I know some people are going to classify me as insensitive. Perhaps I am or….perhaps I’m just sick of hearing about people who do the wrong thing and expect a good outcome. In Michigan, 16-year-old Robert Mitchell was in a car that was stopped by police officers. Instead of just listening to whatever the officers had to say, Robert Mitchell decided to run. Helloooooo………the police chased him! Go figure? When they caught him, they had to taser him to subdue him. He died from the shock and now his family is suing.  What??

Let me give you a news flash people! When the cops tell you to stop, you stop! Why the fuck would you jump out of a car and start running away? What kind of fucking logic did you apply to that situation that made you think that jumping out of the car and running was a good fucking idea? I’m so sick of people running from the cops and people expressing shock and outrage when they get tasered or shot. The police have a very dangerous job to do. They didn’t know this kid and they didn’t know why this kid was running. Let me ask you something.

  • Did this kid have a hidden weapon?
  • Did this kid have warrants?
  • Did this kid intend to get to a location and then start trying to shoot at the cops?

You don’t know? Well neither did the cops. When you take off running from a routine traffic stop, the cops are going to chase you! They want to know why in the world you are running. People need to understand that it is not in their best interest to run from cops. If you have done something wrong, be man or woman enough to stand up and take your charges. Don’t be a dumb-ass and go running away. Running from the police is like a box of chocolates….when they catch you, you don’t know what you are going to get.

Robert Mitchell’s family has had a lot to say about the incident. “A nonviolent child is dead,” said Charlotte McGlory, Mitchell’s grandmother. “There was no crime committed. He doesn’t have a driver’s license. All he did was run. We need to stop the use of Tasers.” Mitchell’s family has approached an attorney and may sue the city for damages.

No crime committed? Well then why the fuck did Robert run? If he wasn’t guilty of a crime, why did he take off like he was? If he hadn’t done anything wrong, why did he decide to make himself a target for police? Police don’t have a lot of weapons at their disposal. They have guns, tasers, night sticks, pepper spray and maybe one or two additional items. Every officer is not going to be able to get all of those things out to use on someone who is doing the wrong thing so they have to decide which ones to use. I would surely rather be tasered than shot, but I wouldn’t run from the police. The police need some way of stopping people from doing the wrong thing. It isn’t their fault that Robert decided to run OR that he had to be subdued when they finally caught him.

There are additional things to consider in this story. The grandmother states that the child was a special ed student and a little slow. “Robert was shy. He was learning disabled,” she was quoted in candgnews.com as saying. “His chronological age was 16 but he was operating at like a 10- or an 11-year-old, so who knows? He was a little guy. He wasn’t a threat. They seen he wasn’t a threat.” I beg to differ. People who run can possibly be a threat. Also, if you know that the child is disabled and a little slow, then why was he allowed to be out with someone who had expired tags? Why wasn’t he being supervised by an adult? I know plenty of special ed students whose parents watch over them and don’t allow them to do things that you would allow other children to do. If Robert Mitchell was not supervised appropriately or if he wasn’t given the instructions on what you should and shouldn’t do when a cop approaches a car you are in, whose fault is that? Let me tell you something. I am a speeder and I travel a lot. I have been pulled over before with my kid in the car. Do you know how many times she jumped out of the car and started running????? Now she isn’t a special ed student, but jumping out of a car and running when a cop pulls you over isn’t a normal response. If you run, there is usually a reason and its the job of officers to figure out why you ran.

It is sad that Robert Mitchell is dead. He was only 16 years old. He was just a teenager, however, the truth is that he did the wrong thing and sometimes doing the wrong thing costs you more than just an I’m sorry. Not thinking about the consequences of your actions is very stupid. Unfortunately, that stupidity can end up costing you your life sometimes. People need to take responsibility for their actions and stop doing the wrong thing.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/tase-a16.shtml