Monday, November 23, 2009

OK, But Don't Expect A Card On Mother's Day

Much as we'd like to tell you that our parents were maladjusted sociopaths--it would make the empathy quotient of the biopic we plan to have made about our lives after we become famous more attractive to the female demographic, we have to say that all things considered they were really pretty run of the mill. Oh sure, our old daddy subscribed to the indentured servitude school of child rearing (I brought you into this world so you owe me, now get in here and change the channel on the tee vee) and our sainted mother's theory of illness on school days was if it isn't bleeding, take an aspirin and get on the bus, but by and large they pretty much stayed within normal parental conventions.

We needed a momma like this one.

A police officer in a small US town used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl after he said her mother gave him permission to do so. "At first she wanted me to shoot the girl, although she did say I should try and make it just a flesh wound," the officer said. "In retrospect, I probably should have tased the mother."

Now the town's mayor is calling for an investigation into whether the Taser use was appropriate. Well, sure it was appropriate," said a neighbor. "I mean the mother was willing to french fry her little girl for misbehaving. Think what she would have done to the cop if he'd told her no."

Ozark, Arkansas Officer Dustin Bradshaw's report said the girl screamed, kicked and resisted any time her mother tried to get her in the shower before bed. "since neither one of us had ever experienced a disobedient child before, her mother told me to 'curl that little cracker's hair' if I needed to," he wrote.

The child was "violently kicking and verbally combative" when Mr Bradshaw tried to take her into custody and she kicked him in the groin. "She called me 'gross' and said my momma was a 'stinky pants,'" he added. "I considered calling for backup."

Now, let's get this straight. The average height and weight of a 10 year old girl is 4' 3" and a little over 70 pounds. Even if she kicked him in the...um...gonadal area how much harm could she do? And does he usually try to take people into custody by presenting his private parts to them?

The names of the girl and her mother were redacted in the report, but everyone knows who they are because when the girl walks by a light bulb it flickers.

Mayor Vernon McDaniel said he wants Arkansas State Police - and if they decline, the FBI - to investigate the incident. State police have said they didn't want to have anything to do with "a bunch of crazy hillbillies," and the FBI won't say whether it is involved. "If she didn't wiggle over state lines while she was flopping around after he zapped her, we're not interested," said a spokesperson for the Little Rock FBI office.

"People here feel like that he made a mistake in using a Taser, and maybe he did, but we will not know until we get an impartial investigation," he said. He made a a mistake? What about the mom? What's she going to do when the kid gets older and misses curfew? Call out the National Guard?

Police Chief Jim Noggle said no disciplinary action was taken against Mr Bradshaw. He said Tasers are a safe way to subdue people who are a danger to themselves or others. "Well, except when it kills you," he said.

"We didn't use the Taser to punish the child - that was just a sort of added benefit," he added.

Mr Noggle said the girl will face disorderly conduct charges as a juvenile in the incident. "Tried to get her charged as an adult," Noggle said. "But the prosecutor said it's hard to do that with people who still play with dolls."

The girl's father, Anthony Medlock, said that his daughter has emotional problems but that she didn't have a weapon and shouldn't have been Tasered. "What's next?" he asked billy club her because she won't eat her peas?"

"My daughter does not deserve to be tased and be treated like an animal," said Mr Medlock, who is divorced from the girl's mother and does not have custody.

Might want to reconsider that arrangement Mr. Medlock. Just saying.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exactly.
Mr. Medlock should be the true supervisor of the child. The divorce is there for a reason. Unfortunately, no tests are ever due before one is deemed fit to be a parent.
Maybe Obama might tackle that.

Anonymous said...

The tasing is over the top. I can understand frustration with teenagers. Really I can. They are honery little bastards who know that they can get away with a lot, or else they will tell everyone you beat them. They do things to adults that would end in a physical altercation under any other circumstances and then hide behind their minor status.

The problem here is what is the mother going to do? If the teen is a turd. If she could afford counceling she would have gotten it by now. Daddy is not in the picture. And little Missy knows how to work the divorce system.

Most states will allow you to call DHS or CPS when issues of disciplining children arise like this. Especially if the child is becoming abusive to the parent, which sometimes happens. No matter what the parent does, it looks bad at that point and teens who will take it that far are more than willing to capitalize on that.

Sad. Too bad the Officer was dumb enough to get sucked into that. He should have just removed her to Juvenile Hall if she was being violent.

Anonymous said...

There is no way to determine from the facts in this story, whether or not either parent is fit. Sometimes you don't have good choices. There may be a perfectly good reason that Mr Medlock didn't get custody--and that reason could be one of the factors that lead the teen to this particular situation.

Preston said...

Dustin Bradshaw fired, sweet. Now go back to your hill billy roots and live off the land you scum bag.

Its too bad we can't fired some Mothers or at least taser them.