Last Wednesday (3rd Jan) I was having a conversation with this one staff member at my day centre whose previous job some years back involved 'care in the community', and they mentioned that on one occasion they 'bailed out' one of their clients who had ASD who had a bit of a verbal altercation (non-physically violent) with an irate shop assistant who was threatening to press charges against said person with ASD who got a bit arsy and lippy in return towards that already arsy and stroppy shop assistant who was basically coming out with all the usual hyperbole about 'zero tolerance', ASBOs, etc, and generally attempting to go in all guns blazing at that person with ASD, threatening to 'lay down the law' on said person, all for the sake of a misunderstanding.
I've also heard and read horror stories (and even witnessed such things in person) in the past about persons with ASD unfairly being on the receiving end of ASBOs and the like, often where there was no actual criminal intent, and have also been fair game for being on the receiving end of zero tolerance policies seemingly willy-nilly at school, college, day centres, hospitals and other NHS and likewise establishments, etc, especially during the decade of the 2000s.
And all while many true ne'er-do-wells have often ended up getting off scot-free!
What does anyone think?