Fla. Officer Uses Stun Gun on 12-Year-Old

[Rose Siding]

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. - Police used a Taser on a 12-year-old boy who attacked another special-needs student, the third time this fall authorities in South Florida have used a stun gun on children.

Police said the student was Tasered on Dec. 10 after he tried to stab another student with a pencil on a school bus, then kicked and threatened an officer.

The boy was charged with several offenses, including aggravated assault and resisting a police officer with violence. He was released from custody.

Pembroke Pines police Cmdr. David Golt said the officer used the Taser properly.

In November, a Miami-Dade County police officer used a Taser on a 12-year-old girl who was caught skipping class. Officials said the officer faces disciplinary action for inappropriately using his Taser.
Two months ago, a Miami-Dade schools security officer used a Taser on a 6-year-old-boy. The boy was holding a shard of glass and had cut himself.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=5&u=/ap/20041219/ap_on_re_us/brf_taser_children

[Renew Deal]

1. People are just crazy.

There needs to be a set of rules on stun gun use. I just don't see this as enough.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. This was a "special-needs" student...

...and they tasered him anyway? That's just plain fucked...

AND they charged him with aggravated assault and resisting a police officer with violence?

Then again, it is Florida...

[Massachusetts]

43. SS Troops

The Boston Police had a few individuals use these SS tactics resulting in the death of (1) young woman, as well as others injured. These individuals who are paid by US to protect and serve US should and will be held accountable.

We can't tolerate individuals who are given the power to protect only to abuse it, it seems like this is happening more frequently.

We The People have an obligation to control those who are serving US.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[malachi]

45. You ain't sen nothin' yet. Just wait until 1/20/05. Wash. D.C.

Then the real headbanging will begin.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

3. This seems to be a trend.

WTF is wrong with these people that they can't subdue a child withou resorting to a potentially lethal action?

[Cronus Protagonist]

9. Tasers are not lethal

Still, they shouldn't have used one.




http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[Occulus]

11. They are called "less than lethal" for a reason

and even then the lethality of tasers is in question:

http://www.nbc6.net/news/4001463/detail.html

[Cronus Protagonist]

17. The people that make tasers spell it out on their web site

Not enough current to kill a rat, never mind a human. They're powered with D cell batteries. I don't think you could kill a cockroach with one.

Now, someone might fall down and hurth themselves or fall into a vat of acid, but there's no way they can kill you in normal operation without some other, more lethal factor being present, like in the example cited elsehwere in this thread, the lethal overdose of speed already in the target's blood.

I still don't like police tasering kids, nonetheless. Not because it's lethal, because it's not, but because it's traumatic to the child. And it doesn't make any difference if the child is developmentally challenged either.

[Ms_Mary]

18. They are incredibly painful,

Dh is a cop and his dept all had to get tasered so they'd know what it felt like and would be more judicious in using it. He's also been pepper sprayed and tear gassed. Not fun things.

[bpilgrim]

24. even if you have a heart condition?

wow, thats sounds pretty scary but i am glad to hear the enforcers know exactly what it feels like.

peace

[Ms_Mary]

25. Not all depts. do it. I think they should though.

You generally don't want people out there using force they can't empathize with. DH came home and said he wouldn't wish that on anyone, but it does give them a tool for somebody who's resisting and is a physical threat. They definitely want to make it home at the end of the shift and if tasering somebody keeps them from being physically harmed or killed or having to use physical force, I can live with that. But, like I said, it needs to be used judiciously.

At DH's class, they told them that the tasers were supposed to be perfectly safe even for people with pacemakers. It seems somebody made a reference to the effect that it was otherwise, but I haven't seen any data yet. The heart condition question was one of the first things I asked DH.

[bpilgrim]

26. so even folks with pace makers, wow

i wonder if there is any stats compiled on folks who have been tasered yet... would love to see those.

btw: i completely agree that first responders need the tools that can get them home at the end of the shift and also that they and we need to have a thorough understanding of their tools effects.

peace

[NickB79]

27. Amnesty International has recorded 70 deaths in the past 4 yrs

"Amnesty also claims the weapons raise the risk of heart failure in cases where people are agitated or under the effects of drugs or have underlying health problems. It claims more than 70 people have died in the United States and Canada in the past four years in Taser-related incidents."

Note that not only drug use, but heart conditions as well, can make Tasers lethal. Gee, how many Americans have heart problems? Quite a few last I checked, thanks to our crappy diets.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=290936

[bobthedrummer]

34. The whole "non-lethal" arsenal is nefarious-50,000 volts into kids!

Non-lethal link
http://www.datafilter.com/mc/nonlethalWeapons.html

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

29. I stated POTENTIALLY lethal.

They can cause death if certain physical precursers are present.

[Cronus Protagonist]

39. Sure, if you fall onto something or shoot yourself on the way down

My keyboard is also potentially lethal, by the way, but then again, I'm not using it to stop a pencil weilding kid, but if I did, it would meet your description too, and just as aptly. Poor kid might die with the phrase "qwerty" on his forehead... :(

[Cheswick2.0]

42. a man died just a few weeks ago from a tasar

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

46. LOL... Interesting visualization. But, I'll stand by my initial

thoughts on the matter that the taser can kill if there are certain medical conditions that unless the shooter has the medical records of the "shootee," there is a chance of death.

Granted, it's better than a 9mm, but it has become a problem in the fact that it is used too often in situations where there is no need for this kind of force.

[OnlyInAmerica]

4. Ridiculous

Do you mean to tell me that a grown man (or woman) couldn't subdue a 12 year old without resorting to using a freaking taser? Put down the donuts and go to the gym! Oh, and while you're out buy a little judgment.

[TripleD]

13. I was thinking the same thing

Geez. What a whimp.

[VegasWolf]

15. Gee, I wonder how they subdued those children before tasers? n/t

[LisaL]

19. Well, some 12 year old are really big nowdays.

:eyes:

[saigon68]

23. Only a THUG and a Bully would do this

Probably an EX-Marine Hoo Rah

Na on second thought,--- if it was an Ex Marine the kid would have had a 9mm through his skull.

[beyurslf]

5. What effects would a taser have on the cognitive development of a 6yo?

[mbperrin]

7. Here's the cognitive development of an adult recently:

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/10366813.htm



Officers cleared in Taser death

Police actions reasonable self-defense, report says

By CLARISSA ALJENTERA and GEORGE B. SANCHEZ

Herald Staff Writers

Two Seaside police officers aren't to blame for the death of a 38-year-old Del Rey Oaks man who was shot with a Taser stun gun multiple times in August, according to a report released Tuesday by the Monterey County District Attorney's office.

The report cleared officers Matthew Doza and Nick Borges of any crime, stating they reasonably acted in self-defense when they confronted Michael Robert Rosa on Canyon Del Rey Boulevard.(more)


Maybe they could have just taken the pencil away from him.

[pop goes the weasel]

6. ok, maybe

just maybe, the kid had hit his growing streak and was simply too big to physically subdue easily. But charging him with assault and resisting a police officer? A special needs student?

I guess I should just be glad that the cop used his taser instead of his gun.

[Trillo]

8. I doubt the cop would have used a gun. Punishment technologies.

Since tasers don't generally kill, It looks like they've expanded out the base of subjects and offenses they're willing to use a taser on.

This is the downside of safer technologies: more people become subject to their use. Maybe someday punishment technologies will be so safe, that if you look unhappy the controller will punish.

I hope people haven't drunk the koolaid that they're innocent until proven guilty!

[reprobate]

16. The charges may be the best thing to happen to the kid.

This kid was obviously out of control, attacking and causing bodily harm to another child. We've all seen 12 yr olds who could play offensive tackle for a pro team. And a pencil CAN be a lethal weapon. No cop must place himself in harms way to subdue an out of control violent offender, no matter the age.

At least with the charges pending the kid will have the chance to be diverted to a program to learn to control his impulses. That's much better than slapping his wrist and turning him loose on an unsuspecting world. How many of us shake our heads in wonder at the senseless violence done to people by those who may have started out just like this kid, but had no opportunity to learn other ways of coping. At least he will have the chance to learn.

[pop goes the weasel]

30. of course he has trouble controlling his his impulses

the kid is a special needs student--he is already in a program to work on his delays. Arresting him and bringing him up on charges is foolish. If he thinks at the level of a 6 year old instead of a 12 year old, you can toss him in jail and throw away the key, but he is still going to think like a 6 year old. And ought to be treated like one, which means that he shouldn't be charged for acting his mental age.

[biftonnorton]

10. Safer Compliance

Safer for kid, officer and bystanders if officer uses Taser instead of pepper or physical force to bring about compliance. After verbal commands are not obeyed and the subject is not in control of the officer, the public is still in danger. Officers shouldn't have to risk physical injury while protecting us by taking subject into custody, although most are willing to do so.

[Occulus]

12. That can't apply to special needs kids

but I don't know that I'll bother to explain why... it ought to be self-evident.

[Jim Sagle]

14. Except to special needs adults.

;-)

[LisaL]

20. Special needs kids can be danger to themselves and others.

[haele]

21. Hmmm, sounds like they've got a "hands off" policy -

I wonder if Miami-Dade is training their officers to subdue remotely (using tasers, bean-bags, pepperspray, etc) before closing and handling someone who's out of control when it comes to confrontations. Here, police will also shoot first - whether they've got a taser or a gun - rather than try to disarm if the agitated person or any age or gender that has anything that can be considered a weapon.

The police in Miami probably figure that it "humanely" stops the kid, protects the officer from harm, and cuts down the possiblity that there's going to be fighting ending in "excessive force" suits by outraged parents due to police having to manhandle the kid if s/he resists.

Sounds like the police in Miami are also over-reacting in the face of a hysterical, out of control kid. Some of those cases - especially with young kids - might have been avoided with a little calm and patience and a little more time than they were apparently willing to use.

Haele

[genieroze]

22. These morons need a taser on a six year old? Idiots. eom

[Stinky The Clown]

28. Did this fine peace officer have

a fat belly and mirrored sunglasses?

This is totally fucking insane! Florida ..... feh!

[teach1st]

31. I don't like using tasers on kids...

...but having worked at a psychiatric hospital for teens and pre-teens, I can honestly say there were times when a stun gun might have come in handy. I've seen takedowns of 10 and 12 year-olds which required four adults (one such takedown took six adults). Out of control kids can get seriously hurt during the course of a takedown. So can those taking the kids down.

[pinniped]

32. Good thing, most 12-year olds are known to have Herculean strength.

.

[AirAmFan]

33. What age minority child's brutalization by police no longer is newsworthy?

Certainly this kind of brutality would have attracted little attention had the boy been just a few years older.

Were this assertion of mine not true, Democratic politicans would not be ignoring the near-police-slavery boys like this one are rapidly growing into everywhere police feel they can act with impunity.

Like former members of busted unions whose jobs have gone overseas, minority urban young people caught up in a near-slavery "justice" system dominating THE MAJORITY of their lives are such a commonplace they aren't even considered newsworthy anymore.

Even in Minneapolis, let alone Atlanta or Jackson, Mississippi, ALMOST HALF of male minority youth are arrested by the police EVERY YEAR, and 20 percent cannot legally vote because they are currently caught up in the "justice" system. See
http://www.jujitsufilms.com/justice/factsheet.htm .

That webpage is part of the promotion for a truly radical film about this issue, written and directed by a civil rights lawyer and starring Roger Guenveur Smith (who co-starred on HBO with James Carville in "K Street". See http://www.themoviejustice.com .

'JUSTICE: QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

--44% of all young African-American males (18-30 years old) living in Hennepin County were arrested and booked in the year 2000 (Council on Crime and Justice)...

--About 20% of African-American men in Minnesota are ineligible to vote because they are incarcerated or on parole or probation for a felony conviction. (Council on Crime and Justice)...

"Relative to population, black men are admitted to state prison on drug charges at a rate that is 13.4 times greater than that of white men. In large part because of the extraordinary racial disparities in incarceration for drug offenses, blacks are incarcerated for all offenses at 8.2 times the rate of whites. One in every 20 black men over the age of 18 in the United States is in state or federal prison, compared to one in 180 white men. (Human Rights Watch, United States, Punishment and Prejudice, April 29, 2004)'

[SKKY]

35. I read somewhere that Shaquile O'Neil was like 6'2'' when he was 12...

[Forkboy]

36. And?

...

[SKKY]

37. A 6'2'' ANYTHING could probably be a handful, don't you think?

...Was this cop a small guy? Many more questions need to be asked before we condemn this guy.

[Forkboy]

38. CAn you point to the part of this story that says this kid is a Shaq Jr?

Or are you willing to just pull stuff out of your ass?

[SKKY]

41. Is there really that much difference between...

...making an "educated guess", and "pulling stuff out of my ass"? I've clearly spent way too much time, wasted I should say, responding to your post. If all you want to do is engage in "wise-assery", you'll have to do it with someone else.

[Forkboy]

44. So asking for facts to back up your claims is wise-assery?

In other words you dont know what you're talking about on this issue.

Just be a man and admit it.

[BiggJawn]

40. Teacher says, "Everytime a Taser fires, Bernie's cash register rings..."

And would the Robo-Cop apologists be insisting there was nothing wrong with this if they were pepper-spraying the kids instead?

"Prepare to be TASED, you PERP!"