11 Year Old Boy Tasered In BC

[AngusThermopyle]

I dont know if this has been discussed yet but perhaps some of you may be interested in it. Apparently an elleven year old boy was tasered whilst in a group home after using a knife to attack a 36 year old man. Do you think the officer could have restrained him without the use of the taser, or was he justified and reasonable in using this tool.

Is it possible that too many of the Police are coming to view the taser as their favourite "do everything tool" in situations that do not really require its use? Anyway, heres a link to the story.

Taser Article

[kimmy]

I dont know if this has been discussed yet but perhaps some of you may be interested in it. Apparently an elleven year old boy was tasered whilst in a group home after using a knife to attack a 36 year old man. Do you think the officer could have restrained him without the use of the taser, or was he justified and reasonable in using this tool.

Is it possible that too many of the Police are coming to view the taser as their favourite "do everything tool" in situations that do not really require its use? Anyway, heres a link to the story.

Taser Article

Assuming the officer attempted to defuse the situation verbally first and was unsuccessful, the Taser was the next logical step.

What should he have done instead? Cracked the kid with a baton a few times? Martial arts? Try and wrestle the knife out of his hands? The possibility of injury to either or both parties would have been much higher if the officer tried to take the kid down hand-to-hand.

The taser was developed for situations just like this, to end potentially dangerous situations with a minimal possibility of harm. It's unfortunate that misuse of the taser has turned it into such a hot-button issue that people would rather see police crack skulls with batons than use the taser in the way it was intended.

-k

[TimG]

What should he have done instead?

Wait. The kid was not going anywhere. It is not clear why the situation need immediate defusing.

[Shakeyhands]

I wonder if he was still armed as well when he was tasered. I haven't seen an article yet that tells us.

[eyeball]

Assuming the officer attempted to defuse the situation verbally first and was unsuccessful, the Taser was the next logical step.

What should he have done instead? Cracked the kid with a baton a few times? Martial arts? Try and wrestle the knife out of his hands? The possibility of injury to either or both parties would have been much higher if the officer tried to take the kid down hand-to-hand.

-k

They could have used a net-gun.

Edited April 13, 2011 by eyeball

[scouterjim]

I dont know if this has been discussed yet but perhaps some of you may be interested in it. Apparently an elleven year old boy was tasered whilst in a group home after using a knife to attack a 36 year old man. Do you think the officer could have restrained him without the use of the taser, or was he justified and reasonable in using this tool.

Is it possible that too many of the Police are coming to view the taser as their favourite "do everything tool" in situations that do not really require its use? Anyway, heres a link to the story.

Taser Article

This sad incident happened in the city I reside in. The constable involved is now on "administrative duties". The West Vancouver police are doing the investigation. Apparently, this constable has been on the force for only 18 months. The youngster vapparently was surrendering when he was tased. As much as I admire the police, this was too much. The cop should be booted from the force.

[eyeball]

The youngster...

Thanks for that, I heard a CTV reporter referring to the 11 year old boy as a young man a few nights ago.

[AngusThermopyle]

What should he have done instead? Cracked the kid with a baton a few times? Martial arts? Try and wrestle the knife out of his hands? The possibility of injury to either or both parties would have been much higher if the officer tried to take the kid down hand-to-hand.

Not that I disagree with you Kimmy, rather the contrary. However if, as was stated by another poster,the kid was trying to surrender then the actions of the officer could be considered excessive even vindictive. The reason I mention this is because fairly recently I've seen a few shows (W5, The Fifth Estate) dealing with RCMP excesses out west. Could this incident be considered symptomatic of greater problems within this organization? For instance, one incident involved a suspect fleeing the police, he was shot dead. The officer claimed self defence, however the victim was shot in the back and found face down in the snow with no tracks indicating he did anything but run. The officer was cleared of all wrong doing, as I recall the comission consisted of high ranking RCMP officers.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the topic, do you think the use of tazers is becoming too common?

[eyeball]

Anyway, I digress. Back to the topic, do you think the use of tazers is becoming too common?

Definitely, especially in light of safer alternatives.

[bloodyminded]

At any rate, I don't think people are objecting to tasers being used where batons would have been, previously; but rather to tasers being used where no violence would have been used, previously.

I don't consider it a simple matter, at all. But if violence is replacing relatively non-violent methods of police persuasion (and I stress the "if"), it doesn't sound so good.

[Tilter]

This sad incident happened in the city I reside in. The constable involved is now on "administrative duties". The West Vancouver police are doing the investigation. Apparently, this constable has been on the force for only 18 months. The youngster vapparently was surrendering when he was tased. As much as I admire the police, this was too much. The cop should be booted from the force.

I guess the general consensus is that tasers are too harsh & the cop should have shot the kid.

Walk a while in a cop's shoes. It used to be that the public stood behind police actions. Now, every incident involving any action stronger than a slap on the behind is criticized by the public.

I wonder if the 36 year old who was attacked feels the same as do a lot of people on this post---- Kinda doubt it.

[Guest American Woman]

I'm not sure if the police knew the boy was 11 years old at the time, but since he was physically capable of allegedly stabbing a 37 year old man, he was capable of stabbing a police officer, too. I haven't read anything that said he was "surrendering," just that he was "emerging from the house," so a source confirming that he was surrendering would be appreciated.