Aspies For Freedom

Blowing up tree stumps is a felony?

Did he blow up the tree stumps?  Did he commit the crimes?  If he committed the crime, he has to face the punishment, this forum has already dealt with the issue of people believing that Autistic people should not be held accountable for their actions plenty of times.

Does your son have a lawyer? If he does, talk to that lawyer about your son's problems and he or she could talk to the assistant district attorney about working on a solution or may even file a motion of dismissing the charges. A prosecuting attorney may not listen to a family member, but would listen to another attorney.

I forgot to mention this, but is your husband the father of your kids? If he is, then your children are also United States citizens by parental citizenship, and if that is the case, you don't have to worry about deportation.

And I think the timing of the legal action is rather cynical. Why couldn't they have dealt with it at the same time as the other lad? Seems to me that the authorities were waiting until the second boy turned 18 but I would have thought they couldn't try him as an adult if he were a juvenile when he was involved in blowing up the stumps.

Yes, I agree that a good behaviour bond and volunteer work in the forest would be far preferable to a jail sentence (which is clearly overkill for a first offence and particularly when the lad was not legally an adult AND he didn't understand the consequences of his actions).

He could be told that blowing up stumps destroys native habitats for creatures of the forest and shown how to care for the forest. It might even lead into a job vocation for him in the future.

By treating a youthful prank the same as a major heinous crime is to me, utter stupidity! Putting this lad in jail is hardly going to help him become a productive member of society. It will only traumatise him and lead to more problems.

This should have been treated as a misdemeanor right from the very start!
It is hardly on the same order of heinousness as a crime such as bombing a building.

Damn straight, ever notice that when an NT is in a tough position, all their problems are suddenly everybody else's fault?

If the kid seriously didn't have the cognitive ability to figure out that blowing up stuff could get him in trouble, then he shouldn't have been in the woods in the first place.  And don't say that he only went out there because the other kids told him so, because if he truly didn't have the ability to reason, then he shouldn't be hanging out with those kids.

I do think that a felony charge is a little harsh for blowing up stumps, but that just leads me to believe that there's a lot more to this story than we've been told.

Ah, you're Ok Korrigan. Extra strong coffee needed for Mondays, for sure..
TheZach is being rude on purpose-he says he understands the consequences of his words/actions and ya can't blame aspergers for it.. So he is deliberately choosing to be this way...

To me the punishment here-deportation for blowing up tree stumps- just doesn't fit the 'crime'.  It's absurd, really.

And sadly ironic that one of the OP's sons has been sanctioned by the gov't to go to another country and perhaps blow things (and people) up-while another son is being threatened to be kicked out of his own country for blowing up tree stumps. - The gov't works in mysterious ways..

The punishment of deportation... for blowing up tree stumps.. is ridiculous even if there were mitigating circumstances.

Not all aspies are the same, as you have clearly demonstrated.

It is entirely possible that this boy knew he was in over his head and did not know how to get out of this situation-no one knows the whole story here.

Blaming the mother is pointless as well.  Hindsight is a great thing.
The family acknowledges that there was wrong doing.

Calling people stupid, idiots, or sickening as you have done throughout this thread, TheZach, is unhelpful and rude. What's your excuse?

Ethel, you're right.

I am fairly certain Jesus never said "*** 'em"... though he may have FELT like it at times..
Didn't he say 'Judge not' and  "forgive them- for they don't know what they are doing" or something like that?
Plus he said a whole bunch of  other lovely non judgemental things...

Bet if he posted in this thread he would tell this mom to get a good lawyer and wish her the best...

Maybe Marcia could help me out here with my ignorance of the bible quote-she seems to have a good handle on Christian kind of things here..

Well, I'll be blowed. He was human? Maybe he was an aspie? Maybe he should have gone to jail for such table manners? Put to death for this?
Who knows. Who cares?
Point is you profess to be a Christian and then don't act like one. Stop the name calling. Simple. Help or pick on another thread.

You are entitled to your opinion-however wrong you may be. Your posts that call people idiots, stupid, sickening, dumbasses, et al will be reported.

It's how you are disagreeing that is in question. Go ahead-disagree all you want.
For instance Gareth disagreed-he agreed with you yet he  didn't feel the need to shame, blame, call names.

I do agree with the point "TheZach" is trying to make, just not his method of conveying it.  If you commit a crime, you gotta do the time, and using "he didn't know any better because he's Autistic", in my mind, is not a valid excuse, instead it just helps to lower the general public view of Autistic people.

And don't anybody try telling me that "this isn't what Jesus wants" or any of that crap, I'm Atheist and really don't care.

By the way, I don't quite see treating someone with a disability as if they were completely normal as being discrimination.  Aspies usually tend to want to be treated like anybody else, well, that involves the consequences of that.

Crikey did this thread go mad overnight!!

Not on instinct, Gareth. If we are educated, then that's different. You, The Zach, and I have that advantage. If we aren't told it's wrong, we don't know until we experience it - as Marieway's boy is now, and the boy I spoke of did as well.

The defence is not so much Aspergers - but the poor state of the education system or (and Marieway has admitted to stuffing up in this respect) upbringing. And there could be other factors as well.

It depends on how that idea manifests itself, Normally. Put it this way - some Aspies may see trying to be NT as bad because they have experienced the consequences of that decision and they don't like it so they back off. Usually because they can't handle it. Now if an NT should try to push them back again - that IS discrimination.

Also - if there are inherent limitations on certain aspects of an activity, and an NT insists that an Aspie adhere to those aspects without limitation - that is also discrimination. For example, being made to do things on instinct 100 percent of the time instead of being allowed a base routine - and being made to work with a team instead of on your own in the metaphorical sense (as opposed to the physical sense).

Of course - it entirely depends on one's experience. If you can find a niche, no problem. Trouble is that niche is a lot harder to find nowadays.

There should be equal penalties then.

The discrimination here is that the instigator of the 'crime' is able to plead to a lesser charge-get probation- while the OP's son is not able to do this-indeed it isn't even being considered- and instead is being threatened with deportation.

He is an 'alien' but he is also Autistic. Perhaps he is being made an example of here not only because he is not a natural citizen -but because he is Autistic... and they view him as a threat--along the lines of 'ya just never know what those Autistic people might do'...etc.

Apparantly if he had 'donated a kidney'-the prosecutor would have listened more to the OP-and there could have possibly be some mitigating factors in his case..
( why? so he would be able to stay in the same country as his kidney?)
So it seems odd...

Seems to me that the bigger threat is the kid who has done it before, bragged about it, and possibly will do it again-and he's conveniently able to stay in the country..

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Gareth, by all means, allow me to apologize for bringing up/commenting on/ any/all references to TheZach's Christian faith/character or lack there of.

I believe I said if one professes to be a Christian then they should act like one -thinking that appealing to his faith would get him to stop saying hurtful, rather unhelpful things while presenting his point of view.

(You shared TheZach's point of view, but you weren't offensive-so it can be done..)

but you're right- my phrase  certainly sounds offensive -and more to the point-Christianity has nothing to do with the thread which is about discrimination in the LEGAL system-not discrimination/abusive statements made here on AFF..or about Christians.

Sorry if TheZach's feelings were hurt by all of this... or if I in any way caused him to be completely offensive in return and feel like throwing some symbolic tables around.

Personally, I don't take any hypocritically abusive statements seriously, so don't need an apology for being told than I am an idiot-
           ( me and my gang of stupid, dumbass, idiot friends)
..and told to shut up repeatedly-
but thanks anyway...