Tasing little Tomy

[Westley]

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.


11-13-04 11:40 EST

[telkanuru]

I am very much reminded of the joyriding youth in Fahrenheit 451. A 12 year old girl swimming while drinking and smoking cigars?!?! Whisky Tango Foxtrot, over?

[MikeHarm]

See, this is what happens when they spend all this time telling kids not to smoke cigarettes. Straight to the whisky and cigars. I tell ya.

[davtsung]

Stunning 6-yr olds is definitely a step in the right direction for American education.

[Westley]

The cops stun them, the drug dealers stone them. Not much difference if you ask me. Either way you're lying in the fetal position coughing up yesterday's McDonald's while wondering to yourself: "Holy **** what have I done?"

[MikeHarm]

I think giving kids ritalin is a lot worse than tasing.

[Westley]

Hey I'm on- Oh my gosh I've said too much!

[Black Jeebus]

Well if the six year old was going to cut himself with a shard of glass, the cop may have had the right idea. If he hadn't tased the kid and the six year old had cut himself the mother would decry the police for not preventing it. When he did prevent it she complains about the means- maybe she should be happy he stopped her son from stabbing/cutting himself.

[Inquartata]

Can we make this policy for kids on long airplane flights?

[Capt. Slo-mo]

As long as it's also allowed to tase...umm...our elders..who insist on prattling on the entire flight about their "surgeries"

[Style]

I think those stupid brats deserved it.

Everyone is letting kids do whatever the hell they want cause Dr. Phil says it's bad to spank your children.

If I had a 12 year old kid who was drinking and smoking while playing hooky, she'd be praying that tasing would be the only punishment she got.

And the other kid playing with glass. His parents should have been tased too for not teaching him about safety.


I don't see abuse of power here, I see parental neglect.

[dunastor]

I don't see abuse of power here, I see parental neglect.

Parental neglect is often followed by excessive force..

[Soldier]

As long as it's also allowed to tase...umm...our elders..who insist on prattling on the entire flight about their "surgeries"

Build tasers into the seats. Voice-recognition computers will analyze feed from the hidden microphones, and tase anyone who gets too obnoxious.

I get to decide what "too obnoxious" is.

[telkanuru]

This plan is a good one! Write your congresspersons! Tiny children are the real terrorists!

[Soldier]

Hell yes! Try living in a duplex some time with one and three year old sisters on the other side of the wall!

[Inquartata]

Build tasers into the seats. Voice-recognition computers will analyze feed from the hidden microphones, and tase anyone who gets too obnoxious.

Or perhaps we could just fill the cabins with anesthetic gas at the outset of the trip. No more hijackings, no more anxiety attacks, no more obstreperous drunks, and no need for st--, er, flight attendants...

[Grasshopper]

Taser should be fencing's 4th weapon. You wouldn't need a score box!

[Soldier]

Or perhaps we could just fill the cabins with anesthetic gas at the outset of the trip. No more hijackings, no more anxiety attacks, no more obstreperous drunks, and no need for st--, er, flight attendants...

That sounds even better! Though it does eliminate the fun prospect of zapping people...maybe we could get random people as they exit?

[deadly lefty]

hmm smoking cigars, drinking whiskey, and swimming? what is this Laguna Beach?

[Black Jeebus]

On a flight from Denver to Atlanta my family actually managed to drink the plane dry (of course there were like 30+ of them- imagine that scene from The Beverly Hillbillys movie where all the cousins come from all around...). No doubt other people on the plane drank some, but the pilot actually got on the intercom and thanked my family for drinking all the alcohol.