A Note On Charles Kinsey From A Sibling Of A Person With Autism
This morning has been shocking and disappointing and angering on a more personal level. After seeing that White Supremacy and Neo-Nazism has slid its way into mainstream American politics at the Republican National Convention with an albeit subtle, but noticeable ‘Heil’ from Laura Ingraham, I found this disgusting story this morning.
My sister has lived her entire life with Autism and Epilepsy. It takes a lot of us to keep her safe. On countless occasions with myself, my father, and with caretakers, my sister has put us in a situation comparable to Florida therapist Charles Kinsey, who ran into traffic on Monday to rescue a patient of his who had wandered off.
However, while the worst of waiting for my sister to come out of a seizure or tantrum in the middle of a busy New York street is incessant car honking, high anxiety, and uninformed derision from drivers, Charles Kinsey was shot by police. He was lying on his back, hands in the air, and he was shot by police.
On paper, I could be Charles Kinsey. My father could be Charles Kinsey. My sisters’ teachers, therapists, and caretakers could be Charles Kinsey. But we would not face the same fate as Charles Kinsey because we are not Black Men.
Leave it to a therapist to keep the calmest head in such a situation. Anyone who has had to care for a person on the Spectrum or tend to a sufferer of seizures must assess a situation with fine point detail at an incredibly exhausting and intense rate. Every possibility and every hypothetical must be put through a real-time risk assessment to help the person in need and figure out the best solution to getting them to normalcy or out of danger. Being shot by police with military grade weaponry is never one of those hypotheticals.
In what world is an oblivious if not confused Autistic man with a toy a threat? In what world is the man risking his life to help that man, responding to miscommunication calmly, articulately, and compassionately, a threat worth shooting? I’ll tell you: In a world where villainization of skin colour and systematic racism is permitted in society and law enforcement, rendering it antithetical to its purpose and quite literally unlawful.
Charles Kinsey doing his duty as a caretaker was justice. The police response was something far from it.
I hope that groups like Autism Speaks and CURE, and high profile advocates like David Axelrod or Seth Rogan, who campaigns for Alzheimer’s awareness and research, take note of this incident, and that it hopefully brings them into the fight that truly was not intended for them to enter. There should be no connection between police brutality and racism and the efforts to better the lives of those with Autism, Epilepsy, Dementia or other debilitating diseases and situations whose sufferers require aid. Alas, clearly there is because of the infection that is American racism.
Charles Kinsey was going beyond the expectations of his inherently altruistic job and he was shot. Charles Kinsey was shot being a good man. Charles Kinsey was shot because he is Black.
There have been countless reasons to say it, and countless reasons to feel fury and anxiety and sadness, but this time it hits home for me and hopefully others who have not paid attention to the growing need for institutional reform in the United States.
It’s not enough to just say “It’s gotten so bad” consider that acknowledgement and then return to whatever you’re doing to distract yourself. If you feel helpless, that’s normal - this is a frightening dilemma - but at very least take off the blinders and start speaking truth. Black Lives Matter and you and I and everyone else know that these lives of human beings have been and are dangerously delegitimized by law enforcement, government, and almost every American institution.
And if you’re still holding out with some warped sense of egalitarianism, and you still want to argue for “All” or “Blue” lives, I ask you to think of a time, years from now or maybe not so far in the future. G-D forbid disease or old age makes you too frail to care for yourself. Think about how you would feel if your life was at constant risk (even if you don’t know it because your mind has gone) and you relied on a caretaker to make sure you stay alive and well. Think about the crucial relationship that would form. Think about how close you might become or simply how reliant you’d be on that compassion. Now think about a moment when your life may be at risk and your caretaker, while trying to help you live, is shot. Think about the irony, the fear, the worsening risk, and the pain from which you will BOTH suffer, if not die.
And if you’re saying, that’s speculative and ridiculous - that’s all hypothetical - remember, Charles Kinsey didn’t even think being shot by police with his hands up lying on the ground defending a man playing with a toy truck was even a hypothetical.
And then it happened.
