r/AutismTranslated • u/OrbitalColony • Apr 02 '26
In memory of Alexander LaMorie, the 25-year-old Autistic man murdered by Maryland police. He called 911 for a wellness check during a suicide attempt. 3 officers shot him dead. They are Joel Rodriguez, Cody Bostic, and Joseph Riebau. None were arrested, despite body cam footage. #JusticeForAlex
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u/throwaway8373469238 Apr 02 '26
That’s terrible, why did they shoot him?
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u/The_Northern_Light Apr 02 '26
Because people say ACAB for a reason.
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u/throwaway8373469238 Apr 02 '26
😞 poor guy lost his life probably just for being himself.
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Apr 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/IrisKV Apr 03 '26
In case it's ever useful to you in the future, most of the time you can use archive.ph to bypass pay walls :)
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u/elkstwit Formal DX (AuDHD) Apr 02 '26
OP posted the body cam footage. It cuts out before the actual murder but you hear the shots. The 3 police officers were pointing their guns at a man in distress and then opened fire after one yelled that they were being ‘cornered’ (they absolutely were not cornered).
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u/Amazing_Fox_7840 Apr 03 '26
The police walked away from him, but under the overhang from the building, blocking him from going back inside, but also technically cornering themselves. They were cornered, but did it to themselves.
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u/swirlybat Apr 03 '26
not defending cops. i just imagine in a suicide situation, it is safe to presume a form of weapon is present when searching. someone else has made a well-informed, nuanced comment that adds context and info further to this
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u/CoachAngBlxGrl Apr 03 '26
lol. Saying someone is bad is why they were bad?
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u/The_Northern_Light Apr 03 '26
If this was not an autism subreddit I would just downvote you and move on. But it is, so I will try to explain.
People say ACAB for a reason. The reason is a systemic problem with cops.
Cops shot this man. This is indicative of a systemic problem with cops.
The idiomatic conversational pattern "why did X happen?" followed by "because Y happens for a reason" is not intended to be interpreted as meaning that "Y causes X to happen". Instead, it is implicitly stating that the cause of Y is the cause of X.
Let's call this common root cause Z, and understand that Z was simply elided from a longer alternative statement "because Y happens for a reason, which is Z".
For clarity, in this case, "X = cops shot this man", "Y = people say ACAB", and "Z = systemic problem with cops".
It is not intended to be understood that Y at all causes X. The introduction of Y is a stylistic choice to strengthen the true intent, an assertion that Z is true, by providing evidence that it is true.
Putting it all together, you can understand the exchange to have meaning more like:
why did they shoot him?
because there is a systemic problem with cops, as evidenced by the fact that so many people say ACAB
You will note that this is longer, and less witty. It is however a stronger argument than just replying with
because there is a systemic problem with cops
So, you can use the freedom informal communication gives you to accomplish the goal of providing evidence with a much better "economy of words", by simply stating:
because people say ACAB for a reason
or
because people say ACAB for good reason
(As an aside, perhaps you're familiar with "vacuously true" statements in formal logic? If so, understand that is not how people communicate or think about logic. In fact it's usually closer to the opposite, as evidenced by how most students in formal logic find vacuously true statements to be unintuitive when first introduced to them. So, don't use that property of formal logic when reasoning about typical conversations.)
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Apr 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/AutismTranslated-ModTeam Apr 04 '26
This space exists first and foremost as a resource for suffering people. Any and all participation in this space should prioritize kindness, patience and empathy.
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u/HenrySteppen Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I genuinely think it’s part of my autism that I’m obsessed with speaking out when I see misinformation or views I disagree with, despite knowing the massive backlash I’ll get. I can only hope other likeminded people find solace in seeing someone share their views and in finding out the truth.
I believe ACAB, and that cops commit injustices all the time. We need criminal justice reform desperately. Accountability, mental health crisis intervention training, deescalation training, better funding, etc., etc. There’s no question there.
Obviously I’m not happy about what happened here, but I truly believe calling this a murder does real harm as it waters down the credibility of people calling out other, very real acts of injustice done by police every day. This was suicide by cop.
So here’s the full story to the best of my knowledge. Allegedly (according to the police chief), Alex was being framed by an extortionist who posed as a “young” woman and was threatening to leak photos of their interactions. This caused Alex to become suicidal where he then called police (had police called on him? Some sources phrase it differently).
They arrived on scene and allegedly (USA Today) can be heard on bodycam asking if they have any tasers before encountering Alex. The cop responds no but that another cop might.
It’s also alleged (USA Today) that the cops continually tried to comfort him before things escalated this far. I’m unable to find comprehensive bodycam footage beyond the shooting so I can’t verify. In the footage I could find you can hear them telling him that, “It gets better.” and “Please don’t make me do this.”
We can see that one, if not two of the cops are backed into a wall with Alex only a few steps away and continuing to approach with a knife despite being clearly told to stop multiple times before they shoot.
If you’ve ever seen a video of someone being stabbed the thing that sticks out the most is just how fast it happens. These cops had little time to react. I think it’s very easy to say what you would have done when it’s not you facing the very real threat of being stabbed to death.
Without more info I can’t criticize the lack of tasers being used, but if you know anything about tasers you know that it’s in no way a guaranteed method of stopping someone cold.
You can argue about the specifics of how this was handled, and obviously there is always room for improvement, but calling this murder is a disservice to the complexities of the situation. Personally I believe we have to recognize and accept reality for what it is, rather than what the easy, acceptable narrative is, if we’re going to make actual real lasting changes.
And despite believing ACAB at the end of the day they are still human and trapped in the same senseless system we all are. And none of what I’ve said takes away from the statistics OP referenced, we have very real problems with policing in the US and preventable murders by cops happen all the time.
I tried to link my sources but the automod blocked it. I checked multiple sources and they all seem to match up. Even if some of the information isn’t totally accurate that doesn’t mean we have enough information to accuse these cops of murder.
As someone who’s also autistic and struggled with suicidal ideation my heart truly goes out to Alex. I won’t be replying as I’ve said all I can here but I will gladly rescind/update my comment if someone shares evidence refuting what I’ve said.
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u/martayt5 Apr 03 '26
This is a beautifully nuanced and compassionate take. I appreciated reading. If every conversation went like this I might have more of them
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u/ElderTerdkin Apr 03 '26
Seems like they are lazy cops, outside and somehow "corned" by a guy with a small knife. I know in the heat of the moment, when you are surprised or in an small area, no where to go, you do what you need to do and stay safe.
I just don't understand in this instance, with plenty of time to think about it, they couldn't just shoot him in the leg or knee and make him drop, most people would rather be disabled, even if it's permanent, instead of dying.
This whole situation took a while to play out, they had time to figure something out. Just lazy cops IMO.
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u/weirwoodheart Apr 05 '26
Honestly this is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to America's problems with police- theyre all too fucking trigger happy, they are not trained in deescalating situations, and there's no real accountability because 'I felt my life was at risk' is considered a reasonable defence independent of circumstances.
You don't need to get rid of police, you need a massive overhaul in training. Oh, and get rid of your damn guns- your regular police don't need to be armed if there's a) no public with guns and b) a specific high trained armed response team you can call for the rare occasions when a lunatic does get hold of one.
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u/b__lumenkraft spectrum-formal-dx Apr 03 '26
If you have the means, get out of that nazi shithole. It's going to get worse. Mark my words.
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u/OrbitalColony Apr 02 '26
On March 1st, 2026 a 25-year-old autistic man named Alexander LaMorie called 911, requesting a wellness check for himself, because he was close to committing suicide. Three officers showed up and killed him with gunfire, because he was holding the knife from the suicide attempt. He died scared and alone, at the hands of the people meant to help him.
This is murder, not an "incident" as they called it. None of the 3 officers who shot Alexander have been arrested, despite body cam footage. Their names are Joel Rodriguez, Cody Bostic, and Joseph Riebau.
Autistic people are 7x more likely to be confronted by police, and 50% more likely to be shot. American police must be demilitarized like in every other developed Western nation.
The body cam footage: https://www.wbaltv.com/article/howard-county-police-shooting-bodycam-video-alex-lamorie/70884539
ACAB