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.
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 not saying it’s easy. When I say specific I just mean more specific than the huge bucket we currently have. Maybe 5 buckets so that this kid doesn’t need to share a bucket with the Nintendo kid i mentioned.
Describing specific issues would violate their right to privacy.
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.
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.
Buddy, I’m not neurodivergent and I also straight up refuse to set foot in that place. I don’t even feel particularly comfortable sharing a border with them at this point. Lots of the people are great, but the government and many of its institutions scare the hell out of me.
You live in a country with the fucking RCMP and yet have let the media convince you their institutions are scary.
I’m not saying the RCMP (or local cops) are much better, and we have plenty of our own problems. These days those mainly stem from the import of MAGA-style “conservatism,” and I’ll admit that things have been getting noticeably worse around here.
That said, we don’t have school shootings pretty much every week, insane amounts of gun violence, the overreach of homeland security (my biggest reason for not wanting to set foot down there - crossing the border), people having to mentally run a cost/benefit analysis if they need to go to the hospital, talk of civil war, half our political representatives being clinically insane (here it’s a little less), people going to jail for weed (a small bit of good that’s happened here during a period of general backslide), the alphabet agencies (the RCMP has historically done some heinous shit but it’s child’s play compared to the CIA), the fact that a rapist who actively says he wants to destroy democracy has a very good chance of becoming president again, etc, etc, etc.
So yeah, I’ll happily stay in the country with the RCMP.
We literally have a rapist prime minister right now.
Canadian cops are scary too, but it’s not even close. US cops are five times more likely to kill. And Canadian cops don’t have qualified immunity.
And yet when they run 14 year olds over with their cruiser in a school playground nothing happens.
I did a quick search for this but nothing came up. Do you have a link to an article?
Cars are the number one killer of children in Canada. We tolerate a disgusting amount of preventable traffic accidents in Canada, but comparing that to killing children by shooting them or putting them into deadly chokeholds is nonsensical.
No, because there is no article. Happened to a friend of mine.
Trust me bro.
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Fine with us. We don’t want cowards walking around, quivering and jumpy.
We dont want you speaking for us. And there are more of us than they are of you.
Conservatives don’t understand that they’re in the minority; that their representatives are only in power due to gerrymandering; that it isn’t a fluke that the mainstream media goes against them. It’s sadly and tragically lost on them that they’re freaks.
When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.
And when all you have is ketamine …
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
Exactly this. I can’t imagine how sheltered I’d have to be to still believe calling the police to “teach someone a lesson” is anything but a catastrophically bad idea. And I’m pretty sheltered already!
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.
Cops have no mercy in their soul.
What kind of idiot calls the cops on their black son expecting any kind of positive interaction?
Oh… right…
The white kind…
(grrr!)
People like her only love the system, not their own kids
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.
Damn… That was pretty retarded dawg.
Defending child abuse is pretty retarded. Dawg.
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?
Is having the cops beat your black son the new falling down at walmart
Say it with me, All Cops Are Bastards
All Carsalesmen Are Bastards. - Defund the dealerships.
All Firemen Are Drunks.
Edit: I know who the downvotes are from!
Absolute definition of white privilege to think that calling the police to lecture her black son would yield positive outcomes.
I say this as a white person.
I’m not sure what you expected. You told the police about a crime, do you not expect them to arrest the criminal?
Do they not treat children and adults differently in the legal system where you come from?
This wasn’t a murder or any other violent crime. It was petty theft from a business committed by a minor.
Yeah, if he was an adult they might have killed him instead.
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.
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.
USING WORDS.
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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.
She called the cops on her own kid
She mistakenly thought that calling the cops to talk to her child about not stealing would help him understand why it’s wrong and what the stakes are. She’s an old white woman. She didn’t realize that cops wouldn’t treat her large, black child as subhuman.
She was stupid and ignorant, but the cops are the monsters here. Don’t get it twisted with your own relationships with your parents. This isn’t that.
Insanely weird to project your parental issues on a lady calling the cops on her adopted black child, but being old is not an excuse for not being aware of the century long issue of cops treating black people poorly.
Love that your best retort is “no u”.
???
There was no “no u” here.
Are you whiny about the fact that they projected their parental issues onto anyone who correctly judged the idiot for calling the cops? Thats their projection, that they said.
Correctly noting the idiot should have known better about the older-than-her issue of cops beating black folk for the sin of being black has nothing to do with anyones parents.
Telling someone not to project their problems isnt a “no u,” but its cute your best retort was to brag about how poorly you read.
