There was an incident in Sioux Town recently that ended with a 13-year-old girl being tasered by a uniformed police officer. Apparently two 14-year-old girls were fighting and the police officer tried to break it up. One of the girls heeded the policemans' direction while the other resisted. Then the 13-year-old sister jumps on the cops back and starts biting and scratching him. After several failed attempts to stop this young girl, he gave her a little zap with a taser. This ended the rumble.

Now, I'm not in favor of police brutality, but this little hell-raiser had it coming. Nothing the cop could have done at this point would have looked good. What would the public think if he had cracked her over the bean with a night stick, or much less slapped her? What if he would have wrestled her to the ground and held her there? The guy was in a no-win situation. Now of course the mother of the 13-year-old has gone to the authorities about the cruel and unusal punishment doled out to her "defenseless 85 pound daughter". Wah, Wah, Wah! Teach your daughter to respect others, especially someone in a position of authority and something like this won't happen. The jolt from the taser might be the best thing to happen to this young lady.

Many young people today are lacking respect. It begins with their lack of respect for themselves. If they had more respect for themselves, the rest would fall in line. People with self-respect don't put themselves in awkward and embarassing public situations. Ever since any lick of authority was taken from the schools, youngsters have continually slid downhill. It also dropped the veil on the general lack of discipline in the home. When teachers and administrators could discipline little Johnny, or Janey in this case, parents could take credit for their children's behavior. Now if a child is having problems, there is no one to blame but the parents.

All of that being said, I want to acknowledge the many great young people out there. I am happy to say I know many young boys and girls who make their families proud everyday. And the parents and grandparents deserve a big slap on the back for doing a great job raising their children.

Unfortunately, there will always be one bad apple to spoil the barrel. Maybe if the bad apples see their fellow apple getting a little buzz from the taser, they'll change their ways. NAH!