TheAgitator.com
Wow. Just, Wow.
Saturday, May 16th, 2009They’ll do this to their own kids. One can only imagine what they’d have been willing to do to inmates.
Children held hands so 50,000 volts could pass through their fingers. Other children were dangerously close to breathing tear gas.
A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day events at three Florida state prisons last month. One was a warden’s daughter.
The growing numbers, and the descriptions of kids being exposed to tear-gas and shocked while holding hands in circles, were revealed during a news conference today by the surprised chief of the Florida Department of Corrections chief.
“A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns”
This sounds like the kids held hands in a circle, with one kid touching one electrode, and a different kid touching the second electrode. It is completely harmless. I know because I experienced it in my high school physics class. I only felt the slightest tingle. I enjoyed it, and I’m sure these kids got a kick out of it too.
What?!
You see stun guns and tear gas are “non-lethal weapons”, and so 100% safe to play with in any situation.
@2
I just wonder when they’ll come out with McTaser Happy Meals and My Little Pony Pepper Spray…
You know the children of prison guards are already completely fucked up, as their parent(s) will endlessly tell them what a valuable service they provide to the community by keeping those horrible people locked up, including those awful non-violent drug users.
Juxtapose this with the story I heard about last week where a high school student is in trouble for bring a camera modified to shock people to school and WTF?
#1 Daniel–Regardless of whether they were in any serious pain, it’s still a sick little activity. Check out these cool weapons we use to shock disorderly prisoners into submission! Wow, I want to be a prison guard when I grow up!
So it’s not as bad as the usual Balko outrage reporting. I can imagine the department of corrections head upon finding out about this unbridled idiocy shouting “What the Fuck? Do we really need a regulation that says we don’t shock dependents on take your kids to work day?”
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I would really appreciate a preview option. Pretty please with sugar on top?
Radley, I think you missed this – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/nyregion/16inwood.html?ref=todayspaper – pretty egregious story on police misconduct.
I love fish out of water New York stories also and thats pretty fascinating reading.
Not gonna defend their lack of judgment, but I have to point out there are actually arcade games that shock you, and like #1 said we used to do pretty much the same thing as kids. Not saying it’s safe, but it didn’t kill us. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11126065
If the children were really “shocked” while holding hands in circles, the experience would have been truly harmless, and has been blown completely out of proportion, thanks to typical public ignorance of basic science.
What was the current? It doesn’t take much at all to stop a heart when the heart is in the way.
From Wikipedia: “A low-voltage (110 or 230 V), 50 or 60-Hz AC current through the chest for a fraction of a second may induce ventricular fibrillation at currents as low as 60 mA”
The stun-guns used on the kids work only on contact. They deliver 50,000 volts of electricity with a current of up to 6 milliamperes.
Well butter my ass and call me a biscuit!
Why don’t we get those Barney Fife’s to just give them thar youngins’ a lil’ dose of a lethal injection cocktail, not too much…just enuff to let them lil’ varmints know what’s ahead if they screw up!
NIP IT IN THE BUD, IS WHAT I SAY…Just nip it, nip it, nip it!
I’m unconcerned with the medical aspects of the experiment: a 6 mA current cannot cause harm across a “daisy-chain” of children (even with 50,000 volts).
I’m more concerned with children getting the incorrect idea that Tazer’s aren’t very harmful when used against a suspect or an inmate. What bothers me most about Tazers is that they can be used from outside the cell. Inmates can be tortured without the guards taking the risk of entering the cell (with a billy club or hose). It makes the torture seem less real, which means that it’s more likely to be repeated.
Speaking of tasers…..
Pastor beaten and tased at a border stop in Texas. He asserted his fourth amendment rights, and the police didn’t like it.
It’s never too early to start training the next generation. Who knows, maybe one of them can grow up to be the next Charles Graner?
#15 Agreed. Whether or not harm was done–and those in the “daisy chain” undoubtedly only felt a tingle as the initial charge was transferred down the line–the principle is alarming. These were not prisoners. There was no evidence of any of them even being j.d.’s. And, as the story goes on to say, some of the students got the 50000v charge individually.
I’d want to talk to the parents who consented to this. I wouldn’t ask them what they were thinking, though, because they clearly weren’t.
If I ever get pulled over in FL, I will seriously consider harikiri.
And people thought I was weird for bringing my kids to my job as an interrogator at Gitmo.
Let me just say that Danno Jr has a bright future in waterboarding ahead of him.
God Bless America!
“One can only imagine what they’d have been willing to do to inmates.”
As an alumnus of the Florida Dept of Corrections, which I spent about a year in due to some non-violent drug offenses (possession of mushrooms with intent to sell within 1000 feet of a school = first degree felony, upto 30 years in FL — watch out!), I just want to back this up with a HELL YES.
You want to know what guards do to inmates in Florida prisons? Pick a random convict with some time in (4 years or more, not hard to find) and write them a good ol’ fashioned letter. Just ask. You will not believe the shit you’ll hear about/
I’ll bet they forgot that they could have played ‘Musical Chairs’ with “Old Sparky”!
“In nearly every case, the guards who administered the “electronic immobilization devices” had permission from parents or grandparents.”
What. The. Fuck.
I was also shocked in high school physics class, as a demonstration of electricity and voltage. It was pretty fun – it was enough voltage to cause all our muscles to jerk (the whole class in a circle) but not enough current to do any harm. I don’t see the problem, under controlled circumstances it’s fairly safe.