What do you think about this?: Taser use on boy, 6, brings outcry

Miami-Dade police shocked a 6-year-old boy with a 50,000-volt stun gun to keep him from hurting himself with a piece of glass he was waving around in a school office, officials confirmed Thursday.

Police say they followed their Taser guidelines, the child wasn't injured by the shock and he might have hurt himself seriously if they hadn't shocked him.

But the incident, which occurred Oct. 20 at Kelsey Pharr Elementary in Brownsville, has child advocates and experts shaking their heads in disbelief.

''It just sounds excessive to me to Taser gun a 6-year-old when everyone else around there were adults,'' said retired Broward County Juvenile Judge Frank Orlando, who runs a youth-law clinic at Nova Southeastern University. ``They couldn't subdue a 6-year-old? Must have been a pretty big kid.''

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10161183.htm

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Aren't you?

arent you suppose to write something racist too?

On my blog earlier today:
http://watchingthewatchers.org/index.php?p=148

~A!

six year olds can be VERY annoying.

besides that, it is cruel. A 6-yo will not understand anything other than someone hurt and terrified him.

Extremely stupid--just like using it on an elderly person, who could easily break a hip as they go down. Hip fractures are a leading cause of death in the elderly--even if they survive the injury and surgery, they often succumb to complications.

If tasers were not an option and police could only use either thier batons or thier bare hands they would have temper thier actions and not go overboard on beating the kid to subdue him.

Now that tasers are around the police dont even have to worry about overboard, if there is "ANY" provocation police will just taser someone rather than have to make the decision about how much force is appropriate.

This is wrong.

The taser should not be the end all of police and civillian interaction.

Then the parents could sue saying the police SHOULD have used the taser or shot him.

would have probably done the job, perhaps it would have left brusing or maybe even fractured his arm if too much force was used, however it would definatley not risk potentially killing the child.

....I can say it DEFINTELY would bruise, and could break the arm. Trying to hit a screaming kid running around like that but not hit him too hard with an expandable baton could be more dangerous.

that police officers no longer have to make the tough decisions about what force is reasonable.

They can just use the shock-o-matic at will and well if the person dies, oh well it was an "accident." :eyes:

....the ASP comes out only when you've got to take someone down coming at you, to make them think twice, or while you are attempting to place in cuffs. I wouldn't half-ass with a baton.

OC (pepper) spray probably would have been the best choice here depending on the size of the room and other folks in the area, although certainly the kid's first reaction would be to cover his eyes, so you hope he would have dropped the glass.

I think we need to face facts that no matter what these officers did, they will be seen as somehow mistreating this boy, which I'm sure the parents have had years of doing........

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But, when I read the attribution, it became clear that some sort of force was necessary. This was an extreme situation. The kid wasn't from "Leave it to Beaver." He could have hurt himself or someone else. I don't think it was a case of "Hey. This could be fun. Let's try out the new taser."

On the other hand, maybe that's exactly what it was.

Police Tasered truant girl, 12

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/10170605.htm?1c
(reg. req.)

Miami-Dade police said an officer should not have used a stun gun to stop a 12-year-old girl who was skipping school.

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"A Miami-Dade police officer used a Taser to stop an unarmed, 12-year-old girl who was running away from him after she was caught skipping school, police acknowledged Friday night.

The incident happened Nov. 5, just over two weeks after other Miami-Dade officers used a stun gun to restrain a first-grader. In that case, police said the 6-year-old boy was holding a shard of glass and threatening to cut himself. Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to shock the boy because he could have seriously hurt himself.
But Parker said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing 12-year-old, who was apparently drunk."

<snip>

"According to the incident report:

Officer William Nelson responded to an anonymous complaint that some kids were swimming in a West Kendall pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars about 11 a.m.
Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and told her to get dressed so he could take her back to school.

''While walking to the police car, took off running through the parking lot,'' Nelson wrote in his report.
Nelson, 38, a 15-year veteran, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop. Nelson said he pulled out the Taser and fired when the girl began to run into traffic."

:grr:

Expect a lot more people (children and adults) who don't stay in line to get tazered. Or sent to GitMo. Or....well I am going to stop now before I scare my self silly. :scared: