This page was last updated on May 14, 2010.
Guard didn’t need to use Taser on fan; Jacquelyn Boyle; Beaver County Times; May 13, 2010.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I am responding to Sunday’s letter to the editor ‘No need to use stun gun on fan.’
“I think it is wrong for security guards to use them unless they are completely necessary. The security guards could have chased him until he had nowhere else to go, and then taken him down by force, not by Taser.”
[RWC] The “security guard” was a Philadelphia police officer and the police department confirmed the officer used the Taser according to police department guidelines. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said, “Unless I read something to the contrary, that officer acted appropriately. I support him 100%.”
“Also, as the letter stated, what if the 17-year-old kid had a heart problem? He could have been severely injured and rushed to the hospital. I bet the security guard would have felt really good about himself then. Even though the 17-year-old boy was trespassing, he should have been caught and charged with a citation.”
[RWC] What if the police officer and/or other security personnel “had a heart problem” and further chasing caused one of them to have a heart attack or incur some other injury?
“I also agree that the security guard should restrain from using his Taser until a more challenging time. A young boy should not have felt such pain for something as minor as running through a field.”
[RWC] “[U]ntil a more challenging time?” We now know it was a harmless high school kid, but the police officer and other security personnel had no way to know that at the time. In 2003, a father and son came out of the stands and beat a KC Royals coach and in 2004 a fan attacked an umpire. Finally, remember the stabbing attack on Monica Seles during a tennis match?
“[R]unning through a field?” Ms. Boyle makes this sound like the opening to “Little House on the Prairie.”
“I feel as though the security guard should apologize to him, and think before he does that again.”
[RWC] In Ms. Boyle’s world, the young man was the victim and the police officer was the criminal.
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