Why I Think That Maybe Stafford County Virginia Should Keep Its Confederate Flag

Childhood photo of Neli Latson, a young autistic African American male in crew cut 'fro, white tshirt and red, white, and blue plaid shirt, smiling at the camera, cradled in his mother

This is what I know about Stafford County, Virginia.

When certain members of the community wanted the Confederate flag removed from flying high above the county in public administration and public service areas, the county solution was to move the pole so the flag was still large and visible from I-95 but could not be removed because it was now on private property where it remains to this day.

So the first thing I understood from this is that Stafford County Virginia might be a place where the rule of law can be used to circumvent the law and keep symbols that oppress and offend its marginalized citizens regardless of the will or wish of its communities. Stafford County Virginia might be a dangerous place for marginalized people.

Stafford County is the the place where Reginald Neli Latson, #AutisticWhileBlack, student and beloved member of his high school wrestling team, sat in front of a library that was unexpectedly closed, not knowing that his life would change forever because a white person didn’t like an African American teen just sitting in front of a public space. So that white person(or persons?), nebulous personae who had shifted to become teens, children, a concerned passerby, a crosswalk guard, but whose identity has been protected to this day, made a 911 phone call reporting an armed Black male in front of the library who “looked suspicious.” Neli was unarmed.

Stafford County is the place where an off-duty school resource officer wanted to arrest Neli for something, and when all his questions had been answered and Neli was walking away he said in that way that power addresses the marginalized, “what’s your name, boy?” knowing that in Stafford County it is against the law not to give your name when a law officer asks for it.

Stafford County is the place where the prosecutor dismissed and disregarded Neli’s disability and only saw a case to add to his conviction record. Stafford County is the place where Neli spent years in unjust incarceration and solitary confinement. Stafford County is the place whose hatred stole from a disabled black youth with a promising future his freedom, his civil rights, and his mental health. Stafford County is one of the places in Virginia where a disproportionate number of incarcerated men are intellectually disabled and Black.

Stafford County is where Neli's mother waged a one woman war for his freedom that was so passionate and so desperate that the media finally took notice. Stafford County is where activists like Leroy Moore tried to help free Neli. Stafford County is where his mother and I cried so long during a phone call that my husband came in to ensure everything was alright. Stafford County is where Neli's mother and sister lost everything, and put everything, into trying to get him out of this unjust incarceration.

Oh, I was just as happy as everyone else when Bree Newsome took that flag down from the Statehouse grounds in South Carolina. But that single act, while it has brought all the Confederate flags flying inappropriately in public spaces as well as displays of other symbols of the failed Confederacy everywhere  including  in our National Cathedral to prominence, it doesn't  in and of itself resolve the problem of racism. The fact that it flew there at all is a greater statement to the structural nature of the bigotry we are facing than the attempts to remove these objects from public spaces are. 

I know Stafford County as the county that avoided confronting activists like Bree Newsome by relocating their official Confederate flag on private property and continuing to fly it proudly.

Now we have this new argument that it should not be flown in view of I-95. Local residents, who drove by it for years without questioning but who are afraid Stafford County might become the site of another Charlottesville are now pushing for its removal. But it is not enough to ask that the right thing is done or do the right thing oneself for the wrong reasons. If the flag and all the ugliness it stood for is still firmly planted in the hearts of the people of Stafford County, it should remain flying as a warning to everyone that justice does not abide in that place.

To the rest of African American families across the nation. Perhaps it is time to let those who want to keep the outward manifestations of their own hatred, those who need to embrace the losing side of history reveal themselves. We need to know what is in the hearts and minds of our neighbors. Let them come out of the shadows for all to see. We need to know the scope of what we are facing.

I fear we are returning to a time where we will all need a digital version of the Green Book, and a Confederate flag dotting the map of these unsafe hate filled spaces will let us know that those who govern these spaces espouse white supremacy. We need to use our spending power elsewhere.

I have no wish to visit or even pass through Stafford County Virginia, though I am certain that good people reside there. Many of them came to court and petitioned the judge in Neli Latson's trial for clemency. But I cannot forget the destruction of his life and the heart breaking saga of his tremendous suffering. I cannot forget the retaliatory convenience of the arrest of his mother when her fight to free her son drew too much negative media attention on Stafford County. I cannot forget being forced to watch helplessly as her life fell apart for the sin of trying to save her son from a grave miscarriage of justice.

What I know of Stafford County Virginia will always make it a place marked by the white blight of racial and ableist injustice.

Let them keep their flag public. May those who love the Confederacy drape themselves in it and parade around. We need to know who all of them are. Out of the shadows all of you and all your enablers too. This ugliness and ignorance cannot end otherwise.

I have no wish to go to Stafford County Virginia. Not just because of the ghastly Confederate flag flying over I-95.

Moreso because my son, Autistic and Brown, like Neli Latson, Autistic and Black, has also always loved public libraries. 

I can't risk that he might be next autistic male of color to look suspicious while there.


References:
Stafford County, Virginia's Massive Confederate Flag post-Charlottesville Backlash:
http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/virginia/va-residents-want-confederate-flag-next-to-i-95-taken-down/471789176

Who is Bree Newsome?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/06/28/who-is-bree-newsome-why-the-woman-who-took-down-the-confederate-flag-became-an-activist/?utm_term=.689d63b73b37

About Neli Latson:

Latest News:

https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-oks-autistic-inmates-claims-abuse/

Leroy Moore's article:

http://sfbayview.com/2012/01/update-on-neli-latson-and-his-mom-im-home-and-soon-my-son-will-be-free/

By the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-in-virginia-a-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-for-autism/2014/11/14/9d7f6108-6c3b-11e4-b053-65cea7903f2e_story.html?utm_term=.76c965c253f7

#FreeNeli On Storify

https://storify.com/kerima_cevik/freeneli-1

InterSected on Neli Latson:

http://intersecteddisability.blogspot.com/2014/11/making-neli-latson-matter-invisible.html

Who is Victor Hugo Green and what is the Green Book?

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/green-book-helped-keep-african-americans-safe-on-the-road/

#AutisticWhileBlack: Justice For Marcus Abrams

Marcus Abrams after his encounter with police.
Image of the face of an African American male
with injuries to his face Credit City Pages

On Monday, August 31, 2015,  17-year-old Marcus Abrams, legally blind and autistic, was the victim of a catastrophic encounter with Metro Transit police in Minnesota.  Marcus, now accused of punching an off-duty police officer working security at a nightclub, is being scheduled for a competency hearing. He brought suit against the officer who was dismissed from the force and Abrams won a small settlement. Yet here is what the City Pages first reported about what happened back in 2015:

"Tuesday night after Black Lives Matter St. Paul wrapped up its protest of Gov. Mark Dayton, the group gathered in front of the governor’s mansion to hear sisters Jacqueline Vaughn and Neenah Caldwell recount a harrowing interaction between their 17-year-old brother and police.
Vaughn told the crowd that on Monday evening her brother, Marcus Abrams, who is legally blind and autistic, "was coming home from the State Fair and off of Lexington and University was beaten brutally by the police. He was beaten so bad he was in a seizure and declared dead for 15 minutes." She added that police accused her brother of being under the influence.
According to Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla, police were driving by the Lexington station at about 7 p.m. that day when they saw Abrams on the light rail tracks, “a dangerous situation for anybody.” Officers asked Abrams to get off the tracks, so the teen jumped back on the platform. Officers then began to question him.
What happened afterward is under review. Video footage of the station is not yet available to the public and Padilla isn’t ready to confirm exactly what led officers to take Abrams to the ground. He said the teen suffered a split lip, though if Abrams also went into a seizure, it would have been beyond the officers’ ability to recognize it definitively.
Padilla said officers eventually called medics and took Abrams to the hospital, where they discussed what happened with his mother. Abrams’ mother said she intended to file a complaint, though has not done so as of Wednesday afternoon.
“After the mother notified us of the teen’s challenges and issues, we determined that he should go home with his mother rather than the juvenile detention center,” Padilla says.
On Tuesday, Vaughn said it was a witness who called an ambulance to take her brother to the hospital."

60 #BLM protestors marching to the Governor's office. Credit
City pages.

Marcus, now 19, suffered a seizure from the beating and was declared dead for fifteen minutes. Please explain how someone legally blind goes from being beaten to having to face charges of attacking an off-duty policeman and now facing a competency hearing? The rapid deterioration and perversion of this case force back haunting memories of the case of Neli Latson. Beyond tactile issues and issues of gait and sensory concerns that have very little to do with competency but are part of an Autism diagnosis, as someone who was blind for a time there is nothing more invasive than being touched without one's consent. It is terrifying regardless of the degree of disability to have some random hands laid on you by people who you may not be able to see well enough to identify. 

Note the lines I highlighted. 1. Abrams followed instructions but was later subjected to such a beating that he had a seizure. 2. The officers' ability to recognize a man having a seizure was said to probably be beyond their abilities. 3. It was a witness who called an ambulance to take Marcus to the hospital. Video footage was not released to the public. It would be revealed later that Marcus was placed in a chokehold preceding the beating.

I don't know if there is video footage from this latest accusation of assault where he was also tasered.
I can't imagine what a taser does to someone with a seizure disorder.

The story of Marcus Abrams is parallel to the story of Reginald "Neli" Latson. After four years of everyone sitting on their hands and Neli suffering the permanent effects of being placed in solitary confinement,  people came together to help Neli's attorneys and they at least freed him from one hell, that of the criminal justice system, but he is still being held in confinement within a facility in the mental health system when he should never have been in either place.

Will we sit on our hands and watch another young man, blind and autistic while black, have his life destroyed like Neli's? Someone has to act now. Someone needs to reach out to #BLM in Minnesota, to his mother and sisters, to his attorney. This time, let's do something before he is irrevocably harmed. 

Let's see how well the white activists who usurped the voices all too familiar with the narrative of the black disabled victims of catastrophic encounters with police step up to the plate now and fight for those whose victimization and subsequent unjust criminalization they've profited from. This is where the bill, for individuals who treat the black disabled body like data to be collected for discourse and display and the human victims of horrific harm like revenue streams and potential training, speaking, and writing for pay fodder can learn what true advocacy means. Marcu Adams should not be stripped of his civil rights and committed to a mental institution. Time to save a life about to be destroyed. 

DO SOMETHING. 

#SaveMarcusAbrams, #Blind and #AutistcWhileBlack

Resources:

The Case of Marcus Abrams

http://www.citypages.com/news/metro-transit-reviewing-alleged-beating-of-autistic-teen-marcus-abrams-7626159

http://www.citypages.com/news/black-lives-matter-shuts-down-the-governors-neighborhood-reveals-new-police-brutality-case-7622827

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/06/29/teen-suspected-of-hitting-officer-will-undergo-competency-exam

The Case of Neli Latson

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-in-virginia-a-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-for-autism/2014/11/14/9d7f6108-6c3b-11e4-b053-65cea7903f2e_story.html?utm_term=.957b98e26dd5

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-why-is-reginald-latson-being-denied-the-help-he-needs/2014/11/28/a6c5e2c0-771f-11e4-bd1b-03009bd3e984_story.html?utm_term=.69fe33fdbba3

Reginald Latson's case points to a major scandal in US prisons:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-reginald-latsons-case-points-to-a-scandal-in-us-prisons/2014/12/23/ac64c6c2-8ae0-11e4-8ff4-fb93129c9c8b_story.html?utm_term=.bad24813f9e9

https://storify.com/kerima_cevik/freeneli-1

http://intersecteddisability.blogspot.com/2014/11/making-neli-latson-matter-invisible.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/01/08/virginias-governor-should-keep-an-autistic-man-out-of-prison/?utm_term=.fd0f2e275299

http://intersecteddisability.blogspot.com/2015/01/catastrophic-encounters-with-police.html

http://intersecteddisability.blogspot.com/2015/01/an-inconvenient-truth.html

https://www.change.org/p/terry-mcauliffe-grant-a-pardon-to-reginald-cornelius-neli-latson

Justice For Kayleb Moon Robinson #AliveWhileBlack and Autistic

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Something frightening is happening to autistic Black young men and boys in Virginia. So frightening that I have decided to suspend autism month related activities as a result.

11 year old Autistic Student Kayleb Moon Robinson
Credit: Charlie Archambault for the Center for Public Integrity 

Clearly the case of Reginald Latson was not just a random case. Now, Virginia has convicted an 11 year old autistic boy of a felony for a school infraction. The police officer arresting him piled on extra charges like assaulting a police officer because he "resisted". So now an 11 year old special needs student has a felony conviction.

 Linkhome Middle School staff and administration should be the subject of an Office of Civil Rights complaint for the clear ableism and discrimination of Kayleb based upon the combination of his race and disability, traumatizing him, and causing this catastrophe by sending a police officer to handcuff and arrest him for kicking a waste basket. His IEP should have called for a crisis plan and positive behavioral supports. Upsets and meltdowns in school DO NOT require police intervention. 

The aggressive way Virginia prosecutes and criminalizes black autistic  students needs national attention. Everyone may know the case of Neli Latson but do you know the case of Brian Thompson?

NBC 4's Legendary Pat Collins don's his own outfit to interview
Brian Thompson, who went on to graduate from High School credit NBCWashington

In September of 2011, Brian Thompson, an autistic student at Colonial Forge High School, ran down the sidelines at a school football game wearing a banana costume. He was handcuffed, arrested, and suspended from school. The entire student body protested, some wearing “free Banana Man” T-shirts to class in protest. School officials confiscated the shirts. The injustice of this affair was so blatant that the outcry resulted in his reinstatement in school. Brian does not realize how close he came to being Neli Latson.

Virginia’s attempt to correct human rights violations against disabled people who should not be in its prison system must begin with a serious audit of its school practices when it comes to black autistic male students. Something is terribly wrong with the entire State’s institutional understanding of what autism is, and how to educate and manage autistic children of color.

Virginia and other States have to stop destroying children’s lives in the name of discipline. This is pattern propagating throughout the country. I am waiting for all autism organizations to pause in our “raising awareness” and take a position here. This is the war we should be fighting to save our children's lives. Clearly "raising awareness" has failed in Virginia. Autism and Disability Rights Organizations. NAACP and Civil Rights Organizations. Do Not Remain Silent!

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.

#JusticeForKayleb. #AliveWhileBlack and #Autistic. 

An Inconvenient Truth

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” 

― Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

Reginald Cornelius Latson

During the entire tragic ordeal of Reginald Cornelius "Neli" Latson the quote above often revisited my mind. It has taken up permanent residence in my heart. Only when I heard the grand jury verdict for the Eric Garner case did I feel as shocked and defeated as I did when I heard that Mr. Latson had no choice but to plead guilty to felony assault for an incident that should not have occurred  because he had no business in the corrections system in the first place. This despite the stellar efforts of the outstanding attorney championing him. The miscarriage of justice here is breathtaking. How much more harm will be done to this young man before he gets the help he needs?

It is time to appeal to Governor McAuliffe to do the right thing and grant Reginald Latson a pardon.

I am  humbly asking everyone to please sign this petition:

https://www.change.org/p/pardons-department-grant-a-pardon-to-reginald-cornelius-neli-latson

On Thursday, Neli Latson pleaded guilty to felony assault for a scuffle that took place while he was being transferred to a "suicide watch" cell in prison. He was in psychiatric crisis and suicidal.  It is the latest in a long series of wrongs done to him by a system that is criminalizing behavior beyond individual control. Just to be clear: Mr. Latson was suicidal, decompensated, and in severe psychiatric crisis. He was being forcibly moved to a cell when a scuffle occurred. Only Mr. Latson was seriously hurt. He was shot with a Taser and bound in a restraint chair for hours. After which he was charged with felony assault by prosecutor Eric Olsen. He charged Mr. Latson for something that occurred during the throes of a major mental health crisis.

Matthew Ajibade photo credit
 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B66cc8gCEAAWD0S.jpg:large

A heartbreaking side note about restraint chairs in the criminal justice system: 22-year-old Matthew Ajibade of Savannah, Georgia, died in police custody bound in a restraint chair on New Year's day. Mr. Ajibade was bipolar and the police were tasked with escorting him to the hospital. They were given his medication and per the police report informed regarding the dosage. How he ended up dying in bound restraint in solitary confinement at the Chatham County Detention Center is another day's horror story. Current reports do not have sufficient detailed information to tell us why he was not taken to the hospital. Mr. Ajibade's death is the latest example of why neurodivergent people in general and mental health consumers in particular who intersect with the criminal justice system while in crisis need to be promptly released to health crisis centers rather than having public servants whose job is not to manage mental health crises place people in bound restraint chairs and into solitary cells. Matthew's story can be read here.


Back to the incredible tragedy of Neli Latson, who, as Ruth Marcus alluded,  prosecutor Eric Olsen pursued as zealously as Les Misérables Inspector Javert pursued Jean Valjean.

Quoting Ms. Marcus's Washington Post article:

"That charge is being brought by the second, deliberate obstacle to transferring Latson from prison to treatment: Stafford County prosecutor Eric Olsen, Virginia’s answer to Inspector Javert. Latson’s intellectual disability, Olsen has argued in court, is “an aspect of convenience. When his advocates want him to be ( ableist slur redacted), he is.”

Here is some inconvenient truth. Intellectual disability is not "an aspect of convenience". The degree of anyone's individual disability constellation may not be apparent, but the cost being paid by those individuals with diverse neurologies during crises is too high.

I am quite certain Tario Anderson wanted to understand why a painfully bright light was being shined on him and why he was shot with a Taser and arrested. Like my young son, he is a nonverbal autistic, and was therefore unable to respond by speaking to any police demands. There is no "aspect of convenience" here.  Mr. Anderson, Mr. Ajibade, and Mr. Latson wanted to be understood. Who would want to be shot with a Taser, or arrested and placed in bound restraint?

Prosecutor Olsen denying that Mr. Latson's disabilities are impacting his ability to respond appropriately make it painfully clear that criminal justice autism training in Virginia needs to happen quickly. Authorities lack any understanding of communication differences like echolalia, scripting, auditory processing disorders, and sensory issues that directly impact an autistic adult under high stress regardless of how they communicate. That is scary because the next Mr. Latson, Mr. Ajibade, or Mr. Anderson  could happen at any future date.

Mr. Olsen used an ablest slur for intellectual disability in open court. I cannot wrap my head around the idea of someone who is a member of the Virginia bar and a prosecuting attorney of his standing being ignorant of Rosa's Law, since the law has been in effect since October 5, 2010.  So I can only conclude that again, Mr. Olsen has a great deal of inconvenient truth to learn about disability. This language in open court also implies a bias that is disturbing and bodes ill for any disabled person who crosses Mr. Olsen's path.

The statement " He is a person with autism that also has this hate, this racial hate and this hate for law enforcement" is belied by the testimony and letters of people who were part of  Neli's life before that awful day he went to the library and found it closed. So the preponderance of the evidence belies his statement that Mr. Latson has either racial hate or hate for law enforcement. What each incident involving Mr. Latson does show is authorities are not understanding the needs of disabled people. How can someone conflate mental health crises with racial hate? When you spend all your time hammering prosecutions, I guess every accused looks like the same nail.

I do not believe Mr. Latson can take much more of this. Please help appeal to Governor McAuliffe to pardon Neli and allow him to receive the urgent treatment and supports he needs.


#FreeNeli

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network Calls for Pardon for Neli Latson:  http://autisticadvocacy.org/2015/01/asan-calls-for-pardon-for-neli-latson/

Updated  Bazelon statement about the plight of Reginald "Neli" Latson: http://www.bazelon.org/News-Publications/Statement-on-the-Plight-of-Reginald-Latson.aspx

Information on Neli: http://www.thearcofva.org/advocacy/current-advocacy-issues-and-activities/reginald-neli-latson/


The death of Matthew Ojibade: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/savannah-man-dies-restraining-chair-while-police-custody#.VK9fMV9UjZc.twitter


 Marcus, Ruth. "Why Is Reginald Latson Being Denied the Help He Needs?" The Washington Post 29 Nov. 2014. Web. 8 Jan. 2015. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-37441317.html?>.

Catastrophic Encounters with Police: The Case of Tario Anderson And the Way Forward for Neli Latson

Tario Anderson, 34 Black, nonspeaking autistic, was walking down his street to visit family on the evening of Christmas day. He was placed in the glare of police spotlights, yelled at, at which point having done nothing wrong, he placed his hands in his pockets and continued walking. When police spotlighted and threatened to tase him, Tario ran. Neighbors tried shouting and warning police that Tario was autistic but they wouldn’t listen. His mother came running and repeatedly asked them to stop, even demanding they arrest her instead, shouting if anyone was at fault, she was. They used a taser on him, multiple officers fell on him while he was face down writhing from the taser shocks. Video shows Tario crying out in pain and calling for his mother. The Greenville police later announced that they now realized Mr. Anderson could not understand the commands given to him by police and all charges (interfering with police investigation and resisting arrest) would be dropped. The family is suing. In 22 years this could be my son, walking in his own neighborhood, unable to respond to police. So this is extremely, nightmarishly, personal. Even the gentle way his mother reached up to soothe the wound on his cheek during a news interview made me so upset at what happened to him. Mr. Anderson is 6 feet 6 inches and 350 lbs of calm, gentle, giant human being. He did not deserve this treatment. He may not recover from the trauma of it.

Despite my maternal horror at what happened to Mr. Anderson, this case is unusual in that the police recognized a wrong had been done, explained that it is not within the scope of law enforcement to diagnose or simply accept that any person has a condition that might impede their ability to understand and respond to police commands. They released Mr. Anderson as soon as this was understood and apologized. The critical thing here was that the police, once they realized their error, acted to make things right. 

In essence the case of Reginald Latson and the case of Tario Anderson should have ended the same way. But the presumption that when someone speaks to you they are properly processing what you say, and when they fail to follow commands they are doing so in defiance shows an ignorance of the auditory processing disorders, scripting, echolalia, and other concerns that not visible or understandable to people who have no personal or professional familiarity with neurodivergent people. Invisible aspects of disability tend to lead people who have no knowledge of neurodivergence in general and autism combined with intellectual challenges in particular to draw the false conclusions that have devastated Mr. Latson’s life. The relief I have that Mr. Anderson is free from prosecution is tempered with the heartbreak of knowing that this should be what is happening right now to Neli Latson. Instead, he is going to tried again for something that was clearly a function of his solitary confinement and a mental health crisis of such gravity that he was suicidal. The Stafford county prosecutor pursued a case that is always treated as a minor infraction and managed within the corrections system. Prosecutor Eric Olsen was hell bent on punishing an individual based upon his own personal racial profiling and ableism. Quoting Ms. Marcus' Washington Post article:  "Latson’s intellectual disability, Olsen has argued in court, is “an aspect of convenience. When his advocates want him to be (unprintable slur for intellectually disabled), he is.” " 

I am asking that the next thing we do for Neli Latson is to appeal to Virginia’s attorney general to drop the charges against him and allow him to be transferred out of the corrections system and into the DD system where he can begin to heal from the harm done him. Mr. Latson only differs from Mr. Anderson in that his ability to speak masks invisible disability. There is only one person in the entire state of Virginia who continually insists Mr. Latson be prosecuted. That man’s prosecutorial bias calls into question the entire case history to date. Mr. Latson should not have to be placed in a position where he pleads guilty to something that was beyond his ability to control and leaves him at the mercy of a prosecutor who has made his enmity, racial bias, and ableism plain in open court. 

While I am very upset by the entire Christmas day catastrophic encounter,  harm and arrest of Tario Anderson, I have to commend the Greenville, S.C. police department for releasing him and acting to drop charges against him as soon as they had verification of Mr. Anderson's diagnosis.  If only Virginia showed the same understanding of Mr. Latson’s disabilities and realized being able to manage verbal speech doesn’t equal understanding what is said by others well or accurately, particularly in situations of high stress.

The Greenville S.C. police department showed the forthrightness to do rapid damage control when this catastrophic encounter with police happened and wrong had been done to an autistic Black man. Time for Virginia to follow suit and make things right for Mr. Latson.

#FreeNeli

On Ruth Marcus' Latest Op Ed On the Neli Latson Case

"That’s not to say Latson should be free. He is, by the accounts of those who know him best, a sweet young man who nonetheless can become aggressive when agitated. Winchester, Va., jail superintendent James Whitley, who took the extraordinary step of testifying on Latson’s behalf at two sentencing hearings, described him as “like a child wanting to please us.”
Latson should be in a secure residential treatment facility, and Virginia’s mental health officials support this outcome even as its corrections system incarcerates him ."   -Ruth Marcus,  Reginald Latson’s case points to a major problem in U.S. prisons, Washington Post Opinions 

Ms. Marcus has continued to write excellent pieces on the Neli Latson case, and should be applauded for bringing his unjust incarceration and solitary confinement to the public. While I understand her latest post, her attempt to explain the way the Latson case exemplifies a greater problem, and I agree that problem exists and needs to be dealt with, I am extremely concerned with something else.

Ms. Marcus writes that Neli Latson, who has already served time for assaulting a police officer of which the last year was served in solitary confinement should not be free. She says he should be in a secure residential treatment facility. Let us call things what they are.  A secure residential treatment facility is the politically correct way of saying a mental institution. 

She describes Mr. Latson as a "sweet young man who nonetheless can become aggressive when agitated". Stop and make a mental list of everyone you know who can become aggressive when agitated.  Should they all be in a "secure residential treatment facility" aka mental institution, for the rest of their lives? If a person, in an act of road rage, throws a plastic cup with soda at a driver who cuts them off,  and that person drives their car off the road and breaks their ankle, should the person with road rage be placed in a mental institution for the rest of their lives? If the person who goaded Mr. Latson into aggression had not been a police officer, and Mr. Latson had not been a Black male with a hoodie, would this case have even gone to trial?  Ms. Marcus agrees that Mr. Latson should not have been in prison. She is quick to remind us of Mr. Latson's IQ in each of her articles on this case. 

She quotes The Bazelon Center's Alison Barkoff, who says: 

“Neli is important because he exemplifies one of the systemic problems that the settlement agreement addresses,” said Alison Barkoff, a former Justice Department lawyer now with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.“When services are not readily available in the community, behavioral health crises are often treated as a crime,” Barkoff said. “It is counterproductive, costly and inhumane to punish people for their disabilities instead of getting them help.”

So let me quote that again. "When services are not readily available in the community, behavioral health crises are often treated as a crime." Barkoff said. "It is counter -productive, costly and inhumane to punish people for their disabilities instead of getting them help." 

I keep emphasizing the need to place Neli Latson based on the Olmstead decision. Everyone ignores that and blames his behavioral crisis on his autism, then supports punishing him for one behavioral crisis based upon an abnormally high stressor without considering what this Olmstead decision demands. So lets discuss the Olmstead decision. Let me quote from ADA.gov:

"In 2009, the Civil Rights Division launched an aggressive effort to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., a ruling that requires states to eliminate unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities and to ensure that persons with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs."

U.S. v. Rhode Island – 1:14-cv-00175 – (D.R.I. 2014)
On April 8, 2014, the United States entered into the nation’s first statewide settlement agreement vindicating the civil rights of individuals with disabilities who are unnecessarily segregated in sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs.  The settlement agreement with the State of Rhode Island resolves the Civil Rights Division’s January 6, 2014 findings, as part of an ADA Olmstead investigation, that the State’s day activity service system over-relies on segregated settings, including sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs, to the exclusion of integrated alternatives, such as supported employment and integrated day services.

Amanda D., et al. v. Hassan, et al.; United States v. New Hampshire – 1:12-CV-53 (SM)
The Justice Department intervened in Amanda D. v. Wood Hassan, a lawsuit alleging that the state of New Hampshire fails to provide mental health services to people with disabilities in community settings in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. On December 19, 2013, the Department, along with a coalition of private plaintiff organizations, entered into a comprehensive Settlement Agreement with the State of New Hampshire that will significantly expand and enhance mental health service capacity in integrated community settings over the next six years. 

U.S. v. Puerto Rico – 3:00-cv-01435 – (D.P.R. 1999) 
Several years ago, the Division issued two CRIPA/ADA findings letters concluding that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was violating the constitutional and legal rights of several hundred persons with developmental disabilities who had been living in one or more of the Commonwealth's six residential institutions. Shortly thereafter, the Division reached agreement with the Commonwealth that Puerto Rico would develop and implement a series of measures to drastically transform the nature of its service-delivery system for persons with developmental disabilities. In recent years, the Division has been actively monitoring the Commonwealth's compliance with three CRIPA/ADA consent decrees, as well as several other court orders, all executed to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.

It is Virginia's legal obligation to deliver the services Mr. Latson needs. This can be accomplished in two phases, first a transitional phase that undoes the damage to his mental health done by placing him in solitary confinement for a year and incarcerating him in the first place. Second, by completing a transition to a community based program when Mr. Latson has shown progress and providing the personnel support and other services needed for Mr. Latson to safely navigate his community.  Fulfilling  Olmstead obligations requires that Mr. Latson's entire case be reviewed by the DOJ to insure that justice was done to begin with. It is quite clear from Stafford County prosecutor Olsen's own statements that what was done to Mr. Latson was done because for attorney's own personal derogatory views of Mr. Latson.  Again quoting Ms. Marcus' article:

 "This scuffle warrants, at most, internal prison discipline, not additional prosecution by Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen (R), who describes Latson as a cop-hating, racist thug pretending to be “mentally retarded” rather than a young man with a disability in need of treatment."

She goes on to state that Mr. Latson should plead guilty because the prosecutor is biased.  I thought that cases of prosecutorial bias should be investigated by the proper authorities. Plea agreements are the foundation of  injustice towards Black males in this country. Unable to afford good legal assistance, and pressured to do so, many innocent Black males are incarcerated by exactly this scenario. Prosecution is trying to make an example of them, so they are told to plead guilty to something that they are not guilty of and this fills the prisons while perpetuating the stereotype of the aggressive, criminalized Black male. Wow. I'm stunned by this. The road to hell for Mr. Latson is continually paved with the good intentions of people, inevitably white people, who find pleading guilty a simple act without weighing the consequences to a Black disabled man.

Ms. Marcus has written excellent pieces on this case. This one, except for what I have noted, is also an excellent piece. But the issues I disagree with I disagree with vehemently. We are not talking about words on paper or in a classroom. We are talking about a young man's life. Let's get it right this time.

#FreeNeli

Making Neli Latson Matter: The Invisible Intersected Black Members of The Autism Community

I have been haunted by the case of Reginald "Neli" Latson, a victim of racism and ableism for four

Neli Latson in 2010

years.  His case has taken a grisly turn. He attempted to take his own life, barricading himself in a room of the group halfway house where his abuse had become intolerable. He is now locked in what is in essence solitary confinement (he was taken out of straight solitary and is now in isolation with suicide monitoring) in a Virginia prison.

Solitary Confinement is torture.

According to the definition of torture under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340–2340A :

1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from
     (A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
     (B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
    (C) the threat of imminent death; or
    (D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;

Any research into the effects of solitary confinement on any human being will quickly make it clear that solitary confinement, regardless of the reason it is being done, is torture.

If you are anyone who is Black in America, you know the sequence of events that results in arrests for Black males. There is no rise in social class, no degree of education, no party affiliation that can save your sons, spouses, fathers, friends, from this. It is part of the racism that we live with. It is the fear we carry. You cannot train a human being to not abuse power. You cannot foresee the hate in a person's heart. You cannot tell if a man is a bigot if you are white. Your race is not the one such a person holds in enmity.  Not three days ago I was asked to describe disparities in the way healthcare was delivered to my son when I was with him. When I described an incident, the interviewer said "are you sure it was racism?" Probably the worst thing you can ask someone like me, who lives with racism everyday, is if I am sure it was racism. In the past, when I was a younger and more patient person, I would insist that people who asked me that question simply come to a mall with me and lag behind me as I walked through stores and watch my interactions and what was done when I entered shops. The shame they felt as they watched security guards and staff follow me from aisle to aisle to insure I wasn't stealing anything was enough. Yes I am sure it was racism.

Reginald Neli Latson

Tell me how do I explain to such a person that the problem with Neli Latson is not simply "autism causing him to act out"?  How will they understand that there is a world in which the color of one's skin is enough to get an arrest record whether one commits a crime or not? How to hammer home that all of this combined with a bigot who called 911 as a "concerned citizen" saw a black man in a hoodie waiting for the public library to open and decided to lie and say they saw a gun doomed Neli before he ever encountered that school resource officer? Because I've tried. And they just can't leave the world they live in long enough to understand this one.

Their world is comfortable and safe. They don't have to do anything but mumble words of sympathy because they are so confident it won't happen to their autistic child. Why should it? They are sure their social position, income, and race keeps their children safe. They forget something very important. Neli Latson would not have come to this horrible pass had he not also been autistic. This disaster is the intersection of autism, ableism and racism colliding with the school to prison pipeline. See everyone who is poor in Black America prepares their son for that moment. They teach them the social cues and red flags. They tell them to have a way to make that phone call and an understanding that they will be harassed by police at some point.  But autism parents are told they need to teach compliance and concrete ideas about police to their autistic children. It gives autism parents a false sense of security about their teens encountering police.

 Every autism parent who  secretly thinks a police training course,  safety movie,  who they know,  their race or wealth will keep this from happening to their child can think again. Ableism is as obvious in this case as racism. Neli was a popular student,  well known in the area and that is why he was able to walk to the library alone without prior incident. But the person who called 911 that day was tired of seeing the Black autistic kid waiting for the library to open. Black and neurodivergent was just too different for tolerance. The fact that to this day, the caller's identity is hidden is very damning.

Neli did not understand the intersection of racism and abuse of power. He understood the rules of police engagement and was taught that everyone had rights under the law. That of course does not leave room for how to react when racism places a black body in jeopardy. No one told him that Black males are routinely harassed by police and if the officer doesn't like the look of them, they will arrest them on any excuse. Neli wasn't taught what to do if the police should continue to escalate or try to incite an act that might result in an arrest. He was not told to remain passive even if insulted, beaten or arrested even if he had done nothing wrong. He reacted as he did in high school wrestling matches when set upon. This reaction destroyed his life.

For four years, I have felt like I've been in a nightmare where I scream and people see my mouth move but no sound is heard. No matter what I did or do, no one sees or hears Neli.  Neli's former attorney was ignorant of autism so the defense was a disaster as it in fact supported the case that autism makes Neli dangerous.  The Washington Post at one point flipped its initial  and recent balanced coverage of the case to support this incorrect perspective of the "dark side of autism" complete with parent interviews.  The presentation of the unfortunate defense case opened the way to a 25 year sentence. Autism organizations used Neli's case as a cautionary tale of the evils of not using  early intervention where "therapy" means compliance training through ABA and then promoted their own first responder training materials.

I have been unable to make all of this injustice felt to organizations, advocates, and activists. They don't get that arrests for no reason, stop and frisks, and any number of incidents are regular issues that those who are Black and poor learn to prepare for, but when one is Black and neurodivergent, may not be able to process, even with parental help. Add to this something else well known in services circles and you have Neli's recipe for disaster. Parents are told the dirty little secret to getting a rapid placement for your autistic adult child who has aged out of the education support system in times when no available placements exist is to document proof that the young adult is a danger to himself and others. "Call the police", they tell parents. Have documented proof they need immediate placement and social services will have to step in.

I have been unable to stem that tide. Parents do this never thinking that in their rush to get this large autistic adult off their hands they may be setting that person up for a lifetime of suffering. In the end that is what happened to Neli. He ended up having a prior incident, as happens with many young autistic males growing up, where police were called and should not have been called. Then the catastrophic encounter with a school resource officer when all he wanted was to go to the library. He was Black. He was wearing a hoodie. He did not know the script for reacting to racism in an authority figure who could incarcerate him. He does not know what is happening to him now.

As I have written before, great demands are placed on those of us who are Black activists for content, supporting presentations, speaking out about racism, intersectionality and ethnicity by organizations and groups, but when our disabled loved ones are in desperate need of help they are silent and absent. Neli needs help now. If I have been a good ally to cross disability causes and other marginalized groups I expect that when one of us is the victim of injustice allies will step up for them. If they don't that tells me that they won't be there for my family either. When we activists of color step away from organizations, communities and groups where others feel we are underrepresented, those stakeholders should look in the mirror. Neli Latson could be my son or anyone's son. Not helping him is akin to turning your back on all Black disabled children, adults, and their families.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network decided to step up and try to help Neli. You can read about their efforts here. They are one of the very few autism or disability rights organizations that seems to give a damn. So many disability rights advocacy organizations are filled with attorneys who won't touch this. Shame on them! They have no right to call themselves advocates of the disabled if they turn their noses up at defending Neli. It makes them part of the systemic erasure of intersected Black disabled males who are victims of a criminal justice industrial complex they cannot avoid or be free from without help. What do these people do? I see them hobnobbing with congressmen and senators. In the meantime God knows how many Neli's are deteriorating in prisons across this country. Isn't it time disability rights advocacy organizations and advocates join with organizations like Solitary Watch and add  ending solitary confinement, humane conditions and therapeutic supports for neurodivergent prisoners to their diversity related national agendas? Shouldn't their attorneys be fighting for this? No organization can insist they represent us or our children unless they address this urgently. 

Anyone who isn't making an effort to help Neli does not speak for of Black disabled people or their families. That is my position. Wonder why I don't respect your organization? That is why.  When you make Neli and so many others like him matter, you'll matter to me. Otherwise, lose my email address and don't put your hand out for my money every December and my voice, support, and content year round.

#FreeNeli