A Vermont mother wanted to teach her then-14-year-old son a lesson after he came home with electronic cigarettes he stole from a gas station. 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.
Bodycam footage shows the moment Vermont police officers restrained a 14-year-old boy on the floor after his mother called the police on him for stealing electronic cigarettes.
“They aggressively confronted, attacked and repeatedly kneed Mr. Jackson in the groin as he pleaded with the officers,” an attorney said about the incident in California.