Police taze 8 year old girl

Tallguy88

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What Could Justify Using a Taser on an 8-Year-Old Girl?

Justified.

That's how the Pierre Police Department described an incident several days ago where an officer fired his Taser at an 8-year-old girl after receiving a report that she had stabbed herself in the leg and appeared suicidal.

When police they arrived on the scene, the girl was holding a paring knife to her chest.

So how did the police respond to this small child who appeared to be having an emotional crisis? One of the officers tased her in the chest and stomach. Afterwards, the girl was transported by ambulance to the hospital, where the doctors found that she in fact had no stab wounds on her legs. "She was in pain the whole night," the girl's mother told reporters about her daughter's response to being shot with a Taser.

The haunting question is why law enforcement officers used such aggressive force. It's difficult to think of a situation in which it would be appropriate to use a Taser on a child--but it seems quite clear that this is not one of them.

Tasers subject their victims to a 50,000-volt shock followed by 100 microsecond pulses of 1,200 volts. Since 2001, more than 500 people in the United States have died after law enforcement officers used this weapon against them. Tasers can be especially dangerous when used against young people.

In addition to the physical risks, kids are especially vulnerable to pain and fear--so you can imagine the kind of trauma an 8-year-old girl who possibly wanted to harm herself might have experienced during this incident.

Tasers are dangerous, and it's important that cops take this seriously. Without clear training and limitations, officers may use Tasers not because it is appropriate and necessary in a specific situation, but because it is an easy weapon to use and within reach. Tasers should not be the go-to weapon of choice in any and every situation. The risk is simply too great that using a Taser to respond could result in additional trauma, physical injury or even death.

A study last year specifically found that sending shocks to the chest--which the police did to this 8-year-old girl--can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death. Simply put, police never should have tased this 8-year-old girl in the chest. Yesterday's ordeal could have ended much worse for the 8-year-old girl, her family, and the police.

When police decide how much force to use, they are subject to the 4th Amendment's reasonableness standard, according to Graham v. Conner. In that case, the Supreme Court laid out the following test: to determine whether the force used was reasonable, courts must weigh the intrusion on the individual's interests against the government's interest. The government's interest is measured by looking at the severity of the crime (in this instance, there was no crime), whether the person posed an immediate threat to the officers or others (here, a child suffering a mental health issue who may have posed a danger to herself), and whether the person was resisting arrest by fleeing (the girl was standing still and was facing police when she was tased). While we wait for an investigation into the incident, it is hard to understand how a reasonable officer would think that tasing an allegedly troubled child is the best way to protect that child from harming herself.

Aggressive police tactics are used every day, in every state - often to shocking and dangerous extremes, as was the case here. This disturbing incident should serve as a reminder that police departments need clear training on how to respond to mental health crises and clear limitations on use of potentially lethal force, especially against children.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-...hat-could-justify-using-taser-8-year-old-girl
 

MikeK

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Every time a cop doesn't shoot someone who reaches for their wallet or "charges" them, they get an attaboy from me. Tazing an 8 year old, awful as it is, seems like progress. Maybe, 70 or 80 years from now, police science will evolve to a place where an officer, upon seeing an 8 year old with a knife, will walk up and take the knife.
 
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MikeK

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He probably thought it would be the fastest way to disarm her. So, in all this, did anyone wonder why an EIGHT year old is suicidal and are people investigating her home environment...or is everyone just outraged over the cop?

I suspect the cop thought that the tazer response was reasonable given the circumstances. I've had a bit of police training and I understand that approaching a person with a knife is generally discouraged...but I think that anyone physically and mentally fit enough to be a police officer has to believe that taking a knife from a child is safer than tazing a child.

I hope that the child's home environment is investigated heavily. I am not certain that there is some sort of abbuse at play, it is possible that the child siffers from some affliction which would explain such behavior....but I hope and pray that the abuse factor is ruled out by investigators because this is a rather unusual case.
 
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ZooMom

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Just playing devils advocate for the cop, the girl had a knife and was indicating that she would use it. Yes, she was eight years old, but the knife didn't know that. What if the cop had rushed her or tried to grab the knife? She might have stabbed herself, as she was already poised to do. She might have turned the knife and stabbed the cop. I'm CERTAIN that he tried to talk to her, to get her to put it down...but when she wouldn't, tasering would have been the fastest, safest way to disarm her without endangering others. It's unfortunate that it had to happen in the first place, but I don't see that he had much choice.
 
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Cosmic Charlie

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The police are out of control, militarized, feel entitled, arbitrary violent and, at the moment, don't actually serve the people they are supposedly protecting.

I blame this all on the Federal Governments decision to begin torturing it's prisoner.

Social morality flows downhill. If you can torture your prisoners, you can taze a kid.

After all it's not like they are job providers or anything important.
 
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Brooklyn Knight

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Not downplaying police aggression that has occurred, but there are certain situations that arise where it feels like cops are doomed if they do, doomed if they don't. This is one of them.

On one hand, what if the girl was indeed suicidal? Cop does something differently, and we're bemoaning that the cop didn't use another tactic...like tazing her. Here, a cop tazed her and people are moaning.
 
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Brooklyn Knight

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I wouldn't ever recommend that a cop taze an 8 year old kid. Do any of you have 8 year old kids? They're not exactly hard to overcome.

You ever encounter an 8 year old with a knife who has something a little off with her psyche?
 
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ZooMom

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Personally...I'm speaking as someone who has been married to a cop for almost 25 years, and has raised five consecutive eight year olds. It can be difficult to take something from a TWO year old that they don't want to let go of, so just picture yourself trying to wrest a sharp knife away from an 8yr old who is not reasonable or stable to begin with, who isn't worried about hurting you or their self, and that's if you could even get your hands on the knife BEFORE they hurt their self or you! How close do you think the cop could get before she could stab herself? How effective or 'courageous' could the cop have been with a knife in his throat? Because it wouldn't have taken skill to put it there, just recklessness and bad luck. I'm so glad that people who have never had to put their lives on the line day in and day out for an ungrateful public, always know what SHOULD have been done.
 
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Luther073082

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And what if she see's him take a step to approach her and shoves the knife in her chest???

From the way it sounds to me tazing the girl was the best option.

You can't guarantee me that the cop is going to get there before she kills herself.

All I know is a girl who was holding a knife to her own chest and threatening to kill herself is alive now. And people are upset because she has a little leg pain.

Does it occur to anyone that the girl could have actually been suicidal??
 
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Miss Shelby

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Personally...I'm speaking as someone who has been married to a cop for almost 25 years, and has raised five consecutive eight year olds. It can be difficult to take something from a TWO year old that they don't want to let go of, so just picture yourself trying to wrest a sharp knife away from an 8yr old who is not reasonable or stable to begin with, who isn't worried about hurting you or their self, and that's if you could even get your hands on the knife BEFORE they hurt their self or you! How close do you think the cop could get before she could stab herself? How effective or 'courageous' could the cop have been with a knife in his throat? Because it wouldn't have taken skill to put it there, just recklessness and bad luck. I'm so glad that people who have never had to put their lives on the line day in and day out for an ungrateful public, always know what SHOULD have been done.
It's insane the way the public loves to blame cops for any and everything they do.
 
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Hetta

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MikeK

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Are you her psychiatrist and if so when did you diagnose her?

She was threatening suicide and refusing to drop the knife when instructed to do so by a law enforcement officer. Something was certainly off there. 8-year-olds like Pokemon cards, not seppuku.
 
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