The police are crazy. They should have used these. :)
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.
As I said, who knows what a drunken, cigar-smoking 12-year-old is going to do next.
He was taking her back to school. That was his intent. She then began to flee across a busy intersection.
In conclusion I'll just say the guy is an unfit girlie-man cop that needs his butt booted off the force.
When she chose to break free and run away, he gave her the Science lesson for the day: Effects of 50,000 volts DC on a drunk, cigar-smoking, 12-year-old truant who's running away from a police officer into traffic.
friend, you need to look at the temperature of the water in the pot where you sit.
friend, you need to look at the temperature of the water in the pot where you sit.
Had the drunk 12-year-old been hit by a car or the glass-wielding 6-year-old slashed himself, these very same people would be griping that the police were at fault for failing to taser them when they should have.
Roger that. They sound so cool too.
Indeed.
Right-o.
I am of the generation for whom pimp and slut weren't on the list of things kids wanted to be when they grew up.
IT all takes time.
And you need to do something about those hiccups.
And, I must assume that you know full well of what you speak.
you make a great argument for abortion.
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