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.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
    147•11 months ago

    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.

    • @Ensign_CrabEnglish
      61•11 months ago

      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?

    • FuglyDuckEnglish
      16•11 months ago

      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.