Police pepper spray 8 year old

[mooncalf]

Good choice or not, I don't think the cops should get in trouble for it. They were the ones called on to respond, they had to make the best decisions they could with the knowledge and equipment they had. Pepper spray worked, sure it's not nice, but it wasn't a nice situation, and now it's over, lesson learned for the adults involved.

So the news here is, Parents Protective Of Child. Well duh...

 

[Eldarion]

/snip

Your right of course. Can't touch mommy's little angel no matter how much of a foul mouthed little monster it is.

I love kids, I really do. Sometimes though I wonder if we treat them way to gently.

 

[0mn1p0t3ntg6y]

Being myself, when my friend first told me this my response was "Mabe now the squeaker will get off Xbox live." But seriously it may have been justified, or I just don't like kids.

 

[Bios06]

"By the time police arrived, young Aidan was in a full-blown meltdown. He had ripped molding from the wall and tossed chairs and a TV cart around the classroom. He had grabbed a stick and chased his teachers into the office, where they locked themselves in."

I'm sorry, but this made me LOL hardcore. Truly, two adult teachers, ran from an 8 year old with a stick...REALLY? Besides the obvious, which is that two adults should easily be able to overpower an 8 year old with a non lethal object, where the hell did a kid in a school like that get an object that could potentially be turned into a weapon? Someone was not careful, watchful, or doing their job correctly to allow a potential weapon to fall into the hands of an unstable kid. However, despite someone's mistake, there is no excuse for running away from a kid with a stick, no matter how unstable he is. As someone who has both worked with children for years as well as taught martial arts to the them, a pissy 8 year old is still not strong enough to overpower a frightened adult.

As for the cops pepper spraying him, how else would one respond to an emergency call of an unstable child with a weapon (apparently scary enough to frighten the teachers)? It was as non lethal as it could be.

" Doctors and therapists have evaluated the boy, she said, and can find no cause for his periodic outbursts. ?They all say there?s nothing mentally wrong with him.? "

This speaks volumes about both the parent and the kid, clearly there is some assumption that the kid believes he can get away with doing as he pleases at school, as there is nothing mentally wrong with the kid. The mother should be better at disciplining her son and making clear that just because its school, he cannot do as he pleases. This also begs the question as to why he's in a program for children who are unstable, a place where acting out may be more tolerated, as opposed to a traditional school setting. One where this kind of behavior is looked down upon.


TL;DR: The teachers are pansies for running away from an 8 year old, the cops did what they had to in a questionable situation that was presented as dangerous. The mother is incompetent as hell, and clearly has no grasp on fixing her sons issues.

 

[xdom125x]

I think it's excessive force. Pepper spray can be leathal if the person has an allergic reaction to it. I don't think you should use it in a situation that doesn't call for leathal force. Same with tasers.

Wait, I don't understand. You want the cops to reserve use of less-than-lethal force for only when they want the guy dead because there is the off chance of the guy having an allergic reaction to it? If you want them to only use tasers and pepper spray for when they are trying to kill the guy, why not use a gun, or some other tool designed to kill.

Yes, somebody can have an allergic reaction to pepper-spray but i wouldn't make the cops stop using it for submission of a perp. I would consider that one of the risks of committing crimes and disrespecting the cops authoritay. Same applies for tasers in the off chance of some perp having a heart condition or something that would make a taser lethal.

Edit: Didn't notice that this flaw in your argument was previously pointed out.

 

[vapidaphid]

Go Team Pepper Spray!

Given the choice between bullets and pepper spray, I'm pretty sure the kid will be happy they chose the later. Unless the cops were terrible shots, or if he wanted some kind of pre-teen martyrdom thing.

Personally, I think teachers should be equipped with pepper spray at all times. Some little punk starts raising hell in class, zap. Show that kid who's boss. Cheating? Not anymore.

 

[RheynbowDash]

Yeah, its never the kid's fault. Blame the police. I blame the parents for not kicking this little shit's ass in the beginning.

 

[Xannieros]

"I was gonna make something sharp... if they came out" And 3rd time thats happened? He needs to learn a lesson.

Yeah. Completely justified.

 

[Dango]

He was an 8 year old with a stick up against the police, couldn't they have just picked him up or something?

 

[twistedmic]

Pepper spray was really the only option that they had to subdue the kid. Tazers on someone that young are lethal (I believe), rubber/bean-bag bullets would cause severe injuries and it's more likely than not that the cops trying to physically subdue him would have resulted in fatal or crippling injuries.

 

[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.