Deputy Tasers 90-Pound, 13 Year Old Girl At Hospital

[matcom]

:grr:

<snip>

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. -- A deputy Tasered an intoxicated 13-year-old girl who was kicking and scratching two hospital nurses, officials said.

April Rene Burleson, who is 4-foot-9 and weighs 90 pounds, had a blood alcohol level of 0.175 percent and was under the influence of marijuana and the prescription drug Xanax, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

"You have to understand, she was lashing out, kicking and scratching," sheriff's spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi. "She was acting like an adult who needed to be restrained. Just because she's 13 doesn't mean she can't harm somebody."

Burleson was charged with loitering, disorderly public intoxication, battery by a juvenile on health services personnel, battery on an officer and resisting an officer. She was sent to the Lee County Juvenile Assessment Center.

Burleson was walking on the street at 2:50 a.m. Thursday when a deputy picked her up on the loitering charge. She was first brought to her mother, who agreed to have the girl medically cleared at Lee Memorial Hospital before being processed.

According to sheriff's reports, Burleson had been combative with Deputy Chad Edwards before they reached the hospital, then screamed at the hospital staff and injured the nurses and Edwards.

Burleson was shocked with the Taser in the chest, then held in four-point restraints during her exam, deputies said.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4647071/detail.html

[bowens43]

1. It seems that Americas LEOs have become cowards.

If they can't restrain an intoxicated child without using a taser they have no business being on the force.

This is disgusting.

[RC]

2. Shot with a Taser???

"She was acting like an adult who needed to be restrained. ...??? Without any Tasers, then what? A police 9mm side arm? 13 years old? An adult, yeah right.
How many adults were around? The sheriff's spokeswoman needs a reality check.

[matcom]

4. right. and the hospital didn't have any sedatives either

:eyes:

[jmowreader]

24. How, pray tell, do you plan to administer them?

You could hand the child two tablets and ask her nicely to swallow them, but this would only cause the child to throw them back at the provider.

You could try asking the child to calm down long enough to receive an injection. Tell a kid who's NOT hopped up on three different psychoactive substances you're going to give her a shot and see what happens.

You could hold the child down long enough to give her the shot. What happens if you break a bone or leave a bruise?

I guess you could get one of those tranquilizer guns they used to knock out man-eating tigers on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, but if you fuckers were screaming about Tasers...oh man, what y'all would say about fucking tranquilizer guns.

[baldguy]

3. Seems Tasers have replaced billy clubs.

But Tasers don't leave bruises or break bones.

[Heidi]

10. "Teasers don't leave bruises or break bones."

In my opinion, that makes them even more dangerous in the hands of police.

[madeline_con]

14. It seems to me

they're quicker to use their shiny new 'non lethal' weapons on everybody, from a 6 year old holding a piece of glass on up.

It definitely makes them more dangerous. They're getting out of hand.

[Moochy]

27. No bruises? just prong marks

Oh Really? I just saw the girl in question showing her taser prong marks on MSNBC. They look pretty painful.

[caty]

5. Wow -- Police, nurses,

and hospital security couldn't restrain a little 13 year old girl? When did society become so hateful and mean spirited that something like this is even remotley acceptable?

[jmowreader]

8. It became acceptable...

when people started threatening the authorities with lawsuits for "laying a finger on my child."

And when juries started handing down quadrillion-dollar judgments for relatively minor stuff.

So what goes through the cop's head? "If I try to physically restrain this child and wind up dislocating her arm, which is always a danger in a scuffle, I'm gonna lose my house." Out comes the Taser. One quick zap and you've got her.

Now, my question is: what the hell is a 13-year-old child doing on alcohol, marijuana and Xanax?

[caty]

12. There could be a lot

of law suits in the future regarding the use of tasers. A taser can cause someone's heart to stop. I know the police have to do what they have to do---but I just cannot see using a taser on a child who weighs only 90lbs.

[madeline_con]

15. "... what the hell is a 13-year-old child ...

doing on alcohol, marijuana and Xanax?"


:party:

Obviously, she needs better suprevision.

[greeneyedpookie]

23. I believe that society

has become, in a manner, afraid to touch or physically restrain a child without the worry of repercussions of child molestation or sexual harassment. No matter who you are; police, nurses, teachers, parents, etc. Granted this doesn't give the authority to taser anyone who is acting up, but come on, she was drunk, doped up and combative. What would you do????

GEP

:bounce:

[GOPisEvil]

6. Memo to cops: Just because a taser is "non-lethal", this does NOT

give you the right to use them indiscriminantly.

[NashVegas]

11. They Do Things With Tasers They Wouldn't DARE Do w/Guns

fuckheads

[BlueIris]

18. So disgustingly true.

And I will second your "fuckheads," fellow Batboy worshipper.

[RPM]

7. 14 year girl???

Intoxicated - on multiple drugs - guh.

Start 'em early, i guess...

[KG]

9. TASER THEM ALL!

:eyes:

[madeline_con]

13. "She was acting like an adult who needed to be restrained"

What an f-ing moron. Hospitals have restraints. Dumbass.

[Tsiyu]

26. That was uncalled for.

You can express an opinion without all that, can't you?

[madeline_con]

28. I could ...

except the cop was being a moronic dumbass tasing the girl.

[Tsiyu]

29. Duh!

I thought you were calling someone ELSE those names. Please accept my apologies. I am truly a dumbass....:blush:

BTW., a Whitfield County woman has been killed and it may be Taser-related. i will get details if i can...saw it on the news.

Again, so sorry for the misunderstanding. Cuss out those idiots all you wish!

[madeline_con]

30. I thought you were calling someone ELSE those names

I thought so, once I read your post, and then reread mine. It could have been interpreted that way. Sorry.

I need to work on my delivery technique when I get snide. :blush:

[Spacemom]

16. Just imagine

If he didn't use the taser, he might have had to shoot her. :sarcasm:

[BlueIris]

17. Is tasering addictive? Is that what's causing the abuse of the taser?

This is maybe the tenth story about use of a taser that I've read in the last two months that I am not only offended but ALARMED by. Horrifying.

And what goes on in Florida, truly? The police out there are OUT of CONTROL.

[marions ghost]

19. Agree --totally out of control

This is outrageous. Somebody has got to stop this Taser Abuse.

[SarahB]

20. Tasers?

I don't want to get to in depth, but some of the kids I work with are like this. Tranquilizers? Yes. Heavy supervision? Yes. Restraints? Extremely rarely and only in emergencies with constant supervision and safety measures. Tasers? :wtf: :grr:

[lpbk2713]

21. IIRC, you're in the health field .....

If she was so heavily under the influence of multiple substances, would electric shock (Tasering) have done any good to put her, or anyone, under control? And it does sound odd that they would resort to this form of "control" while in a hospital with so many other means available.

[SarahB]

22. I'm not sure medically.

We would have never done this. I could contemplate justifying it out on the street with a kid carrying a weapon, but in a medical facility? No excuse.

[chaska]

25. Okay mister, if u can't play nice I'm gonna take that thing away from u.