Aspies For Freedom

This is a link to a transcript from the 7.30 Report on ABCTV

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1388844.htm

I really hate the was Aspergers is described as an intellectual disability by the 7.30 Report. I saw the show and I can assure you that Damien Bird didn't seem to be a dunce. I thought he seemed to be a reserved, no-nonsense kind of guy.

It appears from the transcript that Damien might have been at some stage misdiagnosed by a psychiatrist as obsessive-compulsive.

Maybe the memories of a severe beating will remind him not to burgle peoples homes and steal their stuff.

But....do NT prisoners get the same treatment? Highly unlikely.

Oh you bet they do Amy and they did at the hands of their own police force. A good example is France which had problems with it's estates or cite's. In the 1980's somebody there (I think he was called Malek Oussekine) was actually shot in police custody by the CRS. This lead to some serious rioting and partly drove French director Mathieu Kassovitz to write and direct te film La Haine which was released in 1995

I was talking about at the same juvenille centre. I know, of course, that people get badly treated by police and armies, and regular people often around the world.

Ok a significant misunderstanding on my part, but Youth/ Juvenile Detention Centre's generally aren't known for being a bastion of nice guards and pleasant people are they?

I'm saddened at the guys torture though. Whether he was AS or NT he didn't deserve what happened to him. No person did.

Youth detention centres are supposed to be places where the lives of young people are turned around for the better. They aren't supposed to be as dangerous as adult jails. Judging by Damien's account, most of the staff at the facility where he was abused couldn't have cared less what the inmates were doing amongst themselves.

M wrote

Those comments apply to me too.  :lol:

You have described in your post one of the clearest examples of the way society is set up to fit the neurotypical psyche, and because of this it doesn't fit our type of psyche. Things that are punishments for them can be neutral or rewards for us, and things that are rewarding for them can be a punishment for us. I can think of at least a couple of occasions when parties thrown in my honour were not enjoyable experiences for me. I generally don't enjoy noisy, stinky, crowded parties.

I'm glad for you that waking up in the middle of the night to find a stranger rumaging through your jewelry box, high on drugs and likely to lash out if you disturb him whilst your kids are sleeping in the next room wouldn't bother you, but for some burglary is extremely distressing.

The other day I was greeted by another little yellow 'Did you know that a burglary took place very close to your address?' card on my doorstep from the police. The second this year. I'm not sure where in the street it was but I know the one 5 months ago was my next door neighbour. A friend of mine was burgled 7 times in 6 months and he nearly had a nervous breakdown. You might have only had a couple of the local children steal a few DVD's but what of the people that have treasured irreplaceable possesions stolen? What about old people living on their own who can never feel safe in thier own homes ever again because some junkie kicked their front door to steal enough for a fix? Just say 'Never mind duck - these things happen'? If I got burgled I'd go f**king spare, just the thought of having someone in my flat touching my stuff and making off with it sickens and angers me. It very rarely is just the person it happens to that is left in a bad way for it, what about all the neighbours who get their little yellow card telling them that they aren't safe? What about the relatives of the person and their friends? It isn't just one person that suffers as a result of something like this. How often does a story of a 90 year old woman whos been robbed, beaten or knocked down for a few pence appear in the local rag? Aspie or not, a 20 year old man (hardly a child anymore) took it upon himself to commit a crime of this nature and you want me to pity him?

I know it's a cliche but if you can't do the time - don't do the crime.

I don't know what the statistics are for Australia are but in the South of Britain they are that for every 20 burglaries commited only one is solved. That means that there is a 50% chance that this was his 30th offense, not his first. Thats 30 people, their neighbours and their friends hurt by this one person. About a thousand people roughly.

Boo f**king Hoo.

The aspie guy in this story didn't look to me like the stereotypical junkie. He wasn't thin, quite solid actually. Some people steal stuff because of their own homelessness or poverty. Obviously the youngest offenders have deficient parental supervision. On our street we sometimes hear skateboards going down the street in the small hours of the morning.

In the past I have been burgled, had items stolen from the washing line, had my bin stolen, had garden ornaments stolen, been mugged at knifepoint, been scammed out of money, had xmas presents stolen from the car, had the car itself stolen, had my passport stolen while abroad, had my handbag, purse, keys stolen. Numerous other petty things too.
And they are just the non-violent crimes.
Almost all of the above were reported to the police and no-one was ever caught or charged.

I have a strong fear of getting burgled, and mugged/attacked. It does affect my life a lot. Blaming it all on social disadvantage is just nonsense, there has always been social disadvantage throughout history.

Not all junkies are wraiths, being high on drugs can make you abnormally strong or violent, it is still that persons responsibility though.

Some people steal stuff because of their own homelessness or poverty.

And some do it for a living and are well off from it, but do any of them care one iota about the persons life they are throwing into turmoil? No, or they wouldn't be doing it. This story looks more like he is trying to put the blame on his Aspergers rather than take any responsibility for his own actions, i.e no remorse and he wants pity for being treated badly in prison. If this had happend to a kid in a care home I'd have sympathy for them, but not a burgular  :roll:


I have a strong fear of being burgled too Amy . Not quite as strong as my neighbour - wherever they moved to...

Given that there are 5 bail hostles in this area, everyone round here has a fear of it too :evil:

You might find this hard to believe, but I've only once been a victim of crime, a deliberate act of bullying directed at my husband but affecting me. My husband did have something of value stolen once, but that was because he disregarded my advice to do a better job of concealing and securing the item. We live in a bad area for crime, but I know there are much worse suburbs in our city, and suburban crime rates were a major factor that we considered when we decided where to live.

I always take into consideration the crime rates and context of whatever place I am in and adjust my behaviour and security measures accordingly. We never leave things of any value visible in a parked motor vehicle. We always remove the facia of car radios whenever we park, even in front of our own home. We install immobilisers and alarms etc. We lock gates. We lock our post box. We keep our phone number unlisted and also keep our details off registries that are publicly accessible. We don't give our phone no to people who we don't trust. We make sure all street lights are working in our neighbourhood. We report stuff to the cops and security often. We complain to local members about law and order issues. It's a fact of life that most societies have a criminal underclass. Why make life easy for them?

Brightman, I wasn't trying to minimise the distressing effects of break-ins; just saying they aren't all the same.

Yeah, sorry  :oops: , I admit I over-reacted a little, but burglary is a bit of sore point for me and it gets to me when I think people don't realise the seriousness of it.


I just don't think this lad was in the same league as somebody who would bash an elderly person in their own homes or rape somebody or abduct a child from their house (people who do that kind of thing should be punished severely of course).

I'd love to think this too but I've seen little proof of a burgulars sensitive side. I don't know this guy's life story, nor will I pretend to, but thanks to my naiveness and the bundling of everyone together regardless of their background and needs attitude of the NHS 'support groups' and group therapy sessions I've endured in the last decade I've been on the recieving end of such a mentality several times before and it is from my own experience that I wouldn't put anything past such people. That fact that he Aspergers Syndrome is as irrelevant to me as the colour of his skin. He knew what he was doing and he got caught doing it.

As far as I know, in the UK you can't get benefits if you quit or get sacked, for quite some time.
If you feel that you were unfairly sacked you are expected to go to a tribunal and sort it out that way.