Child Tazed with Mom's Approval; Cop Suspended for not Filming It

By Emily Grube on November 19, 2009 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

"Honey? Are you ready for your shower and bedtime?"

"No! I don't wanna!"

"You better, or I'll call the police and have them arrest you and taze you."

".... ummm, what?"

An Arkansas woman called the police on her 10-year-old daughter who was throwing a tantrum and refused to take a shower. Not only did the police come and attempt to bring order to the screaming pre-teen, but when the mother allegedly told the officer that he could taze the girl if he needed to, he obliged.

May I take a break from this story to congratulate the parent on a job well done. Knowing that this option is possible, I'm sure parents from across the country will be throwing away their touchy-feely books about the importance of communication with your child and putting the police number on speed dial. Why haven't parents thought of this before?

Because it's very dumb.

Now back to the story. Officer Dustin Bradshaw, as reported in the Arkansas News, was trying to cuff the demon child as "she was violently kicking and verbally combative." After she kicked him in the groin, out came the Taser. The AP reported that he tazed her for "less than a second" so that he could cuff her without causing her to injure herself.

Yes, let's spare the child from an injury by tazing her with X amount of volts.

So what will happen to this officer? Rest easy concerned citizens, he is being reprimanded... for not filming it. He is being suspended for seven days, with pay, for not having a video camera attached to the Taser. Ozark Police Department rules dictate officers must have a video camera in place to record all tazings (child tazings included).

Even though Taser warns that a Taser "should not be used on [a small child] unless the situation justifies possible higher risk of death or serious injury" it is up to the department to see when it is "necessary."

Is a groin kick classified under "serious injury" now? If it is, then thank goodness the mother called the cops because that ferocious animal needs to be behind bars. Maybe some time in prison will teach that 10-year-old that she can't throw tantrums and behave like a... child.  

Copied to clipboard