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YouTube Video Shows Man Tasered After Refusing to Sign Ticket
Fox News ^ | November 21, 2007 | Sara Bonisteel

Posted on 11/21/2007 11:58:07 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: donutwatch; leo; revenuetickets; taser; utah
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To: SJSAMPLE

Don’t you have any concerns about his safety decisions?


241 posted on 11/21/2007 2:34:19 PM PST by CindyDawg
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To: Howie66
You gotta wonder what that knob does for a living

He was cop. Could you tell by the ill fitting uniform and bad attitude? Seriously people like you on this thread resorting to name calling of a nonthreatening citizen just further undermines the publics confidence in the police. You attitude is pathetic. You do nothing but further undermine anyone who reads this thread's view of the police.
242 posted on 11/21/2007 2:35:39 PM PST by JLS
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To: SJSAMPLE
Again, a taser is chump change as a force tool. Almost everything else a cop has, except harsh language, is worse than the taser.

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.

243 posted on 11/21/2007 2:36:34 PM PST by calex59
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To: SJSAMPLE
"He might have gotten a bit more leeway, but the doofus brought the attitude. So many, many bad choices by the guy."

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?

244 posted on 11/21/2007 2:38:37 PM PST by USMCVet
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To: muawiyah

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.


245 posted on 11/21/2007 2:38:53 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: SJSAMPLE
And if he calls for his buddy and backup arrives, that tazer is STILL getting used. No need to have TWO cops wrassling around with the doofus.

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

246 posted on 11/21/2007 2:41:35 PM PST by Mo1 ( http://www.gohunter08.com)
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To: CindyDawg

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.


247 posted on 11/21/2007 2:41:43 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: calex59
I think we ought to get rid of them too. Would you use a tazer in the same situation as a gun? I don’t think so. Does a person respond to a pointed gun as they would a tazer. I doubt it. What would have happpened if the officer had drawn his gun? Hopefully he would not have shot the guy but I bet the driver would have immediately complied.
248 posted on 11/21/2007 2:42:46 PM PST by CindyDawg
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To: Sopater

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!


249 posted on 11/21/2007 2:42:53 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: mc5cents

“My point is that it was over a crummy SPEEDING TICKET for crying out loud.”

Totally agree. Abuse of power is no laughing matter.


250 posted on 11/21/2007 2:43:27 PM PST by CodeToad
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To: calex59

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.


251 posted on 11/21/2007 2:44:40 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: SJSAMPLE

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.


252 posted on 11/21/2007 2:44:58 PM PST by CindyDawg
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To: Sopater

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..


253 posted on 11/21/2007 2:45:59 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: RFEngineer

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.


254 posted on 11/21/2007 2:46:33 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: ezoeni

Hey, I still put “Wife Trader” on my income tax returns ;)


255 posted on 11/21/2007 2:47:08 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: Ramius
flipping the cop crap

... 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.

256 posted on 11/21/2007 2:48:15 PM PST by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: SJSAMPLE

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.


257 posted on 11/21/2007 2:49:17 PM PST by CindyDawg
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To: SJSAMPLE
Amazing? You are wrong about sticks and other means of compliance being more lethal than tasers. Tasers are second only to firearms in their lethality. In order to kill someone with a stick you have to hit them many times, tasers kill with one charge. He didn't taser him because of a ticket but he tasered him because he was a jerk cop who didn't know how to handle a situation. Tasers are a bad tool because they lead cops, and others, to think they are non-lethal when in reality they are lethal. They are overused. Training used to be given to cops on how to take down a suspect without the use of lethal force. I think that training has been discontinued because of tasers. Children are tased, young ones who offer no threat.

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.

258 posted on 11/21/2007 2:49:32 PM PST by calex59
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To: donna

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)


259 posted on 11/21/2007 2:50:46 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: USMCVet

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.


260 posted on 11/21/2007 2:50:58 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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