Funny, I Never Needed To Pepper Spray A Kid...
And I'm all around terrible with those little jerks.
So, if you’ve gotten your evening news, you may have seen the story on the 9-year-old girl being pepper sprayed, and this is after 9 squad cars responded to a domestic disturbance call. About a child. A 9-year-old girl. 9 squad cars. Let me just make that fully clear.
Y’all may have heard me talk of my autistic goddaughter, who gave me my Aunt Meow nickname. Carli, is the baby’s name. Listen, Carli can have some world-class meltdowns. I mean, flailing, kicking, screaming, just losing it.
Yet, in all of the times I have dealt with Carli in full meltdown, I have never had to spray that baby with pepper spray. Nor have I had to cuff her. Or shove her in the back of a car. Or any other way that this 9 year old child was handled.
So, me being me, I started thumbing through, looking for any sort of reasoning that can begin to help me make sense of why a child, a literal baby, needs to be pepper sprayed. And there isn’t one. As a matter of fact, these “protect and serve much?” dicks actually allowed the mother of the child to stand there berating the child, further antagonizing an already bad domestic situation. Because apparently diffusing a domestic situation isn’t in their job description, but macing children is.
If you are a cop, and you cannot take a literal baby into custody without the use of a taser or pepper spray, you really need to reevaluate the career path you have chosen for yourself. It seems that law enforcement may not be your forte if you can’t wrangle a baby.
Look, I rarely deal with children. They’re sticky, and often have snot on their faces. Just not my thing, like at all. However, when Carli was in full meltdown mode, never have I ever had to put my hands on that child in a way that could ever be considered physically violent. Because I know how to wrap my arms around her and keep her from hurting herself. Then I simply wrap my leg around hers, and we indian style on the floor until it’s over.
It’s not difficult, and I’m not even trained in tantrum resolution. I’m not trained in any sort of resolution with children, I avoid them like the plague. Yet, I can restrain a child without harming them, and a cop, trained in these scenarios, allegedly, cannot?
Sounds pretty fucking suspect to me. It sounds as though someone needs to head right on down to their closest one stop career center and find themselves a new fucking job.
"Yet, I can restrain a child without harming them, and a cop, trained in these scenarios, allegedly, cannot?"
Near as I can tell (and to hear 'em talk) the badge seems to make them think everyone is out to off them and has the ability to.. you and I know better, and that seems a sufficent reason for NOT handing a badge to anyone with out at least a BS degree.
But hey, I'm just a citizen. What do I know?