Bleg

on march 30, 2021, a man dialed 9-1-1 requesting a wellness check for his autistic 19 year old client, saying he was experiencing a mental health crisis and/or a psychotic break. the person in question, liam long, was wandering around lexington in distress

when the police approached him, he (understandably) did not react well to the situation. he had been telling people he was "part of the mexican cartel," and this was something he seemed to believe. when the police began to follow him, he pulled out a knife and said they would have to kill him first

more officers began to arrive to the scene, and liam long made a break for it. he jumped a fence and started running. while trying to cross a street, he was hit by a lexington police department cruiser that was traveling at around 40 mph. witnesses said it looked intentional on the cops' part

body cam footage from the perspective of the driver shows that the driver saw liam running through the area so he turned on his lights (but not the sirens). the officer swerved and hit him

liam went flying. his shoe and the knife he was holding landed in a neighbor's yard. he landed and hit his head on the curb. officers approached him and searched his body for a knife. in the ten minutes until the ambulance arrived, liam had three seizures. the cops just stood and watched and asked each other what they should do

witnesses tried to approach the cops and find out what was going on. one woman kept repeating "i just witnessed a murder!" the police told them to give their information so the prosecutors could talk to them later. as the officer that the body cam was on was walking away, he said that the witnesses were being "irrational"

liam long suffered from a traumatic brain injury and hasn't been able to walk without help since the accident. he's been in the ICU since. his family wasn't notified that he was in the ICU until about four hours after his arrival

lpd released a statement in which they lied about his condition and placed the blame of the situation on liam

liam's family repeatedly begged the police dept to release all of the footage surrounding the incident. it wasn't released until april 10, 2021. it was only released after the family filed an official request for the information at a city council meeting. there was a protest outside the department where a group of people were denied to be given a form so they could file a complaint with the department and were told to come back at a later date

liam's autism manifests in such a way that sometimes his family has to speak on his behalf. despite this (and despite the police department interacting with him enough before this that they would have known this) the police department has sent many investigators into the ICU to talk to liam without his family's knowledge

the lexington police department is where brett hankison started. instead of firing him for his many offenses, they let him resign so that he would be able to be employed by other police departments. he went on to be employed by lmpd and kill breonna taylor

liam long is the second black autistic teen to be victimized by lpd since 2019 and nothing has changed

i also have stories myself of interactions i have had with lpd and how they treated me poorly for being autistic. i was able to get away with only minor injuries. this cannot be allowed to continue. lpd is corrupt and repeatedly responds to situations with violence when none is necessary