this protect and serve verges upon the absolutely ridiculous but reveals aspects of policing we'd be better served if there was some amount of intelligence involved; 

Old Saybrook, CT — Last weekend, Rebecca Roy and her mother were startled when a police officer came knocking at their door. The grey Honda CR-V belonging to Rebecca matched the description of a blurry photo police obtained of a similar vehicle used to commit crimes. What started with a question, quickly escalated, however, after police accused Rebecca’s brother, CJ, — who has Down syndrome — of being the culprit.

Since the suspect in the crime was a male, police immediately assumed CJ was the one driving the vehicle and the family quickly found their home swarmed with police, making brash accusations. They accused CJ of driving the car and stealing signs from around the neighborhood. Clearly they missed the fact that CJ has Down syndrome and does not have a driver’s license. Or, it was of no concern to them.

“He cannot read well,” Rebecca wrote in a Facebook post describing the incident. “He is not capable of moving deftly enough to steal a street sign, nor does he have any motive to do so. My mother and I explained this to the officer (who by now had been joined by three additional officers and four total squad cars). Even so, they said they would need to ask my brother some questions.

“My mother expressed that CJ may be nervous when he saw them as he’s never been questioned by the police. But, we respect the authority of the police and wanted to comply with their request, so we went to call him outside. ”

Because they trusted police, and because they had committed no crime, the family let the swarm of cops question CJ but instead of questions, police hurled accusations.........read more........