He is an 18-year-old with autism who is also non-verbal. On several occasions, he has left the rehab center he goes to north of Montreal. But Ismé received a call on Wednesday that left her indifferent. Her son had run away again, but this time, instead of being told he was found safe and brought back to the day care center, police in Mascouche, Que., told her they had to use a stun gun to subdue him. “I was devastated. I couldn’t even speak,” Ismé told reporters near her home on Thursday, fighting back tears. Brandon-Lee Paris was taken to hospital but was not seriously injured. His mother is speaking out because she worries about what the police would do if she had another run-in with either her son or another person with a developmental disability. “What if one day it’s not the Taser?…” he said. “[What if] they take the first gun they can get their hands on and shoot him, you know? It’s really scary.” Ismé said she can’t imagine why the stun gun was necessary since police have dealt with her son in the past and know he is on the autism spectrum and non-verbal. He plans to file a complaint with the police ethics commission. “Yes, that’s for sure. That’s unacceptable,” he said. “I told them, ‘You know Brandon, he’s never been aggressive with you guys, he’s always been cooperative with you, so I don’t know why you had to use the Taser.’ She also wonders if the situation would have turned out differently if her son hadn’t been Black. Martin St-Pierre, who spoke on behalf of the Mascouche police force on Thursday, said the use of force on the teenager would be reviewed by the force. (Radio-Canada)
Teen broke into other people’s homes after running away, police say
According to police, the teenager walked away twice from La Myriade, a government center for people with developmental disabilities. In both cases, police say Parris entered other people’s homes while officers were trying to catch up to him. The Taser was used during the second police operation. “There was a pursuit to get him under control. They were unsuccessful. He entered a home one more time and at that point an officer had to intervene and use his stun gun,” said Martin St. Pierre, an officer who spoke on behalf of the Mascouche Police Force on Thursday. St. Pierre confirmed that police have confronted the teenager several times in the past, as long as officers know him by name. “Like any case involving the use of force, this case will be reviewed,” he said. When told the version of events police gave to reporters, the mother said she does not know where the arrest took place and, as Paris is non-verbal, is unable to give his side of the story. Ismé also said she often wonders why center staff always call the police when her son leaves the building. CBC News asked the local health authority for the Lanaudière region that oversees La Myriade if it is standard procedure to call the police whenever one of its customers leaves the facility. The health authority deferred all questions about what happened to local police. “At our end, we are in contact with the mother,” spokeswoman Pascale Lamy said. Fo Niemi, executive director of the Race Relations Research-Action Center, says the police intervention involving the teenager shines a light on the need for better training of officers when dealing with people who have developmental disabilities. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)
“One of their worst nightmares”
According to Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Center for Action Research on Race Relations (CRARR), the police use of a stun gun in this case highlights the need for police officers to be better trained to deal with people who have developmental disabilities. Niemi says that for many parents of children or young adults on the autism spectrum, running into the police is “one of their worst nightmares.” “We work with a lot of parents of children with autism or even young autistic adults,” Niemi said. “There is always the fear that an untrained police officer will not understand the behaviors of autistic children or individuals, or may consider their behavior to be either dangerous or, shall we say, threatening to others.” The mother worries that the incident will make her son afraid of police coming forward, which could make future confrontations with law enforcement even more complicated — or even dangerous.
