A Disturbing Murder
November 23rd, 2006Yesterday, 12 year old Ulysses Stable was murdered by his father.
Predictably, many people are using this to point out how difficult it is to raise an autistic child, and how more services such as respite are needed by parents. In fact, even autism advocacy organizations have spoken, in response to reporters’ questions about this murder, about how hard it is to raise an autistic.
I’ve seen multiple blog posts on the internet calling for more services, referencing the murder as a wake up call.
I have one thing to say to that: NO!
A life has ended. A child is no longer here because his parent killed him. The last memory that child will have of earth is his father inflicting pain, and then death, upon him. This is not the time, nor the place, to talk about family support. It’s the time to grieve and remember that a precious life was lost.
It certainly isn’t something to be used in a form of blackmail to try to get the government to give you what you want, citing how this wouldn’t have happened if only the government provided each parent with exactly the support they want.
Sure, there is a need for more respite and parental support. I agree with that. I disagree that murder should be used as justification. There is no justification for premeditated murder (as happened in this case). This child’s father planned to kill the child, and had plenty of time to “come to his senses”. If it truly was an issue of not thinking he could cope, there were ways of handling that too which, while the consequences may not be good (“child abandonment”), the consequences surely would be better than murder, at least from the child’s point of view.
So, please, don’t use this child’s horrific death to lobby for support. The support autistics need is the societal recognition that our lives have intrinsic value, and are not disposable.
[...] A Disturbing Murder by NTs Are Weird [...]
“Predictably, many people are using this to point out how difficult it is to raise an autistic child, and how more services such as respite are needed by parents”
-I agree with you that this is not a subject to use to lobby for more services. This is an absolute tragedy. I don’t think more services or support could have helped save this child. Child welfare tried to relocate this child and failed. Now they have one less case in their backlog.
“In fact, even autism advocacy organizations have spoken, in response to reporters’ questions about this murder, about how hard it is to raise an autistic.”
-Please keep an open mind. Some times autism advocacy organizations are contacted in these situations by the press and asked questions. The responses are then printed in a different context.
I myself was contacted when this story was just developing and asked specifically what it is like to raise a child with autism. I made my comments. I was assured that I was just commenting on raising a child with autism. When I read the story the following day I was not happy.
FOR THE RECORD- It is difficult raising any child with a disability. It is more difficult raising a disabled child as a single parent. It is NEVER so difficult as to justify terminating the life of your disabled child.
Gerard Petillo
Parents of ANGELS Bronx N.Y.
This story has gone international. It had the needed ingredients:
-Big city
-Brutal
-Kid
-6th attempt/success on disabled kid in roughly 6 months (we’ve had Katie McCarron, Ryan Davies, William Lash IV, Lexus Fuller’s attempt, Christopher DeGroot, and now Ulysses Stable)
-Previous CPS call
122 INTERNATIONAL papers, and counting, have picked it up. Holy cow. Let’s just hope that it raises the right kind of outrage. The kind that SHOULD have been raised 6 months ago.
[...] I noticed that I was not the only person too disgusted and horrified after the murder of Ulysses Stable to even want to speak to people who think of justifying his death in any way. It seems that a lot of us have had enough. [...]
This murder is as disturbing to me as any other murder. Further. it is NOT the venue for lobbying for more services for Autistic children. (not just respite, mind you… but, services that will help these children live independent lives.)
I am the parent of a severely Autistic 8-year-old, here to tell you, that both the federal and state government are screwing parents AND taxpayers out of services. Had my child been assisted, you and I would not be spending billions for her LIFETIME of care.
I’ve NEVER lost my temper or would ever do anything heinous to her. I can assure you, I’d kill a politician for denying her cause long before I’d even give my daughter a spanking.
Children are so innocent, and little children, (especially a child with autism), cannot defend themselves. What an easy target for a horrible human being. I don’t think this woman is even showing any remorse for what she has done, because she is still defending her actions in her statements. “I was trying to fix her.” “She didn’t interact well with me and that was hurtful”. Well I have news for this crazed broad, this bee with an itch. My two year old is autistic. He is a wonderful, beautiful, sweet child. Does he have problems? YES. Is he slower than most other children? YES. Does he like to be hugged and/or touched a lot? NO. And it has to be on his own terms. Do I sometimes get a little frustrated? Of course I do, I do not know a parent who does not become frustrated by their children sometimes. Would I ever hurt him? NEVER. Not in a million years. He is my child, and I love him for who he is, and for what he is. And you know something? I have a total of three sons, and would have loved to have had a little girl as well. For someone like this psycho to harm her daughter is insanity, and all because she wasn’t PERFECT. How I wish that instead of killing her she would have put her up for adoption, I would have taken her. If she had left this child on someone’s doorstep, I could have forgiven her. If she had asked her mother to take and keep that child, I would have been fine with that. But to kill her baby girl, to do something so horrendous, and than to give herself excuses as to why she did it, it sickens me. Someone like her should get the death penalty. She deserves no less. And I think we should take a garbage bag and pull it tight until SHE stops struggling, and do to her what she put her poor innocent child through. This woman is a SICKO.
Nice gendered insults Catsy, but this child was murdered by his father.