Too bad I'm not allowed to ping an enthusiastic police defender anymore.
Posted on 05/15/2014 9:13:34 AM PDT by mandaladon
A Washington man is dead after police tasered him four times and beat him with their fists and a flashlight, according to eyewitnesses.
Neighbors report that what happened between 44-year-old Ron Hillstrom and University Place police was essentially murder.
“You beat this man to death last night for no reason and we caught you, period,” said one of Hillstrom’s neighbors, who saw the incident.
Police were called to the parking lot of Hillstrom’s apartment complex in the early morning hours. Hillstrom was having some sort of psychotic episode: He was pacing in a circle and muttering that people were after him. He was unarmed, but carrying a screwdriver.
A representative for the police department said that Hillstrom’s actions necessitated police force. He fought with officers and tried to bite them, according to Sheriff Ed Troyer’s statement to komonews.com.
That’s not how the neighbors described it.
“No, he did not charge the police, he was just doing what he was doing before the police came,” said a different eyewitness.
Not in dispute: The fact that officers tasered Hillstrom four times.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
When are public servants, particularly LEO’s, going to undergo drug testing. Especially for steroids.
Yes but did the officers make it home safely?
Damn, these cops should have arrested alec baldwin.
An understanding of how to treat mental illness would be helpful as well.
Murder. And there will be no prosecution.
Too bad I'm not allowed to ping an enthusiastic police defender anymore.
I tire of the lies in these reports.
“Hillstrom was having some sort of psychotic episode”
Cops didn’t just decide to beat a guy to death for no reason.
Maybe they were fully over the top and need prison. Maybe the attempt to stop a psychotic lead to his death and the cops acted professionally.
But to claim no reason is BS.
Communist agitprop has always been to make cops the enemy, so I am skeptical about all these blanket easy condemnations.
Not that cops don’t abuse their position and commit police brutality, but the goal of the Communists and left has always been to slander police and any institution of social order as much as possible to cause mistrust and fear among members of society.
It would be nice if the article had identified University Place as next to Tacoma. I wasn’t sure if this was DC or Washington state.
Does this make him crazy, or prescient?
Couldn’t they have called some mental health professional backup?
Nah, it’s more fun to go in and crack heads.
Reminds me of Infantry training back in the 60’s. Always attack into the threat w/o hesitation.
But, this isn’t Vietnam and so this mindset has limited applicability in a civilian setting. Somebody needs to advise these ‘grunt wannabees’.
A “psychotic episode” is not justification for deadly force. It may be combined with behavior that justifies deadly force but if he wasn’t hurting anyone then there wasn’t cause.
Sounds like what happened to the homeless mentally ill man in Albuquerque. But in this case, they shot and killed him though his weapons were two small knives and it was all caught on the police lapel cameras.
Warning graphic video —
Turns out he was right.
I wonder that too. Something is not right with law enforcement.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
What confuses me is the tasing 4 times.
What’s the liklihood that a psychotic episode offsets the effect of a tasing? Why wasn’t the person secured with handcuffs and/or restraints immediately after the first tasing?
They have this taser that they are all too happy to use that immobilizes a person. It seems to me that failure to secure a person after being tazed once, should be a form of neglect. Especially when the failure to secure leads to the subsequent death of the tazee.
Of course if the tasers don’t have any effect and just anger the beast, then that would justify multiple tasings.
“...but the goal of the Communists and left has always been to slander police and any institution of social order as much as possible to cause mistrust and fear among members of society.”
Well, I didn’t know I was a closet Communist! I’ve personally witnessed enough police brutality to come to the independent conclusion that they are often more criminal in their behavior than those they profess to protect us from! Their motto should be “to suppress anyone who gets in our way.” And if by “suppressing you,” you happen to die, tough $hit!
Ironically, if he had been a convicted murder with a mental illness he may have been judged ineligible for a death sentence.
LEO frustration over not having a dog to shoot.
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