Police use stun gun on 6-year-old...

[GNflyby]

What in the hell is this world coming to?

Did the cops do the right thing? What do you think!

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

 

[scottyb]

page not found

 

[GNflyby]

Originally posted by scottyb
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Try it now.

 

[Dillinger]

i think they could have just as easily grabbed the boy and took the glass away, why would you have to stun gun him, a shock like that to a 6 year old is probably more dangerous than the boy cutting himself!!!!!

 

[bruce]

*******
He was treated and taken to a hospital, where he was committed for psychiatric evaluation.
*******

If the kid was in a full rage, then yes, that level of force may have been necessary. Again, without being there, or having all the facts of the situation, passing judgment isn't fair.

I sure hope they bill the parents for all this.

IMO, for a 6 YO to get that out of control, would indicate the possibility of there being larger issues at home.

 

[Louie L.]

Bruce,
You are right on track. I think that folks are still blind to the world and unaware of what really happens out here. On the surface this sounds bad, but i have been around children I wouldnt trust my enemies around.

 

[TurboJunky]

Originally posted by Dillinger
i think they could have just as easily grabbed the boy and took the glass away, why would you have to stun gun him, a shock like that to a 6 year old is probably more dangerous than the boy cutting himself!!!!!

You're saying you'd rather physically wrestle with the kid who's weilding a dangerous weapon instead of using a less than lethal device to take control of him which almost eliminates the chance of anyone getting hurt?

You don't think a 6yr has the capability to hurt someone who's weilding a piece of glass? Someone who's already demonstrated the "present intent and present capability of hurting himself or others"?

Please....

"By using the Taser, we were able to stop the situation, stop him from hurting himself," police spokesman Juan DelCastillo told The Miami Herald.

 

[Drac0nic]

I won't say I condone what the officer did, but honestly I can understand. If you consider that blades aren't like guns and people react far differently to them then another weapon. Don't get me wrong, a gun's serious but a cop handles and uses a gun every day, it's part of their mindset. Guns are much more prevelant in socciety then knives are as a stereotypical method of killing and maiming. I used to be in a fighting group, you know what happens when you have two people at close range with blades? well over half of the time, both would end up getting hit. The city's gonna end up getting in deep crap if the kid ever has heart troubles though.

 

[no-nos]

and the focking cops are found to have done nothing wrong! what type of focking idiot is this guy, why does'nt he use it on his own dam kid! this makes cops (not all) but it makes them look like the $hit heads they are!!
if he can't control a 6yr old WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING BEEING A COP!! AND WHAT SUCKS MORE IS THAT HIS FOCKING STUPIDVISERES AGREE'S THEY DID NOTHING WRONG!!

If this was y kid the whole dept, the city and the state would have a lawsuit on them them 5x the size of texas!!

 

[cruzn57]

WOW

No-Nos

are you for real? law suit this, law suit that!, gee ! are you the 6 yr olds parent? did you put him up to this?
you MUST be to young to value life, yours,or anyone elses!
Please take a pill, or something, you aren't much better than the six yr old!
he had already injured himself, multiple times, he had the smarts to obtain the glass, and use it, why should a police officer put himself in jeopardy when its not necessary?
the stun gun is NOT leathel, and no one was hurt, the 6 yr old has mental problems, why compound them ?
please think before you irrationally speak. ( battleship mouth- rowboat a$$)
No offense,
thanks
cruzn57

 

[Dillinger]

Originally posted by TT/A1233
You're saying you'd rather physically wrestle with the kid who's weilding a dangerous weapon instead of using a less than lethal device to take control of him which almost eliminates the chance of anyone getting hurt?

You don't think a 6yr has the capability to hurt someone who's weilding a piece of glass? Someone who's already demonstrated the "present intent and present capability of hurting himself or others"?

Please....

"By using the Taser, we were able to stop the situation, stop him from hurting himself," police spokesman Juan DelCastillo told The Miami Herald.

For one, the kid didn't cut himself in the eyeball; he cut himself on the upper cheek under the eye.

Here’s the scenario. Instead of shocking the poor crazy kid with 50,000 volts of electricity which has on occasion killed grown azz men, it would have been much more human to stick him with a tranquilizer dart. After all, a 6 year old is what, 40-50 lbs? That kid is 1/5 my weight, and a stun gun like that would bring me to the ground, I can't imagine what it would do to something 1/5 my size. Zapping a kid is no different than torturing animals IMHO.

The police also could have avoided the stun gun situation by circling the poor rascal and grab his arms. I mean come on, put on some heavy duty gloves, and take that piece of glass, it's a 6 y/o with arms the size of a large pickle. I would NEVER fear getting stuck with glass by a 6 y/o if I was wearing a bullet proof vest, and some high rise leather gloves.

What would it have taken to smack the kids arm with the end of a forking broom? Yeah, it sounds crazy, but I guarantee the piece of glass would have been swept out of his hand.

There are other things they could have done.

If they would have thrown a net over the little punk, he would have been too worried about getting out, and would have dropped the piece of glass.

I’m sorry, but a 6 y/o is still a forking toddler in my book, and that is just cruel and unusual punishment right there. But hey, it happened in bush country, so I guess it's legit.


And come on, now, honestly, wouldn't PEPPER SPRAY have been more humane? Spray some on his leg where he cut himself, he'll go down.

I take it many of you have never been tapped with a tazer before. Let me tell u, take a key, and shove it into an electrical outlet. Yeah, it's pretty much like that. Violent charges of electricity pushing throughout your entire body, and your limps shake all over the place, with no control, then u piss and sh*t yourself, and probably throw up all over the place. And when it's over with, your heart beat is on an ill regular pattern.

Yep, that's real more humane. What next? We going to tie shop lifters up to old sparky?

THINK!!

 

[saleen01]

give the kid a toy

At 6 years old they could have given the kid an x box or something and he would have dropped the glass real quick. I guess it is miami though and they are use to dealing with a little bigger crimes. Good thing it wasnt in L.A. or the kid would have been shot or beaten to death

 

[TurboJunky]

Give me a break!

You're suggesting hitting a kid's arm with a broom? Cops aren't trained to hit people with brooms....THINK THINK THINK:

LIABILITY!

Then you suggest pepper spray? You ever been hit with that stuff? Are you on crack?

Let me assure you a 6yr old threatening you and himself with an edged weapon (and has used that weapon on himself) isn't some sort of parlor game.

We must utilize our training and if we deviate from it must answer for the consequences of not using that training. IE....LAWSUITS. We're trained to use the Taser when confronted with a situation where your subject isn't responding to verbal commands. The after-effects of the Taser are usually completely gone after 15-30 seconds, no matter the subject's size. Pepper spray is at least 20 minutes and sometimes half a day.

Those officers did exactly as they were trained to do, no harm no foul. Can you imagine if they tried to forcibly remove that glass and he cut someone or himself. I can just see the attorney now:

"Officer, didn't you have a Taser stun gun with you? If so, why didn't you use it to incompaciate my client? Instead you chose to forcibly grab his arm using too much force resulting in his wrist being broken in 3 places?"

It's pretty obvious those on here criticizing the police haven't had any training in the use of these weapons, "The Force Continuum", civil liability and justifiable use of force and the law. Basically it sounds like clueless MMQB's.

 

[gn85]

Wow, this is a tough one to call.

First off, none of us were there... that officer had to make a decision and he did. If he made the best one, is a matter that he'll have to go to sleep with tonight and for many nights to come. Not for any of us to judge.

Having said that, read thru the posts in this thread and I find myself straddling the fence as to if I find this acceptable or not.

One of my first thoughts were, as a teacher, do I think it was possible to apprehend this kid. We're actually trained in methods of 'containing' a student if they grow too violent. In these situations we're told that if you find that you need to hold a child down, expect to sustain some injury as the child thrashes around. A child with a weapon, we are told, is a situation for the police to handle. Not us. Regardless of the child's age. Anyways, my conclusion. There were alternative ways to contain this child. As mentioned, pepper spray on the childs leg... even getting the child to breath the pepper spray could have distracted him long enough get control of the weapon. Once again though, we were not there... so we don't know the whole story.

Now, is a child, at the age dangerous. One thing I learned early... DON'T UNDERESTIMATE A CHILD! Don't let that age fool you. Yes, you do weigh more and are stronger then this child, but that doesn't take away how dangerous this childs intentions and actions can be. I had a student who, at the age of seven, broke the ribs of his father with a golf club. I wonder how THAT parent would feel about the police coming in and tasering his child? Dunno.

These are my opinions. I hope I haven't blamed one side or the other. This really was a call that this officer had to make and make quickly. None of us were there. None of us know enough to be judge and jury. I think this story is just an unfortunate reminder of some of the darker sides of life that we are presented with daily.

Whew!

 

[vicious6]

Sounds to me they did what they thought was best at the time. It is easy for all of us to sit back and say "well I would have done it this way". Unless you are faced with the same situation, you don't know what you would do. Just my 2 cents.

 

[no-nos]

Re: WOW

Originally posted by cruzn57
No-Nos

are you for real? law suit this, law suit that!, gee ! are you the 6 yr olds parent? did you put him up to this?
you MUST be to young to value life, yours,or anyone elses!
Please take a pill, or something, you aren't much better than the six yr old!
he had already injured himself, multiple times, he had the smarts to obtain the glass, and use it, why should a police officer put himself in jeopardy when its not necessary?
the stun gun is NOT leathel, and no one was hurt, the 6 yr old has mental problems, why compound them ?
please think before you irrationally speak. ( battleship mouth- rowboat a$$)
No offense,
thanks
cruzn57

yes i' am for real and no i'm not the kids parents ( real funny) and as far as me being to young to value life, I'M 35 AND SERVED SIX YEARS IN THE ARMY SO PLEASE SAVE THE SPEECH! (let's not make this a personal issue, i respect everyone's opinion and if i disagree with someone i don't start being a smart a$$.) who ever said this is ok, does'nt realize what your saying (imo) this means that everytime a kid acts-up the police have the right to go ahead and administer a shock of god knows how many thousand volts? tasers have been known to kill people in the past, this is a 6yr old kid suppose this was your child, how would you feel about it then, and please don't tell me "i'm fine with it", nothing will most likely happen here and i'll tell you why and you may disagree with this all you want but i've lived in miami all but 6 yrs of my life, this will get swept under the rug because this happened to a BLACK CHILD unless the black community leaders do something about this, nothing is going to happen, and for those who live here know that, police shoot blacks around here when their unarmed and then fabricate a story, it's been done before..
it's sad when you have three police officers dealing with one kid and the best thing they could come up with is this. Again this is my opinion.

a little bit of info


TASERs are at best an unknown danger and at worst, two-time killers, according to a 1998 Amnesty International report ("United States of America: Rights for All--Police Brutality and Prison Abuse in the USA"). The report states, "In July, 1996, a 29-year-old woman, Kimberly Lashon Watkins, died after being shot by police with a TASER in Pomona, California. Just five months later, Andrew Hunt, Jr. died when Pomona police reportedly shot him several times with a TASER after he had been handcuffed."


The Lancet also articulated the need to study "injury threshholds" and the effects on nerves, adding that two people with no history of cardiac disease went into cardiac arrest between five and fifteen minutes after being hit with TASERs.

 

[Pablo]

are you kidding me, if it is indeed a black kid expect the aclu, johnny cochran, jesse jackson, and al sharpton to come out in force.

I wouldnt have touched the kid, you guys seriously underestimate children they can be nasty little bastards. One of the simplest concepts in fighting is that you stay the hell away from people with sharp objects, your proximity to them has a direct relation to you being injured.

All it takes is that kid to swing that glass into your eye or face and you are scarred for life, like the other poster mentioned about the rib breaking, Ive seen cases where kids have broken peoples noses.

I grew up in miami for 21 years of my life and went to public schools where Ive seen freakin berzerk kids that probably did need to get tazered. My mom is an elementary school teacher and alot of these kids are little savages that come from homes where they basically just go to sleep and have 0 upbringing. Im scared for her safety alot of times what with kids bringing in drugs and needles ,etc to school.

 

[no-nos]

Re: WOW

Originally posted by cruzn57
No-Nos

are you for real? law suit this, law suit that!, gee ! are you the 6 yr olds parent? did you put him up to this?
you MUST be to young to value life, yours,or anyone elses!
Please take a pill, or something, you aren't much better than the six yr old!
he had already injured himself, multiple times, he had the smarts to obtain the glass, and use it, why should a police officer put himself in jeopardy when its not necessary?
the stun gun is NOT leathel, and no one was hurt, the 6 yr old has mental problems, why compound them ?
please think before you irrationally speak. ( battleship mouth- rowboat a$$)
No offense,
thanks
cruzn57

yes i' am for real and no i'm not the kids parents ( real funny) i am a father of 2 boys and as far as me being to young to value life, I'M 35 AND SERVED SIX YEARS IN THE ARMY SO PLEASE SAVE THE SPEECH! (let's not make this a personal issue, i respect everyone's opinion and if i disagree with someone i don't start being a smart a$$.) who ever said this is ok, does'nt realize what your saying (imo) this means that everytime a kid acts-up the police have the right to go ahead and administer a shock of god knows how many thousand volts? tasers have been known to kill people in the past, this is a 6yr old kid suppose this was your child, how would you feel about it then, and please don't tell me "i'm fine with it", nothing will most likely happen here and i'll tell you why and you may disagree with this all you want but i've lived in miami all but 6 yrs of my life, this will get swept under the rug because this happened to a BLACK CHILD unless the black community leaders do something about this, nothing is going to happen, and for those who live here know that, police shoot blacks around here when their unarmed and then fabricate a story, it's been done before..
it's sad when you have three police officers dealing with one kid and the best thing they could come up with is this and remember this was not a spur of the moment type of situation, they had time to call the school and county police, and then they even tried talking to the kid, you mean they can't deal with a six yr old all 3 of them? i just hope they did'nt do any permanet damage, please keep in mind this is a six year old, IMO if a police officer can't deal with a 6yr old then they need some serious training. Again this is my opinion.

a little bit of info


TASERs are at best an unknown danger and at worst, two-time killers, according to a 1998 Amnesty International report ("United States of America: Rights for All--Police Brutality and Prison Abuse in the USA"). The report states, "In July, 1996, a 29-year-old woman, Kimberly Lashon Watkins, died after being shot by police with a TASER in Pomona, California. Just five months later, Andrew Hunt, Jr. died when Pomona police reportedly shot him several times with a TASER after he had been handcuffed."


The Lancet also articulated the need to study "injury threshholds" and the effects on nerves, adding that two people with no history of cardiac disease went into cardiac arrest between five and fifteen minutes after being hit with TASERs.

 

[broke1]

I bet that same asshole cop has taken someone to jail for CHILD ABUSE for doing less.

Totally uncalled for and those defending him,lets stun gun YOUR children and see what long term effect it has on them.I dont care the situation,wrong is wrong.

 

[no-nos]

sorry for the re-post i tried to delete but i was not allowed