Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Christine Vester: Humanity Over Handcuffs: Protecting Autistic Lives in Legal Battles
27 Apr 2025
Send us a text Christine Vester shares her mission with Humanity Over Handcuffs, a national advocacy movement protecting autistic individuals from being criminalized by the justice system. Her organization supports families, educates legal professionals, and works toward reforming a system that often treats neurological differences as criminal behavior. • Autistic behaviors like lack of eye contact, shutdowns, and sensory overload often misinterpreted by police as aggression or defiance • Families seeking help unexpectedly find themselves battling a legal system unprepared to understand autism • Courts routinely fail to consider autism as a mitigating factor, treating autistic individuals like typical defendants • Prison environments create traumatic sensory overload for autistic individuals, who may face targeting by other inmates • Incarceration carries long-lasting consequences, creating barriers to housing, employment, and community reintegration • Humanity Over Handcuffs is developing resources connecting families with attorneys, mental health professionals, and support systems • Change requires judges, attorneys, legislators, and CIT trainers working together to create more compassionate approaches You're not alone and not powerless. Our children are not broken, autism is not a crime, and together we can show what justice should really look like—humanity first. https://tonymantor.com https://Facebook.com/tonymantor https://instagram.com/tonymantor https://twitter.com/tonymantor https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Full Episode
Welcome to Why Not Me? The World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantor. Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. real life people who will inspire and show that you are not alone in this world.
Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World, Humanity Over Handcuffs, The Silent Crisis Special Event. Joining us today is Christine Vester.
She founded Humanity Over Handcuffs with the initiative of breaking the silence on the crisis facing autistic and neurodiverse individuals in the justice system. Through expert insights and a call for compassion over punishment, she is leading the charge to transform lives and systems. She joins us today as we explore her mission to put humanity first and why her work matters to us all.
Thanks for coming on.
Thank you, Chani. Thank you for having me on.
You're the founder of Humanity Over Handcuffs, a national advocacy effort focused on protecting autistic individuals in the justice system. Can you share what the movement is and why it was so important for you to create it?
Humanity Over Handcuffs is still in the early stages, but it's already become a lifeline for families because of your podcast and the platform and everyone that's joined in for the 60 Day Project. It was born from the realization that autistic individuals are being misunderstood, criminalized, and abandoned by a system that really should be helping them. We're building more than a movement.
We're building a future, a place where families can find support, legal tools and resources. and bridge that gap. Our website is currently being developed and will be a centralized hub where families can access vital information, connect with families, connect with advocates, and find real solutions. It's just the beginning. We're laying a strong foundation to create real change.
That's a list of very important things for people to have access to. Now, what are some of the common dynamics that can happen when police respond to a call involving someone this autistic?
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