I have mixed feelings but first feeling is the Infinity symbol should be used because that is the symbol chosen by the Autistic community (but like they’ll ever listen to Autistics) & even if they did, unless A$ (Autism Speaks) stopped their advertising or another Autistic charity which just as much reach & money start advertising the infinity symbol, most don’t & won’t know what that means, and everyone knows the damn puzzle piece. 🙄
Maybe this is a situation it would have helped?
A new light was put in on a highway right over a hill so you couldn’t see the light before the hill. The car in front of me didn’t expect it & the light turned yellow & they slammed on their brakes & I rear ended them, but barely. I slammed in my brakes almost fully stopped but couldn’t quite get there. A boop. Otherwise I have a sensitive neck & I would have hurt myself. The only reason I got hurt was the cop.
I get out & look (no visuals damage i could see) start apologizing profusely to exchange information & he starts screaming at me. I have cptsd & this man is screaming at me. Fight/flight/freeze kicked in & all I was thinking was “I have to go home.” Home was my focus. I get in the car to get away from his screaming & drive away. I wasn’t thinking, just acting at this point. He starts following me & I can’t get away & I don’t want him to know where I live so I panic more. He screaming at me at stop lights out the window, I’m terrified & don’t think to call the cops! He did though.
He told the cops all this stuff I apparently did & the cop wrote me 10 tickets on his word the copy didn’t witness any of it, adding up to $7,000 & 2 years in jail (fleeing scene of an accident). The cop is talking to me and suddenly asks me to get out of the car & arrests me. (Hello panic).
Now, my arms are small, I can’t touch my fingers behind my back let alone be wrist to wrist. He forced it. It was so painful. I cried the entire time & had a complete meltdown which was absolutely humiliating. I begged them to cuff me in the front because it was so painful. They wouldn’t. I was in that position over 2 hours.
My wrists had bruises & scrapes on the for weeks from the natural pulling my body did & the plastic cuffs... even link cuffs at least have some room. My shoulders really were sore over a month.
I had told Russ I was on the way home from somewhere that took 10 minutes & knew he was panicking. I begged them to call him, he expected me home over an hour ago & I’m not picking up my phone. They wouldn’t & I begged & finally they called him to let him know.
I didn’t get to talk to him though, I didn’t get my phone call, they considered that my phone call. I really needed to hear his voice.
To be transparent they found cannabis in my car, but that wasn’t a concern to me, cannabis had just been decriminalized, luckily. I even forgot it was there, but the cops decided that’s why I fled the scene. Yes, I risked jail to avoid a fine.
We had to hire a pricey lawyer, and fight this for 2 years. I luckily got it reduced (not cheaply) to “failure to reduce speed” ticket like it should have been all along & 50 hours community service. And I am LUCKY! A, that I had resources to get a good lawyer & B that I was a short white female. Had it been a POC or someone who couldn’t afford a lawyer? I hardly drive now. Once every few months. Maybe.
And look, I have been in a lot of car accidents & have had a lot of speeding tickets, I wasn’t the best driver but I admit when those accidents were my carelessness. I really don’t believe this was one. You can only do so much when someone slams on their breaks when a light turns yellow. I wasn’t even speeding because I anticipated the light. A few months later they put a “stoplight ahead” sign up because I’m guessing I wasn’t the only accident there.
If I could do it all over I would remember to have called the police but if I am being completely honest, the police aren’t who I think of when I think “I need help”. They didn’t even cross my mind, and that’s sad. This experience only validated that feeling.
If this happened & someone had a symbol would they have been treated differently? Would the situation have been resolved better? Would the cop have had more patience or less?
