Tazer trigger happy police...

[smellysocks12]

Police brutality or correct use of force??


In my opinion these are a bunch of pigs who are just trying out their new toys. A tazer is a non lethal weapon which is intended to disable people holding weapon. How are you going to use a tazer on a woman with as only weapon her big mouth? First of all 2 big police officers can handle a woman like this with their bare hands, second of all they could have used less dangerous weapons. If this woman would have had heart problems or a pacemaker she would have died instantly. Even if the first zapping was correct, the 2nd time really is police brutality. How are you going to shoot 50,000 volts through someone when she is already on the ground, just because she can't put her arms on her back (which is understandable if you got tazed 10 seconds earlier)?

 

[Solid Fro]

This woman reminds me of how a young child would react to a spanking after doing something they were told not to do.

Here is what smellysocks does not tell you and tries to sweep under the carpet:

• She is driving over the speed limit, has a broken windshield and tail light, and is not wearing a seatbelt.
• The woman disobeys the officer four times to get out of the vehicle. (an arrestable offense)
• She takes a swing at the officer. (an arrestable offense)
• She has a suspended license. (an arrestable offense)

The officer doing cometary on the website stated that it was unwise to manhandle the woman in order to handcuff her. She was still in control of the vehicle and could have put the lives of not only the officers in danger, but other motorists. Using the taser was the correct action to take.

 

[ShobThaBob]

Yeah, think about it this way - he could have decked her after she swung at him. You break the law, be prepared to accept the consequences.

 

[Famine]

A couple of further points...

50,000V do not go "through" anything ever. Current goes through. Potential Difference goes across (or rather doesn't). Current is what stops hearts, not voltage. A current of 150mA is enough to kill you, at ANY voltage.

A pacemaker does not keep a heart going. It shocks it when it stops or enters a fibrillatory phase. Thus even IF her heart had stopped and IF she was wearing a pacemaker it is unlikely to prove fatal.


Sounds to me like a case of "I fought the law and the... law won."

Swing at a cop and you're in for a whole WORLD of hurt. Quite rightly so too.

 

[Razorback]

Sometimes im unhappy about living in good 'ol England.
The weather, taxes, you've gotta pay for porn on "cable"............
But then i hear about **** like this.......

Famine is right. The woman had commited offences and was just being a pain in the arse. As said tazers dont kill you, thats why they're called "non lethal weapons"

Why should officers put themselves at risk for some worthless peice of ****.

💡 People who prefer anarchy and all that crap should be jettisoned into space. 💡

 

[ExigeEvan]

She asked for it.

He gave her plenty of warning. Shouting multiple times is enough for the dead to hear. She didn't comply, he did what he had to.

 

[sn00pie]

You people are all effed up in your heads. Never, ever, under any circumstance should an officer be allowed to torture a harmless citizen.

What do you think a 22 year old girl is going to do against two grown men? The officer in the clip is nothing short of a cowardly low-life.

 

[ExigeEvan]

It wasn't torture.

It was use of restraint. They even said they hav been tazered, they know what it is like. They wouldn't do it if it was not neccesary.

 

[Famine]

You people are all effed up in your heads. Never, ever, under any circumstance should an officer be allowed to torture a harmless citizen.

What do you think a 22 year old girl is going to do against two grown men? The officer in the clip is nothing short of a cowardly low-life.

What could a 22-year old woman do? Anything.

She was pulled over for a litany of felonies. When TOLD to put her phone down she said "No, I'm calling someone.". She was given a verbal warning. She took a swing at a police officer - attempted assault of a public official.

She only has herself to blame for ALL of these things - and the policeman was using prescribed arrest methods.

 

[sn00pie]

What could a 22-year old woman do? Anything.

She was pulled over for a litany of felonies. When TOLD to put her phone down she said "No, I'm calling someone.". She was given a verbal warning. She took a swing at a police officer - attempted assault of a public official.

She only has herself to blame for ALL of these things - and the policeman was using prescribed arrest methods.

Having to wait for someone to finish a telephone conversation is hardly a life threatening situation. And "anything" is a bit of a lame excuse, Fammy. Because everyone - at every point - is able to do anything. If this is kept up officers will be able to justify every brutal measure with this.

A police officer should be able to make a sensible judgement of a situation and act or improvise appropriately. In this case the officer was way out of line.

What if he would have started bashing her head in with his baton? (which comes down to the same thing)

 

[Famine]

Baton use is not an acceptable method in this situation.

Forcing someone to wait for you to finish your phone conversation before you'll acknowledge their existance is rude. If it's a policeman and he wishes to talk to you about speeding, driving an unroadworthy vehicle and driving without a seatbelt it's downright stupid. Imagine if that policeman arrives 10 seconds late to the scene of a shooting and is unable to provide first aid in time to save the victim... That says "My phone call is more important to society than your time as a public official." Frankly, tazing is too good for her.

She was given a verbal warning, in accordance with protocol. She chose to ignore this warning.

 

[Delirious]

i actually agree with famine on this one

if police do something out of downright anger against you, that may be one thing...but if they are just doing their job calmly and following police protocol, then sucks to be you on the otherside of the handcuffs or tazer

famine, what would you classify as police brutality? aka, how far is too far?

 

[Famine]

Anything outside SOP.

 

[sicbeing]

ive watched this video twice now, i cant see her take a swing at the police, at least not before they tazed her.

 

[sn00pie]

Baton use is not an acceptable method in this situation.

Forcing someone to wait for you to finish your phone conversation before you'll acknowledge their existance is rude. If it's a policeman and he wishes to talk to you about speeding, driving an unroadworthy vehicle and driving without a seatbelt it's downright stupid. Imagine if that policeman arrives 10 seconds late to the scene of a shooting and is unable to provide first aid in time to save the victim... That says "My phone call is more important to society than your time as a public official." Frankly, tazing is too good for her.

She was given a verbal warning, in accordance with protocol. She chose to ignore this warning.

What if she's a doctor, on the phone with a stranded couple - who are having a baby? Or a helicopter pilot, on the phone with people in a helicopter - in which the pilot died? I can do hypotheses too, you know!

Ignoring the fact that police officers are legally and morally required to use the lowest level of force necessary to control a situation and to de-escalate at the earliest opportunity, I don't see how baton use (severe and quite brutal physical action) is any different from the use of a "less-leathal"-classed weapon such as a tazer (several and quite brutal physical action).

"It is the most profound pain I have ever felt. You get total compliance because they don't want that pain again." (firearms consultant, quoted in The Associated Press 12 August 2003)

"They call it the longest five seconds of their life … it's extreme pain, there's no question about it. No one would want to get hit by it a second time." (County Sheriff, quoted in The Kalazazoo Gazette, Michigan, 7 March 2004)

 

[Duke]

Having to wait for someone to finish a telephone conversation is hardly a life threatening situation. And "anything" is a bit of a lame excuse, Fammy. Because everyone - at every point - is able to do anything. If this is kept up officers will be able to justify every brutal measure with this.

Sorry, sn00p, I can't back you on this.

When you break the law, and an officer tells you to do something, you do it. What if he had told her to put her hands on her head, and she said "Forget it, I'm on the phone"? When you screw up and then resist officers, you should expect to get treated as a potential threat. If you were a cop (I'm not one, and have never known any actual cops, so I'm not biased) you would not put yourself at unnecessary risk with people who had already broken the law and were refusing your instructions. You'd do what you needed to do to get them to comply, particularly if you had an effective but non-injuring method at your disposal.

A police officer should be able to make a sensible judgement of a situation and act or improvise appropriately. In this case the officer was way out of line.

I agree that he should use sensible judgement. I think that's what he did. I don't see that he was out of line.

What if he would have started bashing her head in with his baton? (which comes down to the same thing)

No, it doesn't come down to the same thing in any way. Using a stick on her would not be appropriate because of the potential of physical injury and permanent damage. So he used something effective but non-lasting and non-injuring - 👍 - thanks to his sensible judgement.

She already took a swing at one officer. Since her license was suspended and she was driving illegally anyway, she obviously had a prior record. That might well heve included violence or resisting arrest - without access to the cruiser's laptop, we can't guess one way or the other on that, but it's easily possible. Suppose the two "big strong men" did grab her and restrain her without the taser. As soon as she gets to call her lawyer, she slaps them with a complaint saying that they sexually assaulted her and touched her innappropriately while doing so. And the odds are that no matter how untrue it was, she'd succeed in muddying the waters enough that she could cause the cops a lot of trouble and get herself out of some.

Would you risk that if you were a cop? I wouldn't. I'd have done exactly what they did.

[edit]

I just went back and listened to the whole thing again. The cop was calm and in control of his actions, which were absolutely appropriate in response to what she did. The woman was abusive from the start and refused to cooperate in any way, and clearly faking the 'hysterics'. While I realize it's not a taser, I've taken 220 volts / 30 amps (which is actually lethal current) across my hand and arm, and I'm here to tell you that seconds after the current is gone, so are the effects. All the minutes of moaning and screaming were just drama on her part.

I'm sure much will be made of the fact that the cops were two white males and she was a black woman, too.

 

[Famine]

Then she would have said "I'm a doctor", or "I'm talking a plane down". She actually said "No, I'm calling someone."

THEN the verbal warning was issued. Her response was "No."

A Tazer is a personal immobilisation device. It leaves no lasting marks and no physical effects beyond the immediate timeframe. A baton can, despite careful use, result in severe physical injury - broken bones, cerebral haemorrhage and the like. A Tazer will not kill someone with a weak heart. A baton MAY kill someone with brittle bone disease. A Tazer overrides motor control. A baton hurts and pisses people off. In all respects a Tazer is better at controlling a situation and "de-escalating", since it doesn't cause persisting physical injury and stops the target from doing ANYTHING at all. As you said, if you get hit once, boy you don't want a second shot.


She CHOSE to not have her car fixed. She CHOSE to speed. She CHOSE to not wear a seatbelt. She CHOSE to disregard the policeman's order. She CHOSE to disregard the policeman's clear verbal warning. She CHOSE her fate.

The policeman was within SOP.

 

[Joey D]

She had every right to be tazered. I hate how people think that when they break the law they suddendly have a bunch of rights. You broke the law and now you much pay the price. Sure the cops shouldn't shoot someone for speeding but if you take a swing and a officer then the cop have every right to show you some force...non lethal of course.

I've been pulled over...well a lot. And I've always complied with the officer. If he tells me to do something, getting out of the car was always a big thing with me, you do it. If you do what the officer says then you will not only get off easier, you won't rack up more charges.

 

[DemonSeed]

her throat must have hurt from all that screaming. i agree that police didnt do anything wrong and the woman got a lesson for her stupidity. there is so many people who do not respect the lawforce, maybe encounters with tazers will teach them something.

if you want to see excessive use of taser, watch this

still, you think cop overused it, or the guy got what he deserved? im on the cop's side here.

 

[Swift]

As far as the palm beach incedent. I think the woman got off easy. She was breaking the law on 4 counts then resisited arrest. That's just plain dumb.

The one that Demonseed linked to is even worse! How can you be that dumb. The officer was even polite the whole time. Man, some people just don't get it. If you ask me, that drunk guy got off very easy. At that point the officer could've used much more forceful methods then what he did.