[robertpaulsen]

(Alternate story)

Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop. Nelson said ... the girl began to run into traffic.

Several cars swerved to avoid her, but the cement truck couldn't stop in time. The girl was killed instantly.

"She was drunk", her mother wailed. "Certainly the officer knew that! If he would only have used his harmless Taser, she wouldn't have run into traffic, and my baby would be alive today".

[JennysCool]

Good point well made!

And what's in the water in Florida, anyway?

[HungarianGypsy]

It's a catch-22 for police officers now a days. You're wrong if you do, you're wrong if you don't.

[Jeff Head]

Exactly...it sounds like in both cases, the officers used what they had on hand to try and safegaurd these kids from themselves.

If they were doing it to try and put handcuffs on them, or to try and simply restrain them...that would be a different matter. But when these kids own lives or saftey, or the lives or safety of others are in the balance, that is a differnt matter.

[tuffydoodle]

Excellent point.

[WFTR]

Regardless of whether the officer's actions were justified, the mother certainly wouldn't have lamented the officer not using the Taser. If the girl had been killed, the mother would have complained about the officer chasing the girl, but attributing the "If he would only have used his harmless Taser" line is not realistic. The person who more likely would have used that line would have been the spouse/parent of some innocent person killed in an accident if the girl darted into traffic and caused an accident.

We have incidents like these because our society is doing poorly. I don't have a ready answer to that problem. This officer shouldn't be punished if the event happened as described, and I don't know whether the policy needs to be reworked.

Bill

[5Madman2]

Good point-As I said on another thread on the six year, It's easy to sit on the sides and comment, but the "The man in the arena" is the one that has to make and live with the ultimate decision

[180grain]

"While walking the girl to the police car, she took off running through the parking lot," Nelson wrote in his report.

Since the girl was being detained and transported why wasn't she handcuffed in the first place? The officer says he suspected she was drunk? Cutting school being drunk and still no handcuffs? Seems to me this officer let the situation get out of control by choosing to be nice to this young girl and not subject her to physical harm? Just my opinion.