What happened next that evening in May 2021 is the basis for a lawsuit by the mother alleging that Burlington police used excessive force and discriminated against her unarmed son, who is Black and has behavioral and intellectual disabilities.
After he failed to hand over the last of the stolen e-cigarettes, two officers physically forced him to do so, then Cathy Austrian’s son was handcuffed and pinned to the ground as he screamed and struggled, according to a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday and police body-camera video shared with The Associated Press by the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont.
The teen eventually was injected with a ketamine, a sedative, then taken to a hospital, according to the lawsuit and video.
If you have a problem and you call the cops you now have two problems
Edit: Also, who administered the ketamine? Had they received training in appropriate dosing? Or did some dumb cop just shove a needle into a kid and hope he didn’t die.
Or did some dumb cop just shove a needle into a kid and hope he didn’t die.
Or did some malicious cop just shove a needle into a kid and hope he did die?
Usually it’s administered by EMS. At least here it is.
At least it’s supposed to be. Cops generally only have slightly better medical training than you’re average cpr/fa/aed cert holder.
Basically, it’s just enough they can say they tried to keep that guy they just shot alive long enough for EMS to show up.
Say it with me, All Cops Are Bastards
Obviously the police are the criminals here, but that mom…
They clearly didn’t grow up being told what I was always told: “if you’ve got a problem and you call the police, now you’ve got two problems.”
Yeah this is some abusive, privileged bullshit and I really hope this idiot learned a lesson. I also hope her child reminds her of this shit anytime she starts mounting her high horse in the future.
Yes, the elderly woman that adopted an at-needs child of color is the one being abusive and privileged.
The abusive, privileged bullshit is your comment.
What kind of idiot calls the cops on their black son expecting any kind of positive interaction?
Oh… right…
The white kind…
(grrr!)
She has been lied to her whole life that the police are there to help. She learned a quick, painful lesson that it isn’t true.
She is not the victim, her son is, and she abused her son.
It’s a plainly obvious fact to anyone with internet access and insight that the police are very obviously NOT there to help you, and instead of accepting the truth, she chose her delusions of a safe and just world, and her son paid the price.
We have the responsibility to know and act on the truth.
Ignorance is NEVER an excuse.
That is such a short sighted and dumb response. Really, you can’t just see beyond your own prejudices? Oh, she is white so she must be the devil, she must love the system and hate her own child. Really now? Where you there? Were you watching her every move for the past ten years to draw that conclusion, or are you just writing down some dumb “hurr-durr evil white is bad” comment?
This is a minor problem compared to the fucking forced ketamin injections but can we please use more words to describe these types of issues. Like, specific ones. “Behavioral issues and intellectual disabilities” has also been used to describe the kid that almost beat a teacher to death for saying he shouldn’t have his Nintendo in school and the flying guy that tried to kill the judge. If there is no difference between how we describe them and this kid, we are just reinventing calling people retarded in increasingly elaborate ways.
I see your point, but that is a bigger can of worms than I think you are expecting. There are dozens of genetic or congenital disorders that can lead to intellectual disabilities and hundreds of acquired ones; all of which result in a range of severity. Also, “intellectual disabilities” and “behavioral problems” are very large buckets of different manifestations. In order to differentiate in the way that you are asking for, they would need to report exact diagnoses and give a detailed description of the individual to differentiate them, and even then, there would need to be a lot of context and clarification if they are to avoid misinterpretation or misunderstanding of any terms or descriptions used.
I’m sure there is some middle ground we can find. His mother is named in the article and his actions were explained in depth so I don’t see a problem with being a bit more specific with what caused the behaviour. Especially when the phrase is also used to describe quite violent people.
I have to wonder why you want a clearer picture of what the boy was suffering from, 'cause from my vantage point it seems it’s only to satisfy your own curiosity rather than solve a larger issue.
Imo it’s none of our business what his diagnoses was as he was the victim here.
