Cop Tasers Girl for Resisting Bedtime

Varmit · November 22, 2009, 04:36:39 PM

Perfect example of a Law Enforcment gone wrong.
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The local police chief in Ozark, Arkansas is standing behind one of his officers who tasered a 10-year-old girl who was refusing to go to bed.

The bizarre story is laid out in a police incident report obtained by website The Smoking Gun.

Officer Dustin Bradshaw was called to the home by a woman complaining that her daughter was being unruly and refusing to go to sleep. Bradshaw wrote that when he arrived at the home, he found Kiara Medlock "balled up in (sic) the floor crying and screaming."

After watching her mother attempt to get Kiara into the bathtub with little success, Bradshaw took the girl into the living room and threatened her with jail. That didn't settle things down. At some point, Bradshaw claims Kiara's mother told him to "taser her if I needed to."

Bradshaw then tried to handcuff Kiara. But he couldn't manage that either.

To hear Bradshaw tell it, he was now in the midst of a full-on brawl on the living-room floor with Kiara, a Grade 5 student. The 65-pounder was "verbally combative ... struck me with her legs and feet in the groin," Bradshaw wrote.

That's when he reached for his holster and delivered a "very very (sic) brief drive stun to her back with my taser."

Unsurprisingly, Kiara's struggling stopped immediately. Bradshaw then cuffed her and carried her to his squad car, since she could no longer walk.

The incident hit the news when Kiara's father, Anthony Medlock, took exception. Medlock does not live with Kiara's mother.

"I want to know how the heck in God's green earth can they get away with this ... If you can't pick the kid up and take her to your car, handcuff her, then I don't think you need to be an officer," Medlock told local Ozark 40/29 news. He said his daughter has shown signs of emotional issues, but she "doesn't deserve to be treated like a dog."

The local police chief stood behind Bradshaw and his decision.

"He had no other choice. He had to get the child under control," said Ozark police Chief Jim Noggle.

No disciplinary action is pending against Bradshaw. However, the Associated Press has reported that the FBI has dispatched agents to Arkansas to investigate.

Medlock said he will attempt to gain sole custody of his daughter.

-Toronto Star.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/728622--cop-tasers-girl-for-refusing-to-go-to-bed

Diane Amberg · November 22, 2009, 06:13:59 PM

So what would you have done?

Dee Gee · November 22, 2009, 06:35:50 PM

To start with the girl evidently has some mental problems but the police office has a lot more problems if he can't talk to and calm down a 10 year old. The mother needs to take responsibility of raising her child and teach her manners and not call the police when she has a problem.

Lookatmeknow!! · November 23, 2009, 06:39:07 AM

This is so wrong on so many levels! I mean I have 3 girls who never want to go to bed! I don't call the cops, I would never dream of tasering them. I would try calming them down, I have to do that with one on occassion, and usually it works. If not, I do what any mother would do, I rock her. Yes, I would rock her if it would help. She is 4, but still she is my baby and if that is what it takes to calm her down and get her to sleep, I say that it is fine. And as for my other two, I just tell them, to bad it's time for bed. They might make some comments, but none that are harming, and we all go upstairs and do our bedtime thing. We make sure their beds are ready for them to sleep in, and turn on their heat blankets, maybe a story, and tuck them in bed, including lots of hugs and kisses!!! Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how we do it!! No police and they go to sleep!!!

Jo McDonald · November 23, 2009, 07:40:27 AM

I think it is outrageous ! This poor child has had NO upbringing -evidently - with any loving discipline.
That is definitely child abuse.....and the Mother needs to be held accountable for a lot of things, it seems to me.

Diane Amberg · November 23, 2009, 08:01:10 AM

I can't help wondering is she is unruly at whatever kind of school she goes to, or that was behavior just for home.The mother needs some counseling or parenting classes for dealing with whatever problem her daughter has.

Mom70x7 · November 23, 2009, 08:59:43 AM

I can believe the child was out of control, but . . .

as foster parents we had specific training to handle out of control children - even when they were larger than we were.

We took the Mandt training - very effective!

West Elk teachers have also had Mandt training. I think some of them became trainers themselves.

The majority of Mandt is how to talk and position your body so there is no running away.
When that doesn't work, part of what Mandt teaches is how to hold out-of-control children safely.
Handcuffs not needed. Tasers not needed.

The officer should have had training of a similar kind.

larryJ · November 23, 2009, 09:34:35 AM

This is so seriously wrong. That child needs special help as in counseling, maybe psychiatric help. The mother also needs the same training. Unless that child is armed with a weapon of some sort, there is no reason for the mother to call the police. And, unless that child has a weapon, there is no reason for the officer to use a taser. There must be more to the story because I can't believe that a police officer and the mother could not restrain the child. Perhaps the child needs to be removed from her mother's custody for a while to get the help she needs.

Larryj

Varmit · November 23, 2009, 07:36:01 PM

Why is it that everytime a story like this makes the news people automatically jump to the "..oh they need counselling" thing? Could it be tht this child is just being a brat and is in dire need of a whipping?

srkruzich · November 23, 2009, 08:08:18 PM

Quote from: Varmit on November 23, 2009, 07:36:01 PM
Why is it that everytime a story like this makes the news people automatically jump to the "..oh they need counselling" thing? Could it be tht this child is just being a brat and is in dire need of a whipping?

Nahh that would be too easy to whip their butts. Doesn't involve thousands of dollars of shrink fees and a lotta self pity. Now i have known some kids that age that could have used a good tasering. They were spawns of satan.