Everything in this story about the sentencing of a young autistic Black man sentenced for “assaulting” a police officer annoyed me, starting with the way in which the Washington Post buried the lede. Here are the last three paragraphs:
On the morning of the incident, Latson, who received an Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis in the eighth grade, slipped out of the house early to go to the library but found it closed. What followed was a call to police about a suspicious black male seen outside the library, wearing a hoodie and possibly carrying a gun.
Deputy Thomas Calverley, 56, spotted Latson, searched him for a gun, found none and repeatedly asked him his name. When Latson refused to give it, Calverley grabbed him in an attempt to put him under arrest. A scuffle ensued, leaving Calverley with injuries that forced him to retire early.
In court Tuesday, Latson turned to Calverley and, in a barely audible voice, apologized.
He shouldn’t have had to apologise, to it speaks well for him that he did. This poor bloke has gotten his life ruined because some busybody flipped out seeing a Black man in a hoodie near a library, some dick with a gun decided to harass him and pushed him around just that little bit too much. Had the officer used some common sense and not wanted to assert his authoritah nobody would’ve gotten hurt. But of course that’s too much to ask.