YouTube Video Shows Man Tasered After Refusing to Sign Ticket

Fox News ^ | November 21, 2007 | Sara Bonisteel

[Sopater]

An internal police investigation is under way after a formal complaint was filed against a Utah state trooper who was videotaped Tasering a man who refused to sign a speeding ticket.

The officer's conduct has been called into question after a videotape of the incident was posted on YouTube.

The video, taken from a Utah Highway Patrol dashboard camera, shows Trooper John Gardner using a Taser on Jared Massey during a traffic stop on State Road 40 in Uintah County on Sept. 14.

[Sopater]

Is it against the law to "not obey" a cop?

You Tube Video

[SJSAMPLE]

Technically, your signature on a ticket is your bond to appear/answer.
If you won’t sign, you are refusing to post bond and the officer can take you into custody.

[BGHater]

What could happen if a police officer wanted me to sign a traffic ticket and I refused?

The traffic ticket contains an actual notice to you of a pending court date at which you must appear. By signing the ticket, you are providing an acknowledgment of receipt of the "notice to appear." Since the officer is charging you with a violation of law, he could take you into custody. By signing the traffic ticket, you avoid being taken into custody at that time, and are "released on your own recognizance" pending the court date. It is better to sign the traffic ticket and go about your business pending the court date. By signing the traffic ticket, you remain free and retain the right to show up at the hearing to contest the issuance of the citation or summons.

A person is free to refuse to sign the traffic ticket; however, the police officer is free to place him/her under arrest and take him/her into custody.

[Sopater]

If you won’t sign, you are refusing to post bond and the officer can take you into custody.

Should they tell me that before or after they taser me?

[muawiyah]

But is the officer authorized use use lethal force against someone just because they won’t sign the ticket?

[Glennb51]

A traffic ticket is an “OR” release. If the person receiving the ticket refuses to sign, then he can (and will) be taken to jail and booked. In effect, the person refusing to sign the ticket is refusing to appear in court at the listed time and date in order to state his case.

[Sopater]

It is better to sign the traffic ticket and go about your business pending the court date.

Since signing a traffic ticket is not an admission of guilt and only a recognition of a receipt of the ticket and a promise to appear, I would go ahead and sign it. However, to taser the guy before you explain that to him, and to let him fall into a highway where cars are driving by at 40MPH seems a bit excessive and dangerous.

[wideawake]

But is the officer authorized use use lethal force against someone just because they won’t sign the ticket?

(1) A taser is non-lethal (and, yes, I know that people sometimes die from being tasered, just like they sometimes die from being chased and sometimes die from being cuffed).

(2) The issue here is that if you do not sign the ticket, the officer needs to take you into custody. And an officer is allowed to use non-lethal force to take you into custody if you resist arrest.

[PAR35]

The proper response would be to cuff him, take him to jail, and call a tow truck for the vehicle. Then, in a day or so, he should be taken before a judge for the preliminary hearing, and the setting of bail. He then could pay storage fees and recover his vehicle.

[rogue yam]

I watched the video. The officer did not tell the man he was under arrest, nor did he warn him before tasering. Later the officer told the other officer (who arrived after the tasering) that he warned the man before tasering him but this is not true. I think the man who was tasered deserves compensation and the officer who tasered him should be disciplined.

[weegee]

Revenue tickets carry no jail time. How can they take you into custody for a lesser speeding charge (e.g. not x2 the speed limit)?

[weegee]

Using a taser means never having to shout “stop or I’ll shoot”. I don’t think its use requires giving any advance warning.

[SJSAMPLE]

A tazer is considered “less-lethal” force.
Only in a small fraction of cases does it turn out to be lethal.

1. The guy refused to sign the ticket, so the officer had every justification for taking him into custody.
2. The dumbass in the car was lawfully ordered to submit, but didn’t.
3. He began to walk away from the cop (who couldn’t see one of his hands for a period of time). Combined with the guy’s irrational behavior, the officer had justification to use force to apprehend him.

So, IMHO, the cop had a right to subdue him, and elected to use his tazer instead of his club, pepper spray, or gun.

It doesn’t look pretty, and I’m certainly no apologist for the misdeeds of public trustees/agents, but the dumbass in the car didn’t give him many options and he certainly got the softest of the physical choices. Remember he was lucid and finally trying to “reason” with the officer after he was tazed and cuffed. Couldn’t have been that bad.

[Pilsner]

But is the officer authorized use use lethal force against someone just because they won’t sign the ticket?

No. The officer is authorized to arrest, and take before a magistrate, a suspect he has charged with a crime, who has the opportunity to sign a ticket, and refuses to do so. If, while making a lawful arrest, an officer observes the suspect refuse to obey his commands, and further observes the suspect walk back towards a vehicle that may have firearms in it, and which is a deadly weapon itself, the officer is authorized to blow the suspect's head off.

[muawiyah]

A taser is not non-lethal, just "less lethal" ~ big difference there.

It's like with a firearm. They all have a lethal and a less lethal state. Pull it out of its holster and aim it at someone, you may gain compliance. Pull it out of its holster and shoot it at someone, you may kill them.

The firearm remains lethal in either case, but sometimes it doesn't serve to kill someone.

Same thing with a laser ~ just a question of probabilities.

They kill.

[rogue yam]

(2) The issue here is that if you do not sign the ticket, the officer needs to take you into custody. And an officer is allowed to use non-lethal force to take you into custody if you resist arrest.

Do you think the driver knew he was under arrest when he was tasered? I don't. The officer never told him he was under arrest. How was he to know?

[keat]

IBTCCDNRP

[tiger-one]

Technically, your signature on a ticket is your bond to appear/answer. If you won’t sign, you are refusing to post bond and the officer can take you into custody.

Post bond for a violation? In NH there is no provision for the driver to sign the ticket. They plea guilty by paying the fine, or not and get a court date.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

This case was compounded when the officer requested the individual to leave his vehicle, the individual walked away from the officer and the individual did not comply with the officer. He made repeated demands to be advised of his rights, but the officer had no obligation to tell him that he was under arrest at that time.

If one is in the custody of law enforcement and does not comply, the officer can use appropriate force to bring the individual into custody.

[SJSAMPLE]

So, after all, the cop’s actions were “the proper response”.

He just had to use his tazer to accomplish the cuffing part.