Lucky them. Just kidding. Although I certainly know that 10-year-olds can be to “unruly” what a close-range shotgun blast is to “lethal.” Oops. Got a little violent there (I’m applying fora job with Sarah Palin’s Facebook team). “Martinsville police say the officers were called Tuesday to the home, where they had gone several times on reports that the boy was combative and trying to harm other children and caretakers,” Fox News reports. “The department says that when officers arrived they found the boy out of control, hitting and kicking and refusing to listen to the officers. The department says the officers then used a stun gun and slapped the boy [note: in the reverse order]. Assistant Police Chief Dan Riffel says the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department will conduct a complete investigation.” We contacted the Martinsville Police after this morning’s press conference. They faxed us a statement (IN ALL CAPS) and the incident reports. Download the pdf here. Bottom line: things got out of control after an epithet was uttered. I’ve transcribed the relevant part of the “investigation narrative” after the jump.
The juvenile then looked at the female sitting on the porch next to the front door and told her “Fuck you!” Capt. Jennings held his hand in front of the juvenile’s face and asked the juvenile what he just said. Capt. Jennings ordered the juvenile to tell the female that he was sorry. The juvenile shoook his head no, and Capt. Jennings smacked the juvenile in the mouth causing the juvenile’s head to hit the back of the house. The juvenile then began crying and then lunged toward the female again out of control and began hitting her.
At this time Capt. Jennings and myself attempted to gain control of the juvenile who was in a rage. I then administered a one to two second drive stun to the juvenile’s left shoulder. It was at this moment the juvenile finally calmed down and was more compliant. I advised the juvenile that if he began to be combative again then he would be tazed.
Maybe it's just me but using "Taser" as a verb sounds awkward. If the device is a "Taser", shouldn't the verb be "Tase" conjugated as "I tase, you tase, he/she/it tases, we tase, they tase?" or better yet "Don't tase me, bro!"
Point taken. Text amended.
BTW: The X26 Tase good like a stun good should.
Well, I'm not a cop (though I spent some of my military time as an MP) but I think there the doctrine of taser use and where it fits into the "continuum of force" is still evolving in many departments. Back in the olden days, cops only had a few weapons at their disposal: Their voices, their hands, an impact weapon of some type (baton, PR24, etc) and then their handgun.
The problem with fisticuffs or impact weapons is that they require the cops to be in close proximity to the suspect, which makes both the cops and the suspect more vulnerable to injury (and, fearing that injury, to more quickly escalate an encounter to the lethal force level.)
Devices like pepper spray and the taser were designed to bridge the gap between the the fist and the gun, offering cops a way to subdue unruly or uncooperative suspects without having to resort to deadly force and, as I heard one cop explain it, the whole purpose of having a taser or pepper spray is so you don't have to lay hands on the suspect.
In this case, though, the cop slapped the youth before tasing him, which would seem to have surrendered all the advantages of the taser.