Man charged with abusing autistic daughter
Associated Press
10th December 2005
LA CROSSE, Wis. A La Crosse man has a court appearance today on charges of neglecting and abusing his disabled daughter.
The 21-year-old daughter has autism and can't communicate. She has since been placed in foster care.
Authorities say Paul Koenig provided little clothing and food for his daughter. And she had only a tattered mattress for sleeping.
Social workers say the woman is seldom bathed. A criminal complaint says Koenig frequently left his daughter in the dark alone, dressed only in disposable underpants and a sweater.
Social workers say Koenig also has hit the woman in the face and screams and pushes her around on a daily basis.
Koenig is charged with abusing a vulnerable adult and domestic battery.
Source: Wisconsin Bay News
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=4225173
This is too much. Seems like shit like this is hitting the news every day. I am tempted to schedule an "autism war crimes trial" for the middle of the next ASA conference, featuring stuff like this. We need a chance to vent and the damn NTs need to accept that.
Jerry
This is a war, so I am in for a war crimes tribunal. The entire town of Maryborough would be a defendant before long.
It is really harrowing to see these things, and think how many others are in the same situation, but unknown, unfound, and suffering every day.
Can we come up with anyway to make real life changes quickly?
Are these parents/carers asking for help at some point and being turned down? Or are they sick people who like to abuse, and are covering it up all along?
I'm sure these cases are just the tip of a horribly large iceberg.
Setting aside those cases that would seem to result from cruelty for its own sake and/or the criminal insanity of "carers," it would seem that the biggest single avoidable cause is failure to finance adequately public health care provision and social services by the State.
Where privatized health care provision makes providers look at those less fortunate than themselves as a source of profit, there will always be abuses of the kind where autistic children were locked in cages as part of a foster-care racket.
:cry:
Stella
Even my parents did not resort to locking me in a cage in order to cope with me, so there is no other explanation than sheer sick cruelty.
The best way to effect change is to picket the trials of these monsters. Quietly (or not so quietly) remind the people watching and listening that the Nazis locked human beings in cages and made human beings wallow in their own filth. Remind them also that the Allies hanged a few Nazi higher-ups for this.
Picketing the trials, peacefully of course, is a very good idea. It would certainly highlight what was happening.
Some high profile cases have had many people outside protesting, such as the recent Michael Jackson case.
A silent protest outside with signs could be a very powerful image to the media.
It would need a fast response, as soon as a case was starting to be tried, a group would need to attend the court on appropriate days, and some trials can be quite brief.
Many cases like this hit the news in a small way (general cases of child abuse and other crimes) but every now and again a case such as the Terry Schiavo case starts hitting the media in a big way. Every day there are people in a vegetative state or a coma, the Terry Schiavo case just got attention. Personally, I think the only difference in the big cases is that some initial spark draws a large crowd.
What we need is a way to generate such a spark.
Well, I like to put out messages in the strongest possible terms, so sitting outside of a courthouse with my mouth and eyes taped shut and a pile of leaflets explaining why auties and Aspies should not be treated as second-class citizens by the justice system would be rewarding for me.
In fact, such visual imagery is necessary in order to make the media aware you are not a crank, and have serious, credible reasons to protest (a vital thing with the media's current do-not-rock-the-boat mentality). And protesting rulings is another idea... when they let someone off for murdering an autistic on stupid grounds, make sure everyone knows we are not happy.
How could we alert people to get to a courthouse at short notice? And tell the media to attend too.
Edit - if this trial is being held now is there anybody in Wisconsin who could attend?
We would need a core network of organisers, who in turn have contact details for groups of volunteers in their area. That is the best tiered system I can think of... that way, if one cell has hassles with normie cops, the others can carry on undisturbed. (And believe me, protestors in Australia, no matter how peaceful they are...)
Sadly, I am not in Wisconsin. If I were, I would be there like a shot.
