Aspies For Freedom

I think Lulu was telling us so we could watch it and find out. If she told us the next day, then it would be too late.

Ryuujin, if you are in the UK its on Friday, 14 October 2005, ITV, called The Brief.

There is a broadcasting authority. I will try and remember to watch the show and maybe others can too. Then we can determine if there is reason for complaint.

"Note, the boy is accused of having killed his mother. That is what it seems to look like. It doesn't say he did kill his mother."

Well if someone is the defendant in a murder case, and is accused of it, they ARE saying that they think he has killed his mother and that's why he's on trial! Very few people on trial for murder are aquitted, as there has to be a lot of evidence to be taken to court for such a crime.

I am not saying that this drama won't have twists and turns, who knows, but there is the immediate fact that he is considered the murderer of his own mother.

Read carefully what I said, I never said he was guilty, but that he is on trial for murder, therefore the people working on the case are acting on the assumption that he is guilty.

They don't deliberately take innocent people to court who have commited no crime.

Not many people will take the time to research a show just from watching a trailer.

Many people hear violence, murder and aspergers together, and jump to a conclusion.

I have seen people say these things - remember the girl whose parents attempted suicide, and the BBC forum had a poster saying aspies should be killed at birth?

I am not complaining about the show, and said I want to watch it before deciding to complain to the company, but it doesn't change the fact that an aspie is on trial for murdering his mother in the show.
Theres no way to dodge that fact.

Noetic said "Amy wrote:
Many people hear violence, murder and aspergers together, and jump to a conclusion.

So why join them? Why can't you just LEAVE "the public" to make up their own minds, rather than make assumptions on what everyone is going to think?"



I didn't join them, I know that aspergers doesn't = violence.



"Why can't you just LEAVE "the public" to make up their own minds"


Well I can't stop the public doing anything, I am posting my opinion on a forum. Try and put it in perspective.

Lulu said "Are you frigging well stupid or what? "

Please don't make personal comments such as this, try and make a point in a reasonable way, thanks.

Watching the show now, and its nearly finished. As I said previously I would watch it and then decide if there was any reason for complaint.

I was very surprised that they said a few times what a burden he was, and how difficult it was to cope. Yet they didn't give any reason as to why that was, such as stating that he needed help with cooking, dressing, etc, which he certainly didn't seem to. So I don't know what the burden was supposed to be.

Some points, maybe others could explain. When he was first interviewed by the brief, it was in a green room, and the character Dan couldn't focus because the colour bothered him, yet later during the trial, the brief and his colleague spoke to him in a green room and it never bothered him at all.

In one scene during the trial, outside the court, the female brief was wearing a pink blouse, and the second button down seemed to be cross buttoned and tucked in, as if when you button it up wrongly. Was it an effect of the blouse design, or a mistake?

Before Dan has been pushed in prison and had the mark on his cheek, he had already appeared to have a bruised lip, maybe this was another continuation error.

The show had mentioned Dan having commited an assault on a girl, after being provoked. It showed him wrestling/attacking a court worker, and showed him killing his mother.

It most certainly did portray aspies as potentially violent, and this one character as actually extremely violent. He got two years in prison for what I think was ultimately classed as manslaughter.

The main problem is, that if the only views of AS that the public see are of this type, then it gives a very bad impression.
Its similar to the arguments that I saw in the past from, for example someone gay, when there was only the occasional gay person on tv and they were a comedy character to be laughed at.

This is an online form to give feedback on the ITV website -

http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=1215

On some tv channel websites they have forums to post about issues or complaints with a show, but it doesn't look like ITV have them.

I have submitted this complaint/comment and questions to ITV -

I watched The Brief tonight as I was interested to see the character with aspergers syndrome, which I, and my son and husband have.
Some aspects of the characterization of aspergers were correct, though some were exagerrated points.
My main worry and complaint is that the character was shown having already assaulted someone, and attacking a court worker, and shown killing his mother.

There is so much prejudice that people with aspergers face all the time, this is literally making our lives harder to be shown as violent too. The statistics actually show that violent crime is more common in average men, than for men with autism and aspergers, in their twenties, that is from a recent study by Howlin et al.

If your channel very rarely shows people with autism and aspergers, which is currently the case, and when we are shown, we are portrayed as violent, it has a very real impact on the perceptions of the general public.
It is very hard to find work, make friends, and study, and be accepted as it is, this programme took advantage of a neurological difference in order to make something dramatic and unusual, at the expense of how we are treated in society.

Can you please explain why the very rare portrayal of someone with aspergers on your channel was shown as a violent murderer?
Do you plan to do anything to address the balance and show a realistic version of living with aspergers? We are actually much more likely to be the victims of a crime than to commit one.

I hope you can reply to me soon, thank you for your time, Amy Nelson

Imagine a new species of animal was found, and was shown on tv attacking someone, people would think that this animal was aggresive.
If this new species was shown once a week, showing different behaviours people would think that it had various behaviours.

If people's only experience of seeing someone with AS is violent, it leaves a negative imprint.

Other sections of society get shown a lot more often for people to form a reasonably balanced view.

I have so far received this reply from them -

Thank you for your e-mail.  We have made a note of your concerns and
your comments have been logged.  A copy of this goes to all our senior
management and production staff

Yours sincerely

DUTY OFFICER - JT

I never said we were a different species, I was using a metaphor as some members of the public would have no idea what aspergers was, and this would be there first glimpse of it.
I am sure we all want to be treated like humans.
I think we do deserve equal treatment, that's what I was complaining about.
We see so many high figures of how many people are affected by autism, 1 million according to the NAS, therefore we should be represented more on TV, and in a fair and balanced way.

Minority groups have made a point of requesting this often in the past, and changes have been made on TV.

I find it strange that you say that in the programme you watched Daniel was not violent to his mother at all, yet we did clearly see him cause her death by strangulation.

Its too late to change the fact that this show was broadcast, but it could stop other similar shows being made, following the same stereotype.