Posted on 06/25/2010 11:32:39 AM PDT by nysuperdoodle
It sounds like their is some misperception of the purpose of a TASER. It sounds like they are perceiving it as the electrical version of the beat down.
Could have been a dispatch error requesting a response to wrong code. So they think they are responding to some type of armed violence in progress instead of a simple elderly welfare check. Thus the wrong “help” is sent.
Not that it matters because regardless of why they were called or what they thought they were responding to, the officers failed to assess the situation properly and then acted improperly and injured a elderly citizen.
They are liable.
It sounds like their is some misperception of the purpose of a TASER. It sounds like they are perceiving it as the electrical version of the beat down.
“Anyone on FR who refers to police as pigs should be ashamed of themselves.
Either grow up or go back to DU.”
Sorry but these guys deserve the title, anyone that would Taser a bed ridden grandma is a PIG!
Actually, there are a lot of bad actors in uniform day. If good cops were the normative in America then the bad ones wouldn't be able to do the things they do with such frequency.
The taser is just a new toy for many of them, and they can't wait to find somebody to shock into 'compliance' so they can feel their power. Tasers were supposed to replace the necessity of shooting a criminal, if possible, not to be used as a cattle prod against anyone whom they deem isn't 'complient', even if that 'noncomplient one' is a sick old granny on oxygen.
I wonder what would happen if the military started tasing the scumbags at Gitmo everytime they became 'non complient'? The government would surely call it torture; but it's quite OK to use on an aged granny confined to bed, unable to even breath on her own.
I can understand that Americans should be inclined to love the police and military but at least when it comes to the police there has for sure been a downgrade in quality of their operations it seems. I am not sure if stories like these were that common in the past but it does seem as our government gets more inept so does the police. I am sure it does not help that they are likely trained not to be identifying obvious types of suspects who would cause trouble out of fear of being branded xenophobes and prejudiced.
You would be amazed by how many BS claims there are.
We once staged a phony bus crash into a bridge abutment for a TV news story. The city provided an old bus with no engine. We pushed it to the top of the hill at 3:00 Am, then a driver from the Joey Chitwood Auto Thrill Circus drove it downhill into the bridge abutment. Film running the whole time, obviously no one on the bus.
We had cops and ambulances come, it was great.
More than 100 people walked into the hospitals, claiming they had been on the bus. One even had a real broken arm!
More than 400 people eventually sued, all phony, of course. Many gave us great interviews about how bad the crash was, how hurt they were etc.
Made a great TV news story. A few lawyers went to jail. It was wonderful.
Pigs are actually smarter than this and would have assessed the situation properly and acted correctly.
This is more like a sheep. Not assessing the situation before overreacting to non existent threats, following the leader, bleating about “aggressive” positions.
I agree that not all cops are bad like the clowns in this story, but those that are give the other 5% a bad name. :-)
Cops can be stupid too. This could have gotten them fried along with everything else.
Remember to two women who were raped at Disneyworld because of bad security?
Disney was within 3 days of giving them $2,000,000 each when the man who had supposedly raped them, who was the brother of one of them, and had (with their permission) had rough sex with them and beat them, got drunk and spilled the whole deal to friends in a bar... and one of them called Disney.
It was part of the Murphy Gang from South Carolina
These sorts of stories make it difficult to believe the comforting fiction we tell ourselves about how most cops are good and there are just a few bad actors. TEN cops showed up for this. Let’s assume the victims were grossly exaggerating and that there were only, say, four cops present. That’s four cops, who just happened to be dispatched for this, who all participated & allowed these threats and assaults to proceed. Not one of them insisted that it stop, not one of them drew down on his fellow officers to stop TWO potentially fatal Tazer attacks on a frail old woman, and as far as I can tell not one of them even went running to Internal Affairs afterward to report the criminal behavior. These are ALL bad cops. If bad cops are so rare, how did there happen to be so many together on one call, with not even one of the allegedly common “good” cops also present?
In fairness, the lawsuit documents says she was on an oxygen concentrator, not a compressed O2 tank. A concentrator would present very little fire hazard.
Because it shows lack of appreciation of far more colorful terms that could be used?
I like the way you think. I and buddies in the AF pulled off stunts like bringing hookers on base. In an AF truck. Never were suspected. We all got discharged honorably. The SP's chased hookers around base that weekend:)
It's the dummies that got Article Fifteened out.
Taser my family members, and I’ll shoot you between the eyes. I’ve had more than enough of the taser overuse these days. People have died from it.
Your body gets used to it. Taser me twice and the 2nd time it won't shock my body.
“Of course, it should be used as evidence for why ordinary Americans need to discover the basic means to defend themselves, and NOT blindly rely on police.”
But this wasn’t a case of someone calling 911 to defend them. Are you saying it’s evidence of why ordinary Americans need to discover the basic means to HEAL themselves, and not blindly rely on medical professionals? I’m not sure how that works—I know I’d call 911 too if I was in this situation.
What was he supposed to do? Diagnose his grandmother’s condition on his own? Somehow get granny into his car and take her to the emergency room himself rather than call 911? (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.) :-)
If it was an oxygen concentrator, then, yep, that is a difference scenario.
You’ll have to pardon me, the people I’ve known who were on oxygen were on pure oxygen.
Gives me the shivers, thinking about pure oxygen combined with an ignition source.
I speak as someone who spent 20+ years working as a welder and is well aware of the dangers of pure oxygen.
“I can understand that Americans should be inclined to love the police and military but at least when it comes to the police there has for sure been a downgrade in quality of their operations it seems.”
Conversely, the police should be inclined to love Americans, and that’s sure not how they’re being trained these days. Instead the police get the full us-vs-them attitude drilled into them—with “us” being the police and “them” being all the rest of us. And we’re all assumed by the police to be criminals until proven otherwise (I know that’s not what the law says, but it’s definitely what the attitude is). Sad, sad, sad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.