A plea for tolerance

We saw a young man on the bus the other day i presumed was drunk but DH said he could be ill. I think he was probably right and i was wrong....perhaps.

I agree the very least should have been a face to face apology from the arresting officers.

I am furious and saddened in equal measure. So he was "released without charge" was he? Also from the sound of it, without a grovelling apology, financial compensation to him and his family for mental and physical distress and without the officers responsible apologising face to face on their way to collect their P45s

I think the fast pace of modern life makes people seem uncaring and unkind sometimes. Everyone is just so busy and rushing about that they tut at someone fumbling for the right change in a supermarket queue or brush past someone walking slowly on a narrow pavement. There is a tendency to consider ourselves and our concerns more important than those of the person who is so inconsiderately holding us up.

An uncle, my father-in-law and my husband's best friend all had Parkinson's and although they all had the characteristic shaky hands, their symptoms otherwise were very different.

Once as I was driving out of our village, a man started rolling around on the pavement. I and another passer-by went over to him so see what was the matter. At first it looked as if he was drunk, but he was able to ask us to go and get some sweets out of his car. He was having a diabetic hypo. Another category of person frequently misunderstood.

sS somone whose husband has PD I am of course totally appalled by this. A dreadful over-reaction by the police - but basically a failure of their training. As soon as this man said he had PD they should have backed off - grovelled even.

The first thing I was told about PD was that OH would find it hard to smile and that I should not necessarily assume he was miserable, although he frequently is and I have to make that distinction.

People do not realise the vast array of areas of life that are affected by PD - I did not until I started to live with a sufferer - speech, taste, smell, appetite, disordered digestion, sudden weakness, depression, anxiety, cognitive loss, as well as the well-known shaking. The treatments carry their own side effects which can be very distressing.

That is a terrible story, I knew a young woman who had MS and she often was targeted by passers by as being drunk. I'm not sure we are becoming any kinder as a country.

I would echo that plea for tolerance, there is a young man who walks around the supermarket with his mother who obviously has Tourettes (I don't know him or his mother so don't feel able to ask) and I often hear people tut tutting about his shouting and bad language. His mother is obviously used to the stares and comments and just ignores them and gets on with her shopping.

It sounds as if the police, under pressure to prevent any disruptions, forgot that people are innocent until proven guilty! However it will not be the first or last time police over react and fail to listen to the innocent person's explanation before responding.

I have been on demos over the years and met some fabulous and thoughtful police officers and then some who were crass and looking for a fight! I suppose that could probably be said of the demonstrators too! we are all human so good and bad in all sections of the community!

That is dreadful behaviour from the police! It sound as if their whole approach was very aggressive from the start.

Saw him on the news this morning - lovely fellow. He was eventually released but with an apology? I don't think so.

Why is not smiling suspicious and when did not smiling become an arrestable offence? It seems that Parkinson's is yet another disability that provokes abuse and general nastiness.