Teen recovering after being shot with Taser dart

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Centurion wrote:

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Axe, it is very difficult to aim with the taser. A moving target makes it nearly impossible to hit accurately.

DESTROY wrote:

I know of kids who have acted and are acting like this little **** teenager. All they have done, and will do, all of their lives is destroy families, relationships and careers of people. They are, and will be, the troublemakers in the work place and in the world.

Bluntly Spoken wrote:

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Ok I will accept that answer but still I would put a lot of the blame on the mother who either does not know how to control her daughter.
She needs to set some strict rules for the daughter and enforce them. She supports the daughter and probably pays the cell phone bill, just disconnect the girls number and be done with it.
But either the mother is weak and the daughter knows how to control mom or she is spoiled and mom screwed up going to the police.
What exactly did she expect the police to do, tell the girl to turn off your phone?

Bluntly Spoken wrote:

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Ok I will accept that answer but still I would put a lot of the blame on the mother...
What exactly did she expect the police to do, tell the girl to turn off your phone?

soft landing wrote:

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Blunt, I feel you are being too simplistic on this one.
I do not like cell phones. I have one in my car for emergencies only.
So many people seem to have them glued to their ears. In time I think we will see a glut of fatal brain tumors due to the electromagnetic fields of cell phone usage---heavy usage.
But since cell phones became so popular, and probably because of drug crime too, it is hard to find pay phones today. One cannot give a teen some change to call a parent and know that she can find a phone in a public place.
Many people believe the kids need a cell phone for emergencies, and they also want to be able to call and check on their kids if the parent has to be at work when the child comes home to an empty house, and so on.
It's possible that taking the phone away does not seem an option for this mom for these reasons.
An answer might lie in control of how much the girl can use the phone, but that gets stickier, because if mom limited her minutes and then the kid could not use the phone when she really needed it in an emergency, then how would mom feel?
(con't)

Nob Hill Peace House wrote:

More evidence of a systematic disregard for safe take-down procedures by APD. Absolutely horrified by the pics on KOB.

Bluntly Spoken wrote:

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Considering he is the chief how do you know if he has not buried complaints against himself?
Regardless of what you say he still shot the girl in the head and had no real reason to do so.
Unless he is so overweight he could not run fast enough to catch her.
It still boils down to two things, one the mother needs to set rules and enforce them and the first one is turn off the girls cell phone account.
Two the Chief needs to take some refresher classes.

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Thunderbolt wrote:

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Any complaints against the Sheriff or deputies are to be filed with the County Manager. I don't think he'd even see them until after the County Manager reviewed them with the County Attorney.
My only point was, Hatcher has no record of being a badazz or cowboy cop. I hope all the evidence gets out so proper decisions can be made and justice served.(I do realize that on the surface it seems to much force was used). Does anyone know what a officer is authorized to do when chasing a felon?

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soft landing wrote:

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Mom was probably at her wit's end, exhausted by the behavior of a rebellious adolescent. I rather think she spur of the moment pulled over at the police station, but I don't know. But she was warranted in feeling she could expect help from the police.
The girl was probably not accustomed to having to face the cops, and maybe mom thought it would help the girl to have to objectively explain her disobedience to a third party, an authority figure at that. But if the girl has a history of being in trouble with the law, all the more reason the mom should be able to expect help from the cops, and kudos to her for not trying to protect the girl from facing the consequences of her actions by having to explain to the cops.
I'm not sure whether the girl bloodied mom's face in the presence of the officer, or just before, but that is serious abuse of a parent---danged right it is battery on a household member and it should not be TOLERATED. And as an adult later in life, this kid could become one who abuses an elderly parent. Her violence should be nipped in the bud.
So if that happened before they got there, the mom should jolly well be able to feel she could expect the cops to do something about THAT.
Even if Mom knew she would not press charges, the kid deserved to have to face a cop for a stern warning over that. And some understanding, too. We should teach our kids by example to obey the law, and that there are consequences if one does not, as well as that they should not have to fear approaching the police for help, as the mom did both in this situation.
And if this child's violence continued, or if she already had a history of it, mom needs to document it for the eventual help from social services that she may need.
Yes, most kids learn violence at the hands of their parents, but not necessarily. Some adolescents really do have serious mood disorders and major issues of emotional control involving brain chemistry that are different from the average adolescent, that have nothing to do with poor parenting. The kid could be bipolar, or have ADD, or ADHD which causes a lot of frustration for the child,(as well as the parents and teachers) and she may need diagnosis and medication for that.
Not that I think the cops are doctors, but they can document what happened, and that can be used to help get this kid some help, as well as to help protect the mom or others from future violence.
It would be heartbreaking to have to resort to the authorities over one's child, but this mom was BRAVE to do it and the authorities let her down.They each in their own way needed protection that the police could provide and this Chief of Police failed miserably at it and made the situation far worse.
Mom may be a lousy parent, but still with enough good instinct to go to the police for help, but we have been given no good evidence that mom is a lousy parent. We do have the good evidence that she sought help from the police to support the idea that she does not fear the police and is a responsible parent to seek help. We have evidence that mom is a GOOD parent.
And even if mom had been an ineffectual parent in the past, she must be doing something right at this point, because she had the sense to go to the cops and to sek help when the kid was out of control.
Parents should NEVER be discouraged from taking a kid to the police if the parent thinks it is warranted.

A resident of Tucumcari wrote:

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Whom ever fires a weapon of any kind is responsible for the projectiles, where ever they land. That is why you are taught to know your target. The chief acted irresponsibly by firing his weapon in the first place, let alone not having a clear target. His repeated examples of a total lack of judgement and common sense are more than enough reason to remove this idiot from office. Add to this the money it is going to cost the city in just his first year and one wonders what is in store for us next if he remains.

Centurion wrote:

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Knowing your target refers to a firearm. The same principal does not apply in regards to a taser. The taser emits a laser that will give one an idea of where the darts will travel. As the taser is fired, the darts are projected out from a cartridge. The darts spread apart from each other at a range proportional to the distance. To hit a moving target would be difficult. The laser target would move as the person holding the taser moves up and down. The target would also be a variable since it is moving. The head is a very small target and makes it that much more difficult to hit accurately even when a target is stationary.