Scary Taser Video

[PittPoliSci]

I don't know if this was already posted or not, but a friend showed this to me, brace yourself.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/video/taser_video3a.html

[mark414]

1. fucking pigs

i saw this earlier today

that is completely fucking unnecessary

drunk on power

[sniffa]

13. this pig harrassed the whoLe neighborhood

whiLe this pig worked at the station
this pig here kiLLed my homeboy
so the fucking pig went on a vacation

[mark414]

15. that fuckin pig

look what he got himself into

now they're gonna make some pigs feet outta the little punk

anybody like pork chops?
how about a ham sandwich?

[liberalnurse]

87. I disagree.......

She was asked to get out of the car multiple times.... then warned repeated what would happen, that she would be Tased if she did not comply with the order....again, a repeated warning which was ignored.

She wanted to argue, resist. She knew exactly why she was pulled over. Everyone knows that if an Officer gives an order, arguing is not the wise choice.

The Officer is in charge as it's his/her turf and was absolutely correct with enforcing the law. It was a clean arrest. She was a drama queen, mouthy,argumentative and most of all unpredictable. Her behavior is typical of a suspect trying to control the arrest, a dangerous situation if continued...officers get hurt that way, many have died. She was ordered to comply and chose poorly.

[SmileyBoy]

2. Oh my God, I'm fucking crying right now.

And here's the thing: It takes a LOT to make me emotional. I'm a pretty sturdy stone wall when it comes to making me emotional. I didn't cry when * stole the 2000 election, I didn't cry when all the news of all the other shit going on in this country came out, I didn't cry when we invaded Iraq, I didn't cry when * stole the election again. But it took this to make me cry.

I have not cried once since * stole the election in 2000. I cannot believe I am crying now. This is so fucking scary, I don't know what to say.

[Ruffhowse]

3. It's weird how unemotional and robotlike the cops are in this clip.

It's as if they've been completely desensitized to the pain and anguish of other human beings. They remind me of the Borg on Star Trek. Or German concentration camp guards in WWII.

[silverweb]

4. Did you check out some of the comments posted?

:wow:

Absolutely jaw-dropping vile and disgusting! I will never set foot in either Florida or Texas.

Personally, I think the young woman would have been wise to be more compliant, but the cops are just way too aggressive with those tasers. Note the way the cop tried to justify himself after the arrest, too. It shows he knew he was out of line and was trying to cover his ass. It's pretty obvious that some of these guys really get a sadistic kick out of throwing their power around and hurting people on any pretense.

[Archae]

5. This is one of those times both sides are wrong.

The woman wouldn't put her damn cell phone down, and the cops were too eager to zap her.

[UdoKier]

16. Agreed. In defensive driving they taught us...

Certain things to do when pulled over. First of all, don't get out of the car unless the officer asks you to. Keep your hands on the wheel when the officer is approaching, AND FOLLOW THEIR INSTRUCTIONS, WITHOUT ARGUING AND BEING CONFRONTATIONAL.

This woman, in addition to speeding and driving on a suspended license, refused to get out, refused to put down her cell phone and was being confrontational.

I think the officers should have given her more time to comply, but I don't think they should be disciplined, just given some extra instruction.


Maybe this kind of stuff should be taught in school. I'm amazed at the number of people who try to escape from the cops when it's just a speeding ticket, or fight with the cops. That kind of thing is just plain STUPID. I understand the woman's distrust of the cops - I don't trust them either, but behaving as she did will only cause you more grief.

[Bouncy Ball]

17. I agree with what you said about her, BUT you do NOT use

50,000 volts on someone who is NOT violent.

What was wrong with the use of pepper spray? It temporarily caused the person to be incapacitated to the point that most people could not resist, but it had FAR less chance of serious consequences than tazering someone.

And the first time a police officer does this to someone who is NOT violent and who has a heart condition and the person dies, well that's some sad shit.

I think it's too easy to be tazer-happy. It's being used on kids, for crying out loud. If a police officer cannot handle a 65 pound kid without hitting them with 50,000 volts (and btw, that is meant to be handled by a normal-sized adult, not a child), well I don't know what kind of sorry police officer they are.

[UdoKier]

19. According to the article, the TRAINING officer followed department policy

RE your comments, if anyone or anything deserves criticism, it's the policy, not the officer.

They used to use the choke-hold, but that killed a few people and drew a lot of complaints too. There will never be 100% satisfaction with police methods of apprehension. In this case, I felt for the lady, but I don't think the officers were going out of their way to be abusive.

Others have mentioned how cold and robotic they were. These are police officers, not social workers. They deal with very dangerous people and need to be on guard at all time.

[Bouncy Ball]

22. I don't care how cold and robotic they were, I care

that they used 50,000 volts on someone who wasn't even violent. Think about that for a second. That's ok with you? Seriously?

Fine, then, if that's department policy, I certainly have a problem with the policy.

I'll put it this way: I'm a law-abiding person. I've never received so much as a speeding ticket in my life. I was raised to think of police officers as the good guys, as the ones who will protect you. I raised my daughter to feel the same way. But all of this tasering is making me think twice. I feel slightly apprehensive when I see a police officer now and I HATE THAT. It's not just this incident, there are many others. Like I said, tasering KIDS. WTF?

I'd far rather they use pepper spray, mace, a choke hold, the baton, than 50,000 volts, especially on someone who isn't even violent.

That's just crazy.

[Bouncy Ball]

23. I just called my city's police department to see if they use tasers

and only 12-14 of the patrol officers in the city have them (there are a LOT more patrol officers than that). He didn't know if they had plans to get them to every patrol officer, but he didn't think so.

I mentioned my concern and he didn't really address it, except to say that only 12-14 officers in this city even have tasers (that's a tiny percentage).

Oh he did say they are trained to ONLY use them on people who are violent/resisting arrest/only as a last resort and never on children or the elderly.

[HEyHEY]

65. We had a taser happy pig up here

He TWICE tasered people without needing to. Him and the his little cabal of legal power-holders thought if they stalled the case he'd get off. The police department stalled it by taking too long to get him an attorney. Then the crown threw it out because he didn't get a speedy trial... but THEN a legal society said "Hell no!" ANd the next judge said "Get your ass back here" to the cop and he's going to have to face it now..haha!

[MissMillie]

21. My thoughts as well

But I wonder if they had held off a little longer if she would have taken them seriously.

[texanwitch]

6. That was so terrible to watch and listen to.

I almost had something like this happen to me when I was walking my dog and a friend's dog that I keeping for the weekend.

What saved me was I had two big dogs who protected me.

The cops were looking for someone with a shotgun, now I was walking in a railroad yard close to where I live and I carry a walking stick because of a pit bull dog attack on my then 6 month old puppy. So after that I always carry my walking stick. My walking stick does not look like a shotgun but the two cops were so pissed off that they couldn't find someone with a shotgun, they were going to arrest me.

They said that they were going to arrest me for carrying a shotgun, I told them I didn't have one, and one cop said "You just threw away when you saw us coming".

They tried to grap me but my two dogs protected me, did't bite the cops but growled and barked. Then one of the cops went for his taser
and was about shoot me with it when another cop pulled up and said that they had found the person with the shotgun.

The cop that pulled up came over and asked what was happening and I told him, he told the two cops to get back in their cars and go.
I had their badge numbers memorized already, and he didn't even say he was sorry.

He was sorry later when I reported all this, the three cops were fired. My family has connections, the cops didn't think about that.

[mark414]

7. hell yeah

great story

[texanwitch]

8. The connection was my Uncle, a high ranking city offical.

Those cops are going to have a hard time finding another job being a cop. They are going to have to go to Iraq to find a job.

[Bouncy Ball]

9. That was SICKENING.

You do NOT hit someone with 50,000 volts when they are NOT VIOLENT.

Geez fucking LOUISE, what is happening around here???? Seriously, this is some fucked up SHIT.

[texanwitch]

11. Watching that video brought back some vivid memories for me,

I was real lucky.

[smartvoter]

36. She was warned 5 times, but cops quick to use the taser.

What bothers me is it appears that since tasers are considered non-lethal (though they are certainly killing too many people), cops seem to want to use them.

[liberalnurse]

88. maintaining control of the arrest is essential.

Officers have been injured or died within the first 2-3 minutes of a traffic stop when the suspect begins to argue. The suspect try to think of an "out" while they argue. All folks need to do is follow the commands.

The worst is that someone is going to be booked into jail, peacefully. Most all traffic arrests result in a Sheriff's Release or they can post a bond in a few hours. They can go to court and argue the ticket. DUI's may be a bit more challenging, especially if one is intoxicated or a repeat offender.

Let this be a learning curve......don't argue with the Officers.

[Lannes]

10. Living in FLA

Cant say Im surprised.Cops down here have always been like that especially to African-Americans.

[RebelOne]

12. That is so disgusting. n/t

[Misunderestimator]

14. Absolutely sickening.

[Cash]

18. Simple enough solution.

Put out your cigareete.
Get out of the car.
Hang up the phone.

Problem solved.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

40. And if not you should get the death penalty?

edited to add: since we now know tasers are NOT non-lethal?

[DS1]

20. Shoulda just got out of the car when asked the 6th time

Hold on, I'm on the phone. Obviously has zero respect for authority.

Still, tasering was too much, I hardly ever agree with it, he could have just dragged her out with a wrist-lock maneuver.

Still, not much sympathy from me.

[Bouncy Ball]

24. She was wrong for not getting out of the car.

But I'd call 50,000 volts a bit extreme.

[DS1]

28. As do I

During my crash course in MP training I was taught a way to pull people out of their cars by their jawbones, in hindsight I'd be hard-pressed to choose with method I'd prefer happen to me.

[sir_captain]

25. Agreed

Let's not turn this woman into a victim, exactly. She was certainly the one who escalated the situation.

Edit: in addition, you can see that he did try to drag her out of the car the first time and she resisted.

[Bouncy Ball]

26. I have a bit of a problem with this.

I think it's reasonable to say she should have done what the police officer asked AND to say the police officer used an unnecessary amount of force on her.

I just would think that amount of force would be reserved for someone who is at least SLIGHTLY violent. Not just refusing an order.

[sir_captain]

27. It was more than refusing an order

First off, I agreed with DS1 in saying that the tasering was excessive, so please don't put words in my mouth.

With that said, when the police officer attempted to pull her out of the car, she did *physically* resist.

Edit: from your own earlier post, this does obviously mean "resisting arrest"

That said, I don't think in this case it was necessary.

[DS1]

29. Also, he did state that if she didn't get out of the car she'd be

tasered numerous times.

When I'm pulled over a cop could say jump and I'd ask how high. It makes everything go a LOT smoother, and typically just doing the few simple recommended things typically gets me ticketed with a warning instead of a fine.

Turn on interior lights at night. Take a moment to pull into a well-lit area if possible. Keep hands on wheel until told otherwise. Yadda yadda yadda.

[Bouncy Ball]

30. I do the same thing.

I've never received any kind of citation in my life. I am always completely cooperative.

But things like this make my blood run cold. Sure, you can say "well if you are cooperative, then you have nothing to worry about" but I'm just not completely sure about that anymore.

That's the problem. It sort of reminds me of back when the Patriot Act was first passed and people kept saying "well if you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about."

I'm not saying it's COMPLETELY parallel, just that it reminds me of that. I think SOME police departments might need to review what is considered "excessive use of force."

I think the tasers are too easy to use in situtations where they shouldn't be used. The potential for abuse is too high. That's why it bothers me. There should never be a child tasering, yet I've heard of several cases already. Even one case is one too many.

[Bouncy Ball]

31. I found this.

It addresses my concerns:

It has been found by some police departments deploying the devices that officers are sometimes tempted to use them as an alternative to spending time verbally persuading a suspect into compliance. In fact, some departments are so concerned with the overuse issue that they make every officer authorized to carry the weapon endure a jolt from it, in order that they more fully understand what it means to be on the receiving end of the device. The 50,000 volts from the Tasers don't always do the job either, as was evidenced by the recent event in the city of Clearlake, where after three jolts from the Taser the suspect was still capable of taking the weapon away from the officers and then attempted to use it against them. The suspect (who died minutes after his multiple Taserings), was a textbook case of an inappropriate use of the weapon, since the he had two major risk factors that should have precluded a single stun-gun use-let alone risking the multiple stuns.

One risk factor was his acute level of methamphetamine intoxication (which was likely rather apparent, especially to those who deal with bingeing tweakers on a regular basis), the other being his moderate level of heart disease, which of course was something the arresting officers could not have known about. Other probable risk factors include old age and obesity, central nervous system disorders, pregnancies and youth. Suspects around the country as young as six years old have been Tasered by Police in the United States, and persons as old as 82 have been zapped as well. These are indications that at times some poor judgment has been shown by officers in the field, which isn't surprising considering the sometimes spotty guidelines their departments have provided them with.

http://www.pacificsites.com/~lakenews/taseruseinlakecounty.shtml

[sir_captain]

32. If you listen closely

when the woman in screaming, both cops told her that they had both been hit with the taser and it wasn't as bad as she was making it out, so at least they had undergone that sort of training.

[Bouncy Ball]

34. I'm not saying they didn't.

What, she's not allowed to scream now? (Also, if you watch the video tape carefully you can see that, from the camera's vantage point, you cannot see her throw a punch at EITHER officer, although one of them claims she does toward the end of the tape. Now whether she did or didn't is up for grabs, but there's no video evidence of it and it seems rather....convenient for him to say that after tasering her. Sounded like CYA to me.)

The biggest point I had to make was in italics in that quote, not the part about the police officers having been tasered.

I wonder--if every police officer had to take a bullet, would it make it easier for them to shoot people?

Just following that line of logic....

[sir_captain]

39. Yeah, and she also claims

that the officers didn't warn her six times. There is absolutely video evidence that she physically resisted arrest. Without knowing the ins and outs of police work, from a common sense point of view, it seems that at that point, they ought to have used pepper spray or something before resorting to the taser.

But the taser aside, I think the officer made a prefectly legitimate attempt all throughout the incident to verbally communicate with the woman, who ignored him and did not do what he said at every single turn. He was polite and non-confrontational until she physically resisted getting out of the car.

[redqueen]

38. He warned her that he would taser her.

Maybe the next time, she'll take the cop seriously, and do as they say instead of continuing to chat on her cell phone.

(disclaimer - yes of course I think tasering was excessive... )

[sniffa]

44. it may aLso heLps that you're white

[DS1]

51. What is/was she?

[Bouncy Ball]

61. African-American.

And just for the record, I'm not touching the race angle, since there can really be no proving anything in this case with regard to race anyway.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

33. I haven't been so pissed off in YEARS.

My God, is that what the cops have become? I don't even know what to say. I'm sitting here shaking, I'm so mad.

[texanwitch]

35. I guess cops now have become Doctors, they can tell who is healthy

and who isn't.

I have a 26 year old cousin who has a bad heart problem, but with carefull eating and medication he looks OK.

If he was tastered he would be dead, how many other people have health problems not easy to spot?

Didn't a cop taser a pregnant woman, what the hell is going on.

As I posted above I have had an experience with cops gone crazy with power, it was not a fun.

I no longer trust cops or like cops, to many bad ones, and rest so called good cops cover up for the bad ones.

If you have to deal with cops remember badge numbers, always have a pen, you can write on your hand.

Always keep calm, the cops I was dealing with were trying to provoke me, it didn't work.

If you think it is bad now wait until a lot of the GI's in Iraq start joining the police force, they are getting away with murder over there. I would bet the cops on the video had been in the military, most likely MP's.

Do not lose you temper, get badge numbers and report them, most likey you are not the first victim or the last one.

I called my Uncle this morning to see if the fired cops have found another job, he said they have tried but what is now on their record no police department would touch them.

As bad has the experience was, I was glad it happened to me because these bad cops will never get another badge to abuse again. I am white and had connections, what if I was another color?

I know a retired police officer, a good guy, he is as disgusted as I am over what is happening. Just face it, we are living in Bush's America, take care, stay calm, and stay alive. You can maybe get justice later.

[newsguyatl]

37. sorry, but this lady

was more out of line than the cops...


she wouldn't listen to them, seemed to almost taunt and mock them... you don't do this kind of shit when cops pull you over.

they gave her warning.

[sniffa]

41. "sorry but..."

these cops shouLd have fair warning about any resuLting reprisaLs.

[sir_captain]

43. Are you advocating violence against police officers?

That would seem to be just as excessive as the tasering, don't you think?

[sniffa]

45. edited

ah, i can edit. my sarcasm was poorLy recieved - i'm not advocating vioLence. i'd Like to see him Lose his job, or at Least a suspension.

i didn't think i'd have to expLain myseLf but....

[sir_captain]

46. To each their own, I suppose

[smartvoter]

49. I think he was wrong, but this would only make things worse. nt

[sniffa]

50. what wouLd make it worse?

[smartvoter]

57. Violence against the police? Do I really need to spell out the outcome?

[sniffa]

69. i said no such thing

pLease stop saying that.

[smartvoter]

72. Whatever. I won't play your stupid game. nt

[mark414]

86. what about the violence

that the police inflict on citizens every day?

[newsguyatl]

47. i think the first 6 or 7 times

he asked her to get out the car or else she'd be tasered, was pretty fair warning.

[sniffa]

48. and Like i said

if something bad happens to him as a resuLt of this, he had fair warning. at a minimum, he shouLd be suspended.

[newsguyatl]

52. u saying someone should exact some kind

of retribution against him?

hmm, yeh, that's the way to go.

maybe the chick can get her boyfriend she was talking to on the phone to go beat the big bad cop up, because she was too obnoxious to obey police orders when she was pulled over. :eyes:

[sniffa]

56. i'm happy

to see so many putting words in my mouth.

:eyes:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

53. You don't know who she was on the phone with...

If she was a female and all the cops were male, she has a right to refuse to get out of her car until a female cop is present. She also has a right to know why she was pulled over. For all you know she was on the phone with a lawyer who told her to stay in her car.

[newsguyatl]

54. somehow i doubt this

lady who's driving with a suspended liscense is conversing with a lawyer on the roadside.

[sniffa]

59. tsk tsk

point made unfairLy on my part.

[newsguyatl]

60. absoluteLy absurd

weren't you recentLy banned?

i see why now.

[sniffa]

68. tsk tsk

it's not nice to put words in another's mouth, is it?

[sir_captain]

82. She was explicitly told

why she was pulled over. She was speeding. He told her several times.

Is it really true that she wouldn't have to get out of the car if no female officer was present? (I'm asking honestly...I've never heard that before.)

[Bouncy Ball]

62. Where did she taunt and mock them?

I didn't hear that at all. Are you watching a different version of the videotape or something?

Yes, they did give her warning. No one is saying they didn't. What I am saying is that 50,000 volts for not getting out of the car is EXCESSIVE.

[blondeatlast]

42. Take a look at this thread regarding Tasers in LBN.

Creepy as hell.

[smartvoter]

55. Key detail after watching second time...

I see that she was warned repeatedly and blew it off. I don't happen to think the taser was needed because she was not violent.

I am a big stocky guy who would have been tasered after warning number two, I'd imagine, and I do think she was foolish not to comply. But here's the important part of the video:

It is indisputable that he did not need to use it the second time. She was completely incapacitated.

Watch it again and you'll see it.

[Bouncy Ball]

63. Yep, WTF was that about?

WHY in the world was she tasered TWICE? Was it just kind of enjoyable? Was it "just in case" she was superhuman and decided to get up after the first 50,000 volts and attack them?

Dunno. Seems like he was certainly not in any danger here. The woman also looks like she weighs all of 110 pounds.

[smartvoter]

67. This is the part that bothers me the most. nt

[HEyHEY]

74. So the warning makes it okay?

I don't think so, the taser is meant as a defense mechanism for cops, not as a "Assist people from getting out of their cars" tool

[smartvoter]

78. No. I clearly said that I didn't think it was needed. However,

since it has been repeatedly brought up that she refused to comply, I was pointing out that she was tased again for absolutely no reason.

The point was the officer was wrong. I moved from the arguable point to one that can't be defended.

[Robb]

58. Someone explain to me why this is any worse ...

...than someone getting thumped on the head when they don't follow direction from an officer.

Anyone going to venture blunt force trauma to the head is less potentially lethal?

How about pepper spray? Think no one ever dies from that?

[Bouncy Ball]

64. I'd love to see any stats on deaths from pepper spray.

I was just looking for that.

I'd venture to guess there are far lower death rates from pepper spray than from tasering. I'd kind of be surprised, to tell you the truth, if pepper spray HAD ever caused a death.

And if I were given a choice, I'd take the pepper spray or the bonk on the head over 50,000 volts.

[smartvoter]

66. There could be a rare allergy but I agree with you -- it must be safer. nt

[Bouncy Ball]

70. I found something here.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:SZ9u1OyxORQJ:www.aclu-sc.org/attachments/p/Pepper_Spray_Deaths.pdf+deaths+from+pepper+spray&hl=en

Seems that the underlying cause of death was contributed to heart problems in most of these cases.

In which case, the taser would have most definitely caused death, as well.

Here's something else:

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:bAcsUlCnHeAJ:www.aclu-sc.org/attachments/p/Pepper_Spray_New_Questions.pdf+deaths+from+pepper+spray&hl=en

Seems that 61% of the fatalities had underlying heart problems and/or asthma.

[Gatchaman]

73. Hideous

even worse, I originally saw this on another forum under the topic "Funny police video of a tasing that was well deserved". Yeah, real fucking funny.

[Robb]

71. Deaths in custody are tough

...especially when looking for a single cause (e.g., clubs), simply because there are usually a dozen possible things that take place in relation to the mostly-less-than-lethal stuff.

Say you pepper spray someone, inflaming their respiratory tract. They've got asthma. They die.

"Positional asphyxia" is a big one with pepper spray, and bigger still with getting bonked. In other words, he's not dead, but the position of his body is making it hard to breathe... so if someone gets sprayed, then folds over onto his windpipe, did the spray kill him? It's plenty hard enough to breathe when you're face down and handcuffed.

It's sort of like saying the bullet didn't kill him, his heart did when it couldn't pump blood properly anymore. But believe it, anything of this nature is potentially lethal.

Tasers just make for sexier news copy.

[HEyHEY]

75. I think the taser is a good thing WHEN

The cop is using it to subdue a violent offender, not just a bag of attitude on a cell phone.

[Bouncy Ball]

79. Which is why I saw this case as excessive.

Also, she was tasered a second time once she was on the ground.

[Bouncy Ball]

80. I was googling around and found a DU thread from about

a week or so ago.

Post #5 on this thread speaks for me:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1497925

Also this: She was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn't think she deserved.

So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts.

"Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during her criminal trial last week on charges of refusing to obey an officer and resisting arrest.

She was found guilty of the first charge because she never signed the ticket, but the Seattle Municipal Court jury could not decide whether she resisted arrest, the reason the Taser was applied.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/223578_taser10.html

It was applied to her NECK, a place I read earlier it should not be used (head, neck, and genitals). Yeesh.

[smartvoter]

81. What a load of crap. He wouldn't let us help him so we tased him. They

were just trying to cover their asses.

[HEyHEY]

76. I think the taser is a good thing WHEN

The cop is using it to subdue a violent offender, not just a bag of attitude on a cell phone.

[Bouncy Ball]

77. I'm seeing that in reading these links.

In the state of California they apparently gathered a lot of data, including how the person was restrained. Those who were "hog-tied" seemed to have a higher fatality rate.

I found this article, too:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-03-taser_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

84. The legal issue is whether the force was excessive for the

events at hand. It certainly appears that it was.

[Floogeldy]

83. If you are familiar with my posts . . .

You know that I am NO FAN of law enforcement precisely because of the use of excessive force and violation of Constitutional rights that occur daily in our country.

However, I also think that we are forced to draw one of three conclusions about the arrestee in that video:

1. She is really stupid, or;

2. She is really crazy, or;

3. She was trying to bait the cop into a brutality claim.

If I could, I would give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she simply may have been scared. But if you watch the first two videos, at the beginning of the stop, she was verbally combative in a manner that exhibited confidence, rather than fear.

I'm just sayin' . . . .

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

85. So what? They are the trained law enforcement professionals

They shouldn't have taken the bait. That badge doesn't give them the right to get physical with people just cause those people piss them off.

[nytemare]

89. She had almost a minute to get out of the car

The officer physically tried to pull her out, and she would not come. Almost a minute is a LONG time in a situation like this. I was an Army MP, and I currently work in law enforcement. Most gunfights are over after 8 seconds.

The woman was smoking a cigarette, using a cell phone, and speeding. This is why she got pulled over. She got tased because after being told repeatedly to get out of the vehicle, set the phone down, and to put out the cigarette, she thought that her phone conversation was of more importance than the situation she was in. This woman's demeanor was taunting the officer. She told the officer "no, I'm on the phone." He never said he was going to arrest her, he just told her to get out of the vehicle, and she said to the person on the phone that he said he was going to arrest her. He tried to pull her from the vehicle, and she would not come, so then he pulled his taser out. She then, RATHER THAN TALKING TO THE OFFICER AND GETTING OUT, told the person on the phone that the officer was going to SHOOT HER. IF YOU THINK SOMEONE IS GOING TO SHOOT YOU, shouldn't you talk to THEM to keep them from shooting you???

Pepper spray's after effects last forever, and in an outdoor environment often blows back on the officer. A taser shot lasts until the finger is pulled off the trigger. That is it. This woman hammed it up, folks, and that made this woman's situation of being tased which she did everything to bring about seem far worse.

Unfortunately, in Law Enforcement, as in EVERY group of people(every religion, political party, race, gender, etc) there are people who don't make the best decisions. There are instances where talking would work much better than tasing. Every time I see videos of civil rights riots, and videos like the Rodney King beating and another that recently occurred, I get very pissed. These people make it difficult for the good people working in law enforcement to overcome the damage they have done.

In this situation, as it occurred, the taser was a better option than verbal and physical force, which did not work, pepper spray, which in an outdoor environment is not reliable, and especially the asp, which can break bones. The effects last for seconds.

The taser is a wonderful tool, if used when it is warranted. It has cut down SHARPLY on the number of police shootings, and use of the asp. This is especially true with suspects who wield knives, where before the gun would be the only thing an officer could use. It takes discretion, which is a tough thing when one doesn't know the intent of the subject. In this instance, the intent of the subject was obvious.

Also, there were a lot of "fucking pigs" going into the trade center when everyone else was running out. Locally, we had a "fucking pig" get shot while trying to save children during a hostage situation. She was shot 7 times, and the kids were saved.

http://www.policeone.com/policeone/frontend/parser.cfm?object=News&operation=full_news&id=86107

Here is a video of people getting tased, and you will see how they all pretty much immediately stand up.

http://www.policeone.com/policeone/frontend/parser.cfm?object=News&operation=full_news&id=86107



Not all cops are pigs. Not all MP's had prisoners in naked pyramids. This thinking is prejudiced and does not represent the open mindedness that I expect to find in fellow democrats.


on edit: Just want to let the OP know that my rant wasn't aimed at you...just the bearer of the bad news. :)