Posted on 11/21/2007 11:58:07 AM PST by Sopater
Don’t you have any concerns about his safety decisions?
You are wrong. How many people die each year from being wrestled to the ground, simply handcuffed or even whacked with a night stick? Now, look up the statistics for how many people die each year from being tasered(and the number is growing each year as more cops resort to this "non-lethal" method of control).
True a cop can't tell if someone is armed by looking at them, but neither can they tell if someone has a medical condition which will kill them if they are tasered. I have a pace maker, tasers could kill me, easily, hitting me with a night stick wouldn't do me near as much harm, or better yet telling me I was going to be arrested and then handcuffing me.
If someone is going to submit, then using a taser is stupid, if not, then other means are justified, but I think tasers should be classified with firearms as lethal because they have proven to be. If they can kill, they are lethal.
BTW, contrary to one idiots opinion on FR of people who protest taser use, I have never been arrested and certainly not tasered.
Gotcha. We stopped being being citizens a long time ago, apparently...The young guy pulled over immediately, complied with the license and registration bit but went way too far in asking what speed he was clocked at, where the sign was and what he was being arrested for..
Being a genuine law enforcement officer trumps the Constitution any old day, doesn't it?
Go back 200 or some posts to where I was the first person to call them “less lethal”, which is how they’re categorized.
ANY device can be lethal, especially the taser alternatives such as club, choke hold and gun. Good luck against any of those when you decide to put up a fight.
To call tasers “lethal” because even one person died is to claim that my Stretch Armstrong doll was a killing machine because of that one stupid kid ;)
As designed, manufactured, tested and employed, the taser is most certainly not qualified as a “lethal” device. The only lethal device a cop carries is his gun, everything else is incidental.
Problem is .. there was no fight and and it was the police officer who told the guy to get out of the car .. the guy didn't jump out of his car and attempt to go after the cop.
All the guy was doing was questioning the police officer and pointing to a sign up the road ... he showed no threat and backed away when the tazer was aimed at him
If a gun was pointed at me .. I'd probably do the same .. it's a normal reaction
I don't have a problem with police officers having tazers or using them when needed .. but in this case the officer jumped the gun and used excessive force and it gives other officers a bad rep
The cop didn’t have much choice where the guy was going to be tasered. The guy foolishly tried to walk away from an arrest (good luck with that). He fell where he stood, not where the cop put him.
I’m sure I could nitpick “safety” concerns over the real issue of this traffic stop and arrest, but none of that really matters.
Hard call when he was walking back to the car. The cop was *clearly* a jerk but the guy gave him an excuse to be one. That and the fact he was *not* read his rights when requested!
“My point is that it was over a crummy SPEEDING TICKET for crying out loud.”
Totally agree. Abuse of power is no laughing matter.
Police deaths from the alternatives easily outpaced incidental taser deaths. This was all discussed when tasers were first issued. Departments and agencies had no trouble justifying the implementation of tasers against other forms of combat and restraint.
Sorry about your pacemaker.
Other people have conditions which preclude them from being wrassled to the ground.
Some people have asthma that reacts to pepper spray.
Of all the forms of restraint the taser has the lowest injury and death rate.
You are avoiding a very important issue. You know this guy should not have left his prisoner in the road or turned his back and walked off allowing him to stagger around.
They guy can always ask. The last traffic citation I got was for going through a stop sign, I asked if the ticket was an admission to which the officer said no and showed me where the ticket itself said that.
I signed the ticket and then went back and took pictures of the intersection showing that I had to pull to the oint I did to see oncoming traffic. I ended up losing 3 hours for traffic court and got let off..
He may get some guff for not doing more to diffuse the situation, but the driver’s actions were driving the situation. Technically, the officer appears to have done his job correctly.
Could have have shown the driver more leeway after the driver copped an attitude? Sure. He could also have given him a pony.
But the cop did his job.
Hey, I still put “Wife Trader” on my income tax returns ;)
... is not a crime.
In my experience, many cops are power-crazed bullies with a God complex. Most of the rest are low-IQ Barney Fife types who have no more business carrying a gun and a badge than a toddler does. They treat their fellow citizens with contempt and disrespect, and shift into self-pity mode the minute anyone criticizes them for it. "Don't call the police next time you're in trouble, smartass!" they say. "No problem," I reply. "I can protect and serve myself. If I need any drivers shaken down for cash or teenagers busted for making out in a back seat, then I'll call."
Do we really need police as they currently exist? I'm apt to say no. Most city police departments are little more than anachronisms at best, and uniformed street gangs (with a government "license to kill") at worst. Neighborhoods can best be patrolled by armed volunteer neighborhood watch patrols composed of people from the neighborhood. Private investigators and forensic detectives can be hired on an ad hoc basis to investigate crimes. Traffic laws on city streets can be enforced by unarmed wardens on bicycles. Volunteer constables can serve warrants. All other law enforcement functions can be handled by the county sheriff.
Instead of the quasi-military standing armies of police we have now, let's let people "protect and serve" themselves on an individual and neighborhood basis. The tax money we save would eliminate the need for traffic tickets as a source of revenue, and prevent bully cops from electrocuting, beating, and shooting "civilians" for the crime of not knowing their place.
Would you draw a tazer when you wouldn’t draw your gun though? I’m concerned that people skills are being replaced by the zapper. It’s much easier and less time consuming to shock people than to verbally stay in control but it’s giving yall a bad name.
Do a google on taser deaths and then do one on night stick deaths and see which one kills most often.
This cop was an idiot. I have seen guys arrested for not signing a ticket and they never had to be tasered or beaten with a stick.
You want to live in a police state? Fine, move to Russia, or I hear Cuba has some openings now.
the legal thing not the right thing... sometimes you can be technically correct and still do things wrong..
The cop should have:
a) told the guy that the ticket is only a receipt for a court date to dispute the charge, not an admission. (Before he asked the guy to get out of the car
b) told the guy he was under arrest before he tazed him
c) read the guy his rights (yes I know he did not have to do it at that moment but what would the harm have been)
You forget the part where the guy refuses to sign, authorizing the cop to arrest him.
Or the part where he acts irrationally.
Or the part where the guy refuses to submit to the officer’s arrest/detention.
Or the part where he starts walking back to his car, also known as the “lunge area”.
The guy had every right to a) sign the damn ticket and b) show up in court and contest said ticket.
I hate jackbooted thuggery as much as anyone else, having experienced it in my youth, but traffic stops aren’t the time for Constitutional Q&A.
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