PIERRE, SD — The use of force on a child sparked controversy after an 8-year-old girl was tased following an apparent suicide threat.
The incident occurred when a babysitter phoned police on October 4, 2013, saying the young girl she was supervising wouldn’t put down a knife and was threatening to hurt herself.
Four Pierre police officers arrived and confronted the girl, identified only as L.M.J. She was holding a 4.5-inch paring knife found in the kitchen.
The force used to quell the situation has drawn varied reactions, and has prompted a lawsuit to be filed against the Pierre Police Department by the girl’s mother, Dawn Stenstrom.
Officers only spent “seconds” trying to reason with the 70-pound girl, according to the complaint, before putting her “into high voltage submission” by firing the sharp prongs of a taser weapon into her chest from roughly 5 feet away.
“The force of the electricity shot through her body, lifted her, and threw her against a wall,” the suit alleges.
The defendants named in the lawsuit are the city of Pierre, South Dakota; former Pierre Police Chief, Robert Grandpre; and the four officers who were at the scene.
Officials backed the officers’ use of force, and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation ultimately ruled that the police had acted appropriately and found no wrongdoing.
But Ms. Stenstrom did not appreciate that finding, and described the incident as “excessive force.”
“How much harm could she have done?” Ms. Stenstrom asked, according to CNN.
She and her attorney, Dana Hanna, argue that the police could have used other means to remove the knife from her hands.
“One [officer] distracts her, another grabs the girl’s arm. That’s what they should have done,” Hanna said. “She had a kitchen paring knife, but hadn’t cut. She was a kid throwing a tantrum. They should have made an attempt to grab the kid, not use a weapon to throw her into a wall. A Taser’s not meant to kill, but it does kill. Many people have died after being hit by a Taser by cops. It never should be used on a little child. She certainly wasn’t presenting a danger to officers.”
The mother describes the girl as suffering in pain the entire night from the Taser shock and being punctured by the sharp probes. She was not wounded by the knife.
Ok, crap, I took up the whole ‘What’s Happening’ block this evening, but still, I don’t want to take away from the fact, ‘Heroes Taser Eight-Year-Old’ … and most everybody is A-Ok with that. WTF?
Tase an eight year old, shoot a black man in the back as he runs away, Hell, tase a pregnant woman and shoot a grandpa for failure to obey,… just another day in Bizarro World, land of the flea, home of the bloodthirsty zombie sum-bitches.
Turn the page cowbird. … W.F.D.
I hate a subset of the white man more than the other races, because he is the one making trillions selling this nation and other nations out to bankers and outside predatory interests.
This includes being paid to not solve easily solvable problems, so that his skimming racket is not threatened by domestic Americans and other nations who clearly see what he is up to.
One thing always greatly admired by most of the rest of the world, is the American Cowboy. He can be adapted, and no longer profitably subdue just the open plains, but also the farms, villages, cities, and ghettos as well.
It seems to me, that the problem of humans acting like animals. Requires exactly these sort of men skilled in dealing with animals. There are men on ranches everywhere that deal with huge numbers of unruly animals, with far greater strength than mere humans.
Why can’t these same cowboy type of men be paid to saddle up and become urban justice wranglers? There’ll be some differences and modifications of course, but the principle is the same.
Urban cowboys have the skill to apprehend the unruly human animal and bind him and confine him until such time as he has calmed down and is once again ready to rejoin the herd and regain his normal docility and socialability.
In short order, these types could get things back to a reasonably ordered society, and we can all get back to work and resume cooperating with each other, so that we can once again start producing surplus wealth and being a first class world producer again like we were always meant to be.
25% of Texan cowboys were black, historians say
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/15/world/black-cowboys/
There was also plenty of Asians and Women historically who were cowboys. A fair amount of diversity in urban cattle policing wouldn’t be that hard to achieve.
Tor, of course the first “cowboys” were actually Mexicans and Indians called vaqueros who originally tamed horses but easily adapted to cattle when the white man brought them. Seems like everyone of a certain age group in Mexico I spoke with identified themselves as vaqueros and as far as I could tell, could ride horses very well. They might be wearing Nikes and a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt but it didn’t seem to cramp their style.
I thought of that right after I hit send.
I’m at a loss to understand how any freedom lover is against the rest of America. Maybe cause their a bunch of hyper-hygienic pissypants who worry what a little dirt and germs and having chickens, dogs, burros, and what have you all wandering around with just as much freedom as the humans.
These Earthophobes seem awfully cloveritic to me.
If we take all of North, Central, and South America as a whole, we’re talking 954 million people. They can keep the capital in DC or move it to Mexico City or Brasilia, whatever the overlords want I don’t care.
Why not outsource the last few remaining jobs to our own third worlders and let the Indians and Chinese fend for themselves. Seems like a no-brainer on stilts as far as I can see.
Over time, we can regain all of our industries back here on American soil. I’d like a shot at making a shoe, shirt, or iphone, even if it only pays $1 a day. Really, there’s nothing on this continent remotely as scary as an American ghetto with no economic vitality whatsoever.
All the other poor Americans have a certain nobility and dignity despite their material deficiencies. In some ways, they’re looked up to.
They’re truly Christians who live simply and ethically and not a bunch of psychopath enslaver sidekick hypocrites who use advanced comforts built by the warmongering pagans and pretend that’s adhering to the scripture.
“The mother describes the girl as suffering in pain the entire night from the Taser shock and being punctured by the sharp probes. She was not wounded by the knife.”
The cops should have handled it a lot better for sure, but… why no questions or mention of what brought an 8 year old to want to commit suicide by knife long enough for the cops to respond to the phone call? A “tantrum” says mom and the attorney? Pretty long and serious one. Hello money grubbing mother, what is the rest of the story.
RE: “what brought an 8 year old to want to commit suicide by knife long enough for the cops to respond to the phone call?”
A drama queen?
Have you never met one?
I have been around enough juvenile drama queen tantrums. Never seen one at 8 years old pull a knife & threaten to end it all over some ice cream or whatever. There is more to the story besides chicken shit scardey-cat cops.
I agree.
And even if it turns out to be true that the kid had a knife, it’s an eight-year-old girl. Are we really supposed to buy that a probably 200 pound-plus porker “feared for his safety”? And if he could not tale care of this issue without resorting to a Taser, there is something seriously wrong with the “training” these cretins receive.
I personally believe this cretin – like so many of his ilk – is a hair-trigger sadist just itching for an excuse to play with his S&M toys.
No doubt, in many of these cases, the individual behaved badly. But the larger point is the now-common grotesque over-reaction and disproportionately excessive force used by the cops.
Jeebus Christmas on a tree. It’s time for a serious public service campaign encouraging ‘Mericans NEVER TO CALL THE POLICE, FURCRYINOUTLOUD.
Though we must recognize that this little girl got off easy — kinda surprised the Heroes didn’t Heroically pump her full of lead.
Hi Izzy,
Yup.
Never call a cop. Ever.
Shun them. Avoid them.
It’s the best we can do . . . for now.
As much as I dislike it, I can think of situations where calling the cops might be a necessary evil. One example I was given by someone who was debating me about police related issues (he was wrong to some degree, but sane, unlike some of the more radically pro-cop types) asked me if I would call the cops in a situation where my family was being held hostage in another room by multiple armed men and I had access to a phone and could call 9/11 without the crooks knowing. I said that I would. Its a rare situation, but I think you pretty much have to call the cops in that situation and take a gamble unless you’re actually able to think of some other way out of it. If I get one of the more trigger happy ones and my family winds up getting harmed by the cops, well, I probably wouldn’t survive the experience. THat’s far from a guarantee.
Mind you, I don’t LIKE any of them, but in a situation where there is a legal monopoly, there are certain (rare) situations where I think it might be unavoidable.
As for shunning them, what does that look like in practice. I mean, do you actually tell people you aren’t going to talk to them because they are cops? That is something I could see having big social reprecussions for you, but I respect you for doing it if you do.
Yikes. I meant 9-1-1. I accidentally wrote it as a date. Unfortunately, I can’t edit, apologies for that…
David, back in the 70’s that happened to some people I know. Those “terrrrisssttsss” GB so glibly speaks of ain’t what they’re made up to be. Those didn’t survive but the hostages did. No LEO was ever aware of the situation till they found 3 guys toasted in a burnt car months later. As David Letterman once joked in a skit, It’s easy to nap with a Mac in your lap.
A friend called me early one morn in ’74 or so and said he was locked in his office with a crazy woman with a big knife outside, help. Like a dumbass I went and he assessed the situation correctly but I wished he’d told me she was 3″ taller than me, weighed a bit more without an ounce of fat and was truly crazy as a loon. She had a huge Buck hunting knife and I felt stupid standing there unarmed. If I’d had my thinking cap on I’d have had my shotgun and we could have just dug a hole and buried her. As it was she was distracted by me so now I”m the target. I managed to keep a vehicle in between us till my friend ran up and socked her on the head with a big DP bottle(glass). This really pissed her off so she went for him again. It’s sorta a blur after that but I did manage to give her a right cross and get the knife but had to smash her nose to get the DP bottle she was using on my friend. Plenty of mesquite trees around and I didn’t have the sense to grab a good limb and whack her at least. She was bloody, he was bloody and I was shaky. My wife and I returned home and said at the same time Fuck Him, never again. Later that day I get a call from the sheriff since she’d had another episode and I didn’t answer my phone. He wanted me to haul her a few hundred miles away. Ok, says I, let me use that car with the cage in the back and some cuffs and I will….gladly. He declined and so did I after he did. Worthless POS sheriff. Then he has the gall to dis me for “hitting a woman”. Hell, he’d just have shot her with his .357 mag and killed her.
I learned a big lesson that day, never go unarmed if you’re gonna go. But firstly, think about it and decline the invitation. I told him(both of them) to never call me with a problem like that again.
Sometimes, I think I would enjoy hearing a song that is a rip-off of, “I Love a Rainy Night”.
It would go something like this: [A rendition could easily be made for the man-on-the-street protesting,… whatever]:
I Love a cloudy night
The feeling – I’m Not being – spied – on
I Love a cloudy night
The Google freaks – can’t – see me
I Love a cloudy night
The perverts – can’t – photograph, me
…Even-though… their spook cars – can… with cameras – on their SUV’s … If we had – private roads… it would make me, feel good
Cause then we – could – deny the spook cars – with camera access – to Our houses
The only time – I feel ok – is when it’s a rainy night.
…I Love – The feel – of – the way… things used to be…
I Love, The Feel – of Not being seen… as A criminal… of Not being seen… as innocent,… until proooven – guilty
You know – it made me feel good
I Love A cloudy night
No matter how much, I Love, The-touch-of-the-Sun… I can’t help but thinking… something Is wrong
I Love a cloudy night
I Love The feel – of not being seen – as A criminal… of being seen as: innocent until, proven – guilty
You know – it made me feel good
I Love a cloudy night
…[Fade to Black… A giant Rip appears in the sky: Paint It Black, Black As Night].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=u6d8eKvegLI
helot, I do love a rainy night. i like how it lights up my engine and makes it howl. I love the sound of the tires on water and the fun of simply doing crazy slides just for fun because it doesn’t hurt the vehicle or anything else. I love how a big rig responds to all that moisture in the air and that big diesel seems to gain 50hp. I love that radar doesn’t work in the rain and pigtards are allergic to moisture. I love to put the hammer down and hear it all in a different way, the resounding sounds coming from the things you pass by. I love the way a really hot engine sounds when it gets a big dose of oxygen from the moisture and the pressure of the heavy air. I love the smell of it……all. I love the sound of it. I love the way her perfume seems to linger around me, Chanel, diesel or high octane. I love the way her touch is more tactile, more intimate, makes me rise to the conditions, hers, all, every…..I DO love a rainy night…..so much so when I’m just a phantom nobody can really say who it is and don’t really care. I love the way her breath seems to make everything more real….and the gleam of lights on drops reflected back in the pools of her eyes….and the continuous hiss…..of everything around when we touch down and the whole world is one but nobody’s aware of anything except only those things close and intimate with everything of the rainy night. I love a rainy night, gawd…..how I love a rainy night and I open her up like a flower blooming and sucking in the water through every opening, window, orifice…..at once heating and cooling simultaneously….nuthin in life better than a rainy night…..
Sung to the tune “Paint It Black”
My name is Cabbie I’ve been high since I was six
All I can think about is getting my next fix
I’m a loser And a boozer Common sense I lack
What the hell do you expect
When your whole world is crack
I walk around crying just like a big sad sack
I borrow money and I never pay it back
I’m a junkie and a flunkie my whole life’s a joke
It’s hard to get ahead when you’re strung out on coke
I wear shorts and short sleeves so you can see my tatts
I’m so obese just call me Minnesota fats
I desperately search for the love my parents didn’t give
If they really loved me, I’d know where they live
I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for some drugs today
You’d better call rehab and say I’m on the way
Paint It Black – Crazy Cabby – Howard Stern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEhCGFptNE0
Me, I’d like it all painted bluegrass, if someone could.
Paint It Black – Rolling Stones – Bluegrass Cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-DZIXumjOY
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space On such a timeless flight
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time…
I’m a rocket man – bluegrass version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=forqmom3YuY
Something’s wrong, shut the light
Heavy thoughts tonight
And they aren’t of snow white
Dreams of war, dreams of liars
Dreams of dragon’s fire
And of things that will bite
Hush little baby, don’t say a word
And never mind that noise you heard
It’s just the beast under your bed,
In your closet, in your head
Enter sandman – bluegrass version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c7bISLhVl8
What you call that? Head over heels?
Walk a mile in these Louboutins
But they don’t wear these shits where I’m from
I’m not hating, I’m just telling you
I’m tryna let you know what the fuck that I’ve been through
Two feet in the red dirt, school skirt
Sugar cane, back lanes
Three jobs, took years to save
But I got a ticket on that plane
People got a lot to say
But don’t know shit about where I was made
Or how many floors that I had to scrub
Just to make it past where I am from
No money, no family
16 in the middle of Miami
I’ve been up all night, tryna get that rich
I’ve been work work work work working on my shit
Milked the whole game twice, gotta get it how I live
I’ve been work work work work working on my shit
Now get this work
Working on my shit
You can hate it or love it
Hustle and the struggle is the only thing I’m trusting
Thorough bread in a mud brick before the budget
White chick on that Pac shit
My passion was ironic
And my dreams were uncommon
Guess I gone crazy, first deal changed me
Robbed blind, basically raped me
Rose through the bullshit like a matador
Just made me madder and adamant to go at em
And even the score
So, I went harder
Studied the Carters till a deal was offered
Slept cold on the floor recording
At 4 in the morning
And now I’m passin’ the bar like a lawyer
Immigrant, art ignorant
Ya ill intent was insurance for my benefit
Hate to be inconsiderate
But the Industry took my innocence
Too late, now I’m in this bitch!
You don’t know the half
This shit get real
Valley girls giving blowjobs for Louboutins
What you call that?
Head over heels
– Amethyst Kelly – Mullumbimby, New Wales, South Side
Always good to be reminded what kind of Hogan’s Heroes rejects are run shit in this country. Stalag 1776.
Work – by a 5’10” illegal alien ozzy ghetto impersonator rapper chick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zR6ROjoOX0
Amethyst Kelly is a young woman from Australia determined to make it in America. She’s currently residing between America and England as she records her debut album
She’s blonde. Statuesque. Fiercely intelligent, outspoken and talented. She left Australia when she was 16 years old and has lived in America since.
I was lucky enough to have a stepfather who worked for the airline Qantas as a flight attendant and he would travel to LA weekly. I lived in America under a visa waiver until for over 6 years and traveled home every three months with him, get on the plane and come right back on his flight the following week.
I was able to get away with this because I would cross the border with my ‘dad’ and have a staff ticket that would show me leaving at the same time as him. Once I’d get in the country I’d just change my ticket so that I could stay until the 90th day on my visa waiver. If I hadn’t had a family member I can’t see how I would have afforded the travel or avoided being deported for so many years.
I’m currently on a five-year O visa. This was extremely difficult for me to get as I’d been earning money illegally in America for so many years, thankfully they turned a blind eye to that and approved me, but I did have to do charity work and other things to help sway them to look the other way.
The visa process is extremely stressful. For years it’s been the biggest worry of my life and something I was constantly thinking and plotting on. It feels like you have 90 days to live and you have to do all you can before then in case you don’t make it back over the border the next time you travel. Having that mentality I think made me work a lot harder than others to chase my dreams.
Anything is possible. I didn’t graduate high school and wanted to get a major label deal in America as a rapper! Seemed impossible, but I did it. It took me seven years and I never gave up hope. All I can say is don’t give up, work VERY hard and SMART to achieve the things you want. And don’t cut corners. A lot of people marry for visas; I don’t think this is healthy. If it’s meant for you in time you will attain what you want the RIGHT WAY. Don’t look to things like false marriages as a way to cut corners.
I think the American dream just means anything is possible for anyone—no matter how crazy your dream seems.
Fancy (Explicit) – Amethyst Kelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-zpOMYRi0w
It’s odd listening to her affected ghetto speech with an ozzy accent, but whatever the market the wants, it gets.
Amethyst Kelly interview
http://www.complex.com/music/2013/09/iggy-azalea-interview-complex-cover-story
WHEN I WAS 13 I GOT A FAKE ID. I’D GO OUT, GET HAMMERED OFF MY FACE IN NIGHTCLUBS BECAUSE I THOUGHT THAT MADE ME AN ADULT, MEET OLDER GUYS WHO THOUGHT I WAS OLDER, AND GO FUCK THEM.
– holy jumping clover johesphat. how dare she travel. fuck. work. where when and how she wants.
Tor, who the hell does she think she is? A sovereign person? Nobody’s slave. How dast she!! Clover, you need to wade in on this, give her the what for. After all, she probably never even cared about SEAT BELTS!!! Hell, probably still doesn’t…WTH is this country coming to? We need more of those hijadist who openly carry signs saying we ain’t seen nothing yet in regards to 9/11, the real jihad is still in the offing. And while you and I can’t legally cover our face in public, these people(and I use the word loosely)can and do and the cops stand right behind them “protecting their first amendment rights” while we remain mute……watching…….because we no longer have those rights. What a country. Wow!!
I don’t know, just trying to seem relevant and in the game. Someone needed to translate all this into old guy for me. And the web was happy to oblige.
I’m not nearly so deaf as I can make myself appear on the web. Not at all as hip as my cutting and pasting makes me seem. (am I using deaf and hip right? are they even a thing?)
I kept hearing this weird quasi-english doggerel around here day in day out so I decided to investigate. Like the PSA says: “The More You Know.”
Upon hearing these same mainly indecipherable syllables being spoken over what sounded like some old Atari videogame music, I became able to puzzle out the following:
First things first. I’m the rillest.
Drop this let the whole world fill it.
And I’m still in the murder bidness…
… You should want a bad bitch like this…
…I’m like who dat who dat, that do that do that
I thought you knew that knew that…
Somehow going around singing “you should want a bad bitch like this who go who dat who dat do that do that knew that knew that” a few times spooked them or took all the fun out of it.
Or something like this, point being now it’s something else being played ad infinitum. Can’t have me cracking th code. Amethyst had an interesting story behind her howlings I thought, but I can’t say I’m sad to be seeing the back of her now.
I never get what others get out of this kinda stuff. I guess I’m not a Good German, cause this just makes me laugh, it’s hard to get my dander up when I’m not sure what the goose and the gander of it all is. Must be some kind of failure on my part to be the rillest who can fill it, whatever that means.
When I came upon the video Fancy, it seemed almost charming and appeared to be from the movie Clueless. Sometimes I’m amazed I get any of these culture references. It’s like Rain Man, I have no idea how I recognize this as Clueless. (assuming I’m right) But this is definitely Clueless I would say.
4 minutes to Wapner, Charlie Babbit. Course I’m an excellent blogger. Dad lets me blog on Sundays. Kmart is on 408 Oak Street. Hot water burns baby. I’ve got a photographic memory but my camera has a cracked lens. You already kno oh. I’m in the fast lane. From L.A. to Tokey Yo.
Tor, know where you’re coming from. I might be Rain Man…..if I could understand more of it. Outside looking in, straining to understand anything……well, that’s she said….and I never did get the thumb in my palm and finger on the back of my hand, tugging slightly…..and I know I’m missing something there
Hi Eight,
Remember the original Bad News Bears movie? I recommend people watch it to get a sense of how much the zeitgeist has shifted since the late 1970s.
Christ, I can remember that world.
Maybe that’s why I am so depressed by this one.
eric, I had to do a search to identify what Bad News Bears was. I sold my truck that year. Then I moved to a remote place along with my wife and another couple. We were involved with a tight group of people in the import/export business and stayed quite busy with little connection to the world of tv or such, bought one of the first Pong gaming tables that year, listened to old music for the most part, stayed mighty busy traveling……and sunning in the back yard waving to the guys in the big Huey who looked for pot growing all day but liked to hang around and watch the women with no clothes. Strangely, we later met a couple of those guys. We asked them if they ever found any pot. Hell, said they, you can’t see pot growing in a pasture from a helicopter. Evidently naked women were easily seen. I suppose they were looking at the women. Went back to trucking in ’77 so I stayed in no TV land for the next few years.
Remember Sonny and Will in some old trucking show? We saw that once on a 12 V tv set on the fuel tank of a truck with a bunch of other truckers. Now that was funny, laughed ourselves silly but that was a nice KW, real nice. We normally entertained ourselves reading and listening to an 8 track. Probably not one in 10,000 people back then knew who Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks were. You’re correct though, that was an entirely different world I’d take back in a heartbeat.
RE: “Remember the original Bad News Bears movie?”
Yes.
Heh, It was, ‘Da Bomb’ for those younger than Eightsouthman at that time. All the rage, even, imho.
And mang, Eightsouthman, cool story, esp, “pot growing in a pasture […] naked women were easily seen.” My generation and those after were sooo robbed.
And formatting corrected itself? 😛 WEIRD….
Just a note – formatting’s off, man.
Mike’s right, except the cops should’ve tasered the babysitter for child endangerment…. And any imbecile cop who tasers an 8-year-old should be taserd himself, with the electrodes on the genitals, until he’s a eunuch.
Better yet, on the organ itself, and leave the testicles: Horny with no chance of release, for life.
Cruel and unusual applies only to humans. These ain’t humans.
I’m convinced these guys are either sadists – or cowards. Perhaps a mix of both.
I believe they are looking for an excuse to Taser (and shoot) people.
No normal man would do as these cops do. Because it isn’t necessary. Because it’s a kid.
If the SOB can’t restrain/disarm an eight-year-old kid without the “help” of a Taser, he’s bottle washer material.
Will we hear the usual refrain from the pheros: “I was (We were) in fear for my (our) safety.” ?
@Mike in Boston
Good points you bring up.
What kind of retarded babysitter calls the cops on an 8 year old? Couldn’t just grab the kid and take away the knife? I guess that shows how brainwashed the coming generation of Clovers are, no rational thought processes just “see something say something/call the authorities” BS. The kid’s parents might want to improve their hiring choices as well.