How prejudice and irrational hatred can ruin lives

Here's a disgusting example of just how far ignorance and hatred can lead to serious problems for anyone, particularly the victims of such prejudice.

SAN DIEGO -- Spencer Trussle likes to play and ride his bike.

"I'm 4 years old," he said, "and I have a sister named Olivia, and I ride my bike all day long."

He lives in a piece of suburbia that seems picturesque: the Venzano development in San Marcos. His parents, Gary and Marla Trussle, moved the family here five months ago.

"I thought it would be good for the children," Marla Trussle explained.

But instead of being welcomed, the Trussle family has been under attack, they said, by neighbors. The accusations against them have been wild, including that 4-year-old Spencer "might come out with a firearm at anytime."

"I thought they had lost their minds," said Marla Trussle.

They are neighbors Sarah Fisher, Danielle Harway and Kelly Plaster. All three filed court papers asking that Spencer, his sister Olivia, and mom and dad be restricted to their own home and driveway.

"There was nothing I had done, my husband had done, my daughter had done, or I had done that warranted that response," said Trussle.

In court papers, Sarah Fisher wrote that, "Gary Trussle is a very violent, unstable and unpredictable man." Daniele Harway said, "He looked to be on drugs." And Kelly Plaster added, "I'm concerned that Gary or his son will gain access to Gary's firearms."

Gary Trussle responded, "There was no merit in any of their allegations."

He said the trouble can be linked to a diagnosis of autism when their son was 18 months old.

Yes, that's right. All this bullshit ... because the 4-year-old kid, who's never shown a hint of violence or hostility towards anyone, is autistic.

And that's not nearly all of it.

One day, some kid was picking on little Spencer, so of course father Gary went and confronted the little bully's father like any good father would. What did this earn him?

Sarah Fisher reported the Trussles to Child Protective Services. She called Gary Trussle's employer, Continental Airlines, where he's a captain. She also made a call to 911, claiming he couldn't control his young children.

So, for trying to reason with the father of a bully (nonviolently, as the article denotes), this unbelievably vile, sanctimonious bitch brought down endless troubles upon them all via Child Protective Services, and even tried to meddle in his career as an airplane captain, one of the highest-ranking civilian jobs there is. Even reported him to the police.

I dunno about you, but this bitch is just begging for a good slapping.

At least, thank God, this is one story that doesn't end in a completely enraging and horrible outcome:

But the San Diego sheriff's deputy who responded declined to write a report. CPS dropped the case as unsubstantiated, and Continental Airlines stood by their longtime employee.

"I'm offended that someone would try to involve my employment, my profession in this matter," Gary said.

He has one firearm that's locked up. It was issued to him by the Department of Homeland Security for his job. He's a former lieutenant colonel in the Marines, who served his country for 25 years.

And one last bit of heartwarming justice:

:The neighbors' accusations and court filings could have ruined the Trussles, but a San Diego Superior Court Judge tossed them all out. In addition, the neighbors have been ordered to reimburse the Trussle's legal fees, which top $12,000.

That doesn't seem like enough to me – this is one case I would've pressed quite hard for punitive damages fees – but I suppose an extra twelve thousand bucks is gonna be good ointment for the wounds they've suffered at the hands of these raving mad lunatics and utter assholes.

This story reminds me of that movie, Lakeview Terrace, which worked quite well at illustrating just how large a hell a poisonous neighbor can transform your lives into. Yes, the parallels are slim between this story and that movie (which was about a racist Black cop who targeted an interracial couple next door), but the connections are there. (Hopefully it won't end like the film did, with one or more fatalities out of the whole ordeal. Bloodshed is always unnecessary in stories like these.) It's highly possible that while the next-door assholes have been royally ass-fucked for a while, that they won't shut up and stop their vitriolic campaign against the poor Trussles and their innocent 4-year-old boy. More likely than not, the Trussles will eventually be forced to move, which I personally would take as a crippling defeat in any neighborhood conflict.

For Christ's fucking sake, the kid's FOUR! What the hell kind of deranged fuckhead thinks a four-year-old is just gonna grab a gun and go on a shooting spree!?

Perhaps, however, there is one other subtle culprit behind this disturbing story. Although those neighbors were certainly as abject as they come, there's a much deeper social problem running through our society these days, by which I mean the public, media's portrayal of Autism and autistics. You never hear of the moderates on TV or in the media: whenever you see or hear about an autistic, nine times out of ten it's gonna be a severely-affected victim of the developmental dysfunction, someone who's so consumed by the illness that they're what some harsh, not to say asshole-ian, people refer to as "mad children". They drool, can't speak, scream all the time, throw things around and flail uncontrollably, etc. In no way do I agree with that term or portrayal of feral children running around like literal little monsters, but that's how society tends to illustrate Autism and its victims.

Really, this is not a defense of those horrible neighbors ... Perhaps more of an explanation for it. Their behavior towards this poor kid and his family is still 100% inexcusable of course.

(via Respectful Insolence)