When idiot police and idiot parents make decisions together, the results can be disastrous.
A 10-year-old girl was at her mother's house in Ozark, Arkansas, and refused to take a shower. She was misbehaving, and her mother called the police as a result. According to the police report, the child was kicking and screaming when the officer arrived.
After the child kicked Officer Dustin Bradshaw in the groin, he tasered her. He stated in his report that the mother, Kelly Hamlert, told him he could use the taser on her child (full story here).
"He had no other choice. He had to get the child under control," said Ozark police Chief Jim Noggle. As usual, the police are quick to defend their own, regardless of how excessive and questionable the situation is. Noggle's logic is faulty. The fact that the child had to be controlled does not in fact mean that tasering was necessary. Killing the child certainly would have also brought her "under control," but that clearly would not have been an acceptable measure.
No action has been taken against Bradshaw. Fort Smith Police said policy regarding use of tasers is usually at the discretion of each police department.
The girl's father, Anthony Medlock said his daughter has some emotional problems, but that "she doesn't deserve to be treated like a dog."
If Bradshaw could not handle a 10-year-old girl without using a taser, he probably should not be a police officer. If Hamlert could not handle getting a 10-year-old daughter to take a shower without calling the police and asking them to taser her daughter, she probably should not be having children.
Society has become a scary place when parents handle their children's misbehavior by enlisting police force - and the police gladly comply.
Comments
It always bothers me when parents call the cops on their kids--or the other way around. Schools sometimes encourage this weird form of "obedience."
This story also reminds me how many stories I've read lately of cops tasering people. It's pretty clear; they think it's fun!
Important story!
Well written...People who can't handle such simple tasks like taking their child a bath should not have children...Lazy parents...I'm glad the officer was kicked in the nuts.
Police follow orders so much that they forget how to think on their own
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