Teen With Broken Back Tasered 19 Times for Not Standing Up When Ordered

Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune at 7:59 AM on July 29, 2008.

This time it's a white 16 year old male teenager who suffered a broken back after a thirty foot fall in Ozark, Missouri. When police arrived the boy was incoherent and refused to get up when ordered to do so, so police tasered him 19 fucking times! I bet that'll teach him some respect for law enforcement officers:

OZARK, Mo. -- A family wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65. [...]

By the time officers arrived, the teen was off the 30-foot overpass, lying on the shoulder below along U.S. 65, with no good explanation as to how he got there.

"According to the doctors, all injuries are consistent with a fall," said his aunt, Samantha.

"They tested his system. He was clean of drugs and alcohol. We don't know why unless just being in shock and the whole thing in itself caused him to forget everything," said Hutchinson.

His aunt says he is undergoing major surgery for a broken back and broken heel. While he was lying on the ground, she wonders why Ozark police used an electric stun gun on him up to 19 times.

"I'm not an officer, but I don't see the reason for 'Tasering' somebody laying there with a broken back. I don't consider that a threat."

His dad says the use of the stun gun delayed what would have been immediate surgery by two days.

"The 'Tasering' increased his white blood cell count and caused him to have a temperature so they could not go into the operation."

Hey, at least he didn't die like Baron Pikes in Winnfield, Louisiana. Still, what the hell is going on in this country? Tasers were supposed to be an alternative to using a gun to subdue dangerous individuals, not a means for the police to torture people already in custody or lying incoherent with severe injuries after a 30 foot fall. By the way, what was the official police explanation for tasering a kid with a broken back 19 fucking times? Well, read it yourself:

"He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he's also making statements such as, 'Shoot cops, kill cops,' things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers," said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset.

Yeah, I believe that. A 16 year old kid with a broken back was so threatening and so dangerous that several police officers had to taser him 19 fucking times just to subdue him. Right. That must be how it happened. Kid must have been the size of the Hulk. Or not. But you decide. Here's a photo of him in the hospital:





Now tell me again why tasers for our law enforcement officials are such a great idea? I don't think even the guys at Gitmo were tasered 19 fucking times, with or without a broken back. But what do I know. I'm just some left wing tie-dyed hippy blogger.

Tagged as: police brutality, tasers