NEWS reports this week that a 6-year-old boy had been pepper sprayed by police back in June seemed to intimate that this was a ghastly revelation and that somehow it was something that police should never have done.
But reading a bit further into the circumstances of the incident casts the whole matter in a somewhat different light.
Sure, the boy was only 6 but he was wielding a steak knife and threatening to kill his mother.
We were not told where this unhappy incident happened or why the lad was so upset that police had to be summoned but police can hardly be blamed for taking the action they did.
From all accounts being pepper sprayed is not an enjoyable experience but then being a mother confronted with a knife-wielding, threatening son would not be either.