Death of teen on bike shows risks of expanded use of Tasers

St Petersburg Times ^ | Aug 1, 2010 | Meg Laughlin

[driftdiver]

Late one night in October, a 17-year-old on a bike was chased by a police officer in a cruiser. When the boy refused to stop, the officer aimed his Taser out the driver's window and fired. The boy fell off the bike and the cruiser ran over him, killing him.

[driftdiver]

Watch the video and listen to the audio. Cop shoots kid from his moving car, runs him over, and is then video taped crawling under the car with a silver item.

Dead kid is later found to have a silver gun. Cop gets off.

[driftdiver]

fyi

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Some police officers are too stupid to be considered human. This jamoke is one of them.

[B-Chan]

Crime: Pissing off Officer Judge J. N. Executioner.

Sentence: DEATH

Badge-lappers on deck in 3... 2... 1...

[driftdiver]

He didn’t stop when the cop told him too, so I guess he deserved to die. right? I mean thats what many people on FR say.

[AlexW]

“Some police officers are too stupid to be considered human. This jamoke is one of them.”

Jack booted thugs love their tasers.
Makes them feel like gods, or Darth Vader.

[Eye of Unk]

The Judge Dredd wannabes.

[driftdiver]

Not only the tazer but planting evidence.

[Past Your Eyes]

Cops. Some of them are really stupid.

[goseminoles]

Tasers are an intermediate weapon on the use of force continuum. You don’t discharge one unless immediate harm is plausible to the officer or someone else. This officer was in the wrong. Whether or not they planted a weapon, I’m not sure. That cop screwed up.

[Jack Hydrazine]

THX 1138 alert!

[goseminoles]

That said, the taser is a great weapon. But I hate the title of this article. Its slanted. Who’s “expanding” the use of tasers?

[driftdiver]

The cop went to his car and got a silver object. He crawled under the car where the dead kid was with the silver object. The kid was later found with an illegal silver object.

Anyone else would have been convicted with this video tape.

[goseminoles]

Yep. Planting stuff is the worst form of police deviance.

[The Antiyuppie]

Isn’t anyone in authority a little worried that if this continues, people will evade/flee/shoot first at police because they simply can’t be trusted?

What if that becomes a valid defense?

Interesting, that the gun was wiped clean. How did the kid put it in his pocket? Maybe he was a neatness freak?

[goseminoles]

Failure of the public trust is a very bad road to go down. Blacks have felt this way for years.

[A_perfect_lady]

I don’t normally assume the cop is at fault, but this, even without the “silver item” possibility, signifies an absolute moron of a cop.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

It appears that the cops acted stupidly. What we don't know is why the cop is chasing the kid for in the first place. From the video, the only one seen endangering the public is the police, who are driving on the wrong side of the road.
If the kid was fleeing after an armed robbery, use of force justified, but not the way this cop responded. He obviously wasn't paying attention to his driving or he would have stopped before running over both the kid and a curb.
He could have just as easily done that to someones grandma.
Second, I don't hear any siren during the pursuit. In many States it's illegal for police to exceed or ignore normal traffic laws unless both lights and sirens are used at the same time. While cops continually ignore that, in no case is a police officer exempt from liability for traffic accidents even if they are using lights and sirens.
Cops wrong. Cops covering up for other cops.

[goseminoles]

Good post. I agree.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

He didn’t stop when the cop told him too, so I guess he deserved to die. right? I mean thats what many people on FR say.

That's pretty much the logic of the Freeper Law and Order---Cops Can Do No Wrong Crowd.