Police Encounters With the Mentally Retarded

Regarding Guido Rodriguez, the autistic child who was dragged from his garage and placed under restraint by a backup unit of the Irvine Police Department, over the protests of mother and neighbors that he is retarded and harmless.

Guido was suspected of stealing his own bicycle and using drugs because he behaved abnormally. When Guido began passing blood the next morning, he was taken to the hospital and his kidney removed in an emergency operation.

My son Jay has been a classmate of Guido’s on and off for the past five years. I am all too aware that what happened to Guido at the hands of the Irvine police, could have happened to my son or with other kids their age in the Orange County Department of Education’s program for the severely handicapped under other similar circumstances.

Jay has been arrested, accused of drug use, beaten by baby sitters and other adults who “couldn’t get him to listen,” brought police officers to my home, weapons in hand, verbally abused, thrown into the drunk tank and disfigured by a caring professional in an accidental reaction to one of his temper tantrums.

If a policewoman felt threatened by gentle, bilingual, nervous little Guido, I wonder how much more response she would have called for if it were my son who is a foot taller, non-verbal and angry when frustrated.

I don’t know what passions canceled intuition and street smarts in the suburban nightmare that has touched Guido’s family and friends, but I know those passions must be addressed.

I am torn between thanking my Southern California neighbors for the love and concern that designs programs for Jay and Guido, which didn’t exist in five other states, and screaming at the lack of checks and balances that allowed Guido to fall victim so heavily.

DANIEL J. FARRELL

Surfside