Saturday, November 13, 2004

Police Use Stun-Gun on Six Year-Old

This one I have to question…

Police were called into Kelsey Pharr Elementary School in Miami to stop a six-year old boy from hurting himself and others with a shard of glass that he had gotten from breaking a picture frame in the principal’s office. He apparently cut himself and was wielding it like a knife to keep everyone at bay. There are several versions of the news story circulating on the web with different facts of the incident so I’ll leave it there.

The police arrived and used a stun-gun on the kid to immobilize him so that he could be disarmed.

Nailing a six-year old with 50,000 volts to take a piece of glass away? Give me a break! Why the hell didn’t two or three people rush the kid and take the glass from him? Was this boy 6’4” and 275 pounds and built like Arnold Schwarzeneggar? No, he’s probably 3’9” tall and weighs 45 pounds. Perhaps he’s obese and weighs 90 pounds. Who cares?

Both the staff at that school and the police need to be retrained on how they deal with aggressive six-year olds. DUH!!

I did a google news search on “boy taser” to research this story and came up with lots of news articles of cops using tasers to stop rampaging kids both successfully and unsuccessfully. There have been a handful of deaths resulting from police using these weapons on children.

Electricity can affect heart rhythm and 50,000 volts can have a devastating effect on a person’s long-term health. If we put this in another light, a medical procedure that used to be used to restart someone’s heart is now being used by police on children of all ages to control them. Is this wise?

Since the cops and the staff (all adults mind you) were overmatched by a six year-old child with a piece of glass, I guess they needed the help. I’M KIDDING!!

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