"Either way, the driver was in fault at this point."
How was the driver at fault at that point?
read on
The driver refused to sign the ticket. From what I understand, he is within his rights to do that.
agreed.
The officer asked him to step out of the vehicle. He complied. So far, so good. Driver has done nothing wrong at this point.
yep.
Now, once the guy is outside the vehicle, the officer immediately pulls out his taser gun! Look at the video. The officer begins pulling out the taser gun at the exact same moment that he begins speaking the words "turn around put your hands behind your back".
Nope. the driver gets out of the car and starts walking towards, and pointing to 'something'. The officer orders: "Turn around, put your hands behind your back..." Driver keeps walking and then the officer pulls the taser. That split second. Isn't that a consideration? Why didn't the driver remove his right hand from his pocket?
Since the guy had done nothing wrong up until that point, what right did the officer have to draw and point his weapon at him?
Because the driver did not comply with a simple 'turn around and put your hands behind your back.' Seems protection for the driver and the trooper and all that stuff is being blown off in this forum.
I believe we're on the same side here. But where does the trooper draw the line on non-compliance? My bottom line is that the driver caused this to happen the way it did.
But, on the other hand, I think the video is non-accessible due to missing segments and video.
Sorry, but at this point we're all keyboard cowboys and all we have at this point are opinions based on a questionable video.
"Nope. the driver gets out of the car and starts walking towards, and pointing to 'something'. The officer orders: "Turn around, put your hands behind your back..." Driver keeps walking and then the officer pulls the taser."
Watch the video again. This is the exact moment, 2:29 into the video. You can see the officer reaching for the taser on his left hip.
You can see from this picture that the driver was doing nothing wrong at this point. The last instruction he received was to "hop out of the car". So there he was, talking about the 40 mile an hour sign, which was a continuance of the discussion they were having before.
The officer hadn't even finished saying "turn around and put your hands behind your back" before he reached around for his weapon!