[muawiyah]

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

[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.

[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.

[SALChamps03]

The officer didn’t use lethal force.

[org.whodat]

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

That would be asking the question of whether are not the cop gave a damn about killing you?

[Joan Kerrey]

But is the officer authorized use use lethal force against someone just because they won’t sign the ticket? ============== The officer didn't use lethal force. The most civil way this could have been handled is for the person to sign for the ticket which is the law. Once you start throwing out attitude or worse in my view you're a jerk who deserves arrest.

[arthurus]

The advent of the taser in law “enforcement” work has given police officers a wonderful fun tool which they can and do use ever more indiscriminately. It is a real gas to see some citizen flopping around like they do. And you can use it anywhere, any time. Police parties may start getting more interesting when some of the guys get drunk and look for giggles.

[antiunion person]

This officer didn’t taser the guy just because he didn’t sign the ticket. He tasered him because he was refusing to listen to instruction and his erratic actions.
When I was a cop, I wish we had tasers as they do now. I would have zapped his stupid ass too. The officer had every right to taser the guy.