Marin County Sheriff Tasers 65yo Man

[MrScorpio]

65-year-old Marin man sues after getting shocked with Taser

Associated Press
Posted: 09/03/2010 07:39:35 AM PDT
Updated: 09/03/2010 08:03:18 AM PDT

WOODACRE -- A 65-year-old man is suing the Marin County Sheriff's Office after a deputy repeatedly shocked him with a Taser stun gun at his home last year.
A video on the KGO-TV website shows Peter McFarland on his couch ignoring a deputy's order to put his hands behind his back.
In the video, a deputy says he must place McFarland on a psychiatric hold. When McFarland stands up, he is shot with the Taser.

The two deputies had responded after paramedics treated McFarland after he slipped on steps.
The Marin Independent Journal reports that McFarland's suit accuses the deputies of excessive force.
Sheriff's officials said they had not seen the suit, but they did issue a written
statement saying they were "confident the actions of our deputies will be found to have been both within the law and department policy."

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15983490?nclick_check=1

[Dawson Leery]

1. Discussing the cockroaches right here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=501535&mesg_id=501535

[enough]

2. The video is horrible. All these taser incidents seem to be loaded with blatant sadism.

It's as if there's some irresistible urge to make somebody writhe and scream.

[Count Olaf]

5. they are coming out of Cheney's basement or something

no normal person would behave like that

[TexasObserver]

10. The tasing was, indeed, driven by sadism.

The officer used the taser to punish the man for saying things the officer did not like. It's that simple. It has nothing to do with a need to use the taser.

I hope this smug bastard doing the tasing is run out of law enforcement. Civil suits at least allow a useful record that will force governmental units to think twice about employing jerks who are a lightning rod for civil claims.

[MrScorpio]

3. I just watched the entire video

The man was pretty much tortured

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. Yup.

What was amazing was hearing the officer repeating "Stop resisting" -- it just looked like to me the man was moving around and clutching hismelf in agony, not fucking resisting shit! :mad:

The taser shit is out of goddamned control all across the country -- that the gods we chose to not allow cops to carry them here in SF.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. "Stop resisting"

that is just something they say to cover their ass.

[TexasObserver]

22. Yes, like Nelson from The Simpsons, as he makes some kid hit himself.

"Stop hitting yourself!"

Appropriate comparison because Nelson is also a bully with less than average intelligence.

[TexasObserver]

8. He was tortured for telling them to get out his house.

These are the kind of thugs who think they're good guys. They go to church on Sunday and thank Jesus for making them better men and women. They live in a world of delusion, where going into the homes of citizens and treating them like prisoners of war is the norm.

These officers should be fired and prohibited from being in law enforcement at all. This lying bastard who keeps saying "stop resisting" even though there is no resisting should be charged with assault.

This will cost the governmental units hundreds of thousands of dollars defending and settling, and it should.

[TexasObserver]

6. This is why you should never call the police to deal with a family member.

Unless there is simply no other choice. And remember, the EMT you call thinking you're getting medical help will call the police for the slightest reason.

Don't invite them into your home or you'll regret it. This new breed of cop thinks they're on patrol in Afghanistan and you're a terrorist.

The officers created a bad situation and just kept making it worse.

[mike r]

7. Very good advice

The odds are not good for a favorable outcome when you invite them into your house.

[TexasObserver]

9. Why invite a control freak with license to torture you into your home?

If you're a sadist and a control freak, what job do you seek in America?

[tblue37]

11. Many years ago in our town a Native American couple called the cops

because they feared their depressed son would hurt himself. He had locked himself in his room with a knife. When the cops came, they broke down his door and started yelling for him to drop the knife. When he stood up, they shot him several times. I suppose that is how they prevented him from committing suicide--they just did the job for him.

Google "Greg Sevier" to read about him.

I remember reading about a young Black woman who had passed out (or perhaps fallen asleep) in her car. Her cousin (I believe it was her cousin) called the cops because she was worried about ehr. When the cops came, they found her in her car with a gun in her lap. I assume she was holding the gun because it was in the wee morning hours and she was probably afraid of being assaulted. When the cops banged on her window, she started awake and grabbed her gun, though she didn't point it or fire it. The cops opened fire and killed her.

Here, I found a page that describes her shooting--along with several others just as awful:

Even in egregious police shootings, there rarely is any punishment against officers. One of the worst incidents I remember was in Riverside in 1998. Friends of a young black woman, Tyisha Miller, made a 911 call when she was found unconscious in her car at a gas station in Rubidoux, with a gun in her lap. Police smashed the car window, which caused Miller to move. Police claim she was reaching for her weapon when they shot her to death, using 12 bullets to do so.

A fellow officer, upon arriving at the scene, said that the four officers who shot Miller were standing around "animatedly reenacting the shooting," according to a Los Angeles Times report. "Rodriquez said his colleagues were laughing, making 'whooping' sounds, slapping each other on the back and embracing." As relatives cried about the death of their loved one, one officer admitted saying: "This is going to ruin their Kwanzaa" <emphasis added>. The officers in that awful incident were cleared of wrongdoing and offered settlements from the city for their firing. So much for justice.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/greenhut/rush-to-shoot.html

I would certainly hesitate to call the cops. They scare the sh** out of me--and I am a 60-year-old white woman.

It used to be that although members of minority groups were quite often terribly abused by cops--notice that both of these stories are about minorities--in general, middle class white people either didn't believe it or didn't care, because they were not affected by the brutality. The one good thing I see about the widespread, indiscriminate abuse of the public by cops is that those who could pretty much count on not being brutalized by cops in the past can no longer assume that they belong to a protected class. If enough middle class white people get abused this way, then maybe we will eventually do something to rein in our fascist, militarized police forces in this country.

[TexasObserver]

12. I remember those cases. This video should be seen start to finish.

The video of this encounter is almost 37 minutes, and I watched every painful minute.

After having watched it, I will make a prediction: this civil case will cost the governmental units involved at least $1 million, and probably more. It is clear from the viewing that the police used the taser to punish the old man for things he said, not things he did.

This guy never threatened to kill himself. He is alleged to have told his wife "if I had a gun, I'd shoot myself." The man's statement was not a threat, since no gun was present and he was not saying he would get one. It was likely hyperbole and simply a statement of the depressed state of the man. Since he apparently did not have a gun, the statement cannot be considered a threat to commit suicide. If he had said "I'm going to get a gun and shoot myself" that would be a threat.

This video is frightening, because it shows our "public servants" can be heartless goons who take joy in causing pain, suffering and injury to someone whose only crime is not jumping when the goons say "jump."

[era veteran]

13. Fucking Criminal police

I had to quit watching after the 3rd shot. The lady in the background was right,|"you are immature" I have said it before but here it is again, Anybody that wants to be a cop probably shouldn't.

[glinda]

14. Tasers should be banned. Too much abuse.

[TexasObserver]

15. The chronic misuse of them by law enforcement compets banning them.

[Lisa0825]

16. I have not watched the whole video yet, but it was on the news here...

and the newscaster said that the man refused to leave in the ambulance because he said he could not afford it. Sounds sane to me.

edited to add: Oh, and the wife kept telling the cop that her husband had a heart condition and they tased him anyway. I hope they win and get a shitload of money.

[TexasObserver]

19. The video is 37 minutes long, but should be viewed entirely.

The man tells his story in bits and pieces. He is unemployed and has been unemployed for a year. His biggest concern is that he cannot afford any health care bills. His wife had called the fire department, it appears, because he had said "if I had a gun, I'd shoot myself." He is seen denying that he has any intention of shooting himself. He simply wants the police and the EMTs out of his house, but they have already determined they are taking him to the hospital for a psych evaluation, a commitment that could last hours, days or weeks.

The police officer keeps telling him to stand up and put his hands behind his back, but as soon as the guy stands up, he's tased repeatedly. While writhing on the floor, he is tased repeatedly by the cop, who says "stop resisting" to justify his action. There is no resisting. The only thing the guy does is TALK in a way the cop doesn't like. The tasing is punishment for calling the cop an asshole and for not kissing the cop's ass properly.

This man was tortured. They knew he is disabled because of a back injury, but they repeatedly lifted and moved him in a manner they knew would stress his back. They knew he had a heart problem, but they tased him many times. They tased him every time they moved him, as if to disable him while they moved him. They cuffed him behind his back and then made him lie face up, with his cuffed hands under his back. They even did that in the ambulance.

[Lisa0825]

21. It seems that the edited version I saw left out the part about threatening suicide, but

other than that it was pretty accurate. I can't even say how many times my own mother said she should kill herself in her last years, and she never ever tried once, so context is everything in that respect. Even the edited version I saw was extremely disturbing, so I am sure the full length is even more so. I serious hope that he gets massive punitive damages.

[Curmudgeoness]

17. It's about time to take those f**king tasers off of the cops. They

are abused time and time again---and that is just the attacks caught on video that we know about. If they insist on keeping them, no one should be allowed to carry one unless they have experienced firsthand what they do---full power and not just for one second, but for the same amount of time that they use on people, which looks like it is until they run out of power. Can I be the "executioner"? I'll make sure they know what they are putting someone through.

[BlueIris]

18. Ban tasers. nt