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.

  • ???
    9•10 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
      1•10 months ago

      I don’t think so. My guess is that sometimes the only way to deescalate is to leave someone alone. That’s what you’d have to teach police. But presumably only a qualified mental health professional can answer that question.

      • @[email protected]
        4•10 months ago

        Mental health student with his own emotional issues and that raised two small kids .

        Yes, often the way to desecalate is to take space. It’s anger management 101. If someone is not able to recognize they need space, the one able to should call for a time out (this is how time outs should be used by parents, not as punishment).

        Police are trained to exert authority. It’s not de-escalation training generally.

        Which is why mental health professionals should accompany police in situations like this.

        • @[email protected]
          1•10 months ago

          Thanks. Hmm, maybe police officers have mental health issues that prevent them from retreating and asserting their “authoritae”. Maybe no amount of training or accompanying will help with that.

          • @[email protected]
            2•10 months ago

            Police are trained to ‘keep the peace’ in a lot of situations. Like, in a bad traffic accident, the cops are there to direct traffic while the EMTs and Firefighters take the lead.

            We just need to teach them to do the same with mental health workers and make that the standard for anything that’s not a criminal complaint. They already do this with stuff like CPS calls in a lot of jurisdictions.

            But yeah, a lot of cops are drawn to the job because they love power and authority. And it will take decades of restructuring of US policing to change that cultural tendency.