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 ...
Yep, that would've almost certainly done the trick. But it wouldn't have given the cop the same satisfaction.
that being said, the officer should have said, "if you do not sign this, i'll take you into custody."
maybe he did. audio was spotty.
I’m the last guy to automatically say the cops are always in the right but, after watching the video, the guy was resisting arrest.
The cop could have wrestled with him and wound up rolling into traffic.
I think tasing was justified.
Are you sure about this? Being under arrest imposes certain obligations on both the driver and the officer. It seems to me that the driver needs to know that he is under arrest. If you are under arrest then you must obey the officer or else you are resisting arrest. If you are not then the rules are different. Doesn't the citizen need to know which it is?
They driver (a female) and the kid were not actually wanted by anybody. They were stopped because their car might look like the car driven by a bandit of some sort.
Someday that Boy Scout get sa free cop-kill ~ I can just hear his dramatic appeal to the court ~ "they created this irrational fear in me". The jury will let him walk.
That's another reason cops have to be careful ~ they really can't afford to make too many enemies.
As former cop, you are FOS. Cuff him, jail time, tow the vehicle when the wife could drive.
What’s really important here is that the government revenue raisers be allowed to go about the business of extorting money from the sheeple unhindered.
I don't know why. In this day and age when cops are getting shot down all over the country by young punks like Massey they can't afford to take chances.
The video is clear. He told the punk to stop and the punk kept walking back to his car. The trooper had no choice but to take some form of action because he didn't know if the punk had a gun under the seat or what.
Tasing seems to be the quickest nonlethal way to diffuse a potentially bad situation. Within seconds of being tased, the punk was talking lucidly, continuing his rant almost nonstop.
The officer didn’t “mirandize” the victim. Sheesh! Also, the officer performed an illegal search so therefore whatever he found wouldn’t be admissible in a court of law.
From experience, I have been pulled over several times in my day. Each time the state trooper, officer, etc has explained my rights and by signing the document (ticket) I was complying to the citation but my signature was not an omission of guilt.
I did not hear or see that in the video from the cop. He told the guy to sign it and when he refused, he told him to get out of the vehicle. He could have explained what most professional officers do.
Kind of a trigger happy taser cop.
BTW, that’s how deaf people end up getting beat up by cops and guards so often. The officer thinks his target hears him, but he doesn’t. Absent eye contact in these situations, the cop has no justifiable grounds to just sneak up and taser a guy from the rear.
It didn’t show him conducting the stop, or the arrest, in an inapprioriate manner, did it?
He made a statement to another officer of what he thought happened. Unless he swears to it, I don’t see the problem with a faulty recollection that is corrected by the tape.
The cop told his colleague a story that differed from the actual facts. That argues against his actions being beyond reproach.
What?
The cop has to read the rights before questioning, not before the arrest.
And the cop has significant latitude in a search after the guy’s behavior. Much more than a Terry or lunge area search.
I was wondering about that too.
His recollection was wrong.
The tape will justify his actions and he hasn’t sworn any statements on that tape.
To protect and serve. Or to hide behind some bushes with your parking lights off waiting for some unsuspecting citizen to slip up. Whatever.
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