Posted on 05/26/2004 2:34:23 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
A veteran South Tucson police sergeant is under investigation for firing his stun gun to subdue a handcuffed 9-year-old girl.
At the request of Chief Sixto Molina, the Pima County Sheriff's Department is trying to determine if the sergeant committed a crime when he sent a jolt through the child's body.
The police officer used a Taser on the girl at about 5:30 p.m. May 8, Molina said. The nonlethal weapon uses a pulsating electrical charge to immobilize a person for several seconds.
"I'll be the first to admit, you've got a veteran sergeant Tasing a 9-year-old girl, it doesn't look good," said Molina.
The sergeant was one of at least two officers who responded to a call from the Arizona Children's Home, a school for special needs children, on South Eighth Avenue, he said.
"It had to do with a runaway from the institution," the chief said. He declined to provide further details.
The school could not be reached for comment late Monday. But Molina said that the facility is the source of frequent calls to his 25-person department.
Molina said one officer initially responded to the call from the school. That officer requested assistance from another officer and specifically asked that the second officer bring a Taser.
He said the girl was handcuffed at the time the weapon was used.
The sergeant who used the hand-held Taser remains on duty. His name is not being released while the investigation is under way.
"It didn't involve an integrity issue," Molina said. "The officer made a decision to do what he thought he needed to do."
Deputy Dawn Barkman, a spokeswoman with the Sheriff's Department, confirmed a review of the incident is under way but said she had no further details.
The results of the probe will be forwarded to the Pima County Attorney's Office.
"They'll have to present it to us to see if any criminal charges are warranted," said County Attorney's Office spokesman Dan Benavides.
Sgt. Dan Snyder, a South Tucson police spokesman, said the investigation could be complete by the end of the week.
Well... yeah. :)
tasing a handcuffed 9 year old looks even worse.
I am sure the statist branch of the freeper community, will be here shortly to explain why this was a good thing to do...
"the nine year old should have known better... little brat..." or something like that.
anything to make us safer... er, right?
Yup,the next next noise you hear will be the goose-stepping of satisfied jackboots marching down the street.
Right. Any second someone will pipe up with how this girl somehow deserved it, and that we shouldn't worry that our cops have grown so thuggish and immune that they feel that electrifying a 9 year old is a perfectly viable option.
We all know they are doing a hard job, but please. A man who needs a stun gun to subdue a girl? He shouldn't be a cop.
What if she was hurting herself or others? We dont know what the circumstances were. This guy made a judgement call.. 9yr old in a special needs school... you would think it was obvious for a veteran cop to keep his tazer holstered. But these days Im willing to hear both sides of the story. What might you have done? Human judgement is not infallible, and we are placing these humans in the position of requiring perfect judgement.
It's under investigation... lets give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I dont consider myself a 'statist' but I have alot of respect for the people who dont really get paid that much to deal with all the crap in our society.
[insert angry mob here]
If the girl was already handcuffed, I'd say the threat level was already rather low, wasn't it ?
I once got a call to see a 13 year old girl at a shopping mall: she called police to say her friends had ditched her in my city--about 30 miles from her home--and she needed to go home.
90 lbs, thick glasses...bookish girl. Very nice.
Got her to the station and sat her in the office with four other cops while I got on the phone and made arrangements to get her home. Then someone shoved a bulliten in my hands: she was a runaway from a juvie delinquent home for criminally-inclined girls...she had given a false name, and a very credible story.
She was in that place after being found guilty of attempted murder.
When she caught on that we were on to her, she went a little crazy...tried to stab me with scissors...bit two other guys to bleeding as we tried to cuff her. A civilian secretary in her fifties helped us subdue the little girl by giving her a hearty shot in the jaw after she started grabbing for guns. If I had a tazer, I woulda tazed.
Some perspective, I hope.
C'mon, though. In this instance, we're talking about a nine-year-old girl, rather than a teen (as in your own instance); and one who's HANDCUFFED to boot. What... she's maybe gonna snap her metal bonds with one flex of her mightily-muscled nine-year-old biceps, you think...? :)
Speaking from experience (training, arrests and other employment involving at-risk "utes" - not tazing a 9 year old) you don't tazer a prisoner - you restrain them. Notice I didn't say "child." Once handcuffed, if the prisoner continues to resist or act in such a manner that they might harm themselves, you basically hog-tie them to prevent them from moving at all. Safe, effective and doesn't call into question the method.
Now, on the other hand, once they've hog-tied a nine year old who is cuffed and still acting out, they are still going to be criticized. But at least in the hog-tie scenario you could actually demonstrate what was done and why for the media. That might get you a positive spin in the news story.
Remember, a tazer is only effective while the charge is being delivered. Once the charge is cut off, the prisoner can choose to comply or not - but the effects of the taze wear off almost immediately. If you've got a pissed off kid they are just as likely to escalate their behavior post-charge as they are to de-escalate. Having some experience with these types of kids and centers, I can say that these kids are more likely to escalate their behavior - they wouldn't be there in the first place if they knew how to control their aggression and anger.
I think my analysis would be different if we were talking about a large-bodied nine year old that is not hanndcuffed and out of control.
This story, however, doesn't look good for the officer.
Young kids are lithe and flexible...especially girls: sometimes they can slip their hands out of cuffs, or start pulling things out of their front pockets. Shoot, I saw a young girl brush hair from in front of her eyes while wearing a pair.
Just take a breath and watch the results of the inquiry. If the cop was a nut, he'll have a history and a thin story...he'll be prosecuted. The girl's advocates had to be there, too...anything outragious, and their gonna sink him good....or they could save him.
Was she a Democrat?
Any normal adult man who can't "control" a handcuffed nine-year-old girl almost certainly shouldn't be walking the streets at night, looking for crime. He might end up getting his purse stolen. :)
But I don't think the training ever covers use on juveniles....mebbe just unforseen because it's relatively new. But the PO might have been acting exactly in accord with policy and procedure..in an area never contemplated by the trainers. (In stress situations...revert to training....you know that)
the boat? JBT would be better for you, methinks!
And 99% of the kids an officer encounters , he may be able to get a good handle on...but there's alway one that breaks the rule. It can really ruin yer day.
...always wondered what this sucker'd do to a kid... they're so hard for me to hit though...this one's hancuffed, maybe I can do it if I really concentrate...this is going to be so cool...man, that shut her up...
(steely)
I think every CO in my state authorized to carry a tazer has to be zapped at least once. They know what it does. Seen the videos.
Que? JBT? Shattner?
I'll bet. Of 9-year-old females?
(steely)
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