The arrest of an autistic minor by a group of police officers who accused her of having called an officer a "lesbian" is generating strong controversy. The 16-year-old teenager was charged with "incitement to hatred" for a "homophobic public order offense." The police issued a statement calling for caution and announced that they have launched an investigation into what happened.
Police in the UK arrested an autistic girl for telling a policewoman she looks like a lesbian which is a “homophobic public order offense” pic.twitter.com/uI6zgyTOz1
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 10, 2023
Detained despite mother's explanations
The minor's mother uploaded a video of officers taking the young girl away to TikTok. Police moved forward with the arrest despite her protests and explanations about her daughter's situation. In the video, the woman explains that her daughter told her that one of the female agents "looked like her nanna, who is a lesbian. The officer obviously took it the wrong way and said it was a homophobic comment (it wasn't) ... The officer then entered my home and assaulted me." The scene caused the teenager to suffer a panic attack, screaming and even hitting herself.
The controversy generated by the video led the West Yorkshire Police to issue a statement calling for caution before judging the facts and explaining the situation in which the arrest took place. He also announced that an investigation has been opened to clarify the facts. "We are fully reviewing the circumstances of this incident and ask that people avoid reaching any conclusions about it solely on the basis of the social media video," the statement reads.
Police say the minor was intoxicated
According to the police version, the emergency services received a call after midnight alerting that a girl was intoxicated in the center of Leeds and creating dangerous situations for herself and others. A police patrol was on the scene and took her to her home, where the events that led to the arrest of the minor took place.
The controversy quickly went viral, and one user even went so far as to add the officer's photo to Wikipedia's entry for "lesbian."
Oh wow. Look what photo comes up in Wikipedia under lesbian https://t.co/Jyrun93wMP pic.twitter.com/0V9LQjIlup
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) August 10, 2023
