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.

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Police are not an education service. They’re armed men who have been trained to be aggressive.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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      10 months ago

      Police are not an education service.

      They like to pretend they are. Schools used to invite them into classrooms in the before times.

    • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      In most civilised countries, the police is trained to de-escalate conflicts and when the do nedd to be agressive, they are trained for it to not be excessive and certainly not letha…

      Also in most civilised countries, this takes several years not just 6 months.

      That said, I hope that excessive aggression is not taught in the US police and that it is down to bad culture or single bad apples or regions.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I don’t think police in other countries are much better. I’m in Canada and our cops can be every bit as bad as American cops.

    • _Analog_@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Right in the first part, but for the second: police come in more than one gender and the training is the same.

      (Afaik on the training part - I welcome being proven wrong!)