Brickbat: School Shooting

A Tempe, Arizona, school resource officer accidentally shot a 14-year-old girl with her Taser. The officer, who wasn't named by media, was taking part in an eighth-grade show and tell at Gilliland Middle School. She mistakenly pressed the trigger, propelling one of the two prong's into the girl's arm.

Comments

[Snark Plissken]

Tempe police said the officer was participating in a show-and-tell Friday afternoon for an eighth-grade class at Gilliland Middle School near Priest Drive and 10th Street.

They said she pushed a button that tests whether the Taser is working. She then mistakenly pulled the trigger and one of the two probes hit a 14-year-old girl in the left arm.

She pulled the trigger? No passive voice? I suppose that's because she's a school resource officer and not a full-fledged member of the thin blue line. What the hell is a school resource officer?

[Cdr Lytton]

Cop assigned to a school.

[Snark Plissken]

So the lack of passive voice is made up for by idiotic euphemism, what does a cop have to do with "resource"? Just call them narcs like we did.

[Steve G]

yeah, dog forbid they actually had 'security' in their duty title. Might offend the delicate sensibilities of the school nurse next door.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Might offend the delicate sensibilities of the school nurse next door.

"Delicate"? You haven't met many school nurses, I take it?

[invisible furry hand]

It was a school nurse who introduced you to the donkey porn, wasn't it

[Fist of Etiquette]

The passive voice hasn't been earned yet in the case of lady coppers.

[Matrix]

+1 patriarchy!

[db]

Proofreader's needed.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pwned. (Literally.)

[Ted S.]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates apostrophe abuse.

[waffles]

For plurals? Yeah I'm down with that. But I'll cop to use an apostrophe to indicate an accent or goofy way of saying a word.

[Fist of Etiquette]

In that picture we see that rotund law enforcement professionals get extra taser training, as they'll need to use theirs more in lieu of any foot chase that might be otherwise required.

[Steve G]

Oh, I thought it was training in subduing someone who was already subdued, dude. e.g. Kelly Thomas

[invisible furry hand]

A buch of kids in public school learnt a very valuable lesson about authority, so there's an upside

[Ted S.]

I'd love to see what happened if somebody smacked this "officer" upside the head and claimed to be fighting a bully.

[Ted S.]

I hope the students name the "school resource officer". If it's OK for the police to release mug shots and names of people arrested but not tried to local media, it's OK for the the victims of police brutality to release similar info on the police, too.

[UnCivilServant]

We've seen cases of police brutality, this looks like a case of police incompetence. Doesn't mean the officer's name should be a secret, just that this is more that she was a dipshit rather than actively attacking.

[Snark Plissken]

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Radioactive]

never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity

[Cyto]

Yeah, not much of a brickbat for the incompetent use of a taser, although it is mildly dangerous in a "you'll shoot your eye out" way. But 3 razzies for the incompetent reporting that allows a shield of anonymity for the valiant "resource officer" who made the mistake.

I'm sure the editor would have sent the reporter back to fix the story if he had neglected to get the name of the school official who released the statement, or any of the other principals. I'm not sure where this "professional courtesy" came from, but it really isn't becoming of the 4th estate. If you'll name a local businessman accused of drunk driving you should certainly name a public official who shoots someone.

[Jerryskids]

The names of people charged with crimes are released because there is a criminal investigation going on. Cops are rarely the subject of criminal investigations, only procedural violations investigations - which are a personnel matter and therefore subject to privacy protections.

I'm sure if a teacher had brought a Taser to school and accidentally shot a student, the school board might admit that there is an investigation going on into the matter to see if a teacher had failed to follow procedures procedures had been failed to have been followed, but they would not name the teacher, as this would be a personnel matter.

The trick then, is simply to find the newspaper story about the school board's investigation of the matter and - since the cop is not a school employee - the school board will have named the officer and the paper will have printed it.

The school board is investigating this and the newspaper is reporting on the school board investigation, right?

[Clich? Bandit]

Was she the only one in the room qualified to handle that weapon?

[Steve G]

Anyone checked Rosanne Barr's twitter feed?

[Snark Plissken]

Nice.

[Doctor Whom]

The media make a point of not releasing victims' names, and we all know that the officer is always the real victim.

[RightNut]

The important thing is that the brave officer made it home safely.

[Radioactive]

but did she taze the dog too?

[RightNut]

What a stupid question

It's a school, with children.....

She shot the dog.

[Rich]

The resource officer won't be at the school while the incident is investigated.

"Let's see .... A Tempe, Arizona, school resource officer accidentally shot a 14-year-old girl with her Taser. The officer, who wasn't named by media, was taking part in an eighth-grade show and tell at Gilliland Middle School. She mistakenly pressed the trigger, propelling one of the two prong's into the girl's arm. .... OK, let the resource officer be at the school."

[waffles]

I just found out the ban bossy thing is a goal to censure a useful word. I am dismayed. I thought the goal was to ban bossy people. Like school resource cops with poor trigger discipline. Eh, whatever. Good shoot.

[UnCivilServant]

It's an attempt at thought control. Call out the Bossy people for what they are.

[Rich]

I'm not up on this aspect of popular culture. Whence "the ban bossy thing"?

[Rich]

At least in *this* demonstration the officer didn't shoot herself.

(Obligatory)