12-year-old tased by police officer

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

Why hasn't a PD rep released a statement saying "X amount of personnel were present at the station and can attest that did not happen?"

The SLPD is unlikely to release any statement describing what happened or making any judgments about it until after an investigation is done.

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

But there's clearly a reason why they have them - because whatever they were doing before tasers probably wasn't enough.

That doesn't really follow. Sometimes what they were doing before wasn't enough, but sometimes it was. And sometimes it was too much -- tasers provide a less dangerous alternative to using a gun or baton to subdue someone.

The question is whether it is ever appropriate to use a taser on a 12-year-old, and if it is, when is it. I tend to agree with cg that it's only appropriate if necessary to prevent the child from harming him- or herself or others, and then only when less drastic means won't work and when there has been a clear warning.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

I work in a psychiatric facility and have been physically assaulted by children ages 4-17 and up to 6 feet tall (I'm 5'3"). I still am against using a taser on a child for multiple reasons ETA: unless that child is armed with a weapon and has clear intent to do severe harm to his/herself or another person.

The questions I have after seeing the news reports:

1. Was this a one-man arrest? I was under the impression that you would have back up or at least a partner present when trying to arrest a woman in a potentially crowded store so there should be another officer's perspective on what happened unless that's not protocol for SLPD (which is possible).

2. The girl had 2 taser marks--one on her chest and one on her stomach. What exactly was she doing that she needed to be tased twice?

3. Dejamon (not her mother) said she was tased at the store and at the police station; however, someone else should have seen that if it happened.

Originally Posted by amIblue?

I do not believe that a child should be tasered, unless as christiangirl mentioned, that child was armed. As DrPhil mentioned, situations such as this preceded the existence of tasers, so there are alternate ways of handling them.

A child is going to be very distressed witnessing a parent being arrested. Should she have stood back and not interfered? Absolutely, but the fact remains that she is a child whose brain is not fully developed yet who was tasered by an adult (whose brain should be pretty much done, I would hope.)

That being said, all of the articles that I found via google were told from the perspective of the victim. I would like to hear the police department's story and, even more so, from any witnesses on the scene.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

That doesn't really follow. Sometimes what they were doing before wasn't enough, but sometimes it was. And sometimes it was too much -- tasers provide a less dangerous alternative to using a gun or baton to subdue someone.

The question is whether it is ever appropriate to use a taser on a 12-year-old, and if it is, when is it. I tend to agree with cg that it's only appropriate if necessary to prevent the child from harming him- or herself or others, and then only when less drastic means won't work and when there has been a clear warning.

I agree with these posts.

I think some of the articles present an unofficial account of what the officer claims happened. The official PD statement, if it is ever released, will be released after the investigation.

For those who believe a child of any age should be tasered, I again ask whether there are any boundaries when dealing with police policies, procedures, and discretion? If there are boundaries, what are the boundaries? If there are none, what are the potential issues with that?