Last night

[Mitzi]

A friend of my sons was arrested last night for DUI and an open container of beer in the car. He's a nice kid but he's a different person when he gets drunk. Anyway, he decided to resist arrest and ran. He was tackled and fell on his face. He would not take his hands out from under him so they had to force him to. He is in jail now.
My son is really mad that his friend was hurt. We talked about this and I told him that, if Todd hadn't been drinking nor had he tried to run and hide his hands, he wouldn't have been hurt.
I could see the anger in my sons eyes. My husband told him that police officers have to protect society and themselves from this kind of stuff. David said, "But why did they have to force his hands back?" I explained that was for their safety. They didn't know if he had a gun or not.
I told him all Todd had to do was comply with the laws. He was drinking, had an open container then tried to run away from the problems he caused.
David said nothing. But, why do young men always blame the cops? Is it a maturity problem or an authority problem?

[gracedawn]

Mitzi, as you already know a lot of kids don't have parents to explain the details of why the cops have to control a situation (like the one you described)for officer saftey reasons.

There are a lot of people who don't care why we have to do certain things and many who just don't think about it. In the case of the kid running after being detained for dui and then resisting arrest, not putting hands in back. Well that is an Officer Saftey Issue. If the subject is resisting and hands are not conrolled by the Officers, what is the subject reaching for? A gun, a knife? The fight needs to be stoped as soon as possible with the least amount of force. I have had people suggest to me many times that "it does not take 3 or 4 officers to arrest one person. They are just beating on him" Ofcourse that is their first thought but in actuallity, if you have more officers helping control a suspect then there is less chance of phyisical harm to that suspect and to the officers. It is in our training. A fight, one on one would undoubtable be more painfull for the suspect because the cop needs to come out alive. That is the rule, to go home after a shift.

I think you and your husband did a good job explaining things to your son. If more parents would do that, I think there would be a change in the overal attitude in most youth. The kids need to be in our shoes and understand that we don't read minds and the fact that the suspect is basically a good kid is not relavant. It is the actions of the kid at that time that concern the cops, for saftey reasons.

Rambling here! I am writting this as if I were talking to your son.....lol so sorry, geez......just glad to see your post.

Good luck

[Mitzi]

Our son is now 25 but he's a little behind in maturity. He once told me, "I hate cops" and we actually argued about it.
His cousin is in town this week.....and she is a new police officer. I told him he needs to think of her in these instances. He gives me a hard time and pulls my chain by saying that she knew what she was getting into when she joined the police force but I know my son.....He's just flappin those wings and loves to drive his mother crazy.
It's my hope that, after goes through all his testing, they can operate so David CAN live a normal live. He sure has a lot of anger in him. I won't let him feel sorry for himself about the brain tumor but, inside, I feel so sorry for him.