Before I begin discussion of this matter, let me get one thing straight from the start. Generally speaking, I applaud law enforcement officers (LEO's) and all that they do to keep all of us safe, risking their lives to do so and often giving their lives in the process. They need and deserve our support and respect. Yes, there are "bad apples" among LEO's and other first responders, those who use their professions to commit crimes. This holds true in every profession. In this post, I am addressing the need for LEO's to receive more training in dealing with invisible disabilities (as other first responders should also get). These invisible disabilities include hearing impairments, Tourettes Syndrome, autism, certain mental illness and cognitive impairments which cause behaviors that can be interprted as off-putting, even suspicious and not consistent with safe people. LEO's and other first reponders are trained to be on the lookout for anyone whose body language and behavior make them suspicious-looking. Aside from their training, LEO's and other first responders are part of our society and so tend to hold the same prejudices, misconceptions and stereotypes that are a part of our culture. Extra training can help prevent injustice and misunderstanding, even tragedy. It can even save lives and make society safer for all of us.
Throughout history, people with disabilities, especially invisible ones, have faced injustice at the hands of LEO's and the criminal justice system. This is sad but makes sense, as there was less awareness about many disabilities and such persons, because of their frequent lack of financial resources to hire good lawyers, ignorance of their rights and knowledge of the system and how to deal with it, have often been easy targets for injustice. We know that the bulk of bad arrests, and wrongful convictions and imprisonments occur among those who are poor, who are members of minority groups or who have invisible mental or cognitive differences or impairments. As a teen in a special class, I remember that a special education teacher was talking to another teacher about her first year teaching in special education. According to her, "In this, my first class, all these young men have ended up in jail."
In my own life, I remember, in my teens, going to a convenience store, one afternoon, to purchase some snacks and soda. As I was walking out the door with my purchases, a LEO stopped me and said, "Let me search your bag of purchases." So I submitted the items for searching. At another time, I was under the influence of inappropriately prescribed medications, which altered my faculties and much worsened my behavior; I was "not all there." I had wandered into a stranger's car and sat there. When the owner approached his car, seeing me there, he was understandablly livid and had ordered me, "Get out now or I will call the police!" In early adulthood when I returned to school and took a sociology class, once I was doing an assignment where I had to profile a nonprofit. To get material for this assignment, I visited the crisis pregnancy center which I chose for profiling. In the course of my interview, when I approached their maternity room, which was full of free maternity items for their clients, a person stood by this room protectively. She looked at me every moment as she guarded this room, until I left. I didn't need to be told what this was for.
My understanding of this matter is that often, when we become objects of distrust and suspicion, it is because people check out our body language and physical movements; when these don't mirror those of typical people, we are seen as suspicious. Conditions like autism often result in behaviors like lack of eye contact, odd speech and even odd gaits that give out signals that such individuals are not to be trusted. Such persons easily become persons of interest in missing persons and criminal investigation cases. When Shawn Hornbeck was missing, at one point one person who lived not far from his community, who was seen as strange, became a person of interest. Soon it was found that he had nothing to do with Shawn's dissappearance and so he was cleared. In the case of missing little, 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan (who was sadly found deceased), the LEO investigation had revealed that a developmentally disabled man, prior to Nevaeh's disappearance, had approached the little girl, who became afraid of him. He had simply liked the little girl and was showing his affection in approaching her. LEO's later had questioned him and he was soon cleared. He had nothing to do with what had happened to this poor child. In research I have done, I have read about a number of other cases much like these, especially in the case of autism.
Yes, it is true that there are exceptions: A few people with disabilities have indeed been guilty of serious crimes. There was the sad case, many years ago, where one one intellectually challenged boy had confessed to raping and killing a younger girl. More recently, I read an article, via a Facebook post, about a heartbreaking case of a young man, who was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, who had confessed to brutally killing a younger girl. These are, however, exceptions.
A current case of autism and police and criminal system injustice is the case of Reginald "Neli" Latson, a young man with autism. One day, many months ago, according to his mother's account, Latson was sitting on the lawn in front of his local library, waiting for it to open. At one point, a LEO drove by, took note of him and saw Latson as suspicious and accused Latson of carry a gun, which Latson denied. This LEO moved to arrest Latson, and Latson resisted, protesting that he had done nothing wrong. However, he was charged and convicted with "assault on a police officer" and sentencced to at least ten years in prison, after a speedy trial. This young man soon went into a deep depression and his mental state deteriorated, according to his mother. On the website that his mother has set up for him, he is featured in videos where he pleads to be released. Many of us have been circulating an online petition for him, directed to President Obama, pleading for Neli's release. His mother, after many months os seeking media exposure for her son, has only recently succeeded. Now, I realize that a number of people will argue that none of us "were there" when this all happened and that this is a "he said, he said" account and so nothing can be proved. But because of my own history of bullying and misunderstanding and painful awareness that people with disabilities tend to be viewed with suspicion by the prejudiced, I tend to believe the mother's account of her son. And at the end of this post, I will provide a link to Neli's website as well as the link to his petition, which I encourage you to sign and share.
We can be thankful to The Innocence Project and to DNA for the reversal of many past wrongful convictions, but still they exist. Justice for crime victims, especially murder victims, cannot be achieved on the back of the wrongful convictions of innocent people, especially when the wrongful convictions are based on prejudice and ignorance of invisible disabilites.
http://avoiceforneli.com/ A Voice for Neli
This is an informative website for Neli Latson, where you can educate yourself about him and his needs. There are videos and articles and many resources where you can find a number of options to show your support and help. I encourage everyone to check out this website, see how you can help, and share it with others so they can do the same. We can make a difference for Neli and his devastated mother!
http://www.change.org/petitions/pardon-wrongfully-convicted-autistic-youth-neli-latson/
This is the petition for Neli's release, directed to President Obama. I encourage everyone to sign it and share it.
http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/ Autism Safety Project
This site is all about autism and public, with a wealth of information and resources for first responders, including LEO's. There are also many links to other resources.
http://www.asdatoz.com/clear/Home.html/
Community Law Enforcement Aware Response (C.L.E.A.R.)
This is a website for a California-based nonprofit, which is dedicated to providing awareness, resources and support for persons with disabilities, their families and law enforcement. All services are intended to foster public safety, training, support and resources for law enforcement and to foster safer and better interactions between LEO's and people with disabilities. If you are an LEO reading this, or know a LEO, you are encouraged to check out and share this site.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Who Are We? Help Us get Back Our Names, We Are Unidentified!
John Doe. Jane Doe. There looms a silent but real epidemic, not only in the US but throughout the world. We may have no idea it is going on, much less what we can do about it. If you have been following my blogs, you know that my last blog focused on missing people. In this blog, I'm focusing on those on the reverse side of being missing: These individuals have been found but they have not been identified. Experts in forensics tell us that, in the US alone, there are about 40,000 to 60,000 of such individuals who have lost their names for a variety of reasons. The majority of these people are deceased; they are, in forensic terms, "unidentified human remains." How sad! Yet among these total number of unidentified people are living unidentified people who, for various reasons, live without their actual names. Forensic experts tell us that much potential exists for many of these unidentified people to be matched with missing people, which can provide answers, freedom to grieve and the ability to rebuild their lives, to many families whose loved ones are deceased. Such matches can also re-unite living unidentified people with their families of origin, as well as bring home abducted people , re-uniting them with theit long-suffereing families. Sadly, there are no doubt too many of these unidentified people who are nameless because they were never reported as missing in the first place and though they were found, only the person(s) responsible their their disappearances hold the key to their their getting their names back. And such people, who can be and should be held accountable for their acts, have a motive to "not talk."
Why do people, at any point in their lives, end up losing their names? One big reason for way too many long-term unidentified (especially over 15 years), is because in the inability to use DNA in missing persons or criminal investigations (this very same factor is the reason for so many past wrongful convictions and inability to catch actual criminals). Many of these long-term unidentified may likely never be unidentified, unless "people begin to talk." This inability to use DNA in the past is the same reason for so many long-term missing people. What does this add up to? For so many families of the missing, this amounts to a whole lot of anguish, anxiety, lack of answers and devastation! It isn't because advocates, volunteers, law enforcement and families aren't trying hard enough to solve these missing or unidentified cases. Most are working overtime for this resolution! The sad fact is that many of these cases are extremely difficult to solve, unless or until we can reach those who hold the key (s) to solving the puzzle.
People end up unidentified because they fail to carry any identification with them ( such as ID's, cell phones, travel passports, credit cards, medical alert information, or the like) when they travel, even out of their states or their countries. Then, if something happens to them and they end up dead, whether by accident, injury, murder or otherwise, no one is able to identify them. What does this means for us? Everything! Any of us can end up as John or Jane Does, if we leave our counties, our states or even our countries, and something happens to us, which costs us our lives, yet no one can identify us. Does anyone reading this want to put their families through the pain and devastation of never finding us or knowing what has happened to us, because something has happened that cost us our lives but we can't be identified? Of course not, unless you are holding ill will against your family for some reason. To prevent more John and Jane Does, we need to remember, when traveling any distance, especially long distance, to take with us items that can identify us (Ex.: I do NOT include the Social Security # in this because of the danger of identity theft).
Many murder victims become unidentified because their murderers seek to destroy any evidence, to evade prosecution and prison, or even to "finish up" their crimes, ensuring that their victims not be identified. These killers do this by removing anything that can identify their victims, even though their victims may be found. Take the sad case of 4-year-old little Marc Anthony Bookal, whose poor little body was found but who remained unidentified for weeks, no doubt because his killer had gotten rid of anything that could easily identify this poor child. There is the heartbreaking case of the young lady, Mitrice Richardson, whose body was reportedly found weeks before it was identified as hers. Her death has never been solved, but isn't very possible that she was murdered and her killer(s) had gotten rid of anything that could identify her (True, Mitrice had not had anything with her when she had vanished). More recently, there is the sad case if little 8-year-old Camden Hughes, whose poor little body was found but not easy to identify, likely because his killer had gotten rid of any identifying markers.
And then there are the living unidentified, the small but significant monority among this population. Who are these living unidentified? These people end up without their names for various reasons: family dysfunctions where, to "cover their behinds," families will "hide" children who are conceived in disreputable circumstances, such as rape, love affairs, or teen pregnancies). Recently, the case of the "love child" of the former California Governor, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, illustrates this. That little boy had to live 10 years without revealing his identity, so his his biological dad's misdeeds could be covered up. But, at least in the media, I have never heard the scandal ever discussed from this child's perspective and what it means to him.
Living people end up unidentified when they are abducted and their abductors, to cover up the crime, forces them to adopt aliases to conceal who they really are and so they can evade prosecution and prison. For most of the 18 years of her abduction, Jaycee Dugard had to go by the name "Alyssa" so her abductors could evade consequences for their acts. For 4 years, Shawn Hornbeck had to go by the name "Shawn Devlin" which is his abductor's last name. Steven Staynor, who was abducted during the 1960's, for 7 years, was made to go by so many different aliases, that he almost forgot his name! In other cases, abducted children are raised by their abductor or are trafficked in "black market" adoptions, where they are given new name & identities so they will not be "discovered" or learn who they really are. I'm sure that this goes on more than we realize and some of us may, without knowing it, know suuch unidentified individuals! Recently, I read a sad book called BEAUTIFUL CHILD, about a woman who was abducted very early in life. Her abductor gave her an alias to conceal her true identity as Sharon and this woman had spent her entire life, from the point of her abduction on, until her tragic death, living as an unidentified person.
One reason people become unidentified is because of some forms of amnesia where they lose all sense of who they are. One high-profile example of this is a man who calls himself "Benjaman Kyle" and who is known as the "BK Doe" because he was found, beaten unconscious, by a Burger King. This man, though he has received media exposure, even on the Dr. Phil talk show, remains a living unidentified person. This is devastating, as he can't get a Social Security # and without that, he can't do anything where he can function on his own. To this day, he lives without his name. As he does not know who he is, he does not know who his family is and so he has not re-united with them. I'm sure there a more than a few other people like this.
Finally, there are those who live as unidentified people by choice. I recall, years ago, watching the case of Michelle M., who was accused of embezzlent from the church where she had been employed, got fired when her crime was discovered, and when a warrant went out for her arrest, Michelle vanished. For a few years, her case was treated as a missing persons case, until a law enforcement officer investigating her case received a tip that Michelle has "started a new life" in a certain area; he went there and caught her in the act of fleeing. Therefore, soon after, her missing persons case was closed and she was treated as a "wanted fugitive." It wasn't until over a year later, that Michelle was caught. And there are many other "wanted" fugitives, and people who vanish to flee their home lives, who change their names because they do not want to be identified. Finally, there are those who change their identities, to protect themselves. This happens in instances of domestic violence, or other high-risk situations, where people must live as unidentified people for their own safety.
If you are thinking, as I did a couple of years ago when I knew little about unidentified people, that you can do nothing about this, think again. We can prevent more John and Jane Does by reminding ourselves and others to always take identification with us when we travel any distance, as a precaution so that should something happen to us that would cost us our lives, we can be easily identified. Below this post I will provide links to websites where you can further educate yourselves about the unidentified and see how you can help give these people their names back.
http://doenetwork.org/start.html The Doe Network
This website is for a nonprofit which seeks to identify unidentified people not only in the US, but in Australia and throughout Europe. The Doe Network also works missing persons cases, especially cold cases. This site has a comprehensive database with many, many unidentified people as well as many missing people, who are entered into it from its many service areas.
http://namus.gov/ National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
This is a US database which receives cases of both missing persons cases and unidentified persons cases which are entered into it.
http://missing-and-unidentified.org/ Porchlight Missing and Unidentified
This is a website for a nonprofit that searches for missing people as well as seeks to identify the unidentified person cases that are entered into its database. This site is a comprehensive, attractive and excellent site.
http://canyouidentifyme.blogspot.com/ Can You Identify Me?
This is a blogspot with almost all unidentified persons, with cases featured in a narrative form with forensic drawings for every narrative and case; it was here that I first became aware of unidentified people and educated myself about them.
Why do people, at any point in their lives, end up losing their names? One big reason for way too many long-term unidentified (especially over 15 years), is because in the inability to use DNA in missing persons or criminal investigations (this very same factor is the reason for so many past wrongful convictions and inability to catch actual criminals). Many of these long-term unidentified may likely never be unidentified, unless "people begin to talk." This inability to use DNA in the past is the same reason for so many long-term missing people. What does this add up to? For so many families of the missing, this amounts to a whole lot of anguish, anxiety, lack of answers and devastation! It isn't because advocates, volunteers, law enforcement and families aren't trying hard enough to solve these missing or unidentified cases. Most are working overtime for this resolution! The sad fact is that many of these cases are extremely difficult to solve, unless or until we can reach those who hold the key (s) to solving the puzzle.
People end up unidentified because they fail to carry any identification with them ( such as ID's, cell phones, travel passports, credit cards, medical alert information, or the like) when they travel, even out of their states or their countries. Then, if something happens to them and they end up dead, whether by accident, injury, murder or otherwise, no one is able to identify them. What does this means for us? Everything! Any of us can end up as John or Jane Does, if we leave our counties, our states or even our countries, and something happens to us, which costs us our lives, yet no one can identify us. Does anyone reading this want to put their families through the pain and devastation of never finding us or knowing what has happened to us, because something has happened that cost us our lives but we can't be identified? Of course not, unless you are holding ill will against your family for some reason. To prevent more John and Jane Does, we need to remember, when traveling any distance, especially long distance, to take with us items that can identify us (Ex.: I do NOT include the Social Security # in this because of the danger of identity theft).
Many murder victims become unidentified because their murderers seek to destroy any evidence, to evade prosecution and prison, or even to "finish up" their crimes, ensuring that their victims not be identified. These killers do this by removing anything that can identify their victims, even though their victims may be found. Take the sad case of 4-year-old little Marc Anthony Bookal, whose poor little body was found but who remained unidentified for weeks, no doubt because his killer had gotten rid of anything that could easily identify this poor child. There is the heartbreaking case of the young lady, Mitrice Richardson, whose body was reportedly found weeks before it was identified as hers. Her death has never been solved, but isn't very possible that she was murdered and her killer(s) had gotten rid of anything that could identify her (True, Mitrice had not had anything with her when she had vanished). More recently, there is the sad case if little 8-year-old Camden Hughes, whose poor little body was found but not easy to identify, likely because his killer had gotten rid of any identifying markers.
And then there are the living unidentified, the small but significant monority among this population. Who are these living unidentified? These people end up without their names for various reasons: family dysfunctions where, to "cover their behinds," families will "hide" children who are conceived in disreputable circumstances, such as rape, love affairs, or teen pregnancies). Recently, the case of the "love child" of the former California Governor, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, illustrates this. That little boy had to live 10 years without revealing his identity, so his his biological dad's misdeeds could be covered up. But, at least in the media, I have never heard the scandal ever discussed from this child's perspective and what it means to him.
Living people end up unidentified when they are abducted and their abductors, to cover up the crime, forces them to adopt aliases to conceal who they really are and so they can evade prosecution and prison. For most of the 18 years of her abduction, Jaycee Dugard had to go by the name "Alyssa" so her abductors could evade consequences for their acts. For 4 years, Shawn Hornbeck had to go by the name "Shawn Devlin" which is his abductor's last name. Steven Staynor, who was abducted during the 1960's, for 7 years, was made to go by so many different aliases, that he almost forgot his name! In other cases, abducted children are raised by their abductor or are trafficked in "black market" adoptions, where they are given new name & identities so they will not be "discovered" or learn who they really are. I'm sure that this goes on more than we realize and some of us may, without knowing it, know suuch unidentified individuals! Recently, I read a sad book called BEAUTIFUL CHILD, about a woman who was abducted very early in life. Her abductor gave her an alias to conceal her true identity as Sharon and this woman had spent her entire life, from the point of her abduction on, until her tragic death, living as an unidentified person.
One reason people become unidentified is because of some forms of amnesia where they lose all sense of who they are. One high-profile example of this is a man who calls himself "Benjaman Kyle" and who is known as the "BK Doe" because he was found, beaten unconscious, by a Burger King. This man, though he has received media exposure, even on the Dr. Phil talk show, remains a living unidentified person. This is devastating, as he can't get a Social Security # and without that, he can't do anything where he can function on his own. To this day, he lives without his name. As he does not know who he is, he does not know who his family is and so he has not re-united with them. I'm sure there a more than a few other people like this.
Finally, there are those who live as unidentified people by choice. I recall, years ago, watching the case of Michelle M., who was accused of embezzlent from the church where she had been employed, got fired when her crime was discovered, and when a warrant went out for her arrest, Michelle vanished. For a few years, her case was treated as a missing persons case, until a law enforcement officer investigating her case received a tip that Michelle has "started a new life" in a certain area; he went there and caught her in the act of fleeing. Therefore, soon after, her missing persons case was closed and she was treated as a "wanted fugitive." It wasn't until over a year later, that Michelle was caught. And there are many other "wanted" fugitives, and people who vanish to flee their home lives, who change their names because they do not want to be identified. Finally, there are those who change their identities, to protect themselves. This happens in instances of domestic violence, or other high-risk situations, where people must live as unidentified people for their own safety.
If you are thinking, as I did a couple of years ago when I knew little about unidentified people, that you can do nothing about this, think again. We can prevent more John and Jane Does by reminding ourselves and others to always take identification with us when we travel any distance, as a precaution so that should something happen to us that would cost us our lives, we can be easily identified. Below this post I will provide links to websites where you can further educate yourselves about the unidentified and see how you can help give these people their names back.
http://doenetwork.org/start.html The Doe Network
This website is for a nonprofit which seeks to identify unidentified people not only in the US, but in Australia and throughout Europe. The Doe Network also works missing persons cases, especially cold cases. This site has a comprehensive database with many, many unidentified people as well as many missing people, who are entered into it from its many service areas.
http://namus.gov/ National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
This is a US database which receives cases of both missing persons cases and unidentified persons cases which are entered into it.
http://missing-and-unidentified.org/ Porchlight Missing and Unidentified
This is a website for a nonprofit that searches for missing people as well as seeks to identify the unidentified person cases that are entered into its database. This site is a comprehensive, attractive and excellent site.
http://canyouidentifyme.blogspot.com/ Can You Identify Me?
This is a blogspot with almost all unidentified persons, with cases featured in a narrative form with forensic drawings for every narrative and case; it was here that I first became aware of unidentified people and educated myself about them.
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