I think you missed his whole point. He admits he absent-mindedly committed a petty crime and failed to communicate with a minimum-wage worker. For these mistakes, he was presumed to be a hardened criminal and no attempt was made to see if maybe--just maybe--this nebbishy-looking guy with his family might merely be an ordinary person having a bad day in an airport who made a simple mistake because he was stressed-out. A few words of respectful human communication on the part of the cops could have saved everybody a lot of grief. But that option never occurred to them.
> he was presumed to be a hardened criminal and no attempt
He was presumed to be a petty criminal by police because they're required to do so when someone reports a petty crime. And in this case they were correct in their presumption.
> A few words of respectful human communication on the part of the cops could have saved everybody a lot of grief.
If Aaronson was capable of respectful communication then when the smoothie person got angry at him he would have considered the possibility that the anger was warranted and he had done something wrong. And probably would have pretty quickly realized: "oh wait I'm putting down money on this tray that I just picked up money from... that doesn't make any sense." But instead he immediately jumped to: "there's something wrong with this smoothie shop worker" Everyone would have been saved a ton of grief if Aaronson had any respect for the people around him or any self awareness. But he has neither.
> And in this case they were correct in their presumption
If you accept his story, they were probably not correct, though only by his lacking the required mental state. OTOH, if there is probable cause (which there was) and the victim prefers charges (which initially it seemed they would, since they requested the intervention), that's an issue for prosecutors and the courts to figure out, from the perspective of the police.
> Everyone would have been saved a ton of grief if Aaronson had any respect for the people around him or any self awareness. But he has neither.
This, OTOH, is clearly true, even if you accept his narrative completely.
Not the GP, but this blog post is basically the only thing I know about Aaronson, and I had exactly the same reaction. The core of the problem here to me sounds like it was Aaronson's, perhaps isolated, inability to respectfully interact with the smoothie bar workers.
