Maria Acosta has sued the Bastrop County, its police department, and its school district after a tragic accident left her son Noe Nino de Rivera with a brain injury. Acosta says that her son had broken up a fight at Cedar Creek High School when police arrived. They told him to put his hands in the air, but she says that they shot him anyway with a taser that knocked him to the ground where he struck his head causing “a severe brain hemorrhage”. Randy McMillan, a Bastrop County sheriff’s officer who works as a school resource officer, is named in the lawsuit. Police say that Noe Nino or “N.N.” acted “aggressively.”
The complaint, which can be read here, says that the fight was over when McMillan arrived. She says that her son actually broke up the fight when McMillan arrived and told him to step back. He allegedly did so and put his hand in the air before being shot. We have not seen the answer to the complaint from McMillan or the district.
However, one news report has a statement from Sissy Jones of the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office who says that there is a video of the incident showing de Rivera “being aggressive.” She describes the video as showing a scene where “One of the officers puts his hand on de Rivera’s chest and says, you need to back up and that’s when de Rivera hits the officer’s hand.” “Hits the officer’s hand” is aggression but does it warrant shooting the kid with a taser? Students have told the media that it was McMillan who attacked aggressively and that Noe Nino or “N.N.” was trying to get the officer to listen to him.
What is clear is that the boy hit his head on the ground as he fell. She says that they then handcuffed the unconscious boy and “delayed in calling for medical assistance even though N.N. was in an obvious emergency medical situations.” News reports state that he was eventually airlifted to a hospital or put into a medically induced coma and remains in a coma.
Assuming the video shows N.N. slapping away the hand of the officer, the jury may still be faced with a question of excessive force. We have previously discussed how tasers are now used as a first option where physically restraining people or defusing a situation were once attempted (here and here and here and here and here and here). The use of a taser at a school raises immediate concerns along these lines. There were reportedly two officers present when the taser was used on N.N. What is clear is that police continue to view tasters as largely harmless weapons despite serious injuries documented around the world.
The case also is the latest example of the criminalization of our schools, which we have previously discussed.
Oh yeah, the officer just ‘put his hand on his chest’ and then the kid AGGRESSIVELY hits the officer’s hand….
Would love to see that video, and talk to the many witnesses that were probably there also…..
Preach it, Rev!
The use of Tasers as pain compliance devices is torture.
Tasers are deadly weapons and should only be used by highly trained professionals during life threatening situations not to “teach” a student a lesson.
Rev. A. M. Clark 1, December 2, 2013 at 10:28 am
Police officers do not belong in schools, Teachers are capable of controlling students. Remove ALL police officers from schools!
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Perhaps we should rev it up and start praying for the microbes within the Coppertones?
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4vN6TdyTvew&ei=muucUsXRNeLN2AXf44D4Ag&usg=AFQjCNHlIyVlfL0yXVKXotoQtBwyWY9x7Q&bvm=bv.57155469,d.b2I
What Rev. Clark said.
FTP
RWL, those are my thoughts exactly. There is no reason for police to be stationed at our schools. It is a huge waste of money and only escalates problems. It is wrong with high schools and it is much more wrong in elementary schools.
Even calling the police to break up a fight should be a rare last choice sort of thing. The adults should break up any fight, let the kids cool down, perhaps with some sort of in-school repercussion.
Calling in the cops is just too far over the top and will only make a small fight much bigger. You’ll end up with legal fees, a police record and more. Now you’re fighting over something far more important than some silly teenager angst.
Jude: A cop with a gun, a taser (a gun), a nightstick club, mace, handcuffs, and no brain. Hired by some dumb school board that issued him the taser and the right to carry it and use it. Went in dumb, come out dumb too, hustling round Atlanta in their alligator shoes, they are keeping the N guy down.
RWL – around here, “resource officer” literally means a cop. With a gun.
There are ways to defuse aggression in a situation, and there are ways to infuse aggression. The police need to establish control and order. Training experience, and quality leadership is the way to improve.
Good quality LEOs are some of the best citizens in this country.
It is easy (and necessary) to pee on the bad ones. Police depts need to discipline and get rid of the bad ones. This will help restore the public faith in the honesty and integrity of the many fine officers that serve and protect.
It is up to the local communities to demand accountability and transparency from their police departments.
It is up to the local community to recognize and respect the fine jobs of fine LEOs.
Protecting the dirty ones puts dirt on the good ones.
It will be interesting to see what the video actually shows. I would be concerned who has control of that video. I would hope the attorney for the family would be taking measures to safeguard the video and any other evidence. Sad story, but not an unusual one anymore. The police are in love with the taser and any challenge to their authority is met with deadly consequences.
Police officers do not belong in schools, Teachers are capable of controlling students. Remove ALL police officers from schools!
I read the Complaint which is available in the article above. The attorney makes the mistake of falling into the “taser lingo”. He does not assert that the taser gun was a lethal weapon and that use of the weapon was itself excessive force. One might allege something more compelling such as: “Coppos assaulted and battered pltf with a lethal weapon, to-wit a bla bla taser pistol which is capable of electrocution of human beings and in fact has an electric voltage of ___ volts, amps of ___ watts of ___ and is capable of killing an elephant.”
This is sad…. I am still of the opinion that police officers do not belong in most schools…. I am against tasers…. This is sad… Sad… Sad… I hope the video shows what really happened….
Deadly use of force. A taser is a lethal weapon.
Wow! Question(s): how many teens were involved in the fight? Why were the police called in the first place if there is a ‘resource’ (codename for unarmed secuirty officer?) officer? When my daughter was in junior and high school, male teachers were always around to break up fights (sometimes female gym teachers helped diffuse fights?)? Do you need to pull a weapon out, touch a teenager, or even get in his/hers face, after telling them to put their hands up and back away? Most junior and high school teens will not continue to fight, in school, once the local law enforcement has arrived? Most either try to run or try to talk their way out of any wrongful acts to avoid going to jail?
Police officers have no sense of perspective or balance. They act out of fear not for the public but for their own safety regardless of the injuries they may cause or the level of risk to them I guess they have never heard of concussions or taking steps to AVOID serious injury. We are all at risk from these “Judge DRED” wannabes.
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
Those offices did some nice PR work in front of impressionable teens.