9-year-old arrested for waving toy gun

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All I can say is if it were my kid in the situation, I would have been arrested by the next cop on the scene for either shooting or kicking the ????? out of the cop.

The article siad the kid was waving the gun over his head and he pointed his gun at the kid. It never once says the kid pointed the TOY at anyone.

Yeah, the gun 'looked' real. We had a thing around here a few years ago called the 'Blazer Rapist", where the cop 'looked' real, right before he raped several women.

Tar and feathering isn't enough for this guy. Stoning is more appropriate.
 
I see........so now we wait while junior is playing with daddies gun until it goes off....or...wait until he pulls the trigger because he wants to shoot it like the guys and kids in the movies before something is done??
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Dontcha think, if the gun had bullets, he'd have fired some off, considering how slow response times are most places?

Oh, in case you didn't realize it, no one was saying nothing need be done, only pointing a gun at a little boy should've been waaaay down the options list.

'Course, little black boys are born criminals. :rolleyes:
 
My problem kicks in at the point in time when the kid was arrested AFTER it was discovered that the gun was a toy.
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That's a good point. In all the hullaballoo of cops are good/cops are bad I had forgotten that point...
 
I see......so now its the, well if the gun had bullets they would have fired by now concept.

What rule of gun handling saftey is that?

Rule #??? A gun is empty until it goes off. Simply amazing. :banghead:
 
'Course, little black boys are born criminals
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I've seen a couple references that the boy is black. Is that because the mother's first name is Tymika and has a different last name than the boy?

I recently had a comeuppance - when I found out that the woman buying the house next door was named Chantel, I assumed she was black. Turned out she was wonder bread white. Inside, I felt a fool.

Sorry off topic, but I don't see where race is mentioned in the article.
 
Sorry off topic, but I don't see where race is mentioned in the article.
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Purely a guess. However, I'm thinking that had this been a little white boy, the cop might've done something other than draw down on him right off the bat.

We'll know if Jesse or Al come to Cleveland and stage a protest until they, and maybe the kid and his mom, if there's any left, are paid off.

Rule #??? A gun is empty until it goes off. Simply amazing.
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It's "little kid playing with a gun" rule, which is that, of course he's pulled the trigger, since it's A) a gun and B) he's playing. I'd take 9:1 odds on that, too.
 
I have no problem with the cop being cautious. He's just doing his job. I could almost forgive him for aiming his weapon at the kid's head if it weren't for the rest of his actions. Once it was found that the "gun" was a TOY, that should have been the end of it. A stern lecture to both parent and child would have sufficed, and the kid probably would have grown up with more respect for firearms and cops alike. As it is, any gun will likely remind him of his horrendous encounter with the overzealous cop that was just out to get him for doing what all kids do - playing. He will have no respect for law enforcement at all, and it's more likely he'll end up a criminal. A cop coming up and arresting me for doing absolutely nothing wrong would definitely put law enforcement and authority figures in general in a bad light in my eyes. This cop used his significant power of discretion, just like he had many other times I'm sure, and decided that overkill was the best way to handle the situation.

Bottome line: kid should have been told not to wave real-looking guns around, cop shouldn't have arrested him after he found out that IT WAS A TOY, that it was NOT AIMED AT ANYONE, and the kid was NOT THREATENING ANYONE. Bad kid. Bad cop. Bad mommy.

Confucious say: "No use cannon to kill mosquito."
 
I have some major problems with this.

In Texas, I'm not allowed to arrest a 9 year-old. I would imagine that Ohio has the same sort of law.

Now, either the officer has really screwed the pooch, or the news agency has got one (or more) fairly important facts misplaced.

I'll hold off on judgement until I get more information.

LawDog
 
Oh FFS!!

When I was a kid, I did in fact play with realistic plastic BLACK squirt guns....


Now, If I was a cop, going by a kid waving a realistic gun around, I'd approach him, and say "Wow, dude.. that's cool.... can I please see it? "

Most normal. well adjusted kids, would probably hand me the gun..... if it was in fact plastic, I'd say "wow, that's cool" and give 'em it back... if it was real, I'd tell them so. And I'd ask where they got it, as I unloaded it.

I damned sure wouldn't try anything as f***ing stupid as a felony-stop style draw-down on the kids.
 
Lorain, Ohio PD points gun at 9-year old

Yeah, I thought you'd like to have a word with them...

Ya know, when I think of all the thousands of hours I spent playing cops and robbers, army and commies with my pop gun and cap gun, if I only knew that I was risking being tactically taken down by Lima, Ohio PD...

Rick

http://www.lorainpolice.com/news/

Lorain Police Department
100 West Erie Avenue
Lorain, Ohio 44052-1646
PH: 440.204.2100
Fax: 440.244.0084

Chief of Police [email protected]

The Morning Journal
http://www.morningjournal.com/site/news.asp?brd=1699

9-year-old arrested for waving toy gun
http://www.zwire.com/site/10419957.html

by MICHAEL C. FITZPATRICK , Morning Journal Writer

10/28/2003

LORAIN -- A 9-year-old boy was arrested at gunpoint and handcuffed Saturday
because he was waving a toy gun over his head while seated on a bench
outside a store, according to a Lorain police report.

His mother, Tamyka Saunders of Sheffield Lake, said her son, Thomas Clark
Jr., told Lorain police when they approached him outside a Broadway
business that the gun was a toy. An officer aimed his weapon at the boy's
head, ordered him to the ground, handcuffed him and arrested him for
juvenile delinquency by reason of inducing panic, according to the police
report.

Saunders, 28, was also charged with obstruction of justice and resisting
arrest when she pleaded with police not to arrest her son and to give him a
warning, according to a police report.
--snip--
 
Completely agree with liquidtension. Kid and mom should have gotten yelled at by cops and every other responsible citizen within range.

Sure, lots of people here owned and carried around toy guns years ago, but did you wave them above your head while you were out in public? It sounds like this was at a strip mall. Generally people play with toy guns in residential areas.

Both this kid and the kid who drew the U.S. soldier shooting the taliban fighter were both "diagnosed" with ADD according to the media. What's going on? I haven't read two articles about ADD kids getting in trouble in such a short time-span... ever, that I recall. ADD labels themselves make me wretch. Parents find a friendly doctor to label their kids ADD. That will get them unlimited time on SATs and other special considerations so they can be brats more of the time and don't have to learn responsibility or consequences for their actions.

Grr.
 
That will get them unlimited time on SATs and other special considerations
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What a racket. I coulda cracked the 1500 level if i knew about this.

Between test prep and special considerations for the 3/4 of kids that have ADD now, these standardized tests seem like even more of a joke. Oh, and calculators to do the math sections, puhhleeze.
 
tries to wrestle suspect from police custody, both mother and son are
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perhaps you should reread the artcle. She complied when the officer told her to back off. Sounds to me like a rational response to an irrational situation.

Some people are stating that BB guns look like real guns. No where in the articles has the gun been described as anything but a black plastic gun. If it had been a realistic Airsoft or pellet gun I'm sure the PD would have made a point of getting that info out. My guess is a Buck Rogers style squirt gun painted black.

As long as we are jumping to conclusions, has anyone ever seen how a kid twirls a gun. Kinda over his head. I can picture the kid now twirling his gun trying to get the drop on his reflection in the store windows, trying to make the best out of beauty salon hell day for a 9yo boy, and scaring the hell out of the sensible white folks seeing some darky practicing his future stick up skills. (And by the way I'm just as pissed at the loser that called this in as I am at the flatfoot that responded.)

And by the way Tamyka is a uniquely African American name. Chantel is a common Euro name especially French.

There were a hundred different ways to handle this situation I think the cop picked just about the worst. If anyone is that paronoid I don't want or need them to "protect" me.

And I agree with Tyme ADD is a catch all phrase for "I don't have the skills to handle my kids". It's just part of the trend in America of not taking responsibility for one's own actions.
 
I agree with those that posted about their childhood experiences. How is it that for 90 years or more, kids played with toy guns and the police didn't think anything of it. Now it is worthy of using deadly force. When I was 9 years old I owned a REAL handgun. When I was 12 years old I regularly walked down the city streets with REAL guns. I never caused any problems and no one cared about it at all. I used to lean a .22 rifle against the outside of the door of a store, go inside to buy a soda pop or whatever and never thought anything about it.

Some of you have got the talking done. I sent an E-Mail to the police chief:
[email protected]

I think this is a disgrace. I see no justification for this at all.
 
from tyme
Parents find a friendly doctor to label their kids ADD. That will get them unlimited time on SATs and other special considerations so they can be brats more of the time and don't have to learn responsibility or consequences for their actions.
Click to expand...
from semf
ADD is a catch all phrase for "I don't have the skills to handle my kids".
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AMEN Bretheren, AMEN.

Right or wrong the police have this kids ATTENTION now.

When I was a kid I had LOTS of toy guns.
One of the most memorable was a dart gun (y'all remember those suction cup tipped darts?) that was a same size replica of a Colt Woodsman Match Target. I got it when I was 5. (1960) Which is why I lust after owning a real one to this day, but I just can't justify the high price.

The other was a .45. I got it when I was 8. (1963) It was EXACT size, in fact I bought a geenuwine WWII brown holster from an army surplus store for $4.50 WITH a web pistol belt, first aid pouch and magazine pouch. The detachable magazine held 7 rounds of plastic ammo this actually launched a spring powered "bullet"/ The mag release worked just like a real 45. You cycled the slide and it fed and ejected just like a real one. I even got my parents to mail order 2 extra mags for $1.50 each so I could carry two spares in my pouch like a real soldier. (The same company made a full sized M14 to go with it as well as a Safari Rifle and Pistol and Lever action rifle with companion Single Action Revolver. All could be bought in sets with a wall plaque that held the rifle & pistol.) Anyone else remember these?

If I still had those toy guns and I pointed them at anyone I'd expect to get shot post haste!

Yeah, we walked around with our fingers on the triggers but for some reason we didn't have AD/ND. Yeah, we pointed guns at each other when playing Army or Cowboys or Cops or Secret Agents. But we didn't point them at adults. We only played these games in our back yards or farm fields or in the local "woods". And IF we had ever seen a police officer we sure would have done EXACTLY as we were asked/told.

As for the kid in this article just "waving the gun above his head"? Maybe, maybe not, I have a gut feeling that there is maybe a little more involved.

Time will tell.

After all SOMEBODY thought enough of his actions to CALL the police. It's not as if they just happened by. (At least according to the story, which we don't know if it is accurate or not.)


Like Lawdog, who is one of the few to keep a level head during this thread, I will hold final judgement until I get some REAL facts not just a hurried newspaper report.

I bet y'all a dollar to a doughnut that there's a LOT more to be learned about this. :scrutiny:
 
I miss my Mattel SAA cap pistol.

It was VERY real-looking, and real-functioning. Even shot little plastic bullets from the springs in the cartridges.
 
trying to make the best out of beauty salon hell day for a 9yo boy, and scaring the hell out of the sensible white folks seeing some darky practicing his future stick up skills.
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I hope your comments were filled with sarcasm...... The Mother and Son may be black..... but don't ASSume that the people who called it in were white. Jumping to conclusions like that is a sterotype in of itself...... I guess you also ASSume the cop was white. :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

Best not to go there...... The only thing we know for sure that was black was the gun.... don't turn this into a race thing.

Jack
 
"I hope your comments were filled with sarcasm...... The Mother and Son may be black..... but don't ASSume that the people who called it in were white. Jumping to conclusions like that is a sterotype in of itself...... I guess you also ASSume the cop was white."

"As long as we are jumping to conclusions"
Yes the whole thing was based on conclusion jumping sarcasm

I honestly didn't give any thought to the race of the cop, which to me is odd.


"don't turn this into a race thing."

Living in America is a race thing. We have a very long way to go before we are the colar blind society that the feel good types want us to believe we are. I am constantly shocked by the rasism I see every day, from all races

Personally I hate rasism in all forms. My way of dealing with it is to make fun of it wtih this type of assinine in your face comments, that seem to offend some people. But I learned it from an old black man so it must be o k
 
Couple of years ago, while on the way with the Grandparents of one of them to view July 4th fireworks, a couple of kids were shooting green plastic water pistols from the rear widows of a car. Next thing grampa knows is blue lights, redlights. Kids out of car, cuffed and leaned over trunk.
Kids scared and crying, old folks about to have strokes. Come on folks, where are we heading? The idiot with a cell phone that called in the report of people shooting from a car, the overreacting cops, it all stinks of an America I don't recognize anymore.
The cell phone caller was probably the N.Y. lady who hustled her two small boys out of the hardware store where I worked, because she did not want them to see the machetes on display, but I don't know where they found those cops!! I know what they look like, they used to come into the store and strike poses in front of the security mirrors, almost strain a gut flexing all those muscles, enough nylon web gear to pull a stuck truck. Man, don't they look cool!!! They scare the crap out of me, not because they are tough, but because they are psychopaths.
It seems they need blind and brutal force to run Iraq, send them over there. They don't belong in the USA.

http://groups.msn.com/Riflephotos
 
ANY NORMAL MOTHER WOULD HAVE TRIED TO GET TO HER KID. You want to see a normal Grandfather in action, try to cuff my Grandson over this kind of silly B.S. I tried to raise my kid not to be afraid of Cops, to respect them. Those Cops seem to be all long gone, however, and no kid I have anything to do with raising will be taught to bootlick petty tyrants.
All any cop had to do was sit down beside the kid and say "Hey, son, what you got there". That would have course, have to be a Cop that understood nine year old boys, and had just a bit of combined common sense and courage.
WHEN WE DO NOT RAISE A STINK OVER STUFF LIKE THIS, WE BECOME PART OF THE PROBLEM.:cuss:
 
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