Parents question why police used stun gun on injured son (19 Times)

KY3 TV News ^ | Story Published: Jul 23, 2008 at 5:55 PM CDT | by Sara Sheffield, KY3 News

[contemplator]

Cops are trained on a regular basis that their first responsibility is to take control of a situation. If a suspect does not comply within seconds they have it drummed into them that they have to resort to violence before the suspect does. That sort of training works well for your average thug on the street when a matter of seconds can mean life or death for the officer. When it comes to a medical emergency like this one where someone is flopping around on the pavement with a broken back, babbling incoherently and is unable to respond to commands police training not only fails to protect the citizen but does more harm than good.

The part of this scenario as painted by the article that bothers me is the fact that it took 19 tasings before the police clued into the fact that this guy was never going to comply with their instructions no matter how many times they tased him. I understand that individuals on certain drugs are able to withstand much more than the average level of pain. But is 19 tasings regularly required for the average strung-out drug user? Somehow I dont think so, every video I’ve seen of someone getting tased, it doesnt take but 4-5 times before they are completely submissive.

There is something about the way that this is described which makes me believe the police were using tasing as a form of punishment. Specifically the part where the police officer pointed to the statements the guy was making as his rationale. The guy had no weapon, they were just punishing him for what they perceived as verbal abuse. Other than flopping around on the ground, he made no threatening movements toward the officers (He obviously couldn’t have in his condition).

Having had a surprising run-in with a particularly nasty cop, I can attest that there are cops who are nothing more than bullies and have no business with a badge or being in charge of anything. In my case, my neighbor and I were arguing and the neighbor called the police. As I was considering suing my neighbor, I had recorded everything that occurred. When the police arrived I was holding a tape recorder in my hand and told the officer as he was approaching that I had recorded the whole incident. Before I could re-play the argument for him, the cop walked up and slapped the recorder out of my hand smashing it into the side of my house. When I asked him why he had done that, he looked at his partner for what appeared to be a sign of support, laughed and with a condescending expression and tone said that he wasn’t sure what I was holding and thought it might be a weapon. This particular cop was not concerned with determining any of the facts and never showed any sign of caring about what was actually going on. He simply wanted to show who was in charge and to throw his weight around before leaving.

The cops in this story sure do strike me as being in the same mold as the one I had the run-in with.

[metmom]

That could work instead.

IF the delay causes him to end up paralyzed, they’re going to need help with medical bills and other expenses incurred from living in a wheelchair. Maybe not own the whole department, but at least part of it.

[Valpal1]

It’s not just that they appear to be using the taser as punishment, but they also collectively appear to be as dumb as a box of rocks.

They respond to a call about a person wandering in traffic and when they get there they find him lying on the ground with the appearance of having fallen of an overpass and their first thought is to taser him into compliance?

And then it takes nineteen jolts before they get a clue and figure out that he may be injured? Or did the ambulance show up and the EMT’s tell the cops to quit tasering a potential back/neck injury victim?

I’d really like to know when/why they decided nineteen was enough?