Police use a 50,000 volt stun gun on a 6 year old... WTF

[Nikepallas]

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Police used a stun gun on a 6-year-old boy in his principal's office because he was wielding a piece of glass and threatening to hurt himself, officials said Thursday.

The boy, who was not identified, was shocked with 50,000 volts on October 20 at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School.

Principal Maria Mason called 911 after the child broke a picture frame in her office and waved a piece of glass, holding a security guard back.

When two Miami-Dade County police officers and a school officer arrived, the boy had already cut himself under his eye and on his hand.



http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/12/child.tasered.ap/index.html

[Bluzmann57]

1. Hmmm I wonder if the M-D County police

and that school ever taught that kid and his parents how to spell lawsuit? Because there will undoubtedly be one filed.

[Dookus]

2. Umm...

the kid was slashing himself with broken glass. They might've saved his life.

[sir_captain]

3. Agreed, Dookus

I think what we have here is the oh-so-common knee-jerk response to hate and blame police.

The article says that he was cutting his own face and threatening more--it sounds to me like they acted quite responsibly.

[Nikepallas]

4. But it is a six year old child.

[Dookus]

8. The glass

doesn't get any duller because a child is holding it.

[hnsez]

10. damnit!! a six year old with a piece of broken glass can ...

easily take out 4 or 5 cops with one swipe!

[Dookus]

15. nope

but he can cause a very severe, even deadly, laceration on one of the cops or himself.

[AlienGirl]

6. And an adult couldn't disarm him?

Six-year-olds are not very big or all that strong. I think if adults were not capable of talking him into giving up the glass, they could have just grabbed him and taken it away--with much less trauma.

Now, aside from the medical risks (damage to heart muscle cells among them) he is left with the memory of being already distraught and having a cop--someone you're supposed to trust, if you're lost or scared--SHOOT him with an incredibly painful electrical burst.

I feel very sad for this child, and all the kids like him who our society gives up on before they even have a chance. :cry:

Tucker

[Dookus]

7. of course the whole situation is tragic

the kid is mightily troubled, no doubt.

But he was waving a shard of glass at the adults, and slicing himself with it. Manually restraining him could've injured someone even worse.

It's really sad, but I think they did the right thing.

[AlienGirl]

12. I'd risk getting cut to save him from getting shocked

I've read enough about the effects of trauma on kids that I would risk being cut with a piece of glass--even getting stitches--to take him down in a more humane manner.

Tucker

[canuckforpeace]

13. I call bullshit

Two cops and a security could have easily restrained a six year child without resorting to electric shock.

They did not do the right thing.

[pop goes the weasel]

5. an outrage

What ever happened to bribing inconsolable children with ice cream?

[othermeans]

9. They should have clubbed him. My guess is the child is a minority

They don't teach school security guards and TWO Miami policeman how to subdue a 6 year old?

Oh well I'm sure it was done in a compassionate way

[AlienGirl]

11. What if nothing can be done?

Considering how many children are so psychologically messed-up that they just pass straight from emotionally-disturbed classes to juvie to prison, and how often these disturbances are the result of fetal alcohol and drug exposure...what should we as a society do about them?

What if their problems can't be solved, and they will always be a violent threat? The whole situation makes me sad, and I am afraid that, as the population of drug-exposed throwaway kids grows, people are going to start calling for killing kids like this outright before they become adult monsters. (Corporate gangs already shoot street kids in Central and South America, and there's no reason to assume it'll be different here.)

Tucker

[Oilwellian]

17. Good God!

Do you hear what you just said? Let's just kill these troubled children before they grow into adult monsters? Do we just shoot them where they stand or do we put them on trial and convict them to death for what they might do in the future? That's some pretty fucked up thinking.

[AlienGirl]

20. To clarify...

I said I wondered HOW LONG it would be before that's what people started thinking. Not that it was the best idea, or the one I'd support.

Tucker

On edit: I am making a gloomy prediction here; I believe we are entering very dark times, and we will see such things being seriously advocated based on "all the latest scientific research" about behaviour being organically determined, either by environment (drug exposure) or genetics.

[meow2u3]

14. Little bullies grow up to be BIG bullies

STP to cops who zapped a child: does it really make you feel like a BIG MAN when you pick on such a small child? Pick on someone your own size, you freakin' beast!!! You're the damn criminal!!!

[livinginphotographs]

16. I have to agree that this was excessive.

I am usually the first to give the benefit of the doubt to police, and I definitely don't harbor anti-police sentiments, but there's no excuse for this. I agree with the person who said that they'd risk a few cuts to prevent this child from having to be tasered. How hard could a 6-year-old be to subdue?

[timeforachange]

18. you people are totally missing the point

The six year old was tasered to PROTECT him from HIMSELF, not because the cops were scared of a six year old with glass..

Yes, the cops could have tackled him and removed the glass, but if they did that, the kid could have freaked out and taken the glass and slashed his wrist or neck and punctured an artery and bled to death.

If the kid bled to death, people would be screaming at the cops saying WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THE TASER?

[livinginphotographs]

21. Once again....

For those who didn't bother to pay attention...

I FIND IT VERY HARD TO BELIEVE THAT AN ADULT COULD NOT SUBDUE A SIX-YEAR-OLD!!!! This is not a grown man, this is a six-year-old.

The kid also could've gained superpowers and thrown the cop off of him, then warped into another dimension where he could slash himself in peace.

Not likely to happen, though.

An adult subduing the child could easily take the glass from him, and even handcuffs would be appropriate to keep him from hurting himself further. But there are risks involved with tasering someone, especially a child. There are NUMEROUS ways this could've been handled other than just tasering the kid.

[jayctravis]

25. For adults to subdue a small child...

there's probably a chance they would have had to hold him down on the ground in a "hug" to restrain him, and another chance that the glass could get caught in the clench and puncture the jugular or a wrist or an eye.

Probably in the short time they had to think, the police figured using what is considered a nonlethal jolt might be less dangerous...the kid is cutting himself and a piece of glass isn't neat with a handle...could have cut fingers off...

They might have picked what was considered the lesser of two evils at the time, but you gotta cut officers some slack. They train for exactly these types of situations.

[American Tragedy]

19. I find it hard to believe that three adults couldn't subdue a six year old

I think the police often get a bad rap. Like when there was uproar out here because a cop shot a man wielding a small knife. Ridiculous. You can't come at a police officer with a weapon after he has already warned you, and expect no response. The police have a very difficult, unpredictable, and dangerous job and they don't get paid nearly what they are worth.

But I think this may have been excessive. I have a six year old niece who I can lift up with one arm. I'm pretty sure that I could find a way to disarm her that doesn't involve 50,000 volts of electricity.

[Hippo_Tron]

22. Yea, no shit!

It's not that hard to grab the child by the arms and take away the glass. You may cut your fingers up a little bit but it's better than using 50,000 volts of electricity on a 6 year old.

[sir_captain]

23. Did you actually read the article?

The principal and a security guard had been *unable* to subdue him and he had cut himself purposely several times. This is obviously a disturbed kid--it sounds to me like they handled the situation reasonably responsibly--let's hope this kid gets some help.

Also, 50,000 volts is kind of beside the point. Amperage is what is dangerous--you can get a 15,000 volt static shock from touching a damn doorknob. You can't even feel a shock of less than 5000 volts or so.

[papiamento]

24. Hmmm....sounds to me like

sounds to me like South Park will probably work this into an episode soon. you can't make this stuff up.

[chookie]

26. Shows enormous success of Jeb's education plan

Gee -- as a six year old, I had no idea what strategic artery to sever when planning to "hurt myself" -- had I ever wanted to, which I did not. Best I would have managed in such a situation would have been a few superficial stratches. Indeed, in "symbolic suicides" I have known of, superficial cuts are the norm. HIGHLY UNLIKELY this tyke understands the physiology of successful suicide.

It was highly unlikely this kid would or could have seriously injured himself -- not a predictable result in this scenerio. Had it been my intervention, I would have displayed patience and let him scratch himself a bit -- not a pleasant thing to witness, but sure beats tazering the deranged little tyke.

Here we go again -- about a week ago I posted a story about a 75 year old woman being tazered by police because she refused to leave a nursing home where a friend of hers lived, who was facing dangerous surgery the next day and she wanted to wish him well/say goodbye/whatever. Gee, maybe not all cops are ninjas or rocket scientists -- but are they so clueless that they can't think of another way of handling an agitated 75 year old woman besides fucking TAZERing her?

Ah -- but Tazers aren't lethal -- usually. Sometimes. Praise Jesus that we live in a country that will merely TAZER our elderly and toddlers, whereas Saddam Hussein would have mowed them down with machine guns (not that there is any documentation that THIS particular vicious dictator ordered cruel crackdowns on dysfunctional tykes and old ladies who act out).

Hey -- our tax money paid for those weapons -- so let's use them, right?

Anyone naive and "optimistic" enough here to think these Jesus-approved merciful non-lethal crime pre-emption devices aren't going to be used against peaceful anti-Bush or anti-war protestors? (Note to FBI monitors: the anti-Bush movement runs the gamut from the young to the old -- gonna be a bit trickier to make us look like young anarchist troublemakers if Gonzalez orders goons to infiltrate us a la Nixon era).