How much is too much force?

July 26, 11:55 PMWichita Women's Community ExaminerRebecca Siebert

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Have you ever wished you could be 14 again? Go back to the time when hormones were surging, say one thing and then regret it the next minute, and have little to no common sense? Don’t you wish that you could start it all over again? What would your life be like today? I bet that’s how Kailee Martinez is feeling right now.

Kailee Martinez’s mother, Stacy Akin was taking Kailee to the police station due to some obscene materials on her daughter’s cell phone. The situation got out of control and Kailee took off running to a nearby park. The Chief of Police, Roger Hatcher, took off running after her. He stated “she was running blindly through traffic and she almost got hit.” When he almost caught up to her at the park she ran away once more. He felt the only way he could prevent her from running away again was to give her a taser dart. A shaved head, several staples and stitches Kailee is recovering slowly. Her parents believed that the dart penetrated too deeply into her skull and is making her pre-existing epilepsy act up.

I have several questions about this situation. First, why would you send your daughter to the police station over a cell phone? Granted it’s not a good thing that a 14-year-old girl was sending obscene things over a cell phone. Is it necessary to get the police involved? Easy situation, take the phone away from her! No phone no text messages and pictures! I believe that a more beneficial way would to handle it within the family. If you were to get the police involved wouldn’t it be better to do it within your own home and not in public? I know that I wouldn’t want my business about my family be splashed around the public like that.

What I really want to say is “Come on! Give me a break!” Why couldn’t that chief of police chase that girl down? We see police chase people on the TV show “Cops” all the time. Why couldn’t a man that was probably twice her size chase after her and tackle her? I could see the use of a taser gun or dart gun if she was a danger to herself or others. Did she have any kind of weapon on her? Was she planning on using a gun or knife to cause harm to others? Did she have a bomb or a car where she could hurt a lot of people or property? No of course not! The girl was just armed with terrible judgment.

Some other questions I have are “if she left where was she to go?” It’s not like she could drive away. She would eventually have to either go the police department or find another way home to a warm meal and her bed.

I’m not saying that Kailee Martinez is completely innocent here because she’s not. If a police authority says “Stop!” you stop. I feel that Chief Roger Hatcher went to the extreme and used excessive force. (If you are the Chief of Police I would hope you would have more experience than the people working under you and have better judgment.) If Kailee would have stopped when asked all she might have had were some sore wrist from the handcuffs. If Chief Roger Hatcher would have tackled her instead of tasing her all that Kailee would have are a few bruises as evidence of her foolishness. Hopefully after this experience the young Kailee we keep her cool and never get into a situation like this again. I can guarantee this will be an experience she will never forget!