Posted on 11/13/2004 1:40:34 PM PST by freepatriot32
MIAMI (Nov. 13) - Miami-Dade police have acknowledged using a stun gun on a second youngster just weeks after subduing a 55-pound first-grader with a 50,000-volt shock.
In the second instance, a 15-year-veteran officer used his Taser to immobilize a 12-year-old girl who was playing hooky from school.
Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to shock the 6-year-old boy on Oct. 20 because he was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass he was holding, but he said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl, who was apparently drunk.
According to the incident report, officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming in a pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars about 11 a.m. on Nov. 5.
Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and told her to get dressed so he could take her back to school.
"While walking the girl to the police car, she took off running through the parking lot," Nelson wrote in his report.
Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop. Nelson said he pulled out the Taser and fired when the girl began to run into traffic. The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her with 50,000 volts.
Nelson said he fired "for my safety along with the girl's safety." Paramedics treated the girl, who went home with her mother.
Parker said department policy permits officers to use the Taser to apprehend someone, but he said he expected his officers to use better judgment, especially when police had no plans to arrest someone playing hooky.
The first incident had already exposed the department to more criticism for its use of Tasers, which it has begun distributing in greater numbers to officers.
"The police could have handled this better," said the 6-year-old boy's mother, Kathy Rojas. "They did not have to shoot him."
Parker said that, in light of the disclosure of the second incident, the department will review its policy.
Do Twinkies count?
Be careful and have a good time.
You're correct. Artistic license on my part.
But, I bet that Taser option would be presented by someone in front of the jury in the civil case against the city that followed. And the jurors would all nod their collective heads (Yeah, why didn't he? She'd be alive today.) and award the mother $20 million.
I read where CNN also reports that they have a video which appears to show the cops kicking the six-year-old after he was handcuffed, then stealing his lunch money.
The police deny the charges as ridiculous, but CNN says, "Who's the public going to believe? You, or our grainy, dark, out-of-focus amateur video?"
Yeah..
can you adjust the voltage on these things?
Maybe they did.
Not all cops in California are in SF or LA....Not only that the ones in the blue areas act more like storm troopers....don't come here if you plan to break the law. In LA they shot a guy 41 times for holding a cell phone and the guy was in California on vacation from another country and couldn't speak English...be careful if you come here and be ready to duck...and don't hold a cell phone when cops talk to you!!!
Does it rile anybody that a twelve year old girl was drunk and half naked and unsupervised in the middle of the day? Does it rile anybody that a law enforcement officer's career is gonna be destroyed because of parental neglect? Does it rile anybody that this police officer's family's life is gonna be thrown into turmoil because of somebody else's irresponsabilty? I just wondered.
LOL
You are correct, and your point raises another big part of the whole problem. If the civil justice system didn't give big awards to people who don't deserve them and did impose big penalties on those who should be penalized, much of the stupidity in our society would decline.
Bill
Whaddya say? On drugs and pregnant by the time she's 14?
And somehow that will be our fault.
This 6 year old and 12 year old kids are not ordinary kids. They are already F__ Up. I have kids in that age range. They are afraid of authority. If a cop came up to my kids and said you are doing something wrong, they would react with shame and fear of being in trouble and probably want their parents. They would not run away or play psycho games with the cops by threatening to hurt themselves. They would immediately comply and want to go home. These kids were drunk, high and street smart. I rather have the cops tazer them and get them off the streets, otherwise they would be predators against you, me and worst of all be in our public schools to hurt your kids.
"It's a catch-22 for police officers now a days. You're wrong if you do, you're wrong if you don't."
Just so. And with that in mind, I for one would greatly prefer it if they didn't...
And after pregnancy it will be welfare and government funded day care for the child. And then crazy checks for the child's discipline problems so the parent can buy prescription medicine to correct it. And then the child will have a child and the cycle will begin again.
Tort reform -- loser pays (English Rule).
How can this possibly happen in America? This a child 12 years old what are the chances she's gonna make it? Who will answer? And who will defend us from the thugs if we emasculate the Thin Blue Line of Law Enforcement? I really wanna see those parents' faces on the six o'clock news. I wanna hear what they have to say for themselves. Of course it'll just be their lawyers, there are cohorts of wealthy tort attorneys in Kendall.
I would have just chucked something at the kid and knocked him over and then just tackled him when he was down.
Its not hard, and I had to do something similar once when somone pulled a knife on me.
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