Ark. cop suspended after using Taser on girl, 10
OZARK, Ark. – A police officer who used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl after he said her mother gave him permission has been suspended — not for using the Taser but for not having a video camera attached when he used it.
Mayor Vernon McDaniel said officer Dustin Bradshaw was suspended Wednesday for seven days with pay. McDaniel said the suspension is for not following department procedures because he didn’t have the camera on.
McDaniel wants Arkansas State Police or the FBI to look into whether the use of the Taser was proper. The girl, who hasn’t been identified, wasn’t injured and is now at the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Cecil.
Police were called to the home Nov. 11 after the girl’s mother couldn’t get her to take a shower.
Full Story Here:
Ark. cop suspended after using Taser on girl, 10
First and foremost, I am a strong proponent of Taser usage. A Taser is one of the most effective, and least deadly options, an officer can employee as he seeks to keep the peace.
This incident was posted on another blog, one that shall remain unnamed as I will not give links to those that don’t deserve them, and they were shocked, pun intended, that this officer has used a Taser on a 10 yeah old hell raiser that had kicked him in the groin. My comment was this:
Obviously, you are not, nor ever have been a LEO of ANY kind…
Proper procedure was used, the kid is alive, the cop is unhurt and this is a WIN-WIN situation… He could have beat her ass I guess, maybe that would make you happy…
And that is exactly how I feel about the matter. You kick me in the groin and ALL bets are OFF. I don’t care if you’re 9 or 90, there’s some things that just aren’t going to be allowed to happen without some serious consequences taking place.
Bradshaw’s report says the girl was “violently kicking and verbally combative” when Bradshaw tried to take her into custody, and she kicked him in the groin. He said he delivered “a very brief drive stun to her back.”
“Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to,” Bradshaw wrote.
The folks over at *the blog that will not be linked* Six Meat Buffet, all seem to be on the same page regarding their outrage and shock. Yes, that too was an intended pun. The comments all seem to be made by blog members, contributors, and they, for the most part, sounded like a bunch of whiny-assed libbers sniveling about whatever their cause de jour is. Here is what the charge sheet would look like if I had been the arresting officer. The girl would have been charged with assault and battery on a police officer.
The blog owner told me, in his brilliant retort, “Fred, you can put your balls back in your pants now.”. That is one incredibly intelligent response huh? 
Another of their band of bleeding heart child behavioral specialists wrote, “Fred, I support police using force…in fact, I often don’t have any problem with police using “excessive force” if they have to. But tasing a 10-year old whose only weapon is her feet to the groin? I certainly hope YOUR weren’t ever a LEO if your ability to control a 10 year old relies on a taser.”
Those feet, regardless of the age of the *child*, are dangerous, and possibly deadly weapons if applied properly. As I said in my original comment to these repressed bleeding hearts, the kid is alive, no permanent harm was done.
Police Chief Jim Noggle said Wednesday that Tasers are a safe way to subdue people who are a danger to themselves or others.
“We didn’t use the Taser to punish the child — just to bring the child under control so she wouldn’t hurt herself or somebody else,” Noggle said.
If the officer tried to forcefully put the girl in handcuffs, he could have accidentally broken her arm or leg, Noggle said.
The people that are crying about this have NO idea I guess. No idea exactly what it is that our LEOs face in their daily work load. As I said, he could have beat the crap out of the kid. He chose to use a non-lethal method of controlling this serial killer in the making, and in doing so, maybe he also gave the little tyke a wake-up call.
He said a touch of the stun gun — “less than a second” — stopped the girl from being unruly, and she was handcuffed.
“She got up immediately and they put her in the patrol car,” McDaniel said.
Well hell yeah she stopped being unruly! Tasers tend to have that effect on a person.
I have been popped with a stun gun, years ago, as a part of training, and it is VERY effective. I have seen what it looks like when officers are being trained in the proper use OF the Taser, they have to take a full 5 second HIT to familiarize themselves with the sensation that a perpetrator will feel. It tends to make an officer much more likely to use a Taser as opposed to using his sidearm or a night stick to control a perpetrator. And less than lethal is a better solution for ALL concerned!
The girl’s father, Anthony Medlock, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that his daughter has emotional problems, but that she didn’t have a weapon and shouldn’t have been Tasered.
“My daughter does not deserve to be tased and be treated like an animal,” said Medlock, who is divorced from the girl’s mother and does not have custody.
You Sir, are a bleeding heart MORON. Why are YOU not there to teach your child the proper way to behave? If the kid has emotional problems, WHY isn’t she in some type of treatment program or therapy?
Your daughter was NOT treated like an animal, she was subjected to, as it says in this story, about a 1 second HIT from a Taser, AFTER she had kicked a police officer in the groin. Trust me, in times past, this may not have turned out as well as it did. You should be thankful that the officer was there to control YOUR child!
Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International, said it’s up to individual law enforcement agencies to decide when Taser use is appropriate.
In some cases, a Taser “presents the safer response to resistance compared with the alternatives such as fists, kicks, baton strikes, bean bag guns, chemical agents, or canine response,” Tuttle said in a statement.
As I stated previously, ALL things considered, with all of the options that were opened when the officer was kicked in the groin by this *child*, this situation turned out pretty well in MY opinion. But then you have to realize, I am NOT a bleeding heart.
The police chief, who has been Tasered twice himself during training sessions, said his department has never had to use a stun gun on a child or elderly person before, but that in some instances, that could be necessary to ensure safety.
“We don’t want to do things like this,” Noggle said. “This is something we have to do. We’re required to maintain order and keep the peace.”
And again, as previously stated, officers go through training in the use OF the Taser, and they are subjected to at least 1 Taser hit themselves. Police officers that USE a Taser, know what that Taser feels like. For me, the TRUE issue of this story is NOT about the officer having to use a Taser to control an obviously out of control little hellion.
The truly sad part of this story is the total lack of parenting skills, and lack of parental control exhibited, thus necessitating that the police raise your child for you.
You are right on Fred. She’s dam lucky it was not me because someone acting like an “animal” would surely get treated like one. She needs to have her ass caned and I think the scars would remind her that she ain’t as bad as she’s been raised to think she is. The father…….what a friggin doofus. I would almost bet he’s a dope smokin POS laying around while the people who work for a living keep his ass in welfare and food stamps while he don’t really give a shit how his daughter is raised. I agree that the officer in question SHOULD have had that camera running. THAT would have removed all doubt.
But don’t you know Fred, that the proper response to a “child” to KICKS A POLICE OFFICER IN THE GROIN, is not to tase them, nor in any way suggest that the “child’s” actions are “wrong”. No, you have to give them toys, and/or anything else they want, sing happy songs and tell them that they are “right” for “expressing themself”.
THIS IS PREPOSTEROUS! I’ve not been tased, as I was never required to carry a tazer, but I know what my former co-workers who did carry them said about it, and while not pleasant, it’s FAR MORE PREFERABLE to the batons, tear gas or other means.
No, what the whining libs want is for kids to be taught, through inaction, that they can do what they want, with no consequences, and to depend on others for their wants and desires. How else will the DNC get future voters?
Pingback: More whining and crying from the left - Smoke Signals Blog
I like this post it says alot about the America and the times we live in. I was tasered as a child, yup I stuck my finger in a light socket to see what it felt like although I had been warned—never did it again. After the kick the 10 year old had that coming or the insueing struggle could have resulted in a permanate injury. I recall the days when killers were sent to the electic chair which was more humane than the rope, then suddenly the chair was cruel and unusual punishment so we got the gas chambers, ahhh problem solved. But no, that too was cruel so then we advanced to lethal injection the best way to put a killer to death. Guess what many now say thats cruel. Oh well the gun gave way to the taser and I’m wondering what is next in this chain of events. The end of the line has to be “please, please, please don’t do that”. Yes that’s where we’re heading.
I’ve been bitten by a dog, kicked in the groin, shot, stabbed, had a baton used in an unfriendly manner on my person and had numerous limbs broken in various ways.
I’ve also been Tased.
I’ll take the tasing over all of the other methods, any day of the week.
And that “father” needs to get his head outta his butt and start helping the mother of his child start raising that girl, or the State Pen Instructors will have her in a felony mode toot sweet.
Holy CRAP, Cary, what were you DOing???
Taser has just reassessed its target area recommendations. Taser PDF file is here.
Additional information is here: Police and Law Enforcement - PoliceOne.com
BZ
I had an intractable cousin. She was nightmare in all respects! Currently, she is an adult and serving time in a federal prison for drug dealing.
Anyway, as a teenager, this girl was violent and abusive. She even tried several times to kill her younger brother.
I’m sure that this girl’s mother would have liked her tasered a few times, especially that one time she attacked her mother and bit her arm to the bone.
Had the system not coddled the girl all the way to adulthood, she might have chosen a path other than the one she’s in prison for now.
Forgot to mention - not all that happened at the same time.
Let’s just say that I had a knack for finding trouble as a younger man.
The Taser was mis-aimed, and mis-handled, by a young man that I was shadowing. I was a few years out of USMC, and he was fresh in the PD and had just received his training.
Note to others: NEVER ask a newbie how that thing on his hip works…
A “Taser gun” and a hand-held stun gun are different in many ways.
The end result is supposed to be the same, make the perpetrator follow the orders and demands from a Law Enforcement Officer in charge of the respective problem taking place.
Behavior modification, that is all, AKA, follow the orders given exactly.
Ok, just what does this mean??
The girl was touched with a hand-held stun gun, and “pow”, was shocked, into submission.
A “taser gun”, actually shoots out two probes with attached wires, so a really dangerous perpetrator does not have to be close to you, to be shocked into submission. About 20 feet away.
That is the only difference. The application of the debilitating
tric current.
Before the electric shock devices were invented, we had to use batons, night sticks, saps, and lead filled gloves to apply submission.
Try that on a 300 pound crazed, drugged up male Samoan who wants to fight first.
I fully agree that a camera must be operating at all times, if at all possible. This satisfies juries, judges, that this force was justified.
Yes, I have been tased, stu-gunned, for training purposes, and it was not plesant at all!!
hmm..
1. A touch of the taser and she stopped and went along with them..
2. Father says she has emotional problems..
3. see number 1 above..
Imo..the only ‘emotional problem’ she has is parents that don’t have her in control. A couple of nicely placed spankings (never ‘beat’ a child) as well as a bit of other discipline and she’d straighten right up.
Am I a mean mother? I guess I am. When my youngest son got a spanking from me and turned and told me with a grin that that didn’t hurt.. he then got his pants pulled down and a bare bottom spanking.. that DID hurt. (Keep in mind that while we don’t use spanking all of the time, one once in a while when earned/deserved, reminds them who is in charge and what is right/wrong, and I don’t care what society says.)
My point? Parents have got to take control or the kids will. Kids will NOT let you be in control, you have to take it. Make them act up to a standard or discipline them and teach kids respect, if they don’t respect you they will act just like.. well, the kid above.
My favorite quote.. “I’m not raising kids, I am raising adults.”
Right on the mark Fred!
About twenty years ago, my druggie looser little brother kicked a police officer in the groin. He was about twenty or so. The officer’s partner chased down my idiot brother and the two of them kicked the ever living shit out of him. He’s my own brother and even I agree that he had it coming and eve got of easy. He’s lucky the they didn’t just shoot his dumb ass. And by the way, this also happened in Arkansas.
If you kick, hit or in any way assault an officer of the law, you deserve to be at least tasered, if not badly beaten.
And I agree with the posters above that the true fault lies with this girls parents and as the sexist that I am, the fault lies primarily with her father. Discipline is the father’s responsibility, not to mention raising your own children. To be adults, that is. Great quote Conservamom.
A lack of discipline is tantamount to child abuse, not to mention neglect.
OK, not to be “too geeky” here, but a great example is actually found in the Harry Potter book series (both the “official books” and “fan fiction”).
In the books, Harry is made to cook (and more) and his “bedroom” (through the beginning of his first year at Hogwarts) is the CUPBOARD under the stairwell. Meanwhile, his cousin Dudley is given whatever he wants, never told “NO”, and so on. While in “canon” (read - JKR’s books) Harry is never “physically abused”, he IS MOST DEFINITELY abused emotionally and so on. Likewise, Dudley is equally abused. He is taught, by his parents’ actions and acceptance of his TANTRUMS, FITS, AND MORE, that if he wants something, he gets it.
So, who is abused? Harry, the child forced to work like a slave and living in a room barely big enough to be called “extra storage”? Or, Dudley, the child given EVERY THING he asks for, and GROSSLY overweight? Or, BOTH!?!?!?
As far as I’m concerned, that girl got what she deserved.
mrchuck; Ma fula Ma ool! Yes, any Jarhead Brat raised on Pendleton knows about Samoans!
In response to mrchuck’s post:
Both Law Enforcement Tasers the X26 and M26, can be used as “stun guns” if you will.
This can be done by removing the cartridges that contain the leads and prongs. Once the cartridge is removed, an officer can perform a “drive stun”, which means putting the actual Taser onto the suspect’s person, and pulling the trigger.
This still delivers a 5 second burst of 50,000 volts, and is, in my opinion, less painful than being hit with the leads and prongs, because the current doesn’t travel as far through the body.
For anyone interested in seeing my Taser video, where I was certified, you can see it at http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=11375366