When An Autistic Kid Would Do Anything To Have A Friend He Become Prey For A Narco Cop
An autistic kid with bipolar disorder, Tourettes, and several anxiety disorders started his senior year of high school in a new school. Amanda Winkler writes at reason that a Riverside cop badgered him and badgered him into buying drugs -- and then had him arrested for it:
The ordeal began on the first day of school last fall. The family had just moved to a new neighborhood and their son began his senior year at a new school, Chaparral High, in the Temecula Valley Unified School District. Their son rarely socialized, so his mom was thrilled when he announced that he had made a new friend in art class on the first day of school."We were so excited. I told him he should ask his friend to come over for pizza and play video games," says Catherine Snodgrass, "but his new friend always had an excuse."
His new friend, who went under the name of Daniel Briggs, was known as "Deputy Dan" to many students because it was so apparent to them that he was an undercover officer. However, to their son, whose disabilities make it hard for him to gauge social cues, Dan was his only real friend.
Dan reportedly sent 60 text messages to their son begging for drugs. According to his parents, the pressure to buy drugs was too much for the autistic teen who began physically harming himself.
The Snodgrass' son finally agreed to buy Dan the pot. Dan give him twenty dollars and it took him three weeks to buy a half joint of pot off a homeless man downtown. This happened twice. When Dan asked a third time, their son refused and Dan cut off all communication.
"Our son was pretty broken up about that and he was back to having zero friends," says Doug Snodgrass.
On December 11, 2012 armed police officers walked into their son's classroom and arrested him in front of his peers. He was taken to the juvenile detention center, along with the 21 other arrestees, where he was kept for 48 hours. First hand reports claim that the juvenile center was caught off guard by the large number of arrests and that some youths had to sleep on the floor, using toilet paper as pillows.
Their son was also expelled from high school.
The Snograss' hired a private attorney and took their case to court. In January, he was found not guilty due to extenuating circumstances. The judge had him undergo informal probation and perform 20 hours of community service.
The video:
What kind of horrible cop preys on a disabled kid just to get a drug arrest? It turns out most of the kids arrested were "special needs" students, according to the video.
I grew up without friends and I would have done a whole lot to have one -- probably buy pot even though I don't smoke pot and really have no interest in doing it ever. I'm probably especially enraged by this because of it.
What kind of horrible cop preys on a disabled kid just to get a drug arrest?
The horrible kind. The answer was included in your question.
Here's my question: If the boy was found not guilty, why was he sentenced to anything? Does "not guilty due to extenuating circumstances" mean, "we can't prove anything, but we'll punish you anway so we don't look stupid?"
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at October 10, 2013 7:15 AM
Despicable and disgusting.
Flynne at October 10, 2013 7:39 AM
Love that comment on the video:
"It's not the drugs that are harmful any more, it's the war on drugs that are harmful."
This is so spot on. The war on drugs has become big business for so many that they will not (as said in the video) admit that they made a mistake.
Charles at October 10, 2013 8:30 AM
I agree it's despicable.
I doubt, however, that the cop arrested the kid simply to get him convicted of a laughable pot possession. I suspect that the real 'plan' was to get the kid to plea-bargain his way out by giving up the mythical 'drug kingpin' that the narcs always claim to be after.
This just points up how the 'war on drugs' has throughly corrupted US law enforcement. Not corrupt in the sense of bribes and such, but in the sense that it's now considered acceptable law-enforcement to entrap a person into committing a crime, solely as a pretext to gain leverage over them to find another person whose existence and crimes (if any) are not even known. It essentially makes every US citizen a hostage to fortune. I don't think that's what the Original Dads had in mind.
llater,
llamas
llamas at October 10, 2013 8:34 AM
Were it not illegal to do so I would advocate killing such cops and judges and DAs party to shit like this
lujlp at October 10, 2013 8:52 AM
But don't you DARE call them pigs!
End the War on Drugs.
mpetrie98 at October 10, 2013 10:00 AM
I doubt, however, that the cop arrested the kid simply to get him convicted of a laughable pot possession. I suspect that the real 'plan' was to get the kid to plea-bargain his way out by giving up the mythical 'drug kingpin' that the narcs always claim to be after.
Really? Sounds to me like the cop was just trying to make quota numbers.
Astra at October 10, 2013 10:10 AM
The Cash for Kids scandal went on for years, with egregious prosecution of minors going on for so long that one green prosecutor said he thought it was normal - it was just what he was trained on the job to do.
It's easy to poach the vulnerable, especially when so many people have their attention on working so hard just to keep head above water.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
Michelle at October 10, 2013 4:04 PM
The "abnormal" kids being targeted by the cop means that the cop wasn't too smart himself that he would have probably tipped off the regular kids.
Either no confidence or no intelligence. Either is bad as an LEO.
Jim P. at October 10, 2013 9:50 PM
"What kind of horrible cop preys on a disabled kid just to get a drug arrest?"
The kind of cop you find in harold and kumar. The one who will give a jaywalking ticket probably to an old person who takes a little more than normal time trying to cross the road.
Redrajesh at October 11, 2013 1:19 AM
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