Police Officer Uses Taser On 10-Year-Old Girl

[spotbird]

Source: 40/29 tv

OZARK, Ark. -- Ozark police said they were called to a home where a mother asked for help with her unruly child, but the 10-year-old's father said he's outraged at the force police used against his daughter.

"I would like to say Ozark police Tased this little girl right here. Ten years old and shot electricity through her body, and I want to know how the heck in God's green earth can they get away with this," said the girl's father, Anthony Medlock.

......

The officer did shock the girl after he said she kicked him in the groin.

.....

Ozark police said it is their policy to use a Taser on someone who is a threat to others, no matter their age.

Read more: http://www.4029tv.com/news/21638427/detail.html

---

We live in a really fucked up world.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Wonder how many will be here to defend this one...

[TheMadMonk]

11. I won't defend this specific action, since there is way too little info...

...to make an informed assessment. However, I have personally seen a kid of this age (and not a particularly large one) so out of control that it took four strong adults to safely restrain them. A single person faced with such a situation (as noted in the article) would risk inflicting (and quite probably receiving) serious injury if they attempted physical restraint. If a situation demanded immediate intervention, then I would lose no sleep if their rage caused me to break a bone or dislocate a limb. If I had the time to get my hands on a bucket of icy cold water that would be my first choice. Secondly I'd attempt entaglement (rope, blanket, etc). Third would be to keep kicking their legs from under them (regardless of surface (short of broken glass)) until they decided the ground was a good place to be.

One thing a lot of people fail to realise is that in such (worst case) situations, you are not dealing with a little kid or even a rational being, but what amounts to a wild animal the same size and weight as a medium to large sized dog in a killing rage.

So, if faced with a child like the one I observed, and my only realistic choices were attempting physical restraint or using a taser I might well opt for the taser, since I don't particularly like the idea of having golf ball sized chunks of flesh ripped from my body.

[bertman]

15. Excellent point, TheMadMonk. Just goes to show that there are ALWAYS two sides to

every story. At least two.

[PSPS]

16. You must not be in very good physical condition.

Cops are supposed to be in good physical shape, certainly good enough to overpower a ten-year-old without having to electrocute them first.

[djohn36]

22. .

Would you rather your 10 year old daughter get a little jolt of electricity, or have her arm broken because she fought back with an officer? The ignorance here is overwhelming.

[Mithreal]

26. Little jolt, huh? Care to elaborate on "the ignorance"?

[Indenturedebtor]

28. Bwahaha clearly any person who can't subdue a TEN year old couldn't break an arm

FFS a TEN YEAR OLD!

Go crawl back under your rock John-Bible Verse

[katkat]

40. ten year old

By the time I was ten years old, I was 5'7" and typical Scandinavian size. You're acting like she was Minnie Mouse. If she was big enough to kick a cop in the groin, so be it.

[marshall]

62. And that includes this child's mother!

Why would any mother call the police to come out and control her ten year old daughter???

[saigon68]

39. Enjoy your stay

It will be short

[smoogatz]

52. Oh, the ignorance!

I've got an idea for you--why don't you drive your wingnut ass down to your local police station and ask them to tase you three or four times, so you can then say that you speak from personal experience rather than complete out-of-your-floppy-fundie-bunghole ignorance. They'll probably make you sign a release form, and maybe even get checked out by your doctor first, to make sure you don't have any underlying heart condition that could cause that "little jolt of electricity" to, you know, fucking kill you, as it has killed dozens of people in this country in the last ten years or so. Or you could skip the red tape and just walk up to the nearest cop and kick him in the balls. Either way, you could at least say you knew what you were talking about next time you flapped your yap on this subject.

[Hepburn]

53. Hi, troll...

...enjoy your short stay, OK?

Hitting a child is bad enough. Hitting a child with a taser? Child abuse.

JMHO

[superconnected]

64. Wow, and you think he's ignorant.

[rhett o rick]

69. I so agree with you. The ignorance here is overwhelming.

The girl should be thankful to get a "little jolt of electricity" of 50,000 volts instead of getting some burly officer breaking her arm. How horribly sad that your only way to calm down an 11 year old girl is to taser her or break her arm. I am going to go out on a limb here and say you are one sick son of a bitch. She is 11 years old. If you are a Democrat, either the party has gone to hell or.......the party had gone to hell.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

71. You must think the cops around here can adjust their tazors for children

[TheMadMonk]

46. Yes if you are willing to risk the child seriously injuring themself.

And almost certainly accept that risk to yourself as well. Submission holds for the most part rely on the person being held choosing not to be injured. Bear hug them from behind if you don't mind having your nose smeared across your face.

I'm not suggesting using a tazer on a kid tossing a hissy fit. But for a kid that has completely lost the plot it might well be the only viable option.

By all means, given time and resources, explore other options, but ultimately it will always come down to whatever means necessary.

I will make one observation regarding the case in the OP. Knowing the uproar and outrage that this incident was absolutely certain to raise, the cop's superiors chose to endorse his actions, rather than appease the howling mob by firing him on the spot, or at the very least taking him off the streets and ordering him to undergo retraining.

[Hepburn]

54. Hasn't anyone on that police force had training in the martial arts?

All someone with this kind of training would have to do is block the blows/kicks from a 10 year old. It seems pretty simple ~~ assuming anyone used a bit of intelligence. The big fraidy cat police officer could have even worn one of the K-9 training suits that protect them from police dogs attacks, right?

Sheesh...taser a child. What bullshit from the cops.

:hi:

[WriteDown]

50. And there is the rub...

If you overpower a ten year old you may tear a ligament or a tendon or injure muscle or bone. They the lawsuits would come pouring in.

[Fir]

72. Anyone working in mental institutions knows how to

......... restrain another without injury.

I'd think all police departments train their officers in handling contrary people. If they are resorting to the use of electric shock, it is plain to see they are using a force that is not appropriate to the situation.

There can be little argument that modern day police departments are using para-military techniques and not community based 'protect and serve' neighbor friendly techniques.

This is the lowest denominator of methods to use, just short of flat out shooting the girl. And it is a pathetic display that the department isn't doing an investigation.

In the future, if you have to have dealings with your local police, don't forget they are schooled in the art of total dominance of any situation. So forget any idea of gaining help from these bullies............. Nice society heh? But this is what you get when police are schooled to think they are under deadly threat in every situation.

[Ter]

35. How could anyone defend this

Let's hope not...

[saigon68]

41. Well there are a few Cop Enablers here

This shit head should enlist in the marines to kick some (insert racial epithet here) ass.

But then those guys fight back.

He is a "girly man" beating up and electrocuting a ten year old girl.

[TheMadMonk]

49. And a 96 lb (female) cop was supposed to somehow figure out how to restrain,...

...a 200 lb twelve year old boy beating the living fuck out of an 80 something lb girl without using her taser in Florida a while back. Some even suggested she should have waited until enough teachers could be gathered to dogpile him. How the fuck would that have been fair to his victim?


Sometimes there are no good responses to a bad sitiuation, only reasonable and unreasonable ones. I won't claim that this was the case here, but I've got a big fat rasberry for anyone who claims that there is ALWAYS a better way.

[jayfish]

55. This Isn't Going To Be Popular...

but a 96lb female probably shouldn't be a patrol officer.

Jay

[TheMadMonk]

60. She wasn't. She was a campus cop in a grade school.

Furthermore, I doubt even an ex-marine, with linebacker on his resume, could have separated the boy from the girl without risking even further injury to her via physical intervention alone.

If you think about it, it takes a pretty impressive amount of muscle to carry around that much weight.

[mimitabby]

65. i'm surprised at most of the posters here

what is screaming out to me is not that this child got tased, but that the MOTHER has called authorities more than once demanding that her child be taken away.
How come she still has custody of this child?

[abelenkpe]

2. WTF?

That is insane. I hope the little girl is OK.
Parents might want to seek some family counseling so that type of situation can be avoided in the future too.

[sakabatou]

4. +1

[Robb]

3. This story is all kinds of messed up.

"The officer's statement said the girl's mother, Kelly Hamlert, told him to use a Taser on her if he needed to."

Goddamn world.

[spotbird]

5. What's he going to say?

Assuming the mother gave permission, it's still abuse.

[Robb]

44. My point is not to excuse the officer.

My point is if the mother said that it's ALL KINDS OF FUCKED UP out there.

[tblue37]

6. Suppose the mother had said to shoot her if necessary--would that be okay with him? nt

[harvey007]

7. No child deserves to be tasered

The appropriate child protective agencies need to investigate this situation immediately to protect the child.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/us-human-rights/taser-abuse/page.do?id=1021202

[harvey007]

8. Recommendations for Law Enforcement

http://www.amnestyusa.org/us-human-rights/taser-abuse/recommendations-to-law-enforcement-agencies-on-tasers/page.do?id=1351089

[WriteDown]

51. I prefer tranq darts. nt

[unkachuck]

9. "...I want to know how the heck in God's green earth can they get away with this,"

....could they get away with this because they're fascists in a fascist state? I know the Gestapo would be proud....

....a ten year old child; what's next, a crying infant in a crib? We need to take these terrorist weapons away from these incompetent system fascists....I don't think this child will be asking a COP for help anytime soon....

"The officer did shock the girl after he said she kicked him in the groin."

....so what? What's his groin doing in the way of her foot?....I know, those desperado ten year old girls can be extremely dangerous....seig heil!

[Seldona]

23. Sickening. nt

[Canuckistanian]

10. If I were that cop

I'd be ashamed that a 10-year old girl COULD kick me in the family jewels.

I'd take it like a man and never mention it to a soul.

[Frosty cupcake]

25. Assuming,

of course, he's telling the truth on that.

[CreekDog]

30. what's the point of all the physical training and requirements if they use weapons like this

against a freakin 10 year old!

[wroberts189]

12. So how low will we allow this go to? 8 years? 6 years? 4?????? WTF/KNR/nt

[wroberts189]

13. So I guess the use of so called "non-lethal force" by 50k volts was justified ...

Clearly that poor cops life and perhaps other people were in danger ... those 10 year old girls are very dangerous and deadly to mess with.


/sarc

[Seldona]

24. Have they managed to turn 'less than lethal' into 'non-lethal?'

Double plus ungood.

[wroberts189]

31. I am sure they are working on it . +1 nt

[FreedomRain]

14. Cops are mobile discipline patrols now?

A mother who would say such a thing, probably provoked her in the first place.

[Alcibiades]

17. Arkansas.

I've spent some time in the Ozarks, but not this particular town. It sounds like the sort of place you might use if you were trying to make some lame-ass joke about the backwardness of rural southern folks.

Except, of course, that these sorts of jokes all have some basis in reality, as this incident demonstrates.

[Art_from_Ark]

21. Um, this sort of incident has happened in lost of places

And as the show COPS has clearly demonstrated, there are dumbass parents everywhere.

[Alcibiades]

56. But do they say it's OK for the cops to taze them?

If the cop is to be believed. Hard to believe people call the cops to discipline their kids.

[paulsby]

18. i arrested a guy once for grabbing my groin

testicles to be specific, and he got (suprisingly) 6 months! granted, he had a LOT of priors. it is NOT fun to be kicked in the groin. i don't know enough about the incident to say if tasing was appropriate, but i would say that the age is not an AUTOMATIC assumption that it's NOT appropriate. fwiw, i have carried a taser for about 3 or 4 years, and have NEVER fired it at a person, although i have displayed it to get compliance on several occasions, as per our use of force policy.

[RoccoR5955]

19. Welcome to the Police States of AmeriKKKa...

Where the police don't have to obey the law, because they ARE the law!

[New Dawn]

20. "The land of the free..."

LOL. Yeah right.

[harmonicon]

27. cops are called in to deal with temper tantrums now?

Remind me to call the fire department the next time I singe my moustache lighting a cigarette.

[Echo In Light]

57. Replete with their fun, child-incapacitating weapons, apparently

[Recursion]

66. The fact that the mom calls the cops could mean it was a lot more than a "tantrum"

Or it could mean it's a mother who has no business having custody of a child.

[barbtries]

29. a threat?

a 10-year-old girl was a THREAT?!
agreed. fucked up world we live in. and maybe it's just me, but the police just seem to be getting more fucked up. they love their toys.

[mackerel]

32. The Feingold Diet would dramatically change the girls

behavioral problems. She was most likely having an allergic reaction to something she ate.

[WriteDown]

59. She needed more ionic silver. Lot's more. nt

[DU GrovelBot]

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[uppityperson]

36. Very appropriate grovelbot. Donate to Treehouse for Kids.

[Sabriel]

61. Only if we get to tazer them, too. n/t

[Boudica the Lyoness]

34. No America isn't the world.

[tomhayes]

37. I say taser anyone

Who kicks you in the groin.

Want them to go back to the sleeper hold?? How about throwing her on the ground, kneeing her in the back and forcing her hands together to be cuffed?

Wait - she's 10 so there no reason why she'd ever ever ever have to be restrained , right???????

[edwardian]

38. What to expect

from an uncivilized people?

[CBGLuthier]

42. cop taze my child, cop gonna taste fist. with a side order of boot via ass

[katkat]

43. CBGLuthier

Too bad you don't use all that energy to restrain the kid.

[sofa king]

45. I'm concerned that our police may be getting worn out.

These days few doubt the value and even the necessity of good counseling and close observation for the troops returning home, as many of them are suffering from psychological trauma.

But police officers share experiences similar to those of soldiers in the field, usually at much closer quarters, almost every day. Do they also suffer from a sort of combat fatigue?

[snooper2]

47. Well, she could have looked like this

:evilgrin:




Besides that, this cop should lose his job.

[smoogatz]

48. If this was some sort of freakishly large ten-year-old with really severe

behavioral/emotional/mental-health issues, there's probably no harmless, gentle way to intervene. If it's an otherwise normal ten-year-old throwing a tantrum, the cop and the mother both deserve a swift kick in the nads. Maybe we should arm police with tranquilizer darts, like they use on rogue grizzly bears--although I suppose there's always the risk that you'll hit somebody in the eye.

[showpan]

58. I seriously doubt there wasn't

another way to handle a ten yr old. Sometimes you must look at yourself and find another way of dealing with situations before they become out of control, especially with a child. If one approach doesn't work, find another, maybe they need to watch that "nanny" show...lol

[Recursion]

67. What if this was a larger-than-average 10-year-old on PCP? NT

[superconnected]

63. ''no matter what their age." In other words 3 year olds aren't safe either.

[Cowpunk]

68. This mother committed "Child abuse by cop"

Makes perfect sense: If parents can't get away with torturing the kids, they just have to call someone who can.

[Devil_Fish]

70. I can see both sides of this issue. assalting a police officer is a felony,

and justifys the use of a tazer as well as a trip to Juvie. You just don't fuck with cops and expect no conciquences no matter how old you are. If she were subdued like say in hand cuffs and laying face down on the ground and then tazered I would have a problem with that. On the other hand, the parents were stupid for calling the police and expecting some other out come.