Police pepper spray 8 year old

[Ravek]

The kid apparently has no conscience and is extremely violent, but I can't imagine that a few adults wouldn't be able to overpower him. What the hell were those teachers doing?

 

[aashell13]

Pepper spray? wouldn't have been my first choice, but i'm not a cop and i wasn't there.

Also, this sounds suspiciously like a case of poor parental discipline, especially since the docs can't seem to find anything medically wrong with him.

"when he goes got see his dad in Wyoming [sic]". well, there's your problem. if i pulled a stunt like that when i was a kid, my dad would have BUSTED My A** the second i got home.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

pepper spray will rarely cause any permanent damage, it's designed to be a temporary "GTFO" device. In the situation, I believe the police really showed restraint, they could have easily taken the kid down or used a tazer.

also: grrrrrr bad parenting annoys me to no end

 

[Dango]

Pepper spray's the kinder option really, I'm seriously glad they did that.

Oh calm down, it was either that or physically subdue and cuff him using manoeuvres developed for adults. Children have greater flexibility but they're smaller and their bones are thinner, if they'd have pinned him they could very well have broken a limb or cracked his ribs! At least this way he was safely subdued and the effects will have fully worn off the same day.

Pepper spray's fantastic stuff, it's pretty damn safe and it eliminates the need to fight someone down!

I'm sure they could have improvised. Just because they were trained to take down adults doesn't mean they can't subdue a child without injuring them. The average 8 year old weighs what, 40 pounds? Just pick him up and put in a police car. I don't see why pepper spray was the best option.

 

[godofallu]

The kid was trying to KILL two people. I think they would have been justified if they snapped his arms and legs.

Come on, he wasn't going to kill anyone with a stick. Snap his limbs off over a tantrum? Jesus what's wrong with you.

It seems from the video that the pepperspray had no long lasting effects, so it resolved the situation with no real downside. I say it was acceptable.

 

[shintakie10]

The kid was trying to KILL two people. I think they would have been justified if they snapped his arms and legs.

Come on, he wasn't going to kill anyone with a stick. Snap his limbs off over a tantrum? Jesus what's wrong with you.

It seems from the video that the pepperspray had no long lasting effects, so it resolved the situation with no real downside. I say it was acceptable.

If he had picked up a simple pencil he could have stabbed someone to death with it. Hell, that simple stick could have left one of the teachers permanently blind if he had whapped them right. People shouldnt take a kid lightly just because they're a kid.

 

[Sarge034]

?I do want them to get training ... for crisis situations with children. I don?t think it?s right for an 8-year-old to get pepper-sprayed.? - Mother of Aidan

I don't think it's right for an 8 year old to threaten the life of his teachers. The boy is lucky, once upon a time cops only had their night sticks and guns.

Justified

 

[Antari]

An exceptionally pitiful police force that can't disarm an 8 year old....

 

[Boba Frag]

I think that everyone is at fault here.
The teachers clearly failed to stand up to him as he was getting aggressive, the school didn't properly liaise with the police, and I think the mother is lying to herself when she claims there's nothing wrong with him.

The child clearly has some psychological/behavioural problems but is an 8 year old really that much of a threat to trained police?

Pepper spray was going too far. They obviously shouldn't have let it escalate to that level.

He's a fairly hefty looking 8 year old, but I have serious misgivings about the suitability of the officers involved if they couldn't handle him without resorting to weapons.

 

[oberkid4]

I would like to point out to the group that the stick he had was a piece a of molding that he had pulled off the wall. Witch most likely had nails sticking out of it witch would make it even more dangerous to any one trying to take it away from him.

 

[Konaerix]

Pepper spray is better then a few bullets when it comes to little kids threating to KILL two of his teachers.
However, I have wonder why two full grown adults couldn't have handled a single 8-year old child having an emotional outburst...even if the kid had a "stick".

 

[Dango]

SNIP

He may have anger problems, but still he's just an eight year old armed with a stick. I'm not sure how much experience you have in dealing with pissed off eight year olds (although I may just have an abnormally high amount of experience with them), but eight year olds, even ones as angry as that, would be intimidated (not to mention extremely confused) by 2 armed police officers rushing towards them and yelling. Even if he fought back, eight year olds tire out pretty quickly. If they simply picked him up, he would tire himself out with all his kicking and screaming within a minute or two, so gently placing him inside of a police car wouldn't be much of a daunting task.

Not to mention he was the only one in the classroom, so they could have just waited it out until his mom showed up.

 

[Kuilui]

If the kid was as nuts as they he was then sure I'm sure it made him stop quick. The article said hes normal everywhere else but school. Maybe that pain will stick with him and chill him out from now on.

 

[Sporky111]

"And then they could have also called and asked for a special [police] unit who deals with children..."

I wonder if that's the same police unit that kids are told will take them to jail if they don't eat all their vegetables.

Seriously though, this is blown way out of proportion. It seems like the mom has her head up her ass. Several doctors say there's nothing mentally wrong with the boy, and even though she says she understands what triggers his outbursts she didn't pull him from school.

That being said, I'm sure the police didn't need pepper spray. They should have been more than capable of subduing him. What are they afraid of? I'm sure these are the same police officers that deal with knife-swinging drunks and armed robbers. They should have been able to just give the kid a kick or a swat (heh, they could have called a SWAT team) and gotten the stick away from him.

 

[rutger5000]

The Police has the duty to use violence when it is needed to protect. If this child was a serious tread to himself or the people around him, then the police offficers acted rightly. Personally I can't believe that any eight year old that isn't wielding a firearm can form any possible thread to anybody as long as there are two well trained police officers nearby. (Come one, are they seriously saying they couldn't have just grabbed the kid?). But I wasn't there, so I don't know.

 

[Devil's Due]

Here's a sobering thought for you fellow Escapist readers: That's the future generation of America ....

Yes, because one little nutjob kid defines that America is going to be all nutjob kids.

As for the thread: Cops were justified, kid should have actually been tazered to get it into his head, but that's why I don't work in Law Enforcement, as people complain about you stepping on a fly when chasing a criminal.

Think of the flies.

 

[CJ1145]

This is the THIRD time he's done this? Hell yeah pepper spray the kid, it's a lot better than my response. I probably would have bashed the kid over the head with a heavy object in their position. This was a fairly nonthreatening and sane resolution, considering the brutality they could have easily unleashed on a fucking 8-year-old.