AUTISM ACTIVISM

Open good evening everyone thanks for joining us.

I'm monica harkins ### it's been more than 2 weeks since liam long...an austic black teenager was hit by a police cruiser...while running from police..because as police report he was carrying a knife.

Now as he recovers from his injuries..

Abc 36's danielle saitta explains how community members are continuing to bring awareness to what happened.

##### danielle: "community members brought kindness and creativity to downtown lexington by not only spreading awareness for liam long but also making him get well cards to come home to" lpd accountability and autistics united kentucky rallied together in front of the court house on saturday to make the cards and even give the streets and steps a bit of a c1 3 makeover...with chalk.

Winter sherman with austistics united kentucky says enough is enough..and wants police to do- better when considering someone's mental abilities.

"there was the assault by donvan stuart another black autistic teenager in the city..there's been two cases of this exact same thing and those are just the ones we've heard about" sherman says as an austistic person they know the feeling.

Winter: "i've had an encounter with a cop they thought i was on drugs because i was acting austistic" i asked daniel whitley...the attorney representing the long family how this issue could be solved..he says..it comes down to accountability and education.

Whitley: "it's a serious issue when we don't have officers who are not trained to deal with mental health issue it's a serious issue when they don't know how to deal with them and they use their force whether it be a club a tazer..in this case a police cruiser" i also caught up with liam's mom who says there's a long road ahead for liam's recovery and for any kind of change.

So for now..she's focusing on him...and was even able to cheer him up over the phone with the help of community members.

Nat:we love you liam he just called and it wasn't planned or anything and when everyone yelled we are all out here for you liam he was just sobbing on the phone" danielle saitta:"liam's mom says he's still in the hospital and that his family hopes he'll be home soon.

In lexington danielle saitta abc 36 news" ##### to the latest on the coronavirus in the commonweath..

Fs vo bullets:no coronavirus in kentucky