sick little jag

Fla. Officer Uses Taser on 12-Year-Old Boy



PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (AP) - 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.

source

I don't care how "out of control" a kid is acting, I think it's completely unacceptable for Police, who are probably twice the size of this kid, to be using a tazer on him. Then to read they've used it on a girl who they caught skipping class? I already heard about them using it on the 6 year-old boy...and I thought that was bad. This kid was speacial-needs, too. This isn't right. If they can't not use their tasers on kids, then they need to not have them at all. It's ridiculous.

X-6_494

I have no words. That's utterly disgusting. Happy I don't live there, heh.

the worst is using it on a girl skipping class. Just, WTF?

Jadiee

I dun like tasers, period. Victims have the possibility of getting a heart attack or even dying from it (or drying from the heart attack). The idea of it being used on children... That is just sad and disgusting. It really infuriates me, I dont care how fiesty the kid is, its really sad that the officer is so narrow minded that he cant think of any better way or safer way to take down the kid. and the 6yr old... ARGH

Butterflyz

Like this Golt is going to say otherwise.

Must have been a pretty sharp pencil.

Ashleigh

Immoral. Wrong. The end. He's twelve years old. Power hungry people.

TheAngel

You have to look at other factors. A 12 year old with a mental disease, something like autisim or something like that, could very well be out of control and extremely dangerous. If they are in danger of hurting themself or other people then sometimes drastic measures have to be taken. Now of course I'm not advocating the use of the taser on the girl, the 6 year old, however, was attempting to commit suicide, therefore the taser might have been the only resolution to the situation. We weren't there so it's easy for all of us to jump to the conclusion that it was unnecessary, however, it might not have been.

sick little jag

I have some experience with children who are special needs and who have emotional disorders and behavior problems that result in them becoming physically violent. The state that they get into is nothing that a police officer, who is most certainly physically stronger and bigger than any 12 year-old, would incapable of physically overpowering them, without the use of a taser. In the case of the 6 year old with the glass, I'm a little less enraged because I understand that glass is sharp and can cut you, but a pencil, even when sharpened, is generally blunt, and even if it is very sharp, it wouldn't be anything other than a superficial injury. I've accidentally stabbed myself with a pencil, and yeah, it hurt, but it wasn't a life threatening injury.

A police officer, who is suposed to be physically fit and strong, could overpower a 12 year-old boy without the use of a taser. You grab their arms, you tackle them to the ground....you don't use a taser them. It's unnacceptable. If you don't want to get scratched or bitten or whatever...fine. Be a whiney little bitch, but then don't be a police officer. A child, no matter how irate or riled up, posses no where near the same amount of threat to them as an adult does. You use tasers on adults, not children. Maybe if this kid was threatening with a knife I'd say, sure, use the taser. But it was a pencil.

Not. acceptable.

PassionWagon

Not to mention that any professional would know from training that special needs children like other children more often than not respond to other measures before even needing to use force.

TheAngel

I think you are overestimating most police officers. First off, unless these cases were in large cities, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, places like that, the police officers probably weren't fit. There are no physical requirements where I live so an officer could be 5'4 and weigh 300lbs. Also, most officers don't know how to deal with special needs children, there's not a speical class they take to learn how to deal with that subject. They saw a child going crazy, assessed the situation, and used what they deemed to be necessary force. It might have been wrong but since we weren't in that situation we don't have any right to judge.

Jadiee

Im not sure about physical requirements for officers, but i thought there were - maybe here in texas, But what good is an officer whos not physically fit? Mr. love-handle donut eating cop is going to succeed in chasing after the thief on foot? or maybe the weight lets him roll out the car quicker. Not to insult overweight people, but if your a cop, you need to be fit, it almost seems like part of the job discription.

Vampires_Bite

Debatable,

When i was 5 i got glass accidentally suck in my head (my cousin hit me in the head with a drinking glass while he was fighting with his brother) and when it was time for stitches it took 5 people to hold me down... no kidding. 5 people to hold down a regular 5 year old boy. I was in that much hysterics! (I ended up getting knocked out by a general anasthetic(SP?)

And the Officer who used it on the girl for skipping class? That i very much so dissagree with!!! Someone should taser him!

Megadeth

Nicely put, well done.

If there was no choice and in certain situations maybe it should be used, regardless of who it is or what age they are.
Like the above quote stated, we were not there, so it is easy so say things about this or that, when you were not involved in any of it.

PassionWagon

I can see where you're coming from, but there is no mention of any preliminary action taken before resorting to physical restraint. Children can be communicated with; it's easy to resort to violence. The child was poking another child with a pencil, and kicking; the child was displaying violence, and the police deal with this with more violence. And yet somehow they have done the right thing because that 'crime' has been stopped, despite the fact that another crime but better packaged has been committed by the very entity sent to stop it... And the child learns that not only is violence the first answer to anything, but also to be far more discreet about kicking another child in the future.

Tasering a 35 year old man who is drunken and beyond any reasoning or endangering the life of another is far different to a special needs child who, for all the policeman knew because he or she was such an idiot and so ignorant they didn't bother to know if he or she was on medication, can respond to communication and can be taught. Not to mention if the policeman is "unfit" he or she needed to respond to violence, then he or she can damn well get weightlifting and jogging instead of sitting on his or her backside and using a taser like a tv remote control; "turn down the child Bob with your taser while I watch Oprah". A policeperson will, of course, be trained in restraint - what else are they taught if not how to protect themselves and others? The excuse that a policeman did not know how to respond to a child (special needs or not, they are, in fact, human) suggests to me that the force have been recruiting goldfish rather than people.

Though I will acknowledge that you have inadvertently described the modern policeforce - unfit and ignorant; and that is supposed to be an excuse, God help us. And moreover these are the authority, the dream sent to enforce laws and to ensure criminals purge their crimes...


So once again ignorance ("most officers don't know how to deal with special needs children") leads to violence. We do have a right to judge; the day we don't have a right to judge, is the day you might just find you get tasered for accidentally brushing past someone and there'll be no messageboards for you to express your discontent because you'll be tasered for that as well.