Photography is Not a Crime

34 responses so far ↓

• 1 Johnny Law // Nov 18, 2009 at 3:37 AM

  Well I can’t think of a positive thing to say about this one. There is no circumstance I can think of that would justify the tasing an unarmed 10 yr old girl. Go ahead and bash this guy in the comments. You won’t hear a peep from me other than to say I think this guy should probably turn in the badge.

• 2 KBCraig // Nov 18, 2009 at 4:58 AM

  This is the same department that tased a 16 year old in 2008 because he was “acting bizarrely”, “refusing to comply with orders”, and “in a daze”.

  Gee, he’d just fallen 30 feet from an overpass onto the road below, and broken his neck. How was he supposed to act?

• 3 Rob Molecule // Nov 18, 2009 at 7:41 AM

  Aside from the ridiculousness of tasing a 10 year old, why in the world would someone call the police on their 10 year old daughter?

• 4 MacK // Nov 18, 2009 at 7:50 AM

  I know many do not approve of this type thinking, but it would be my only response.

  If that was my daughter, I would find that officer, and beat him stupid; however it would not take much beating to get there.

• 5 mepsipax // Nov 18, 2009 at 9:00 AM

  Wow, when Johnny Law is against the guy you know he is screwed. In no world should a grown man be intimidated by a 10 yo girl without a weapon. And the mother is inept, it is your job to raise the child not the cops.

• 6 Tom // Nov 18, 2009 at 9:17 AM

  The problem is that the police departments have bought Taser International’s propaganda about the weapon. Taser claims it is a non-lethal weapon that temporarily stuns the target. Any death is dismissed as the result of “excited delierium” a term which doesn’t appear in any of the medical references texts. Last year, a coroner ruled that a Taser caused a death and Taser sued both the city and the coroner. The court required the coroner to change the cause of death to “exited delerium”. In Canada we had the Robert Dziekanski incident (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_incident). The results of the inquiry was a new set of rules for deploying Tasers. Not surprisingly, Taser International has sued the inquiry claiming that the judge in charge of the inquiry was biased.

• 7 Ray // Nov 18, 2009 at 9:29 AM

  I have to wonder what law was being broken ? The officer should probably have told the mother “Your daughter is throwing a tantrum in your house, it’s your problem” and then gotten in his car and rode off.

• 8 Thor God of Thunder // Nov 18, 2009 at 9:55 AM

  The problem is that Ozark, like so many other small towns here in Arkansas has a police force that is made up of somebody’s cousin or brother in law or the chiefs wife’s nephew. Professionalism takes a back seat to the good ol boy network.

• 9 Ariel // Nov 18, 2009 at 10:17 AM

  JL #1,

  Good for you.
  A mother that called on police to help with a 10 year-old throwing a tantrum….needs a different kind of help.
  Later, having read on Officer.com, this mother has called the police before on her daughter. The father is trying to get custody of the girl. Hope Family Court has some sense. The girl will be going before the Juvenile Court.

• 10 Ken // Nov 18, 2009 at 10:57 AM

  Clearly, the officer acted improperly. He should have tased the mother…twice.

• 11 Difster // Nov 18, 2009 at 12:22 PM

  Poor widdle powice man can’t contwo a widdle girl!!!! PUSSSSSYYYYYYYYY

• 12 KBCraig // Nov 18, 2009 at 12:31 PM

  @Rob Molecule, #3:

  Who would call the police on a child having a tantrum? Exactly the kind who (loudly) tell their misbehaving children in public, “You see that policeman over there? If you don’t behave, he’s going to arrest you and put you in jail! Is that what you want?”

  Given the reports that his mother had previously called police on her daughter, I guarantee she’s not only heard this kind of threat, the mother tried to follow through.

  Gee, I wonder why the girl was scared and fought back?

• 13 300baud // Nov 18, 2009 at 2:28 PM

  Other sources report that the mother was trying (and failing) to take the child to a juvenile detention facility. Which does change the situation considerably, I think.

  There is no point or need to blame the flatfoot. He took a shot to the junk and he had parental permission, and further, he had dept guidelines suggesting the Taser should be used.

  Which is not to say there is not blame to go around. The PR contact quoted in some articles talks about how a child could easily be injured if the officer had simply overpowered her. Of course, we know that there is also potential for injury when a Taser is used, either as a direct result, or incurred by the falling and convulsions. Are the odds of injury from a Taser less than those of overpowering? I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet neither does the PR contact and neither does the author of the dept’s Taser guidelines.

• 14 Rob Molecule // Nov 18, 2009 at 4:16 PM

  Um, parents cannot give permission to abuse a child. If the mother had tasered her own daughter, she’d be in jail herself.

• 15 NYCPhotorights // Nov 18, 2009 at 6:33 PM

  If the mother had tased the child I bet the same officer would have arrested her for child abuse.

• 16 genewitch // Nov 18, 2009 at 10:55 PM

  if an adult can give an officer consent to tase a child, then couldn’t an adult not consent to tase a child?

  If so, could not then an adult not consent to being tased themselves? If so, isn’t deliberately harming someone without their consent considered battery or assault and battery in this country?
  And since the taser is known to cause DEATH, wouldn’t it also be attempted murder? Or gross negligence to deploy a taser?

  these are just questions.

• 17 EdinMiami // Nov 19, 2009 at 1:13 AM

  #1 Where is JL and what have you done with him/her?

  ***This just in***
  Hell has frozen over and pigs can fly.
  The affect of JL’s admission continues to ripple through space and time.
  News at 11.

  *poke**poke*

• 18 Diane_Elventen // Nov 19, 2009 at 2:38 AM

  WTF???
  10 year old would be a minor under her parents care. Without any other information other then this article, the mother should be charged for trying to get the officer to tase her child. Abuse by proxy!? and the officer needs to loose his badge and god find a deep dark hole somewhere where there are no children. I am a manditory reporter. If you don’t know it means I work with children and if I have any evidence be it direct or indirect like the child tells me something i am required by law to call in a report it. this includes any behaviors i might see that can cause harm to a child. Like a baby falling out of a cart and landing on its head and the parent refused to take the child in for medical help. Children not buckled in while their car is driving down the road. A child tells me that their father hits them because they made a silly face and dad hits them all the time.

  OMG I can’t even express deeply enough how much this story just twist my guts and angers me. This was just plain wrong. Mom need to lose child to someone who can manage her and that cop need to find another career.

• 19 Christy // Nov 19, 2009 at 1:51 PM

  There is more to this story…the mother was struggling with the girl trying to get her to shower and go to bed. Before tasing this young girl the officer tried assisting the mother in placing the girl in the shower. When this didn’t work, he took her to the living room and told her she was going to be arrested. She struggled as he tried to cuff her, this is when he got kicked in the groin so he felt it appropriate to tase her. When the cop arrived he found the girl curled up in the floor crying, his job should have been to protect her, not further abuse. In my mind, if a strange man comes into your home and tries to force you into the shower he needs to be arrested. And the mother might not have been able to suggest he tase her if she didn’t work for the sherriff’s department. Truely a sad day in america for innocent children

• 20 Judith // Nov 19, 2009 at 5:40 PM

  this story is disgusting. that poor kid; I’d be “emotionally disturbed” too, growing up with a crazy, controlling mother who called the police and had me carted off to jail for such offenses as not showering before bedtime, and getting upset when the abusive parent makes a major case out of it.this little girl might as well have been tattooed with “doesn’t have a chance of living a normal life” on her at birth. and the idiot police aid and abet it instead of telling the mom that a child who doesn’t bathe or who has a yelling fit is not a police matter. a “danger to ehrself?” she should have kicked her mother instead of the cop’ I would not have lifted a finger to help this perverted excuse for a parent.
  sorry to use such strong language – I;m, generally a nonviolent person. but the abuse of force with this little girl ebgs for strong measures, like getting her the HELL out of that swamp called Arkansas.

• 21 Tom Jankowski // Nov 19, 2009 at 6:29 PM

  I’m sure John Walsh; host of America’s Most Wanted would also be disgusted with this.

• 22 the lone white boy // Nov 19, 2009 at 8:36 PM

  I’m curious if this cop was one of those big fat cops who could barely make from the police cruiser to the doorstep of the house without wheezing & having to take a break. Maybe THEN I could believe that a cop couldnt handle an unarmed ten year old without a tazer.

  update: Cop is suspended… but NOT because he tasered the girl…. but because he didnt record it (to bolster the cop’s side)

  http://www.katv.com/news/stories/1109/679801.html

  btw…. carlos…I LOVE the edit button on the comments!

• 23 Concerned Citizen // Nov 20, 2009 at 12:17 PM

  Diane – you’re a mandated reporter, right? Can’t CPS do something about this? I’ve heard disturbing rumors that the mother has been trying to dump this child off with Juvenille Detention for a while. Can’t CPS invenstigate or something? That woman is going to kill that girl if something isn’t done!

• 24 Happy Tinfoil Cat // Nov 20, 2009 at 2:23 PM

  That kid may just turn out to be okay… I mean, any scared, naked, 10 year old girl having the mental capacity to kick the cop in the nuts, has to all right in my book. The cop on the other hand, shooting said girl in the back, tsk tsk.

• 25 jgodsey // Nov 21, 2009 at 10:41 AM

  indeed….he should have arrested the mother for making a false report..who calls the police because their child is having a tantrum…you basically WAIT IT OUT! and if the child doesn’t calm down..THAT’s a medical problem. I hope she loses custody she has poor judgement and the cop needs to lose his badge.

• 26 Judith // Nov 21, 2009 at 12:53 PM

  I’m gratified to find a few spots on the We, such as this blog, where people can speak intelligently about this. I;d sure love to hear from someone in Arkansasoutside of maybe Little Rock who could do a “what’s wrong with this picture?” with a little common sense and compassion for children. don;t they believe in child psychoogly or social welfare in that misbegotten part of the world?

  there’s a photo purpoetedly of the liuttle girl on the :smokinggun.com” website. while it;s supposedly a breach of a child’s privacy to give a name or photo of a minor, it;s hard to imagine a sympathetic website owner who did his best to give this tale a human face, literally, and name could do her more dirt than that incompetent female progenitor who does not deserve the title of “mother” and the scummy good ol’ boys in the police force and the court system who really couldn’t care less about the welfare of a small child. she’s a cute, sort of pixie-ish little blonde girl whose face and hair looked perfectly clean. I worked in adolescent mental health for many eyars, and I’m a public school teacher aroudn lots of disabled and distrubed kids now, and this kid does not look like a trigger-quick nutjob at all…it’s the adults in OPzark who seem to have a little self control problem.
  I’ve read the police report; she was “curled up kon the floor crying and screaming.” explain to me how that presented a danger to anyone present; you leave her there on the floor curled up until she calms down.

  you know who I’d love to hear from on this; our former US President and former giovernor of Arkansas Bill Clinton. Chelsea CLinton was the same age as this little girl when her dad was governor of Arkansas, and she was all of 12 when they moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. you guys remember the Presidential Inaururation of 1992, when marian Wroght Edelman of CHildrens Defense Fund gave an impassioned speech about respect and dignity for the children of the US? and she was Hillary Rodham lLinton’s big buddy in that legal capacity rights for all children whether rich, middle class, or poor?

  well, it’s time for Clinton to speak up on behalof of children, like himself, from less-privileged single-parented homes in his home state. tell the jucenile “jsutice” system tyhat they need to HELP children from families with serious problems, not Taser them, not charge them with crimes for being upset, not follow stupid and violent onstructions from stupid violent people.

  you think that if Chelsea CLinton had a bad morning and refused to get up, the CLintons would have called the police to charge her with disorderly conduct or have her tasreed? how about the Obama children; Michelle Obama swaid clearly that she epects her daughters to make their beds in the morning, WHite House or no WHite House. it’s the children of the poor and the marginal who get abused by the clourts.

  Chelsea, come out of obscurity as a financial whatever you are now, and say something in defense of this little girl, if your parents won’t do it. someone from Arkansas needs to speak up.

  god, I’m glad I’m not in Ozark, Arkansas; someone might taser me for thinking children have rights.

• 27 Cal // Nov 29, 2009 at 10:08 AM

  Welcome to the age of the ‘SS’, ‘Gestapo’ mentality era. How that so-called bully police officer can sleep at night I will never know. Does any of these ‘legalized’ bullies have any conscience? What dark souls these poor people have. They must have had traumatic experiences as children, and now want to pay ‘society’ back for the harm done to them.
  Trust me, times are only to get darker people!

• 28 Johnny Law // Nov 30, 2009 at 1:07 AM

  Ahh more of the Nazi example. You are a shining light of logic. Perhaps you should read a little history before you start posting.

• 29 Cal // Nov 30, 2009 at 7:18 AM

  To Johnny Law,

  Sir, here lies some history that you so much desire, it’s from a man who experienced growing up under the Nazi regime.
  “Hilmar von Campe is listed in the 1992 “International Who’s Who of Intellectuals” of the International Biographical Center in Cambridge, England.” ” He is the author of “Defeating the Totalitarian Lie: A Former Hitler Youth Warns America.”
  ” Having grown up under the Nazis, he offers a unique perspective on the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.” ” He warns that there are many similarities between the Nazi society and America of today.”

• 30 Cal // Nov 30, 2009 at 9:10 AM

  Since we are discussing what happened to this 10 year old, remember the 5 year old boy who was handcuffed at his school, because he was acting up in his kindergarten class, and then taken to a ‘physic’ ward for examination? These were adults within the education system, they were unable to handle the situation so they called the police? Welcome to the insane world of the US LEO’s. It’s all such a very sad state of affairs. And let’s not forget the 14year old who was ‘murdered’ at a correctional Boot camp in Florida, by a bunch of self-justifying bullies, while a nurse stood by! Since that incident they have shut down the boot camps due to the overwhelming reaction of the public against such a misuse of ‘authority’. Yes taxpaying citizens still do have a moral conscience, and it must continue before it’s too late.

• 31 ClintJCL // Nov 30, 2009 at 6:50 PM

  UPDATE on ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Arkansas police Taser 10-year-old girl for not getting in the shower:

  Officer fired.

  But not for being a douchebag, and not for being unable to subdue a 10 year old girl without using a weapon that was meant as a replacement for lethal force…

  No..

  He was fired for not turning on his taser camera.

  After all, that turns it into a situation of legal doubt where the taxpayers could lose a lawsuit much easier due to lack of evidence that she ‘deserved’ it.

  Fair enough. Officer Dustin Bradshaw is terminated, at the very least.

  But he’ll probably just get another job where he can get away with being a pig. Like mall cop. Or cop in another district.

  http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11592603

• 32 CaseusBelli // Feb 16, 2010 at 9:43 AM

  Tasers are marketed as ‘less-than-lethal’ weaponry, not as ‘non-lethal’.

  Given this piece of information, it seems that many law enforcement agencies cannot differentiate between those two terms; ergo, they have free reign to deploy such weaponry without regard to public safety.

  Idiots.

• 33 Erin // Feb 16, 2010 at 10:32 AM

  Judith,
  Would you agree that blanket statements aren’t productive? Are all blondes dumb? Are all Chinese men incredibly smart?
  Not everyone from that “swamp called Arkansas” is like this. As a matter of fact, even your knowledge of the local geography is quite flawed. Not every police officer who serves in Arkansas is an incompetent. (I would think that someone as allegedly ‘educated’ as you might make better use of Boolean logic.) As far as ‘education’ is concerned, your posts were so incongruent and hideously mangled that I practically had to hold my breath and go cross-eyed to make heads or tails of them.
  As for wanting someone from Arkansas to chime in, why do you need someone from Arkansas to say something about this? Do you honestly think that we are so dimwitted that we would agree with the actions of this officer? Just because I may have grown up in a small southern town doesn’t mean that I or any other Arkansan wouldn’t be able to see the folly in this policeman’s actions.
  As for your comments about being glad you’re not from here, I can only agree; I am delighted that you’ve chosen not to reside here.

• 34 efjuflrhii // Jul 6, 2010 at 4:00 AM

  WTF!!!!!!!!!wat kind of a retard tases a ten yr old!?!?!?!!! and the mom is so stupid who calls the cops on there daghter and the dum ass police y did he tase her is he not man enough to calm down a to yr old dam!! if i was that girls dad i would tase his ass untill he died

Leave a Comment

Name

Mail

Website