A Vermont mother has filed a lawsuit alleging that police used excessive force and discriminated against her unarmed Black son with behavioral and intellectual disabilities.
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.
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.
And then people wonder why as a neurodivergent person, I've passed over several obscenely lucrative contracts simple because they required me to go to the US for any extent of time.
Let's have police reform and additional training or more services!
Also...
PARENT YOUR OWN KIDS. Don't call the cops on your underage children to "teach a lesson" you're the parent, YOU do it. That call doesn't come with a lesson, it comes with a pretty larceny charge to help with your kid's "bad week".
Yeah god bless the woman I’m sure she had good intentions - but she’s not living in some 1990s public service announcement where the nice policeman gives valuable lessons to children.
Police are like… an absolute last resort “I need someone shot” measure. The fact that we also have them (for no particular reason) also authorize things like reports for insurance related incidents is a pretty colossal failure of “the system” as a whole
I feel the struggle, my little brother has been in and out of prison for years. He just has to be cool for a while, catch rides to work and the store, and he could pay off his fines and go back to normal life, but it always gets out of hand.
I'm 100% on board that this was unnecessary, but how should police handle something like this? It's a 230 pound 14 year old hormonal teenager that turned sullen and refused to comply.
Presumably the smart way would be to say "Ok your behavior is not ok but I'll leave you be for now until you cool down." and then just leave. I mean if you want to press charges you can come back any time. I don't quite understand why in the US everyone is arrested instead of getting "a summons" (?).
I'd also say that nicotine is often used for self medication by people with mental issues, including ADHD. Smoking is more prevalent. Vaping provides a much safer alternative. Not condoning 14 year olds vaping but it could explain why he wants them.
Also Liberals: "Calling the cops will get you killed!"
Fuck am I supposed to do?!
POC, LGBT and women: "We're the biggest gun purchasing demographic because we see what's coming." That's our right, and everyone but white liberals seems to be exercising it.
Did I make you uncomfortable? Sure as hell hope I did. The problem is our culture, not people like me.
I'll defend you if it comes to it, do my damndest if it comes to "trains", but please stop whining about gun owners. Stop whining about, "They want to exterminate trans people!" Get a fucking clue and work towards self-defense. FFS, stop losing votes.
I often read, "But gosh! What if the pigs exterminate ME personally?!" Either grow a pair and die with your boots on, or get the fuck out my face. This isn't a schoolyard tussle. We're entering a fight for American democracy, and for you gay and trans folks, it's a fight for your right to continue life.