4:39pm June 17, 2014

Trigger Warning: murder, murder apologia, ableism, dehumanization, and others not specified.

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I don’t normally post this sort of thing, but something about this story caught my attention. (Coincidentally Coeur d’Alene, Idaho used to have the largest neo-Nazi compound in the country until it was shut down in 1998.)

From the article:

A 14-year-old Idaho boy accused of murdering his father and brother told a judge that the stress of his brother’s autism tore his family apart and provoked him into a shooting and stabbing spree.

Eldon Gale Samuel III is accused of killing his father, Eldon Samuel Jr., 46, and his brother, Jonathan Samuel, 13, on March 24 in a temporary housing unit in Coeur d’Alene, according to the Spokesman-Review.

According to the younger Samuel, the stress of dealing with his younger brother’s disability drove his mother to leave the family and his father to develop an addiction to painkillers.

Eldon, when asked why he did what he did, said ‘If he wasn’t there … we’d be a happy family,’ ” said Magistrate Judge Barry Watson…

From Autism Speaks:

“…And if you’re happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails.

Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain.
I don’t sleep, so I make sure you don’t either.
I will make it virtually impossible for your family to easily attend a temple, birthday party, or public park without a struggle, without embarrassment, without pain.
You have no cure for me…
Autism is naïve. You are alone. We are a community of warriors. We have a voice.
You think because some of our children cannot speak, we cannot hear them? That is autism’s weakness.
You think that because my child lives behind a wall, I am afraid to knock it down with my bare hands?
You have not properly been introduced to this community of parents and grandparents, of siblings and friends and schoolteachers and therapists and pediatricians and scientists.
Autism, if you are not scared, you should be.
When you came for my child, you forgot: you came for me.
Autism, are you listening?”—Autism Speaks’ I am Autism Video

You can’t tell me cultural attitudes don’t have consequences.