School officer tasers 11 year old

[AggieDave 6]

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I heard on the news that the 11 year old weighed over 200 lbs & was close to 6 feet tall.

so he'd be bigger than me then.

So the girl was in obvious danger, the officer would have been in obvious danger to go "hands on" and after verbal direction was ignored and an innocent person's well being was in danger; the officer used a less lethal option.

I'm just recapping to make sure that I've got the facts straight here.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Scoop 0]

Your probably right, the officers safety means nothing. Why didn't she put on her cape and the pants on the outside of her trousers and fly in there like something out of loony toons.

Again, basing this on the speculative information we have I feel I support the use of force. Hands up who has ever tried to single handedly restrain a truly violent (I don't mean having a tantrum) 11 year old. Its hard, its hard to restrain anyone one on one especially given what we now know about his size.

Lets also consider other possibiliteis. Would she be equipped with pepper spray or CS? If so, would it be appropriate to use that in the confines of a classroom or hallway due to the cross contamination? I'd say yes if I had no alternative, but if I did have an alternative such as TASER that would be perfect response option. I'm sure questions would alse be asked if she'd started batoning a child from behind. To strike a person from behind when they are on top of someone is dangerous, all sorts of sensitive areas are exposed and moving around, be it elbows, head, neck spine. If your prepared to say 'well its his fault if he gets hurt for acting in the manner he did' then you would have to agree with the use of TASER too. Hes young, presumably healthy, there is no reason why the use of a TASER would raise any obvious concerns before its use.

Plus, when you got a matter of seconds to react, what you think you may have been able to do afterwards its irrelevant.

Its easy to sit and give critisicism to people actions when you werent there or in their shoes. Experience shows me that those who give criticism of others actions are normally the same people who would walk past and do nothing

[rehmwa 2]

I'm still waiting for the gripe that the tools available to the cop were more advanced than the tools available to the assailant. I love that one.

Maybe the cop should have given the kid a taser of his own so they'd be evenly matched.

.....maybe the cop should have given the 85 pound girl the taser and then left.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[freethefly 6]

This incidence aside, tasering children is becoming more common. Do a search and you'll find many cases.

Police Use of Stun Guns on Children Riles Parents
Officers Taser Boy, 6, and Girl, 12

MIAMI (Nov. 13) - Miami-Dade police have acknowledged using a stun gun on a second youngster just weeks after subduing a 55-pound first-grader with a 50,000-volt shock.

In the second instance, a 15-year-veteran officer used his Taser to immobilize a 12-year-old girl who was playing hooky from school.

Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to shock the 6-year-old boy on Oct. 20 because he was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass he was holding, but he said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl, who was apparently drunk.

According to the incident report, officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming in a pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars about 11 a.m. on Nov. 5.

Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and told her to get dressed so he could take her back to school.

"While walking the girl to the police car, she took off running through the parking lot," Nelson wrote in his report.

Nelson, 38, 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. The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her with 50,000 volts.

Nelson said he fired "for my safety along with the girl's safety." Paramedics treated the girl, who went home with her mother.

Parker said department policy permits officers to use the Taser to apprehend someone, but he said he expected his officers to use better judgment, especially when police had no plans to arrest someone playing hooky.

The first incident had already exposed the department to more criticism for its use of Tasers, which it has begun distributing in greater numbers to officers.

"The police could have handled this better," said the 6-year-old boy's mother, Kathy Rojas. "They did not have to shoot him."

Parker said that, in light of the disclosure of the second incident, the department will review its policy.

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

[Zenister 0]

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If an officer cannot control a single 11-year old boy, regardless of that boy's size, without resorting to the use of a taser, that officer should apply for a greeter position at the nearest Wal-Mart.

indeed.. there are a LOT of very persuasive measures short of tasering to control a child that are significantly less risky than tazering...

ive seen full grown men brought to their knees in tears with a simple application of a hard object and any number of easily accessible 'control points'

LEO's may be familiar with a rather simple wooden stick often marketed as 'the persuader' but its techniques work equally well with any hard object (even a quarter) ow ow ow...

based on my (admittedly unscientific) observation of recent LEO incidents in the new.. the general training level, qualifications and currency in technique of LEO in the US is slipping. In everything from basic marksmenship, driving skills, and general judgment....

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Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.