Post by miriammuraba on Nov 1, 2012 21:55:46 GMT 4
This couldn’t have been the lesson that the Tularosa New Mexico Intermediate School staff were expecting on "career day."
Chris Webb, an officer with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, is being sued after allegedly using a Taser on a 10-year-old boy in an attempt to demonstrate what happens when people disobey the police.
According to the complaint filed, Webb had asked a group of young boys if they’d like to clean his patrol unit during his career day visit. Several of the boys had agreed to the chore while one boy was, well, less than thrilled.
Webb then pointed the Taser at the boy, saying "let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police," RT reports.
The child reportedly blacked out after receiving 50,000 volts of electricity from the two barbs taken in the chest, but the deplorable story gets worse.
"Instead of calling emergency medical personnel, Officer Webb pulled out the barbs and took the boy to the school principal’s office," says RT. The boy was left with two scars on his chest that have been described in court as "cigarette burns."
"The boy, R.D., has woken up in the middle of the night holding his chest, afraid he is never going to wake up again," says legal guardian Rachel Higgins, speaking of the child’s case of post-traumatic stress disorder. "No reasonable officer confronting a situation where the need for force is at its lowest, on a playground with elementary age children, would have deployed the Taser in so reckless a manner as to cause physical and psychological injury."
On behalf of the child, Higgins is currently suing Officer Webb and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, seeking punitive damages for a host of charges including excessive force, battery, unreasonable seizure, failure to render emergency medical care, and negligent hiring, training, supervision and retention, RT reports.
Chris Webb, an officer with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, is being sued after allegedly using a Taser on a 10-year-old boy in an attempt to demonstrate what happens when people disobey the police.
According to the complaint filed, Webb had asked a group of young boys if they’d like to clean his patrol unit during his career day visit. Several of the boys had agreed to the chore while one boy was, well, less than thrilled.
Webb then pointed the Taser at the boy, saying "let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police," RT reports.
The child reportedly blacked out after receiving 50,000 volts of electricity from the two barbs taken in the chest, but the deplorable story gets worse.
"Instead of calling emergency medical personnel, Officer Webb pulled out the barbs and took the boy to the school principal’s office," says RT. The boy was left with two scars on his chest that have been described in court as "cigarette burns."
"The boy, R.D., has woken up in the middle of the night holding his chest, afraid he is never going to wake up again," says legal guardian Rachel Higgins, speaking of the child’s case of post-traumatic stress disorder. "No reasonable officer confronting a situation where the need for force is at its lowest, on a playground with elementary age children, would have deployed the Taser in so reckless a manner as to cause physical and psychological injury."
On behalf of the child, Higgins is currently suing Officer Webb and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, seeking punitive damages for a host of charges including excessive force, battery, unreasonable seizure, failure to render emergency medical care, and negligent hiring, training, supervision and retention, RT reports.