A review of foster and group homes is long over due. Children are treated more like live stock than people or children for that matter. Gee come to think of it live stock are more often than not looked after better than some of the “system children” out there. Often stories float about of foster families just milking the system to look after the “child” than actually caring for the “child”.

Seriously Tazzering a child of 11 years old? What was the police officer thinking, more over was the officer “actually thinking” at the time?

There are couples or families that clearly should have children simply because they don’t have the mental capacity to look after themselves let alone another person. However this will continue to occur and these children will be added to “the system”. How the government handles “BC’s future is up to them, all we can do is watch and yell when we see something wrong. Thankfully this child is alive, however with life long scars from the way it’s been treated by “the system”.

Slow down there, Pro, and try to restrict your criticism to situations and events that you have actual knowledge of. Otherwise, you’re just blowing hot air with no purpose than to try to make yourself feel superior. Since you will never know what happened that day, and more importantly, why, all you’re doing is making noise.
Was it a cryin’ shame a kid got tasered? You bet, but removed from the context of the actual event as it unfolded, on what grounds are you sniping at the officer involved? Hate cops?
Meanwhile, it looks like there is enough blame for everyone involved in that kid’s life so the only hope remaining is that he is resilient enough to recover.

Pro, while I agree with most of your comments,you have to be in a position as this officer was at the time. I’ve been there with a 13 year old with a knife, I would have used a taser if one was available, took a lot of talking before he put it down. Takes a second from 10 feet away to get stabbed.
I’m really hoping to see the Minister implement all the recommendations, I really don’t care what it costs, just get it done.

The 11 yr old had a pencil not a knife.

Krusty, it’s called an “opinion” for a reason, I am entitled to my “opinion”. I have been on the front line and in the “decision” phase of a few critical situations involving the choice to use “force” to resolve the situation. So please confine your comments to things you have first hand knowledge or experience in.

I was not, as you say, “snipping” at the officer, the training kicks in during a “crisis situation”, is the training correct for the application to which it is intended? Not always, that’s where “thinking” on the part of the member is critical and not getting caught up in the adrenaline of the situation is crucial.

See this is where reading something more than once, before acting on what you perceive the message being relayed is intended to impart on the reader.

The problem here is too many “system” cracks and not enough “though” before action. Krusty’s comment is a case in point.

By the way I don’t hate Cops, but thanks for the misguided conclusion .

Thirty years ago we fostered a baby – a baby – can’t get any simpler than that – you’d think. All I can say, is our experience with the Ministry at that time was so wonderful, that we’ve never fostered a child since. Fact is, few people are willing to foster and I would put forth foster parents are often treated like livestock too. So, you get what you’re willing to pay for – people who’ll do it just for the money, not for the mission. But just like everything else we gripe about – roads, sewers, healthcare, and now foster care, no one wants to pay higher taxes, but we all want those services fully funded and then some.

Dragonmaster – where do you get the information that he had a pencil? All reports, including the one being discussed here, states he had steak knives. 2 of them. He stabbed an employee with one of them before dropping it and hung on to the other one threatening harm.

Where does the story of a pencil come in?

My guess is…”you had to be there”. Open season speculating again.

What utter BS. As I stated before the Taser is used as a tool of compliance. We are told it is a non-lethal alternative to a firearm.

A firearm is to be drawn when the member is confident that somebody is in imminent danger. Either him/herself the perp, or a bystander. Such was not the case here. Nor when a bedridden senior was deemed too tough to handle.

Face it. It was a cowardly response by the RCMP, and to suggest that it is SOP to taser steak knife wielding 10 years old’s, is a stain upon every officer that graduates from the Depot with a backbone.

…and yes I hate power-hungry cops who take the law into their own hands, while fearing NO repercussions. So spare-me the sniveling whine about “walking a mile in their shoes”. They don’t walk that far, anyhow.

Styxx, IMO you need an education. You have no idea what these folks go through.

Uh, yeah, I’ll get behind Grizzly’s comment.
Pro, please reread my earlier comment. You’re no pro if you can’t see that i’m giving you an out – admit you don’t know diddly about the situation and that your diatribe is just so much hooey.

Taser my kid if they are trying to knife themselves or someone else. Maybe it will shock some sense into them.

” Posted by: Thunder on February 7 2013 3:01 PM
Dragonmaster – where do you get the information that he had a pencil? All reports, including the one being discussed here, states he had steak knives. 2 of them. He stabbed an employee with one of them before dropping it and hung on to the other one threatening harm.

Where does the story of a pencil come in?”

The following story says it was actually a pen but I read another story somewhere within the last couple of days saying it was a pencil. I will see if I can find it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/10/17/bc-boy-taser-investigation-report.html

Maybe putting 27 foster kids, some of whom had special needs, in a for-profit privately run “home” was not a good idea?

Now you can understand why the RCMP have been allowed to become a national disgrace. The attitudes of the pollyanna crowd that pretend to have a clue still buy into the “…always get their man” myth.

Funny how we have a RCMP issued PSA about being distracted while driving just days before a jury in Surrey hears a member of the RCMP was too busy reading a message on his laptop to notice the pedestrian he had run over and killed.

Coincidence? Think again.

Special Interest Group: “This is complete garbage, look at the attrocities going on”

Media: “This is an absolute outrage, we need this fixed and now, how can the Government let this stand!”

Government: “We are going to be raising taxes in the next fiscal year to cover budget short falls.”

Taxpayer: “You bunch of baffoons, next election your out. I want more services and less taxes. Can’t you even balance a budget?”

Rinse, repeat over a few decades and you have a broken health, education and social services system. I doesn’t matter who is elected nothing changes. The governement thinks in four year cycles, the taxpayer is easily fooled by shiny new signs, buildings and annoucements and the population suffers. Yep democracy at it’s finest. What I wouldn’t give for a benevolent dictator….

As mentioned before by someone else and worth repeating on this item, I would be all ears listening and watching intently what this kids parents during a televised interview would have to say about this matter. Or don’t they have a say? Maybe this exercise would …..never mind. I’m going to Tim’s. On the overall scheme of things I don’t give a crap other than “sure hope everything works out.”