The Whatever Thread - Title Change

[bazooka]

How is 50,000 volts not hurting someone?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/12/child.tasered.ap/index.html

Police use stun gun on 6-year-old boy
Officials: Child was cutting himself with glass

Friday, November 12, 2004 Posted: 3:06 PM EST (2006 GMT)
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Police used a stun gun on a 6-year-old boy in his principal's office because he was wielding a piece of glass and threatening to hurt himself, officials said Thursday.

The boy, who was not identified, was shocked with 50,000 volts on October 20 at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School.

Principal Maria Mason called 911 after the child broke a picture frame in her office and waved a piece of glass, holding a security guard back.

When two Miami-Dade County police officers and a school officer arrived, the boy had already cut himself under his eye and on his hand.

The officers talked to the boy without success. When the boy cut his own leg, one officer shocked him with a Taser and another grabbed him to prevent him from falling, police said.

[Capmaster]

I would have too. He had already hurt himself, and was obviously out of control.

And "50,000" volts is a meaningless number unless you have some current behind it. It takes 15ma to kill you, regardless of the voltage. Otherwise you'd die every time you got a static shock (5KV or so)

[Ripper2860]

I'm sure it did hurt; however it caused no injury.

The child was injuring himself and could have inflicted a pretty serious injury and potentially deadly cut to himself by severing an artery. Plus he was out of control having already injured another person. They tasered him and immediately grabbed him to keep from possibly falling on the glass and further injuring himself. Smart thinking on behalf of the officers if you ask me and the right thing to do.

Beats another alternative -- remember here in Texas when a deaf and mentally deficient person was shot and killed when approching police with a rake. A taser would have been a nice alternative.

[offline]

So Capmaster,
If I buy a taser, you could soup up the
amps for me? 4a, 30-50kv should do it!

[hech54]

I would have tasered(is that a word?) him too. Recovery time is much quicker from a taser vs. hundreds of stitches and possible nerve damage while he was cutting.

[Capmaster]

So Capmaster,
If I buy a taser, you could soup up the
amps for me? 4a, 30-50kv should do it!

Got an elephant you don't like?

Yes, I could. But you'd need a small nuclear reactor in a backpack to provide that kind of power 8)

[ViRaL1]

eBay? :P

[offline]

Damn. My plans for world domination are foiled
yet again. <small finger to lips, kicks mini me>

[gmatov]

There is not a GFCI in the world that has an "informational" insert that says you are safe.

It MAY say that most people are safe, most of the time.

You don't **** with electricity. High OR low voltage, HIGH or Low current. You can be shocked a hundred times and just get a tingle, the next time you are dead.

Tasers are dangerous, period. They have killed. Do a search.

Tasing a 6 year old because he had a piece of glass, even if it had been chipped into a microtome, is absolutely barbaric. Fucked up bunch of cops.
They can't overpower a 6 year old? Send them to McD's for their retiremant job, copwork is not for these pussies.

But, apparently, not here, not with the famous Cap who advocates nuking everybody.

Dork!!!

Cheers,

George

[JohnnyCNote]

I would have tasered(is that a word?) him too. Recovery time is much quicker from a taser vs. hundreds of stitches and possible nerve damage while he was cutting.

It's "tased" (so I've heard on Cops). "After we tased the suspect he ceased being combative and we effected the arrest"....

[sacajaweeda]

There is not a GFCI in the world that has an "informational" insert that says you are safe.

It MAY say that most people are safe, most of the time.

You don't **** with electricity. High OR low voltage, HIGH or Low current. You can be shocked a hundred times and just get a tingle, the next time you are dead.

Tasers are dangerous, period. They have killed. Do a search.

Tasing a 6 year old because he had a piece of glass, even if it had been chipped into a microtome, is absolutely barbaric. Fucked up bunch of cops.
They can't overpower a 6 year old? Send them to McD's for their retiremant job, copwork is not for these pussies.

But, apparently, not here, not with the famous Cap who advocates nuking everybody.

Dork!!!

Cheers,

George

Maybe they should have just bumrushed him and snap-kicked the little six year old **** in the face and been done with it? Is that right?

[Capmaster]

There is not a GFCI in the world that has an "informational" insert that says you are safe.

It MAY say that most people are safe, most of the time.

You don't **** with electricity. High OR low voltage, HIGH or Low current. You can be shocked a hundred times and just get a tingle, the next time you are dead.

Tasers are dangerous, period. They have killed. Do a search.

Tasing a 6 year old because he had a piece of glass, even if it had been chipped into a microtome, is absolutely barbaric. Fucked up bunch of cops.
They can't overpower a 6 year old? Send them to McD's for their retiremant job, copwork is not for these pussies.

But, apparently, not here, not with the famous Cap who advocates nuking everybody.

Dork!!!

Cheers,

George

Tasering is the same as nuking, George? :P

[Cobra]

George,

Can you link to any post where Cap has seriously suggested this?

Cobra

[glockjs]

he's a freakin kid, your tellin me the police officer couldnt have just overpowered him and just grabbed the glass out of his hand???? and gave him a swift kick in the ass at the same time

[Ripper2860]

He'd already stabbed a school security guard. Screw the little bastard -- he had the opportunity to give up and the officers should not be forced to take un-necessary risks (as in a possble slash to the jugular) in order to save the little ****** from himself. They did the right thing in using the taser and should have gone to the kid's house and used it on the parents for raising the little shit in such a way as to have a total and complete disregard for authority and for their failing to make sure little Johnny took his meds before going off to school.

Just my opinion, though. I could be wrong.

[Cobra]

You certainly have a way with words, Ripper.

[JohnnyCNote]

It happened again:

Miami Police Use Taser Gun On Two Children

Miami-Dade's police director defended the decision to shock a 6-year-old boy in October, saying the boy was threatening to hurt himself with a shard of glass.

But he said he can't defend the second incident -- in which a veteran officer used a 50,000-volt shock to subdue an apparently drunken 12-year-old girl.

The officer said he fired the Taser gun after the girl refused to stop, and began heading into traffic. In a statement, the officer said he fired for his safety and the girl's safety.

Also, a grown man died after deputies fired with their tasers in St. Augustine earlier this year:

No Drugs In Man Who Died After St. Johns Deputies Used Taser

A man who died after being subdued by sheriff's deputies with a stun gun died of cardiac arrest, according to a medical examiner's report.

St. Johns County Sheriff Neil Perry said the autopsy showed no drugs in the system of Lewis King (pictured, left), 39, who died while being transported to a hospital Dec. 9.

Deputies had stopped King's sport utility vehicle for a broken tail light. When they began questioning King about a suspicious container inside the vehicle -- which they suspected may have contained drugs -- King sped off with a deputy hanging onto the car.

While this may have been justifited, the fact remains that a grown man was killed, meaning that it's more likely a child could die from a taser...

[Ripper2860]

You certainly have a way with words, Ripper.

OK -- maybe it could have been worded in a little less DIRECT way -- but represents my feelings none-the-less.

[spiderman2k1]

I think the cops did the right thing.

[JohnnyCNote]

He'd already stabbed a school security guard. Screw the little bastard -- he had the opportunity to give up and the officers should not be forced to take un-necessary risks (as in a possble slash to the jugular) in order to save the little ****** from himself. They did the right thing in using the taser and should have gone to the kid's house and used it on the parents for raising the little shit in such a way as to have a total and complete disregard for authority and for their failing to make sure little Johnny took his meds before going off to school.

Just my opinion, though. I could be wrong.

You're familiar with the family situation? It couldn't possibly be that the kid has some sort of psychological problem, I guess. Would you support executing the boy if he'd killed someone?

It's easy to make blanket declarations when one is in little to no possession of the facts....

[Goober57]

sacajaweeda wrote..............

Maybe they should have just bumrushed him and snap-kicked the little six year old **** in the face and been done with it? Is that right?
____________

That worked for me when I was a kid. It also worked for the kid that lived across the street from me.

Nope, it wasn't our fathers that were doing it!!!

Today even saying the word spanking is taboo. Just fill the kid with drugs instead.

__________________________

[Ripper2860]

He'd already stabbed a school security guard. Screw the little bastard -- he had the opportunity to give up and the officers should not be forced to take un-necessary risks (as in a possble slash to the jugular) in order to save the little ****** from himself. They did the right thing in using the taser and should have gone to the kid's house and used it on the parents for raising the little shit in such a way as to have a total and complete disregard for authority and for their failing to make sure little Johnny took his meds before going off to school.

Just my opinion, though. I could be wrong.

You're familiar with the family situation? It couldn't possibly be that the kid has some sort of psychological problem, I guess. Would you support executing the boy if he'd killed someone?

It's easy to make blanket declarations when one is in little to no possession of the facts....

Jeez -- lighten-up Johnny. You give me way too much credit and take me way too seriously. It's easy to jump to conclusions when you take everything so seriously.

Of course I don't advocate the death penalty for children (that young) and certainly understand that sometimes the parents cannot control their children. I also understand that psychological factors are most likely at play here. However, I also realize that in today's society, too many parents wash their hands of the reponsibility of rearing a child and put it squarely on the schools to raise their child. I seriously doubt that the child was a model child for 6 years exhibiting none of the tendencies towards violence and that the kid just snapped all of a sudden. He either exhibited those tendencies and the parents did not address it, or sought help and failed to deliver any prescribed therapy as required.

Outside of the tounge-in-cheek "parents" comment I stand by my comments that the police were correct in using the taser.

[ViRaL1]

I don't see why everybody whines about the taser. Before the taser they just shot you and that was the end of it. Granted they still do sometimes, but you can opt for the taser if you don't do anything incredibly stupid or threatening.

[thecoalman]

Ah...c'mon it's a six year old kid. They couldn't subdue him any other way. Give me a break, if they need to use a taser to do it they ought to find a different line of work.

[sacajaweeda]

Well I suppose they could have pepper sprayed him and worked him over with the billyclubs instead. I prolly woulda opted for the Taser myself. Those things are just fuckin' neat.

[glockjs]

i still have bad dreams of tasers. my friends all thought it was funny to go out and buy tasers and shock the shit out of eachother yeah, that wasnt a very fun time. those things sting like a bitch.

[thayne]

I think most kids deserve a good tasering once in a while

[JohnnyCNote]

What about throwing a blanket or something over him and restraining him that way? Whatever the case, I draw the line when people attribute the kid with the ability to think like an adult. Any kid who was trying to hurt himself in that manner is obviously very disturbed and needs help....

[northcat_8]

How about just standing there and letting him kill himself? Would that make all you bleeding heart MFers feel better?

If someone was stabbing one of you with a piece of glass, would you really give a **** how I stopped them from doing it?

I'm sure the police didn't just say "let's taser this ****** and go get a doughnut". Throw a blanket on him, pepper spray him, hell maybe they should have baked him some chocolate chip cookies as bait and coaxed him out by going "here jimmy jimmy jimmy, here jimmy jimmy jimmy."

The problem with a news story like this, is because 90% of the people who read it can't relate to the concept of a 6 year old out of control. Well they do exist, there is an alternative school 10 miles from where I live and my mother-in-law works there. Kids from 5-18 with behavior issues are sent there. Staff members are allowed to physically restrain the students...but I guess that is completely out of line because there is no way a 6 year old is capable of doing those things. Maybe some of you should talk to Mrs. Sherman, she was the 2nd grade teacher there, she's now blind in her right eye because a 7 year old hit her upside the head with a table leg and then stabbed her with pencils...21 stab wounds. I'm sure Mrs. Sherman can see a situation where tasering a 6 year old is necessary. You know what provoked the kid? Nothing...he just felt like it...his words.

I think we should simply be thankful that our kids don't act like that and not rush to judgement on how a professional law enforcement officer handles the situation when something like that occurs. How many 6 year olds do any of us know that have the mind to break a picture, cut himself with the glass and then hold authorities at bay by threatening to do it more? I'll have to check the psychology books, but I'm not sure that the mind is mature enough at age 6 to grasp the concept of death as the adult brain does. At 6 years old most behavior has been modeled and the kid simply replicates it.

Seems to me that the kid created the situation, after that little fact occurs, how it is handled is irrelevant in my mind, fore if the kid hadn't created it, his dumbass wouldn't have gotten tasered now would he?

[Capmaster]

Well said Northcat.

The police are trained to use the minimum force necessary to control a situation. They have that drilled into their heads from day one at the academy.

Anyone second-guessing how the police handled it are speaking from a position of ignorance. Give the police some credit - they don't want to use more force than they have to - especially on a kid like that.

But if the alternative to tasering him is that he jabs his own eye out, or opens his carotid artery, then the police did the most humane thing possible ...and the kid came out of it much better than if the cops had stood around wringing their hands, worrying "how it might look" later. They probably saved his life. They made the tough choice ....and I support them for it.