The Arkansas cop who used a Taser on a 10-year-old girl was punished with a 7-day paid vacation -- not for stungunning a little girl, but for not having a camera on his Taser.
Cop gets 7-day paid vacation for Tasering child
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Please please tell me the little girl is 6'4", 350 lbs.
It was child abuse. Plain and simple.
Not surprising, which makes it even more disgusting.
Only in America....
I hope the father makes a successful bid for custody. Unless, of course, he's just as much of an abusive useless fuck-up as the mother.
Really! Or at least had fangs and glowing red eyes. This is so surreal.
From the article: "Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to," Bradshaw wrote.
It's a good thing the mother didn't tell the cop he could shoot her.
It's all OK, the cop got permission from the mother first. Good thing she didn't tell him he could shoot her, huh?
See this is why we need to bring back old-fashioned social ostracism. You pull shit like this and people should refuse to associate with you until you quit.
"Noggle said the girl will face disorderly conduct charges as a juvenile in the incident."
This is getting better and better...
Unbelievable! I am so disgusted I really cant express it in words.. and i'm scared if i start to try, the comment will be too big to be published here.
"If the officer tried to forcefully put the girl in handcuffs, he could have accidentally broken her arm or leg, Noggle said. "
Gee, it's a wonder that there aren't so many broken limbs in schools and pediatrician's offices, what with the lack of tasers there, too.
I suppose we'll forget the name of Ozark, Arkansas, just as we have the name of other towns that should be bywords for stupid selfish assholism. The name of the town that turned the New Orleans residents back at the bridge during Katrina ("we don't want those people here"), and the one where the Jewish family was forced to flee after getting death threats ("if [the young son] doesn't want to be harassed at school for wearing a yarmulke, he should accept Jesus into his heart"). I suppose I should look those up.
Maybe we won't forget Ozark, Arkansas, though. Its name even sounds like the Town Time Forgot. I wouldn't have said that about it if it hadn't just become a byword for abusive fascist assholism though.
I bet Dad's noncustodial status is due for a little change.
I looked them up. Georgetown, Delaware and Gretna, Louisiana.
Here in Portland we shoot them with beanbag shotguns.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/11/portland_officer_suspend_after.html
We tried that, but they still vote Republican.
I wouldn't have said that about it if it hadn't just become a byword for abusive fascist assholism though.
and here i was thinking it was the "USA" at the end of the town's name that stood for all that.
and here i was thinking it was the "USA" at the end of the town's name that stood for all that.
I think I'll use the initials 'mdh' for that from now on.
I can't believe the F.O.P. is allowing this injustice against a law enforcement officer to stand!
America is over.
America was over a long time ago. We just never saw what went on in the back room until recently.
My first reaction is anger at the cop... but then again...
At 10, I'd already hit my major growth spurt and was about 5'3" and 130 pounds and quite capable of doing some damage, if motivated. I wasn't a violent kid but I was as big as a full-grown woman.
My cousin, at 10, also a girl but a bit smaller than I was at that age, did once become violent with me when she was in Ritalin rebound. (If you've ever taken Ritalin -- I have -- you know you can get pretty pissy and miserable when it wears off.) I had to physically pin her briefly to stop her from hitting and kicking me.
Either of us could easily have been injured, especially if she'd been a little bigger. Neither of us really wanted to hurt the other, but accidents happen. A twisted wrist, a black eye, a fall, a concussion, etc.
I've run into, and taken care of, a few kids who just could not be "talked down" when they were acting up. Whether bad discipline, ADHD, conduct disorder, emotional problems, overtiredness, low blood sugar, or just a tantrum are the root cause... usually patiently waiting it out or talking them down is enough....
... But if they start acting violent and they're big enough or angry enough to do some damage, you can't screw around -- any more than you can with an adult (who might just as easily be out of their own control; eg. delirium, intoxication, confusion, an extreme emotional state, hypoglycemia, etc...).
Yes, a cop should ideally be able to subdue a kid without using a weapon. But it sounds like he and her mom had tried talking her down, he could have easily done more damage by trying to physically restrain her, and she'd already assaulted him. She may be too young to be criminally responsible, but unless the story is a lie, he was justified an using reasonable force.
Absent other details... a single, brief tasering of an apparently healthy preadolescent who is being physically violent is, frankly, reasonable force.
That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. First, the cop shouldn't have been there in the first place; no one, at any point, has said she was being violent with her mother, and they certainly would have had that been the case. She was disobedient, nothing more.
Then, the cop provoked her into hysterics by telling her he was taking her to jail, and tased her when she resisted, as any child would. I hope she did some serious damage when she kicked him in the groin; I'd like to kick him in the groin myself.
You're obviously one of those "defend the cops no matter what" people, and that's why you can spout this stream of utter bullshit with no apparent hesitation.
... why do I always let myself play devil's advocate..?
Xopher, it isn't obvious at all that I'd defend the cops no matter what. Besides the fact that I did it once, what are you basing that on? All I know is that based on the very little information given in the article, I can't say for sure that the cop made the wrong call.
The article doesn't say whether or not she was violent with her mom, or whether she had a history of violent behavior, nor any details of why the mom called the police. "Disobedience" in kids can range from a firm "no!" and a slammed door... to threatening, hitting, self-harm, etc. It IS possible for a 10 year old to injure an adult. Have you NEVER seen a kid with a real behavioral problem?
I want to be clear: I'm not blaming the kid. I don't think her emotional state was her fault, I don't think she really meant to hurt anyone, and she probably just wanted a little more control over her life... which unfortunately, this world tends not to give kids nearly enough of. I hope she gets actual, effective help for whatever problems she has.
You say the "cop provoked her into hysterics" but it sounds like she was "hysterical" (hate that word) before he was even called. Who knows? The article doesn't say.
IF the cop's and mom's story is true, the only thing he did wrong was not have his camera going. AND there is a good chance he WAS at fault, but the paucity of details makes it impossible to say. It's even possible the mom overreacted... but given that I don't know these people and I don't know their story, it's also possible she knew her kid wouldn't just calm down, was afraid for herself or her daughter, and did the best she could.
I admit, I know some good cops and some good people who work with troubled kids. One of the latter once told me, she'd never met a kid she didn't like... even the one sociopath she worked with had his good points... but she called the cops on a few of them after they assaulted or threatened staff. A) it was the policy of the group home, and B) there was a REAL risk of someone getting hurt.
Second, I'm glad my hesitation wasn't apparent to you. It'd creep me out if you could see inside my mind over the internet.
Well, that was out of character.
XO - Please do remember that not fighting them tooth and nail is compliance, and that most of us are perfectly happy watching fascists tell us what to believe on the electric fireplace in the evenings. We are a nation of fascists, enablers, and feeble resisters. You know it's true.
I tend to consider being electrocuted as an "injury".
All I know is that based on the very little information given in the article, I can't say for sure that the cop made the wrong call.
No, but you can say the Mom did.
Welcome to America, where listening actually means complying.
Hang on a sec ... Tasers are supposed to have CAMERAS??? Why don't I see more of that on youtube?
Do you really think it's at all plausible that the cops (the cop at the scene and the chief) wouldn't have said the girl was violent if she had been? I'm amazed they didn't claim she was anyway, but the fact is, they reported no violence at all until the point where the cop tried to take her to jail.
She refused to take a shower when her mother told her to. No violence, just refusal. How do I know? Because cops trying to justify themselves would have reported it. Her asshole mother told the asshole cop to tase her if he wanted to. He carried her into the living room (still no violence), then told her he was taking her to jail. THAT's when he starts saying she struggled and kicked him.
The article originally posted described this whole sequence of events. Tell me this: do you really think that asshole police chief would have hesitated to say "the girl was being violent with her mother" if there was any way he could possibly have gotten away with that? Do you think he couldn't have gotten away with it if it were true?
No, there's no way she was violent before the police were called. Her mother is an asshole, and the cop is an asshole, and the chief is an asshole. Arkansas law is "a ass, a idiot" too, since it allows the police to intervene in cases of mere disobedience.
The totality of failure in this is nearly surreal. I realize that dealing with an emotionally upset child can absolutely be infuriating sometimes, but that a mother would call the cops because her child refused to take a shower alone boggles my mind. That a cop would see themselves as having a legitimate role in an argument between a parent and a 10 year old child about taking a shower (beyond ensuring that there was not a risk of either harming the other), and trying to take the child into custody because she was throwing a tantrum...WTF? Is this really standard police procedure? That somehow a child throwing a tantrum and fighting while the cop is trying to cuff her is justification to tase the child (in the back, no less)...holy fucking christ, you've got to be kidding me. What the hell would he have done before tasers were standard issue? That the police chief would defend the officer that tased a 10 year old throwing a tantrum saying "We didn't use the Taser to punish the child — just to bring the child under control so she wouldn't hurt herself or somebody else" as if there were no better alternative, and as if tasing was risk free, which it demonstrably is not. At least the mayor is calling for an outside agency to take a look at this mess. I realize cops have a tough job, but I can't see any angle from which this looks like anything but a brain dead cop with no sense of perspective, who is apparently a member of a police force that just came through from the twilight zone.
Little known fact: A parent has the right to jail their child at any time for disobedience. Example: truancy. Child must go to school; it's the law. If the child doesn't go to school, the parent can be held responsible and charged with neglect. If the parent does everything in their power to try and make the kid go to school, and the kid still won't go to class, the parent can have the kid arrested, so they can be forced to go to school.
But, really, a parent can have a child arrested at any time for any reason. Is this the best way to get the kid to do what you want? No, but it's one of the ways our government provides us.
A parent has the right to jail their child at any time for disobedience.
You have a citation for this? Truancy is a crime, refusing to take a shower is not.
It's easy to not notice if you only read the scattered reports here and there, but there is an epidemic of police brutality, violence, and unprosecuted criminal behavior across America.
I find the essays of William Norman Grigg, http://frdmnrtm.blgspt.cm/, do a great job of cataloging these.
And why does he get away with it? Why are there so man cases of acts like this: blatant criminality by government officials on all levels, from the bailouts to cops tasing ten year olds they feel "threatened by." The story in Jericho, AR where the cop shot the fire chief in the back, IN THE COURTROOM; the story in Chicago where a drunk, off duty cop nearly beat the 90 pound female bartender to death; the mayor in Maryland whose house was raided for drugs and they shot his well behaved dogs to death and terrorized the family, before figuring out it was a mistake. In these cases and so many more, the cops received a slap on the wrist or nothing, while the victims' lives are turned upside down (and, of course, the victims often face criminal charges).
I would argue, it's because BOTH of the parties in America unabashedly worship the coercive power of Government.
Republicans might claim otherwise, but they love the power of socialized military to start wars; they love the power of police departments, given unassailable monopoly powers over the implementation of policing services; they love the power of government to discriminate against gays in marriage (a problem that stems 100% from the fact that government is even involved in marriage, when really it shouldn't have anything to do with this religious institution and married couples should simply sign civil contracts with each other regardless of who they are); they love the power of government to ban their favorite "vices" such as drugs.
The Democrats, well, at least they're out front about loving government.
So, with both parties on the same team in many, many areas, this sort of unchecked insanity happens more and more frequently, and no one can put a halt to it because everyone is too busy stuffing their own pockets.
I think that there is a real opportunity for an alliance between liberals and libertarians over the issue of reigning in government when it is violent and evil.
Some taser death statistics that will make you think...
http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-follows-are-names-where-known.html
Slightly off topic... Oddly enough, (or I guess maybe not_so_oddly, but a little alarming) I went looking for police shooting death statistics by way of comparison and could not find any. Does anyone know of a source?
When I was about 10 I threw a hissy fit in school, I accidentally kicked the teacher who was trying to subdue me in the groin and he slapped me, I don't think anybody had ever hit me before (apart from other kids in fights) and I immediately went blank, then started crying and ran to the teachers lounge, later I was told I had kicked him in the groin and I felt terrible, I later apologized to the teacher who accepted my apology.
He was one of the best teachers in my school and I've never ever questioned the fact that he slapped me, I'd have done the same to anyone who kicked me in the groin, boy or girl, no matter what age. I don't think I would have questioned being tazed if I ever kicked someone in the nuts.
This should do.
Thanks for the link, but the deaths of cops in violent encounters is pretty widely available. I was looking for statistics on people killed by cops with guns, and it appears to me that such statistics are not published. It seems a real disconnect in a culture where objective evidence is theoretically a highly prized commodity that there are not published statistics of the results of police encounters with the citizenry, since theoretically at least when police and citizens interact in most cases the citizen is still "innocent". I find it more than a little troublesome that such stats aren't made available, although surely some governmental agency looks at such things. It reeks of coverup and deliberate manipulation. And if the reason such stats aren't available is because no one is keeping track, that too is pretty troublesome.
The cop was in the home because the mom couldn't handle the kid and called him into her home - which further exacerbated the kid's hysteria.
I've worked as a foster mom and if you can't believe a parent would call the cops on her kid, you are missing out on a huge piece of American sub-culture. We can only hope that the Dad's non-custodial status is about to change. But the biggest question here is what exactly got the kid that hysterical to begin with? Mommy might need some trauma de-escalation classes. I really wish that people who don't know how to parent and aren't interested in learning would stop breeding.
Little known fact: A parent has the right to jail their child at any time for disobedience.
Ummmm... WHAT? Not even your example makes any sense.
Bad trolling attempt, I suspect.
If this cop had punched the girl in the head, there would be no disagreement that he behaved inappropriately.
The taser was more likely to do her serious harm than a punch in the head.
come on people, what kind of mom cant handle their own 10year old is beyond belief, that is why these things happen. if mom cant handle their own child she needs to give her up and a big strapping officer had to use a taser. the officer and the mom are stupid fucks that need to be tased themselves!
I wish I could say, "only in America," but really - is there any country nowadays where you'd be truly surprised to see this happen? As a Canadian, I'm almost more surprised that another country beat us to the punch.
If you are unable to handle a 10 year old girl throwing a tantrum without tasering her, perhaps being a cop isn't a good professional choice for you.
Conversely if you are unable to handle a 10 year old girl throwing a tantrum without calling the freaking cops and having them tase her, perhaps being a parent isn't for you either.
If you are unable to handle a 10 year old girl throwing a tantrum without tasering her, perhaps being a cop isn't a good professional choice for you.
Conversely if you are unable to handle a 10 year old girl throwing a tantrum without calling the freaking cops and having them tase her, perhaps being a parent isn't for you either.