.
the bold is good advice but i dont think assuming the police have no intelligence is a good idea. i mean they mightn't be bright but i think its best to play it on the safe side and assume all your enemies have some degree of intelligence just in case. the police are there to oppress us- their purpose has never been anything else and i expect no better from them. not anymore anyway. i haven't been personally harrassed by the cops though i know people who have for no reason and my demographic is one of those that gets discriminated against so i've got no love for the boys in blue. its nice seeing similar sentiments echoed by others to some degree.