Posted on 11/14/2004 4:38:13 AM PST by JesseHousman
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY-The mother of a 12-year-old girl shocked by police with a Taser gun says she worries other children might suffer as her daughter has.
The 12-year-old girl shocked by police with a 50,000-volt Taser used to dream of being a police officer when she grew up.
Not anymore, her mother said Saturday.
''Now, with this, she says she's scared of the police,'' Viviana Rojas said.
Miami-Dade police officer William Nelson caught Rojas' daughter skipping school on Nov. 5. When the unarmed girl ran from Nelson, he chased her through a parking lot, then zapped her with the stun gun when she ran into traffic, according to his report.
The police department is still reviewing the incident, but Director Bobby Parker said the officer will likely be disciplined.
Nelson could not be reached.
Though department policy allows officers to use the Tasers to capture people and permits their use on children, Parker said using the weapon to catch a child playing hooky showed bad judgment.
The incident came just a few weeks after another Miami-Dade office shocked a 6-year-old because the child was threatening to hurt himself with a piece of glass.
Parker said he believes the decision to use the Taser on that child -- which was approved by a supervisor -- was justified because the boy could have hurt himself seriously.
Both cases have prompted the police department to reevaluate its Taser policy, which allows officers to shock children.
''We're going to be looking at the entire policy to make sure we're comfortable with when we do and don't use the Tasers,'' County Manager George Burgess said. ``At the same time, we want to make sure we deploy more Tasers, we want to get them to all our offices to make sure they have an alternative to lethal weaponry.
''We're certainly taking this very seriously,'' he added.
Other departments, including Miami police, have policies that specifically prohibit zapping a child unless the only other option is to shoot the child with a gun.
Miami-Dade's policy has drawn sharp criticism.
''When they're using a Taser on a 6-year-old in a principal's office and a 12-year-old skipping school, it's pretty clear the police have a policy of using violence as a means of conflict resolution,'' said Max Rameau, of the Worker's Center, a frequent police critic. ``It's historically been a problem for the black community and the mentally ill and now children.''
Miami-Dade is in a tough position, facing criticism for using the Tasers but also for not using them. Just last month, an officer shot and killed a mentally ill man, prompting many to question why the man couldn't have been subdued with a stun gun.
The Taser temporarily immobilizes someone with 50,000 volts of electricity that arches between two probes shot from as far away as 21 feet.
Officers who are issued the Tasers are zapped as part of the training. A North Miami officer told The Herald last year that the shock was ``like when you stick your finger in a light socket, multiplied by a thousand times.''
After the 12-year-old girl was shocked, she was checked by paramedics and released to her mother.
Rojas took her daughter to Miami Children's Hospital for a battery of tests, concerned she might have been injured by the Taser.
''Her friends said she fell down and and had an attack like epilepsy,'' Rojas said. ``She vomited, too.''
The doctors told Rojas the girl may have vomited because she had been drinking alcohol. The tests showed she hadn't suffered any serious injuries, Rojas said, though the child got a bruise on her head where she hit it when she fell.
''One of the nurses said she hit her head hard enough to kill her, but we were lucky,'' Rojas said.
The mother of six worries her other children might have a run-in with a Taser-equipped officer one day.
''This shouldn't happen to anyone's children,'' she said.
The anti-police, law and order crowd starts crawling out of the woodwork.
I'm still wondering what the delinquent's father has to say about this. The mother wails about this shouldn't happen to other children, but if she had kept tabs on hers the cop wouldn't now be the source of ridicule by the anti-law and order gaggle.
I'll bet the little drunk, cigar smoking "girl" wanted to be a police officer.
Sure, and the girl surely couldn't have been cursing and kicking and clawing and biting the officer. Surely, she had permission from mama to skip school. Next time she might see a gun pointed at her rather than a mere taser and then what will mama say?
Didn't the original article say the girl was drunk and about to run into traffic?
Mama sounds ticked that she could've sued the department for more cash if the little girl had been allowed to run into the street and get flattened. "no intention of arresting her" You run from the cops, that's probable cause, no?
Yes.
I wonder if mama knows who the little monster's daddy is?
A few years ago, a man in Durham was home with a sick child. He heard noises in his garage, and investigated. He found a gang of teens burglarizing his home, and he got his gun. When one came toward him in a threatening manner, he opened fire with his weapon and one of the teens was killed. When the man was charged with the shooting, the local minority community claimed that this kid was good, and was a model student. The question was "If he was so good, and was such a model student, why did he and his buddies skip school and burglarize homes?" The man was acquitted for the shooting.
The way things are moving in the USA it won't be long until we'll be in the same boat as those who attempt to defend property and life in the UK: they get sent to prison and the perp walks.
She says she wanted to grow up to be a Police officer?? Sounds to me like she was praticing to be a B-girl at some bar.
Just the type Miaami needs for a police officer.....hope this incident screws up her chances
Or, considering the cigar, an intern in a DemocRAT White House, or perhaps a greeter in Little Rock at the Clinton Library and Massage Parlor.
I say from here on in we ban the use of the Taser by Miami police...
...and make them shoot the little shits like every other police force has to.
> The anti-police, law and order crowd starts crawling out of the woodwork. <
>> Miami-Dade police officer William Nelson caught Rojas' daughter skipping school on Nov. 5. When the unarmed girl ran from Nelson, he chased her through a parking lot, then zapped her with the stun gun when she ran into traffic, according to his report. <<
So, you think police should tazer kids skipping school?
Only a complete wuss with an attitude would taser an unarmed and running 12 year old girl. Any man that's ever had a 12 year old daughter knows that. This cop probably tasered her because he was scared. I'd rather not have a cop around that's scared of 12 year old girls because he might get hurt.
Gimme a break.
"So, you think police should tazer kids skipping school?"
Sure...think of it as a remote paddling at 20 feet
(though I have a problem with the girl getting tazered in the middle of traffic, if the story details are to be believed!)
Sounds to me like both these two little children were screaming for Discipline that their parents were long overdue in delivering.
You're right. The Herald is a rag in the same vein as the L.A. Times. It's amazing though in reading through the liberal articles that a grain of truth manages to creep in between the lines.
Oh, I bet she could narrow it down to 5 or 6 probables.
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