Last week two of the most beloved and significant people in my life were victims of a violent crime. Their home was violated. It was a vicious physical and verbal attack. I shake with anger when I think of what two grown men did that night to people who are only ever kind, helpful, supportive and loving to their family and neighbours. It shakes you to the core when something like this invades your family. I want to do the impossible; turn back time and stop it from ever having happened. The people I love will recover from the physical assault. It will take longer for the psychological damage to repair. They have their family, friends and community around them giving support in any way they can. I can't express how grateful I am to these good people for what they are doing to help. I hope the police catch the perpetrators- they are dangerous men who ought to be locked up where they can't hurt people for criminal gain. I never use the word scum to describe humans but for them, it fits.
In the past few days, certain sectors of the media have claimed (with no evidence to back their assertion) that autism is linked to violent crime. No folk, it's not autistic people we need fear, it's abusers, scammers, bigots, zealots, entitled and over-privileged arseholes, thieves and thugs. They're the people who will do whatever it takes to gain what they want and to hell with the hurt and damage they cause other people, the people who really lack empathy. Autism is not a crime.
