 |
|
|
|||
 |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
 |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Minnesota Cops, School District: OK to Use Tasers On Students
- Text size
Superior Daily Telegram
February 08, 2008
Superior High School scored a dubious first last week when law enforcement officers subdued a student with a Taser stun gun.
The electronic devices have been part of the Superior Police Department’s arsenal for the past two years. Last week, Officer Jeff Darst was the first to deploy one in a school. The target was a 15-year-old boy.
Assistant Police Chief Chuck LaGesse called the Taser’s use reasonable as officers and school administrators struggled to gain control of a violent situation.
“I’m not uncomfortable with it,” school district Superintendent Jay Mitchell said. He said officers used necessary means to defuse a difficult situation.
“In this particular case, the young man involved was out of control,” Mitchell said.
The Taser, a brand name for a stun gun that can propel electrodes toward its intended subject, wasn’t fired.
“They used it as more of a stun gun to get his attention,” Mitchell said.
The teen, who stands 6 feet tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, was not injured by the incident, according to police reports.
“He appeared fine, and there was very little, if any, sign of Taser use on his right back area,” Darst wrote in his report.
An electronic control device like a Taser transmits electrical pulses that lock up skeletal muscles during the few seconds it is applied. Barbs are either shot out of the gun to hook into the suspect’s clothing or skin, or the gun is placed close to the skin causing a stun effect. The Superior Police Department’s X26 and older M26 Tasers pack 50,000 volts but only a fraction of an amp.
“Amperage is what makes electricity deadly,” LaGesse said.
The department deploys its Tasers about 20 times a year, on average, and every officer is trained to use them.
LaGesse said use of the device at a school is uncommon and generally unnecessary, but not prohibited.
According to Superior police reports, the incident started when the student began swearing at staff members and refusing to follow directions. When School Liaison Officer Tom Johnson was called to Assistant Principal Steve Olson’s office to issue the 15-year-old a citation, problems escalated. The boy tried to leave and swung at Johnson when the officer stopped him, according to reports. Johnson placed the boy up against the wall with the help of Olson and Assistant Principal Bill Punyko. By that point, Johnson wrote in his report, the boy “was totally out of control … flailing his arms and trying to either hit us and/or get away.”
The three adults brought him to the floor, but the boy continued to fight. He repeatedly kicked Johnson in the lower back and tried to bite both school officials, reports stated.
Johnson called in more officers to help prevent the boy from hurting himself or the adults. Three officers responded and Darst deployed the Taser as they struggled to apply handcuffs. The boy complied after the stun was applied.
At the point when officers entered the room, LaGesse said, they had other options to gain control — using pressure points, pepper spray or a baton.
“All of these are more likely to create injury than a Taser,” LaGesse said.
Electronic control devices are not governed by the state of Wisconsin.
“We don’t have any mandate at the moment,” said Ken Hammond, law enforcement education director for the Wisconsin Department of Justice Training and Standards Bureau.
While the bureau does offer sample policies on its Web site, he said, “Policies are a matter of home rule and local control.”
Superior’s policy on the use of nonlethal force places Tasers on the same level as pepper spray. They may be deployed to control a dangerous or violent person when other tactics have been ineffective or the officer believes other options would be either unsafe or ineffective.
“Our guidelines take into consideration: ‘What do you need to do to establish control?’ Age is really secondary,” LaGesse said.
Use of Tasers by law enforcement officers is not prohibited by Superior school district policies.
“When police take over, they do whatever they think is necessary,” Mitchell said. Crafting a policy to prevent Taser use, he said, would be like tying the hands of police officers.
“Having a person out of control, trying to deal with him and not hurt him is a difficult situation to be in,” Mitchell said.
The Duluth school district would frown on the use of Tasers in its schools, Superintendent Keith Dixon said Thursday.
“We don’t necessarily have a policy at this time,” Dixon said, “but [Duluth Police Chief] Gordon Ramsey and I have talked about it, and in our judgment Tasers are not an appropriate use in our schools. I don’t know what happened in Superior, but in our discussions we just see too many downsides and we don’t want them in our buildings. … I know he has informed his officers of that, so that is where we are at on the issue right now.”
The 15-year-old was arrested on charges of battery to a law enforcement officer, attempted battery to school officials, resisting an officer and disorderly conduct. He was then released to his mother.
-
- Social bookmarks
- Email this article
-
- Print this page
- Share on Twitter
February 8th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
what do they mean by issuing him a “citation”?
February 8th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Just another case of control and getting us use to the idea that a taser is ok
February 8th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Conditioning that Tasers are acceptable.
The act of taking him down created the resistance that they charged him with. The ONLY thing he did wrong was resist an officer. He did not assault or batter the officer because those things are intentional.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
What are they suggesting when they say the stun gun wans’t fired? They did stun him. We are all in trouble in this country.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Once freedom has been taken from a people by their government – has their ever been a case in history in which it was restored without the bloodshed of revolution ? ?
February 8th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Cops don’t belong in schools. Period.
February 8th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
OK, first, small point, but needs to be clarified; Superior is in Wisconsin, not in Minnesota. Duluth(where the incident did NOT take place) is in Minnesota.
Second, in responce to Steve Landau – Tasers can be used in 2 ways. Either press the taser againt the skin of the target and fire the charge or the electrodes can be fired at a target a distance away.
In my opinion, the use of tasers = use of fear for control. This is just another example of how we are being intentionally desensitized to the use of fear for control. What about a little communication and understanding? It’s lack of communication and understanding that leads people to react violently. More violence(wether leathal or not) is not the answer, as I’m sure we can all agree that violence only brings more violence.
Oh! and Alex, please get rid of that stupid netflix ad from your prisionplanet.com site. I understand the need to have advertising, but it really is intrusive to have it pop up every time I try to follow any link contained within your articles despite the fact that I have pop-up blocking enabled in my browser.
Thanks
February 9th, 2008 at 12:29 am
well, i have a problem wtih torture devices being employed in our schools, as well as cops being in schools. i never had to deal with pigs in school when i was there (only 7 years ago) but that is some serious crap. i agree that sometimes security is needed in school, but it should never be a cop, and unless it is drug (and pot is not a drug, look up the definition if a drug and see if it even remotely fits) or murder-related, no cops should ever be involved with anything going on in a school.
and to Jason Houser, i think that may be a worm on ur comp, duder. b/c i get no netflix ads, and i pointedly do not use pop-up blockers due to the fact that they are as malicious as the pop-ups they block. your best bet is to get a list of the programs that are supposed to run on ur comp (original programming) and go into your task manager (assuming it’s PC or Linux) and search ur hardrive for the programs that don’t match up to ur list (be sure to ignore your running programs such as realplayer, or yahoo messenger, etc.), then delete em. i’ve been doing that for 6 years on my comp and it’s lasted for the entire length (i’m a bit of an egghead so i purchased wisely in jan ‘02 so that my comp is still viable now)
February 9th, 2008 at 2:03 am
so, for all you guys who disapprove completely of taser use on giant, violent men, I guess that means you prefer they use the ‘pressure points, pepper spray, or baton’ route?
trust me…as a former school teacher….sad as it is, sometimes, this is unavoidable from a safety perspective. don’t blame the school for the violence brought on them. just be glad no one got badly hurt.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Well here we go again. Given that schools continue to be targets for people and students that desire to have a target that can’t shoot back, I can see why having police in schools can be a good thing. However that doesn’t change the psychological mess that has started these threatening situations to begin with. Having worked in both DYC (Department of Youth Corrections)and State Mental Hospitals and group homes, there are ways of controling such kids and adults (even totally psychotic ones) without electrical shock, I’ve done it many times. I do have an aversion to tasers as I think the evidence repeatedly shows that police often use them when some rational discussion and giving people some space would suffice. That being said, most police aren’t trained in psychology, or even conflict resolution, more often than not, theyre their to intimidate people and arrest people. In most situations the very presence of an officer can elevate the situation. My, how things have changed. When I was in school, everyone had a shotgun or rifle in their truck and nobody ever even tried to shoot someone. We didn’t have police in schools and nobody was dumb enough to try to shoot up the school, the students would fill you full of holes. I guess we have to change with the times, but like many of you, I question the real causes of these shootings in the first place, be it psych drugs gone bad, manchurian programming, violence on T.V., bad or no parenting, etc. In the end I would have to know more about what was happening to the kid to judge if the police were in the right and not abusing the new toy as we’ve seen so many times lately.
February 9th, 2008 at 4:44 am
the UN, much as I dislike them for about everything they DO, has declared tazer = torture. this is ONE decision by the UN that I agree with. there has been over 300 tazer related deaths reported with flimsy excuses given as to those deaths “oh he was on DRUGS” or a new “excitability anxiety” type of disorder to conveniently justify it and lay blame to the victim. this government has declared a war on the populace with the “war on drugs” and “the war on terrorism” so damn right (as per comment by dick cheney) they can be charged with war crimes about these tazers.
February 9th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Hell yeah!!!… this is torture. Who’s bringing Felony Battery charges against the Scholl Officials and those uniformed Government Thugs who deployed the tazers? This kid regardless of his physical atributes is a minor. W
February 9th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Hell yeah!!!… this is torture. Who’s bringing Felony Battery charges against the Scholl Officials and those uniformed Government Thugs who deployed the tazers? This kid regardless of his physical atributes, is a minor! When a Parent uses force to dicipline or restrain a Child he or she are charged with Child Abuse. So why is it that the same standards are not applied to this Maggots who would inflict this sort of torture on a 15 year old boy? The hypocracy of the so-called Law is so obvious. When someone attacks or kills a Cop he or she is looking at mandatory jail sentences or the Death Penalty. But when Police Officers engage in unlawful shootings, and kill unarmed Citizens, or simply beat the hell out of them for their sick perverted enjoyment they are rarely if ever charged with anything, even when there is obvious evidence of their crime. And yes, lets take a look at all those deaths as a result of Tazer use, when will those decrepit gestapos be charged?
February 9th, 2008 at 6:46 am
I agree with all of you concerning this issue. This government and all its “goon” employees are totally out of control. YOU DON”T TASE KIDS!!!!! People who would do this have no conscience of any type. It’s time to wake up and forcibly take back this country from the real criminals who currently run it.
February 9th, 2008 at 7:00 am
gbc6uhzntp78v [URL=http://www.533907.com/607303.html] krgw7t1yn1eduxm [/URL] vi6udqq2nli
February 9th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Let’s see, the violent student is 6 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and was out of control. I say it was better taze him instead of shoot him. Whether 15 years old or 30 years old, a person of this size could do some serious damage to anyone within range of his rage.
Let’s hear from witnesses before we blame the officers involved. Also, I’d like to put you in the officer’s shoes and see what you would have done. I’d bet you would have tazed the brat too.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
The officer was attempting to imprison the teenager within the room without trial when the teen had used no violence until that moment, while the teen should have known better than to swing on a cop he was merely responding to the violence of imprisonment that was already being perpetrated by the cop. The statement by the authorities says it all, “he was totally out of control”, i.e. acting as a person who thinks he is free, this cannot, of course, be tolerated.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
— Let’s see, the violent student is 6 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and was out of control. I say it was better taze him instead of shoot him. Whether 15 years old or 30 years old, a person of this size could do some serious damage to anyone within range of his rage.
Let’s hear from witnesses before we blame the officers involved. Also, I’d like to put you in the officer’s shoes and see what you would have done. I’d bet you would have tazed the brat too.—
The fact that you fear someone because of their size DOES NOT give you the right to initiate pre-emptive violence. I was the same size as this kid when I was 12 and can attest to the fact that people often overreact to someones physical stature – if you are a violent pinhead you will assume the worst of someone who is large and expect the same behavior from them that you yourself would exhibit if you were not a tiny little control freak who feels powerless in the face of – well, anything.
If I were the cop in the cop’s shoes I would not have tried to illegally detain the student in the first place and he probably wouldn’t have swung on me. Let the kid go home and cool off and deal with it the next day for god’s sake, is that so freaking hard?
February 9th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
They outta just make tasers with lethal amperage and use em as lethal weapons.
I say give kids adult rights and hold them to adult responsibilites. They will rise to the occasion or die. Either way we get a better population.
February 9th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
There is even a more sinister/hidden, agenda to this taseing craze than most people are aware of…A strong ZOT of electricity messes with the magnetic energy of those who still have alot of “Human” linniage…A strong ZOT of electricity has the ability to knock “Human,Essence” out of His/Her, aura….makeing it easy for “denial spirits” to occupy the form of those who are tased…this is why they co-hurse the cops into takeing a hit….it also GREATHY slows down and damages the speed at which the “Heart” is vibrateing….My advice is to not get tased, at any cost….
Taseing damages the part of “Humans,” that still has a connection to Our forgotton Mother. The Will, or The Emotional Body….It is SHE who is the target of these luciferian attacts….just like it has alwsys been…
Dont blieve Me? …Mention “The Mother of Everything,” to a fundie….watch him/her clam up and try to give yas the bum’s rush…
Those who do not have ACCEPTANCE for EVERYTHING that HAS to take place in order for Our Original Mother to be restored to Her RIGHTFULL glory and position of power….doesnt even have a snow ball’s chance in hell of liveing threw the reversals that are just about to precipiate into our reality, here on Earth.
February 9th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
The kid probably had twinkies for lunch, washed down with Mountain Dew. Maybe Ritalin and Celebrex for breakfast and nothing to play but Halo3 and Assassin’s Creed video games the night before. If Dad’s on a drunk and Mom working 3 jobs to make rent and we do nothing to help kids as a society, we are treating our kids worse than cattle in more ways than one. Adults used to be smart enough to psychologically control kids. Now it’s all about high tech indimidation. There’s gotta be a better way. We can be kind. We can take care of each other.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
The school system is set up to be disfunctional so the children in turn will also be disfunctional. Tasers in schools are only the beginning of a sad downward spiral into dehumanization. Soon they will just use cattle prods to keep everyone in line. i agree with goldsmith. It’s all about pre conditioning the youth to live in a high tech fascist police state.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
This does not surprise me. What does surprise me though is that there was a not a parental uprising right after this was announced.
‘We are going to electrocute your children like cattle’ – Police force.
‘As long as I can still watch football’ – Parent
‘No problem’ – Police force.
‘Pass me da beer’ – Parent.
Sad.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Someone changed the headline on the way from from the newspaper to here and made a mistake.
It should read “Wisconsin” not “Minnesota.”
This copy is from the Duluth. MN newspaper article (News Tribune)
http://www.duluthnewstribune.c.....ction=news
- different from the Superior, Wisconsin newspaper article (Superior Daily Telegram)
http://www.superiortelegram.co.....ion%3DNews
The Superior Daily article does not include the paragraph about Duluth, MN.
MN and Duluth schools are commendable for NOT approving tasering
February 11th, 2008 at 12:28 am
ATTENTION…ATTENTION…ATTENTION…!
THIS VIDEO NEEDS TO GET TO ALEX NOW!
THIS WOMAN’S STORY MUST GET OUT!
GOD WILLING ONE OF THESE LINKS WILL WORK.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=353_1202062436
February 11th, 2008 at 8:59 am
“And when I vest my flashing sword And my hand takes hold in judgment I will take vengeance upon mine enemies And I will repay those who haze me O Lord, raise me to Thy right hand And count me among Thy Saints .”
“Whosoever shed last blood. By man shall his blood be shed. For immunity of God make he the man. Destroy all that which is evil. So that which is good may flourish. And I shall count thee among my favored sheep. And you shall have the protection of all the Angels in heaven.”
“Never shall innocent blood be shed. Yet the blood of the wicked shall flow like a river. Ye shall spread your wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of God. “
February 11th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I would like to know one thing…how would these cops have survived in the 50’s? Even with all of their training, their advantage in numbers, and the protection offered to them as officers of the law, they can’t subdue a violent teenager without resorting to electrocution? Campus Officer Johnny Law and his friends must hold the world record for being host to the smallest pair of testicles on the planet. Sadism and cowardice go hand-in-hand with excessive force. Where was the electrocution squad when Virgina Tech students were being gunned down by a madman? Hiding behind trees. Where were they when Columbine was being bathed in blood? Pointing their guns at evacuees. I guess when there is no anti-war demonstration to illegally disperse, or no random photographer to abuse, and you just really need to scratch that itch to torture and oppress the people who pay your salary, a 300 pound kid makes an acceptable substitute. I wonder if Johnny Law feels like a man when he looks in the mirror and knows that a torture device is the only thing that stands between him and total humiliation at the hands of anyone who doesn’t comply with his chickens--- commands.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
If you taze my kid I pitty you it will be up your ass,you constitution country killer you look old enough to have sense but iq 70 probably.