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.
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?