What do you think about police pepper spraying an 8 year old?

He had a weapon. They disabled the kid quickly without using force.

This kid was a repeat offender. He is now in a school for troubled kids.

It was not just any 8-year-old behaving as eight-year-olds do.

I’m going to go with deserved based on the information at hand. Sounds like a right little bastard to be brutally honest.

Completely warranted. Trying to subdue him with physical force may have caused serious bodily injury.

@marinelife‘s details add very important background information to the story. This young man has a history of anger management issues and had lashed out many times before. He had a weapon, was out of control, and was attacking the police officer. They needed to take control of the situation immediately and they did so. If they had used a choke hold or other means to subdue him we would be discussing unwarranted use for force.

In college I work worked at a private Psychiatric Hospital, we had a 9 year old client. He had taken a nine inch knife and cut his 14 year old sister after stabbing his mom twice. Age of the weapon holder does not change the possible outcome, non-lethal use of pepper spray would be appropriate.

Having read and viewed the story on the news, IMO the police acted appropriately for the situation. If the police had acted irrationally they probably would have shot the child with a real gun. At the time there was not a trained professional to handle the situation differently.

The boy is extremely troubled, and in the situation reported, he had ripped a piece of wood with a pointy end from the wall and was threatening to stab a teacher with it, both physically and verbally. The cops had been called to school to subdue him before. His family has been at a loss to control him and deal with his anger issues. And the kid knows he has issues, but has said he can’t control himself.

I think in this instance, the police did the right thing. I can only hope the child is capable of being treated.

Totally warranted! I feel bad for the kid though. Must have some real shitty parents to get that messed up!

@Cruiser; why do people always blame the parents for a Childs mental health issues?
I had 3 kids with 2 fathers. The oldest was always perfectly obident, got straight A’s, and always wanted to please. The other two suffered from depression (depression killed their father) and the both had episodes in their childhood where they acted out violently and ended up in juvinille hall. I can assure you that I provided a loving caring supportive home, but these two had some genetic, hormonal disposition to rage. Now that they are adults, one has really got an understanding on it and has set up controls in her life to deal with it when she sees triggers in her life. The other is dealing with it better too, I think mostly because the consequences were so severe after his last outburst (he intentionally crashed a car and spent over a year in various in patient psych facilities) and he has a lot to loose now.
I read every book, tried every strategy, and suffered the scorn of many parents who said it must be my fault. I even believed it for a long time.
After years of counseling for my kids and myself I have come to realize that I am not responsible for my childrens choices.
I feel for those poor parents. You love your child do much and all you want is for them to be healthy and happy. This rage is overwhelming and it’s so hard when you can’t fix it. It’s even harder when you’re doing everything you can and you see parents who are less involved and less in tune with their kids judging you. Urggggggg!

Sadly, it does seem to have been warranted. I hope he gets good treatment, and can eventually have a decent shot at life.

@Judi I completely agree with you, it is not always the parents fault.

It is better than them having to use a gun or something like that to subdue the child. I think in this case it was totally warranted.

@Cruiser I also agree with @Judi its not always the parents fault especially in cases of mental illnesses in children.

Totally justified, considering the facts.

Based on the details given, that brat totally deserved the pepper spray.

@noelleptc – According to the kid’s mom, he only acts that way at school. Wow, lady…. Really?

How much do you want to bet that the reason she feels that way is because she doesn’t pay any attention to him when he’s around?

I think the kid deserved it based on the situation. I mean, yeah, pepper spray hurts, but it usually doesn’t cause any lasting damage. The kid needed to be put under control, and that was a good way to do it.

He had it coming.

@Judi , @creative1 I am sorry for painting with such a wide brush…I was speaking from my own experiences. I consider myself an excellent observer and short of birth defects, anytime I see a hyperactive, aggressive or emotionally “off” kid I see behind them parents who are stressed, overprotective or have too high of expectations for their child, or are having personal problems such as financial, emotional, addictions, or are abusive or are just plain clueless as to the emotional needs of their own child or are simply too afraid to properly discipline their children.

Emotional neglect or abuse will almost always manifest itself in the child exhibiting abnormal emotional behavior and acting out.

The kid had it coming, yeah, and he isn’t at all perturbed from the whole ordeal. But, of course, these news discussion programs are using this to denounce the cops for “fascism” for something they handled well. Imagine if the kid actually skewered somebody?! That possibility is completely neglected! And why the hell did his mother allow it to be plastered all over he news in the first place?

Neither excessive nor deserved. The kid has problems and the police dealt with it effectively and quickly with no one getting hurt. Good for them.

Perhaps the police should have just shot him. He’s bound to be trouble when he grows up.
Problem solved.
Pesky 8 year olds!

Well it caused no physical harm, achieved the necessary result in a minimum of time, and did not inflict unnecessary amounts of pain, while at the same time being certainly uncomfortable enough to be suitably memorable.

Hopefully, next time he thinks about acting like a vicious animal, he’ll remember the pepper spray.

Glad the pepper spray was all it took to disarm the kid. It’s strange his reality accepts as an option to not only destroy property around him but make weapons and take the offensive against adults.

It was justified, and the best choice under the circumstances. It’s too bad law enforcement doesn’t carry nets, like the animal control, for this type of situation.

@YARNLADY: Yes! Like the capture net from the original Planet of The Apes film; complete with choke collar, of course ;p

Assuming that’s the whole story…
It’s only pepper spray. He’ll get over it. No bones broken, no bullet holes. Just irritated mucous membranes.

The cops would have been better using a paddle.

I don’t see anything wrong with it, he had it coming. I’d rather him get taken down with minimal force than have another kid get shanked.

@filmfann LOL4RL! With the young man wielding a stick the way he was they probably couldn’t have gotten close enough to reach him with a paddle!

I once had a kid in Sunday School that had all sorts disturbing behavior. He was the youngest of 5 children, parents were both psychiatrists, very well off. We did a Thanksgiving project, and he drew a scene of himself stabbing his parents to death and wrote about walking around his house at night with a kitchen knife, and standing by his sibling’s beds, sometimes holding the knife within inches of their throats while they slept. I mentioned it to the director of religious studies, who asked the mother to come in and talk to me about it. I showed her the artwork, and told her about the stories, and she smiled smugly, and said, “And what are your qualifications to assess my son?”

It’s too bad that kids like that are allowed to keep coming into the classrooms and disrupting classes for those students that truly want to go to school and learn. I am in no way blaming the parents, but I think the mom is living in a dream world if she thinks her kid only acts out at school. She needs to face reality and see that her child needs help and get it for him before it’s too late. The police were justified in their actions.

That woman is doing her son a disservice by saying the police went too far and coddling him after this incident. this is how little Jeffrey Dahmers and Ed Geins get started.

@ladymia69 this is how little Jeffrey Dahmers and Ed Geins get started Really? Did you read this somewhere? I am interested in some fact finding about how infamous people get that way.

@YARNLADY Read the wikipedia entry on Ed Gein and how his mother smothered and protected him and then we’ll talk.

@ladymia69 thanks for the reference, I will indeed.

Here’s what makes that crazy motherf*%@er Dahmer tick.

@ladymia69 thanks again.

I do hope that my earlier irony didn’t go unnoticed.
By the way, what race was the kid?

@lloydbird, He was Caucasian, from Lakewood, CO.

They (the cops) probably could have handled it a different way but what they did do in no way should be seen as abuse or as @lollybird cleared up, racist.. a bit inapproiate to do this to an eight year old but it wasn’t life threatening and should be a clear wake up call for the kid.. For every action there is a reaction.

@lloydbird I believe that was less irony than it was sarcasm.

Ah, but had it been a little black kid, heads would have rolled.

Any pig copper that can not handle a little kid with a stick and has to resort to weapons is at best incompetent and at worst a powerhungry sadistic despot. Either way, they should be fired.