Police officer tasers a 10-year-girl who resisted being taken to a youth center

Welcome to Ozark, Arkansas, where police officers taser 10-year-old girls.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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daev

Geez, folks… quit jumping to conclusions. This is Ozark, Arkansas we’re talking about here. A cop, a tazer, and a 10 year old girl can only mean one thing there: foreplay.

Sheesh. Both the cop and the mother aughtta be brought up on child endangerment charges. Idiots.
spocko

I have these questions whenever I see an “authority crime” committed by someone.

Does the mother consider herself a conservative? Is she a Republican?
How would she rate on the Right Wing Authoritarian scale?
Did she vote for Bush in 2000? 2004? Did she vote at all?

Does she listen to Focus on the Family and Charles Dobson? Does she listen to Hannity? Dr. Laura? Limbaugh? Does she have Bill O’Rielly’s book on rasing children on her book shelf? Does she TV the O’Rielly Factor?
Is Fox News on in the house 3 or more hours a day?

What faith is she a member of? Is she and or her husband active members of this faith? Is the child home schooled because of their faith of the parents?

Is she a Heterosexual? Is she married to a man? Is she divorced? Was her marriage a “covenant” marriage that some Christian fundamental groups support?

Does she watch the show “24″?
Does she believe in torture?
Is she “pro-life”?
Does she support the death penalty?
Did she support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Has she been in contact with radical Christians who say to keep the kids out of schools because they are bad for the children?

We have just spend weeks talking about the impact of radical Muslims on people. What has impacted this woman (and the officer) so much that they believe that taseing isn’t really “that bad” and that she believe that this is an appropriate method of control. And the people that I am looking at are the “spare the rod spoil the child” people. But also people who believe that violence to control and solve “discussions” with other people and countries is the way to go.

Now I know that someone can come along and replace liberal with conserative and Democrat with republican but I chose those terms because the authoritarian personality is more likely to choose authoritarian methods of disipline. And in the US those authoritarians are republicans and their religion is Probably Christian. In another country it might be fundamentalism in Islam. But the reason I want to know this info is to show with stastics and personal stories how sick people with this mind set are.

We have talk radio and cable TV telling us we need to kill Muslins in other countries and accepting torture as normal. These people are sick, I expect their sickness extends to tasing
- Ito Kagehisa
  
  Hmmm, I think you are engaging in stereotyping, Mr. Spocko. I do not believe most people fit into such easy categorizations.
  - Anonymous
    
    No, but his broader point is, that when we see “barbaric” actions by people in Muslim countries, Americans say, “oh it’s the Islamic fundamentalist culture that drives them to these horrendous acts”, while totally ignoring the parallel Christian fundamentalist culture here, that drives people to horrendous acts. When a Muslim kills someone in the cause of fundamentalism, it’s Islamic Jihad, when a Christian kills someone in the cause of fundamentalism, it’s just a “lone nut”.
    - spocko
      
      Exactly. Thank you. You said it better than I could. Again, thank you.
      - Ito Kagehisa
        
        I have no argument with that “broader point”, thanks for the clarification.
        
        I am apparently the only “spare the rod and spoil the child” type person (using your term) around here who is willing to admit it, and defend my views, so I felt compelled to point out the stereotyping in the post I originally responded to. I drive a 2002 Prius and I score right in between Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama on the political quadrant, so I don’t fit the demonized caricature of a bible-thumping authoritarian very well.
        
        None of the above in any way justifies the use of tasers on children; no officer of the law should have a taser at all in my opinion, and no parent should ask an officer of the law to punish their child under any circumstances.
Francesco Fondi

U$$R
Xopher

Also, people who beat their children are assholes, but people who call in COPS to torture their children are psychopathic incompetent parents.

And assholes.
Anonymous

woman tasered by cops wins 75k settlement

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/andrews-1269369-deputy-syracuse.html
Devin1123

Okay, first of all, as a parent of two boys 2 and 4, I honestly can say that no reason whatsoever can justify the use of a taser on a 10 year old, no matter what you tell me. I honestly believe that police power has gone above and beyond what it should be. Now I understand there will be officers on here that will defend that statement and say how they’re put into situations. I understand that, because I went through correctional department training. Actually thr number 1 hardest training facility in the country. So I understand the need for force. But today I question whether police should even be carrying a taser. Many of them abuse their power and unfortunately far too many do. I think police need to be re-trained and the ones who are using tasers to release frustration and stress, need to be fired!!! As one person said, if you can’t pick up a 10 year old girl, carry her to your police car, and handcuff her as a grown man, then you shouldn’t be a cop. I agree. Also, as a parent I feel if the mother couldn’t get control of her 10 year old daughter, then it should never be put into the hands of a police officer unless the child was weilding a gun or a knife. All in all police have gone too far and lets remember that these are civil servants whose job requirements are to serve and protect the public. Not to throw grandma to the ground and taser her because she told you to go screw yourself. If thats what police are doing, and they are, then they need to be removed from the call of duty. I’m watching hundreds of videos on youtube of cops who are beating people relentlessly, because they mouthed them off or gave them the finger. These cops should be thrown in jail plain and simple. If you can’t control your temper, then you don’t belong in public service. I think every cop should be required to take anger management classes. Because it seems like most of them have a temper problem. Thats why the police are getting such a bad rap. As for the 10 year old girl? If I were the father, I’d have that cop in court without giving a second thought to it. Unfortunately most judges are siding with the cops today. Even the bad cops. What has become of our society? Seriously!!!
Teller

Tasing a ten-year-old is called tweesing.
Ok, not funny. Cop’s actions just so gd indefensible.
Talia

Well, I’m just shocked.
aappundit

It’s great that your following the taser issue. There will be an annual December 4th event called, â€œStop Taser Torture, blogging for Justice.â€ The goal is to unite the worldâ€™s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day â€“ Taser Torture in America, Canada and throughout the world.

As you know, Amnesty International says that between 2001 and August 2008, 334 Americans died after Taser shocks. The stun gun was deemed to have caused or contributed to at least 50 of those deaths, Amnesty says, citing medical examiners and coroners.

Most suspects were unarmed, and many were subjected to repeated or prolonged shocks, according to Amnesty. The human rights group has called for governments to limit the use of stun guns or suspend their use.

In November 2007, the UN Committee Against Torture released a statement saying â€œuse of Taser X26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture, andâ€¦ in certain cases, it could also cause death.â€

I hope you and your readers will Join the December 4th. â€œStop Taser Torture, blogging for Justice.â€ as we raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.
http://stoptasertorture.blogspot.com

Contact us at: StopTaserTorture@gmail.com to register your blog.

Donâ€™t forget to support the petition to the United States Congress calling for public hearings on the systemic human rights violations occurring with Federal funding for the use of TasersÂ® against American citizens. The United Nationâ€™s Committee against Torture has declared that Taser use can constitute a form of torture, while USA: Amnesty International has an on-going concern about the use of tasers on American citizens.

http://www.petition2congress.com/2/1822/taser-torture-in-america-call-congressional-hearings/
Permanent4

Best part of the story: The girl “refused to follow her mother’s instructions and the mother told (the officer) to use his Taser.”

MAMA SAID TASE YOU OUT!
MarySueLives

And that is when CPS comes in and removes the child from the mother’s custody, right?
- phisrow
  
  Sure; but you aren’t going to like their methods…
Anonymous

How about this: every time the tazer fires, it stings the cop some also? Keep em’ honest, ya know?
phenomenon

Hey, kicks to the groin means the gloves come off even ig you are a little girl :V
kc0bbq

To be fair, there’s no indication with they taser girls, plural. Just a girl, singular.

I wish there were more details. Not much chance they’ll justify anything, but maybe she had just finished painting “DIE PIGS DIE!!” on the living room wall using her decapitated kitten’s head as a brush or something.
epi_mom

And the reason the mom called the cops? The girl refused to take a shower. The Arkansas Times covers the story: http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/11/ozark_is_it_for_real.aspx
- Gloria
  
  Seriously? And police *responded*?
  
  Oh, it gets even better:
  
  “The mother of the 10-year-old, Kelly Hamlert, has been a part-time dispatcher and detention officer in the Franklin County jail for several months, Chief Deputy James Hamilton said.”
  
  If this town isn’t crazy, this child must be an incarnation of Lucifer.
- Xopher
  
  Un-be-FUCKING-lievable. A mother who calls the cops because her daughter refuses to take a shower is an unfit mother. That little girl needs to live in a home with a mother who’s not a complete useless asshole.
  
  And the dispatcher, obviously wanting to please a coworker, sends this idiot lunatic Dustin Bradshaw instead of an officer with a brain in his head and the sense he was born with.
  
  And then the idiot lunatic tells a little girl she’s going to jail because she won’t obey her mother and take a shower?!?!!? Are the Arkansas police really allowed to intervene in a situation like that, with no risk to life or safety for anyone? What fucking barbarians.
  - danlalan
    
    Just calm down. or well have to, you know, tase you…
MadRat

We live in a world were the news tries to get the story out so fast they don’t bother doing any fact checking and the more sensational the story the better. I’m going to be a little skeptical until I know all the details. Still I have to ask myself, why didn’t the officer just call for backup. You know, overwhelming force? Even a 10 year old knows if you’re surrounded by crowd of cops you aren’t going to resist.
- Xopher
  
  Oh, I can imagine that call. “Need backup. Hysterical 10-year-old won’t take shower. She kicked me! Officer down.”
  
  I assume his buddies down at the station are mostly jackholes, so they won’t laugh at him for tasing the girl. But they’d laugh at him for that call, you can bet.
ViolettVerq

I think not even tasering a FRICKING INFANT will wake up this country of yours with its abusing policemen. First I thought: ‘This story will be it. It will create the wave that the US system needs. Tasering a 10 year-old body and heart cannot, under any circumstances, be appropriate.’
But I don’t think anything will happen. You can taser pregnant women, old grandmas for being too slow, old people in wheelchairs that YELL they have a heart condition, everyone. I cannot comprehend it.
Xopher

Yeah, carry her into the living room and tell her she’s going to jail. Good tactic for calming a hysterical child. Who trained this guy, the Gestapo?

It would be interesting to know more, like why the police were called in the first place. Also, why didn’t they send an officer with some ability to deal with kids, or even any memory of being a child himself, instead of this dumbass RoboCop?

I mean, unless she was actually a ten-year-old jaguar or something…any officer who can’t control a ten-year-old child without using a godsdamned TASER is either so frail that he shouldn’t have passed the fitness exam or so stupid he shouldn’t be entrusted with a driver’s license, let alone a badge.
grikdog

It’s no wonder vampires inhabit our kids’ skulls.
nilesgibbs

“Noggle said Tuesday that officer Dustin Bradshaw went to the girl’s home after her mother called police woman called police.”

And the AP wants to charge for its stories? Don’t they do basic proofreading?
- AsteriskCGY
  
  First thing I really noticed. Ha.
brn2build

There is one and only one appropriate time for a cop to use a Taser: if they would otherwise have to fire their gun. You should be able to ask a simple question of the officer, “Would you have shot whoever you tasered?” If the answer is no, it should be police brutality, grounds for firing (with loss of benefits), and grounds for a lawsuit.

That’s my two cents. The taser was meant to give police an alternative to using deadly force in life threatening situations, not make other parts of their job ‘easier.’
caipirina

There were times when my boy went through the terrible-twos and then the f$%^ing-fours that I would have wished I could have ended the tantrum with a taser …

No experience with 10 years old yet … but if by that time you have that little control over your child that you have to call the cops?

On the other hand, 10years … puberty is about to hit … I don;t want to imagine the tantrums girls that age can throw … just check that youtube video of that spoilt brat that gets the ‘wrong’ car on her 16th b’day …
Patrick Austin

@brn2build: Well, I think it’s fair to use it in a situation short of one where lethal force is justified. If I’m a cop and some asshole is coming at me with his fists, I wouldn’t shoot him. But, it seems reasonable not to accept the offer to fight when I could just drop him with one zap. I really don’t want some hepatitis infected junkie bleeding on me.

I’m with you for a suspect trying to flee or a non-violent confrontation, though.
- Spencer Cross
  
  I really don’t want some hepatitis infected junkie bleeding on me.
  
  Then a) get a hepatitis vaccination and b) don’t become a cop. It’s part of the job, and tasers were supposedly introduced as an alternative to lethal force not as a additional option for crowd control. If you (likely along with a partner) can’t control a suspect, especially a sick, weak junkie, without a taser then you’re a pretty poor excuse for a police officer.
  - Anonymous
    
    well, to be fair on point “a”, there is no vaccine for Hepatitis C.
    - Anonymous
      
      Or MRSA.
  - warreno
    
    Junkies are surprisingly robust.
    
    As for the question of whether a cop is justified in shooting someone coming after him with fists — I think the answer might well be yes.
    
    That aside I tend to agree with brn2build about what situations are appropriate for shocking a suspect. A ten year old throwing a tantrum does not qualify.