A Vermont mom called police to talk to her son about stealing. He ended up handcuffed and sedated

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.

jordanlund,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

What kind of idiot calls the cops on their black son expecting any kind of positive interaction?

Oh… right…

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/15094844-5628-4dbd-99c3-61aaecb8cf1b.jpeg

The white kind…

(grrr!)

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna14380

sik0fewl,

https://i.imgflip.com/6tj4fe.png

nutsack,

My mom was this stupid

pinkdrunkenelephants,

People like her only love the system, not their own kids

brygphilomena,

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.

pinkdrunkenelephants,

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.

Arthur_Leywin,

Damn… That was pretty retarded dawg.

pinkdrunkenelephants,

Defending child abuse is pretty retarded. Dawg.

phoenixz,

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?

Chakravanti,

You’re right. She was probably just stupid.

nonfuinoncuro,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor

pinkdrunkenelephants,

Holy shit, I think we found her Lemmy account

HipHoboHarold,

I was actually wondering about that. Like as a white person, I don’t want to over step boundaries, but even I’m not surprised.

But this makes a whole lot more sense.

Minotaur,

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

iminatx,

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!

whalebiologist,

Is having the cops beat your black son the new falling down at walmart

M0oP0o,
@M0oP0o@mander.xyz avatar

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/6d53f8a1-28d9-462f-be2c-bdc58faf51e7.gif

LarmyOfLone,

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.

snek,
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

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.

LarmyOfLone,

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.

treefrog,

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.

LarmyOfLone,

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.

treefrog,

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.

Pacmanlives,

Mom fucked around and found out! Reminds me of this story youtu.be/OvPJGW1yqkw?si=BJwfD1bCykog2wrQ

zerog_bandit,

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.

snausagesinablanket,
@snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world avatar

What a

badbytes,

Can we start IQ testing for cop hiring?

Someonelol,
@Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

They filter out those who score too high.

morphballganon,

They do already. Average intelligence or higher? Rejected.

Son_of_dad,

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

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Police are not an education service.

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

diffcalculus,

I hear they’re allergic to classrooms now

_Analog_,

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!)

SoupBrick,

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56834733

_Analog_,

I’m on mobile but didn’t see anything having to do with gender differences in training, only country based, which was not my point at all.

SoupBrick,

Ah, thought you were saying the training hours in the US are the same as the rest of the world.

cosmicrookie,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

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,

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.

WoahWoah, (edited )

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.”

Socsa,

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.

WoahWoah,

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.

wildginger,

She called the cops on her own kid

WoahWoah, (edited )

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.

wildginger,

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.

Doof,

there was a time where media portrayed that as a reasonable thing to do, the police would come and talk to their kid. I’ve heard stories about it happening. Hell when i kid we got caught being destructive and the cops who caught us took us on tour of where we could end up. We got brought in the truck straight to the cells. It is a foolish thought but a person who holds some idyllic model in their heads sometimes are blinded by it.

wildginger,

She has a black lives matter sign in front of her house.

She isnt senile, and she is aware of a movement dedicated to dealing with police aggression.

Her age isnt an excuse. She clearly should have known better. Its insane to excuse her behavior.

NotMyOldRedditName,

When I was in cubs as a child, they took us to a police station and the cops talked to us about various things, we got our fingerprints taken (for us to keep, not their system) and we got to check out the jail cells.

Cops have definitely been used for educational purposes in the past. I don’t remember much of it specifically, but i remember it being a great experience.

deur,

Love that your best retort is “no u”.

wildginger,

???

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.

WoahWoah,

Cops brutalize a child. All your energy is being spent complaining about mommy. How IS your mom doing these days anyway? 🤣

wildginger,

All my energy? Are you bed ridden? It does not take energy to point out you shouldnt call the cops on black children for not real problems.

And… Bud? Do you think that mild criticism of a single person means Im not criticizing the cops? Whats this limp dick whataboutism shit youre trying to pull?

Do you need help? The brain fog seems to really be dragging you down.

WoahWoah,

You definitely seem very stable and reasonable. Lol

wildginger,

Lol, says the guy who thinks internet comments take effort and projects mommy issues like youre a drive up movie theater

Keep on struggling bud, she will love you some day Im sure

WoahWoah, (edited )

Relax, bro. No one cares.

Edit: oh, damn. 1500 comments in four months? Nevermind. 🤣🤣 I’m just gonna block you, carry on.

wildginger,

I am not your mother, bud, you do not need my permission to block me.

dream_weasel,

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”.

Randomgal,

This. Honestly this is the one comment in this cesspool that makes sense. The thing that failed here is parenting.

dream_weasel,

And parenting a disabled kid for crying out loud. What a shit show.

sylver_dragon,

What do you say to the armed, violent, unstable nutcase with a gun?
Good morning, Officer.

mainframegremlin,

What sound does a cow make? Moo. What sound does a dog make? Woof. What sound does a cat make? Meow. What sound does a pig make? UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHER FUCKER.

Fisk400,

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.

lolcatnip,

Describing specific issues would violate their right to privacy.

Fisk400,

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.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

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.

Fisk400,

If it’s not relevant they dont need to bring it up. If it is relevant I would like to know what way it is relevant. I am fine with either but not both.

Don’t forget that the reason I want there to be more detail is because they used the expression as an excuse for that guy that jumped the judge. A guy that was articulate and friendly right up until he turned feral. I think it is doing this kid a disservice to put these two very different people under the same vague header. It’s what they did with the r-slur and it’s why it’s considered a slur today.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Again, in this particular instance he was the victim.

Blanket rules in revealing diagnoses do not take into account individual’s right to privacy. I prefer to respect that right vs your request to know.

Fisk400,

I don’t know why “a bit more specific” is being read as reveal his medical history.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Because being specific is a breach of privacy. It’s really none of our business unless ofc one is a busybody.

Fisk400,

I guess we will have to let “behavioral issues and mental disabilities” just become the new retard. There is nothing to be done about it because I would hate to be a busy body.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

You’re the only one saying re___d. That says more about you than any system you’re complaining about.

Randomgal,

Bro just wants to read retard on the paper. Lol

Socsa,

Meh, not criminalizing children is usually a good thing, and language is an important part of that.

medgremlin,

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.

Fisk400,

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.

rottingleaf,

When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.

maynarkh,

And when all you have is ketamine …

agitatedpotato,

Everything looks like a horse?

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • news@lemmy.world
  • tacticalgear
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ethstaker
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • magazineikmin
  • osvaldo12
  • slotface
  • khanakhh
  • rosin
  • kavyap
  • everett
  • thenastyranch
  • ngwrru68w68
  • megavids
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cisconetworking
  • mdbf
  • cubers
  • Durango
  • anitta
  • modclub
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • JUstTest
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •