12-year-old tased by police officer

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I'm not sure I follow -- how can it depend for the police if a 12-year-old child shouldn't get tased to begin with?

Depends on what the 12 year old was doing.

If it is a kid at the play ground, and this kid gets in a shoving match with another kid, then no, the aggressor of the shoving match should not get tased.

If this same kid escalates the incident and brings a gun to the park with the intent to use it, then the least the cop should do is tase the kid to stop him or her from trying to use deadly force.

That is what I mean by "depends", it just depends on the nature of the situation.

Not absurd at all. Courts do it all the time, deciding when and under what circumstances certain offensive or defensive measures can be taken. Ditto police departments, which set forth policies providing officers with parameters as to when they can and can't do what.

Absurd in the context to which this has been discussed in this thread. The initial comment presented is that a 12 year old kid should not get tased. But, apparently there were extenuating circumstances in this case.

Sure, there will always be the need to apply those parameters to specific situations and "in the moment." But the parameters are still there, and I think that's the question posed by this thread: Not was this specific officer in the right or in the wrong, but what should the parameters be?

Then if this is the actual point to this thread, then we are debating an issue that has as many answers as people you can ask. In other words, it can be "infinite".

(Of course, the actual sub-text is that we are to simply agree and support whatever assessment DrPhil has made of this situation, but not everyone will see it her way. )