oh, cripes.
News that upsets me.
(Grabbing or holding an autistic person who is already confused and stressed is almost a surefire way to cause them to freak out completely. Of course, grabbing a normal confused, stressed person probably isn't great procedure either, but because most autistic people are extremely touch-sensitive, it isn't really comparable. While sensory overload isn't the same as a phobia and shouldn't be treated as though it were, the best analogy I've seen so far is that physically restraining an upset autistic person is like punishing a person with a snake phobia by throwing a live snake at them, in terms of the panic and anxiety such an action would cause.)
...I would hope that pointing out the sheer ludicrousness of arresting a small eight-year-old child for assault and battery (or arresting a young man for being black maybe possibly having a hypothetical gun while sitting in front of a library and minding his own business) is unnecessary. If you'd like more articles about either of these cases, google is your friend.
Oh, wait. Just found this. Who the fuck puts that on an IEP? I mean, seriously, what is "police intervention" ever going to do for a little kid with behavior problems except traumatize them and possibly make them believe that they are a bad person destined for a lifetime of criminality? (And maybe I'm being too cynical, but I suspect that there's a measure of psychophobia involved here-- I cannot imagine a child without some sort of DSM label having the cops called on them for a similar outburst.)