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Angry trainspotter 'threatens to break disabled teen's legs' in Walsall

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DarloRich

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Why can't people just ask if they wouldn't mind allowing them to take a pic and just stand back a moment. Not demand a never encroached sightline.

there must be more to it than shown in that video. You don't just flip like that. That isnt an excuse for such behaviour btw.

( in any event it was nothing. A slight argument with some industrial language.)

Not impressed with some of the insults posted on this forum and worse, some of the views about Autism on here

I certainly haven't attacked anyone - simply stated, correctly, that being autistic is not a free pass to behave however you like. There are societal norms which must be complied with and we all have to learn to understand those.
 
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driver_m

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Mitchell . Just to say, no one should stop you taking photos of trains. Shoot away . No decent member of staff would want to stop you.

For anyone else reading just use a bit of common sense, turn your flash off, we get blinded enough by 68s and the likes :E:E
If any spotter starts getting a bit bossy, or bullying you or other people on the platform, just report them to a member of staff if there is one there.
 

Journeyman

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while poorly expressed the poster you both challenge is correct. Being autistic is not a free pass to behave how you like and that needs to be acknowledged. I am sympathetic to the challenges faced by autistic people but they do have to learn how to function in the real world.

Absolutely. That's what I was trying to say. I've had plenty of contact and experience wit autistic people, including a close friend with a lot of similar interests to me. He struggled with social interaction for years and is quite open about it - it's taken him a long time and a lot of effort to better understand people, and he really tries hard to make sure he treats people the way they want to be treated. He doesn't always get it right, but we know where he's at and can make allowances for it.
 
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AlterEgo

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My main thoughts can be summarised thus:

- Looks like two people with autism having an argument.

- Journalism used to be a proper profession.
 

theblackwatch

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My main thoughts can be summarised thus:

- Looks like two people with autism having an argument.

- Journalism used to be a proper profession.

Coincidentally, I was about to post something along the lines of "how do we know this video isn't dealing with two people who have autism?". Has the woman who made a big song and dance over this whole incident, or the press who reported it, considered that?
 

greyman42

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Does anyone know what was coming through Walsall that was worth getting so excited about?
 

fulmar

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All we actually know here is that one of the people involved is autistic. We don't know anything about the other person involved other than that they are a foul mouthed yob. Plenty of non autistic people qualify as foul mouthed yobs. This forum does however have some form when it comes to people trying to equate bad behaviour with autism, which really doesn't help those of us here, whether enthusiasts or rail staff, who actually are on the autism spectrum ourselves. It only serves to make our already challenging lives more difficult. That's not to say the person doing the filming is blameless. We simply don't know the context.
 

221129

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I would be willing to bet my months salary that the kid provoked this reaction. He has a lot of form for getting unpleasant when confronted about anything and then goes crying to mummy when people inevitably call him out on his nonsense.
 

jon0844

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I would be willing to bet my months salary that the kid provoked this reaction. He has a lot of form for getting unpleasant when confronted about anything and then goes crying to mummy when people inevitably call him out on his nonsense.

This is always a problem with videos posted online. Even though it's quick to pull out a phone and film, I'm not sure people are actually that quick, and also they do have to see something get quite bad before filming (rather than just filming everything on the off chance it kicks off). As such, there's always a lot of vital footage missing that might explain how something got to where it did.
 
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Spirit555

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I would be willing to bet my months salary that the kid provoked this reaction. He has a lot of form for getting unpleasant when confronted about anything and then goes crying to mummy when people inevitably call him out on his nonsense.


Without going into full details, I can advise that the kid did indeed provoke the response and has done so at numerous places in the past. He is very well known for it
 

Clayton

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yep and in some cases people lose their jobs or go to prison over it. i think there was a post earlier mentioned that this individual is known as a troll. I often find Autistic people can grow up as attention seeking spoiled brats because of the way they are brought up with excuses replacing real effort to grow them into a well rounded human being
Do you know what autism is? It affects behaviour- not walking or mobility
 
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fowler9

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I have a few autistic friends and not one of them is an angry head. All very pleasant people to be around. One of them worked on complaints with me and sadly that didn't work out very well. He was great at his job and what he said to customers and staff was normally bang on the money, unfortunately that meant he antagonize a lot of people, people don't like the truth especially when they are angry. He moved himself on which was a shame, however he is now doing something he enjoys much more which is great.
 

Esker-pades

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A lot of attention has been paid to the autism thing, and not enough to them both being prats. "People have loud argument and get very pissed off over nothing" is not newsworthy. It's fairly amazing that there is so much discussion.
 

6Gman

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A couple of things here struck me as a little odd.

Firstly, Walsall seems an odd place to be frequented by trainspotters (if that's what they actually meant).
Secondly, the mother refers to her son having poor "spatial awareness". If so an unsupervised visit to a station platform seems a potentially hazardous thing to be doing.
 

Islineclear3_1

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Poor spatial awareness can mean anything from not understanding when standing too close to somebody and invading their personal space to poor judgement of distance between people/objects. I don't think this can be used as an excuse in this case
 

bramling

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A couple of things here struck me as a little odd.

Firstly, Walsall seems an odd place to be frequented by trainspotters (if that's what they actually meant).
Secondly, the mother refers to her son having poor "spatial awareness". If so an unsupervised visit to a station platform seems

One aspect of the whole thing which strikes me as a little odd is that the mother seems to be the one who has publicised it. Whatever the rights or wrongs of what happened, I think everyone agrees that *neither* party paints themselves in a good light. Were I the mother I don’t think I’d want to be drawing too much attention to the incident, autism or otherwise.

In that sense I can’t help being slightly more persuaded towards the line that the kid is a bit of a muck-stirrer - most possibly with the full blessing of the mother.
 

Bertie the bus

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A couple of things here struck me as a little odd.

Firstly, Walsall seems an odd place to be frequented by trainspotters (if that's what they actually meant).
I’m unsure what you mean by if that is what they meant but it is reported the incident took place at 14:00 on 4th December. The first delivery of a Class 397 unit hauled by a pair of ROG 47s passed a few minutes later. Those sorts of events bring out enthusiasts, even on a cold December day and I can certainly see how somebody (deliberately?) standing in the way could cause friction, though there are ways to deal with situations like that without ranting and threatening.
 

6Gman

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I’m unsure what you mean by if that is what they meant but it is reported the incident took place at 14:00 on 4th December. The first delivery of a Class 397 unit hauled by a pair of ROG 47s passed a few minutes later. Those sorts of events bring out enthusiasts, even on a cold December day and I can certainly see how somebody (deliberately?) standing in the way could cause friction, though there are ways to deal with situations like that without ranting and threatening.

Ah, that would explain the interest.
 

Qwerty133

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You wouldn`t say this if he were a Downs syndrome. Your comment is ignorant.
No what's ignorant is assuming that autistic people should be given a pass to be tw*ts and such an attitude is unhelpful to the majority of autistic people who do not act in such a way but suffer from the associated stigma.
 

Bedpan

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I don't think that I know that many openly autistic people although I have my suspicions about a few, and all of these seem to be less likely than average to pick a face to face argument with a stranger - more likely to avoid confrontation at all costs.

Obviously one has to be impartial without knowing the full facts - but if one of my offspring was annoying people by being in the way of their photos, I'd explain to them that they should try to to be more considerate about whereabouts they stood in future, not rush off to the Birmingham Mail.

On a more frivolous note, the newspaper headline is incorrect as the person in the film seems to be threatening to break the cameraman's legs in Crewe, not Walsall. "Next time I see you in Cerewe I'll break your ******* legs".
 

yorkie

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The threat to break his legs (in Crewe) was made in Walsall, not that it really matters.

It's obvious that these people know each other from previous encounters.
 

whhistle

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Whilst autism does need to be allowed for...
So does my very low tolerance for what I judge to be the stupidity of the general public.
My abruptness can come across as rudeness, so that should be allowed for when conversing with me and not held against me or my actions.
 
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BenW390Fan

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Makes us trainspotters look bad. I feel that the guy telling the poor kid to f off and telling him he'll break his legs is in the wrong. You could just kindly ask him to move and he may well do? All that just for that?
 

Veritas_Enigma

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Do any forum members know the full story, or the individuals involved?

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/bl...arebar&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sharebar
Taken from the Birmingham Mail website published 05/12/18.

I know this man very well. His name is Andy Potter, he lives in Coseley and is from Tipton. He has been known to do this kind of thing on a regular basis!
He's been banned from a number of stations around the midlands and has assaulted other trainspotters (as well as staff) before. He's an alcoholic with a terrible temper and doesn't care who he mouths off at. Probably best to avoid him if you see him.
 

Dougal2345

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Off topic, but that Birmingham Mail page is almost unviewable on my mobile - the content shifts around, adverts crowd in on the screen and it seems to scroll up and down randomly (Chrome on Android). Seems to look ok on a PC though, but who uses those, these days? :)
 

al78

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No what's ignorant is assuming that autistic people should be given a pass to be tw*ts and such an attitude is unhelpful to the majority of autistic people who do not act in such a way but suffer from the associated stigma.

Is anyone actually saying this, or is this another strawman?

It is somewhat ironic the statements about autism not being a pass to be a tw*t, yet I have seen multiple times the mentally ill card being played when someone does something horrible (e.g. pushed someone off a platform).
 

Veritas_Enigma

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I know this man very well. His name is Andy Potter, he lives in Coseley and is from Tipton. He has been known to do this kind of thing on a regular basis!
He's been banned from a number of stations around the midlands and has assaulted other trainspotters (as well as staff) before. He's an alcoholic with a terrible temper and doesn't care who he mouths off at. Probably best to avoid him if you see him.

Not only that, he's banned from most of the shops in his area for abusive language to shopkeepers. He's been done for assaulting a shopkeeper as well.

Not trying to name and shame or anything but the man is unstable. It's about time his behaviour was brought to the attention of a wider audience.
 
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