Autistic Teen Tasered in Calif.

Autistic Teen Tasered in Calif.
Published: 9/20/07, 7:05 AM EDT

TUSTIN, Calif. (AP) - Sheriff's officials defended their use of a Taser stun gun to subdue an autistic teenager who left a social services center where he was being treated.

"It was necessary," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said in defense of the use of a Taser stun gun to subdue 15-year-old Taylor Karras.

He said the teen is lucky to be alive.

"If that were your son, would you want him Tased or hit by a car?" Amormino asked.

The teenager bolted from a social services center in Westminster on Monday and had walked 15 miles when sheriff's deputies received a call of someone running in and out of traffic on busy Newport Avenue. Sheriff's Lt. Larry Jones said a deputy fired the Taser after a second car had to swerve.

The teen was home with his parents Tuesday, uninjured and no were charges filed. But his parents said they believed deputies overreacted.

"They should have been on alert that there was a missing autistic teenager in the area," William Karras said.

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The taser is turning out to be a policeman's tool of first resort, in any situation. That's very scary.

It's up to us, as citizens, to put a stop to it by demanding these thugs lose their jobs and by keeping the police departments that use jackboot tactics tied up in court until they break.

these bad times will only last as long as WE allow them to. Our forefathers gave us the option in our Constitution to do away with a corrupt government. I think it's time to take them up on it..