Wednesday
Nov172004
Miami Police Use Taser Gun on 6 Year Old
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at 03:53PM
Parents and child advocates were angered that Miami-Dade police used a
stun gun to control a first-grader. The 6-year-old boy Miami-Dade
police immobilized with a 50,000-volt stun gun stands about three-feet,
five inches tall and maybe weighs 55 pounds. The boy, named after an
Old Testament prophet, suffers from attention deficit order and takes a
pill each morning to calm himself, his mother said. On Friday -- a day
after the incident at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School became public --
the little boy sat quietly in his mother's lap, wrapped in a Mickey
Mouse comforter. ''I never want to go back to school,'' he said. Then
the first-grader tore out of his great-grandmother's second-floor
apartment, scaled the steps, tussled with the dog, ran around the yard
and rode his bike. ''He is a natural, normal kid. He rides his bike. He
gets into it with other children. He throws water balloons, like any
other child,'' said his mother, Kathy Rojas. ``The police could have
handled this better. They did not have to shoot him. My child is not
mentally ill. He is hyperactive. They could have tried to handle the
situation with anything, with candy, toys, ice cream, anything.''
Miami-Dade police on Friday insisted they did the right thing because
the officers did not have to physically manhandle a child who, they
say, was armed with a shard of glass and threatening to cut himself.
Still, the incident at the Brownsville school made national news and
exposed the department to more criticism for its use of Tasers, which
it has begun distributing in greater numbers to officers. [more]
Reader Comments (5)
On the afternoon of January 16, 2004, my 17 year old son "Leonardo Barquin", left my house and has not returned. It's horrible for a mother to wake up each day and not have her son, we're not prepared to say goodbye to them first.
He and a friend together jumped the fence of a house, the police say it was for robbery, but when they caught them, they had nothing, they were without cars or bikes, they were walking, it was one o'clock in the afternoon, and they didn't break any windows to enter the house. I think as teenagers, they were up to some mischief, their first mischief, and the devil crossed their path.
If "Leonardo Barquin" was doing something incorrect, he should've been placed in front of a jury for them to decide his sentence. "Jorge Espinosa" couldn't have killed him, or beat him then, he's a murderer, not a police officer, the boy was unarmed.
This Metro Dade police officer named "Jorge Espinosa" with records of "police brutality", shot my son in the back three times and beat him to the point where his casket could not be opened at the funeral because he was so disfigured. After he shot him, he beat him in his face and all over his body. They put more than 60 transfusions of blood in the boy and he died alone in the hospital six hours later because no one called me. In spite of knowing his name, the police never called me and he died alone in the hospital. This murderer's name is "Jorge Espinosa", he is armed and walking the streets because the criminal department determined that the murder was justified. I ask myself if they would've taken different measures with this man's history of police brutality, if my son would still be here? Who's going to answer when this man does it again? But there will be justice, this man will not remain unpunished. This is the first step of many to come, for example my constant denouncement that this man named "Jorge Espinosa" is still on the streets with a weapon in his hand. This murderer took from me the most valuable thing in my life and for the rest of his, I will be here to call him a murderer and to fight for justice for this man, because if God wants to have justice in the sky, he can, but here, on the ground, who is in charge is ME.
TUS HERMANOS TE AMAM
THIS IS A DENOUNCEMENT
It has now been 18 months since my son has gone and each day is worse. The pain has grown with time, today hurts more than yesterday, the loss of a son has no consolation, and even more when a murderer takes him.
How do you stop this brutality? Who gives this power to the police to take justice in their hands? Or is it that they have the license to kill?
There will be justice and all the weight of the law will fall on this murderer. The laws have to be stricter against police when they commit these atrocities that is why you must denounce the brutalities. Not only is it brutal to kill, but to stop you for a ticket and verbally assault you, we have rights and they cannot do that. It has been 14 months that a Hialeah police officer brutally beat Osiel Santana, he too was unarmed like my son. He died a few hours later in the hospital. Among the things the police say, now they say that he beat himself in spite of being handcuffed. It has been two years now that the Sweetwater police almost beat to death Peter Daniel. Fortunately, this boy is alive but he lost part of his liver and each day he wakes up he sees a scar that runs along his body of almost 100 stitches in length. A few months ago, the case of Cesar Augusto Rada, a young man, 31 years old, who was studying psychology, was a model, was shot in his chest by a police officer standing in front of his house, in front of his father. I ask myself, do the police have this right, always alleging that their lives are in danger? Through this email we can make denouncements, we need to unite. We have to remember that in groups there is power and together we can make a difference and construct a better future for our children. The mothers cannot remain quiet, they have to denounce when their son is mistreated or offended by a police officer, they cannot do that, they are not justice, they don't have the right to abuse and kill our children.
leonardobarquin@yahoo.com
THE RIGHT TO LIVE
YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IN OUR HEARTS, WE LOVE YOU
"Leonardo Barquin", 17 years old, who was unarmed, was a loving boy and a good boy. We all miss him very much, mainly his seven and eight year old brothers. They are the ones who keep me alive. Every night they pray for him and they say that now, in our home, lives an ANGEL. It's very difficult to continue living after this pain, the heart can hurt, it's not an expression, one’s life leaves them.
THE LOVE LIVES FOREVER IN OUR MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS. BECAUSE IN OUR HEARTS, OUR LOVED ONES WILL BE WITH US EACH DAY.
WORDS DO NO EXIST, NOR TEARS, THAT CAN EXPLAIN THIS PAIN.
I ONLY HAVE A PIECE OF MY HEART LEFT.
I LOVE YOU FOREVER, MY BABY.
FROM, YOUR MOTHER.
LEONARDO BARQUIN
APRIL 16, 1986- JANUARY 16, 2004
9 times out of 10 police are contacted to deal with issues that people cannot deal with on their own, but are consistently scrutinized on how they deal with/treat peoples. I understand that no one is perfect, but we were not there to deal with this kid first hand. I have to admit once you read the headline you already think, what were those officers thinking the boy isi only six years old. And if tazing a 6 year old was an option that the officers had inorder to protect the boys own life, then we should support the officers. But if we feel that it was a little excessive then, we need to question why they were called there in the first place...maybe Mom should of taken the glass from her sons hands if he is normal.....