[Binstence]

Completely without merit??? Nice opinion but you know what they say about opinions. My post reflects a growing danger. I sited in another post 156 deaths that have been caused by the use of Tazers. I don't like Marxist college activists any more than you do. I also despise the growing hostility by our law enforcement officials and their tendency to cover up their crimes. The constitution is under assault in so many ways. I am afraid we will all long for the days of the kindly cop. (Go rent "It's a Wonderful Life" if you don't know what a kindly cop is." The state is slowly becoming an enemy of the people. You must realize that this is not an isolated incident. I have watched videos of police using tazers agains defenseless American citizens. It should be used if at all as a last resort. How about calling for back up? How about negotiating? Do you think a little civility from our public servants is too much to ask for? I believe that you will live to see the increase in police brutality and pray to God it does not happen to you. If it does, you'll be screaming from hilltop to hilltop for someone to give you empathy. If the rest of us are like you, you will be left wanting.

[Sprite518]

I don't know what the COPs are like in your area, but pretty good guys in my area. They have my support 100%. These guys put their lives on the line every day so that you, me and everyone else can live in peace.

I am not saying all cops are good. I understand you have a few bad apples in ever bunch. I from the school that most police officers are good guys, and not criminals as you are implying.

[dennisw]

This Iranian kid is a spoiled little punk and provocateur. Read post 39 for details

[dennisw]

LOL You are making excuses for this snotty little creep. He should have done what the police requested same as you or I would have done. Don't be stupid- look at what the police asked him to do.

How come some little smart Alec Iranian shit doesn't have to comply with a simple request for student ID?

[FreedomPoster]

>>How about calling for back up?

What's the back up going to do? The officer had back up. Should they have applied batons?

In the story you cited, it seems entirely possible that the death occurred due to the physical restraint process and the fact that the guy was drugged up, not due to the tazer.

[IrishCatholic]

Still without merit. Didn't you read the part about how tasers electronically record their use? This is for liability reasons. They document how they are used! So your cover up theory doesn't hold water.
As for the kindly cop, if you are taking your ideas of what a cop should be from a Frank Capra movie then you really aren't in touch with reality.
No cop is assaulting the constitution. There are bad cops just like there are bad dentists. Every profession has problems. Everyone. From the Presidency down to dog catchers there are decent and there are scum.
Try this. Go on a ride along program with your local police department. Take a citizens academy. Then, and only then, try to talk about a real world situation and not the cotton candy theoretical of dealing with a hostile crowd with an Oprah encounter session.
Your new post had no merit.
Of the deaths, any force can cause death. Physical restraint can cause people on drugs to die just from hyperthermia. The goal is compliance and reduced officer and offender injury. Not torture. Or do you think cities like lawsuits?

[L.N. Smithee]

I believe that you will live to see the increase in police brutality and pray to God it does not happen to you.

The best defense against police brutality is compliance. Nobody has ever been hit with a taser because they were following orders.

Regardless of whether it's a police officer or a bank robber, the guy with the loaded weapon makes the rules. Resist at your peril.

[Dudoight]

Will you please tell me what the police officers should have done when the kid refused to show ID then told them to F-off?

He had already obviously defied campus security officers who had asked the police to take over.

I don't know why the kid couldn't have just shown the ID or got up and left, acknowledgeing he either forgot it or didn't have one.

I watched the video, the kid was begging for this situation for whatever personal reason. The Taser's they used were obviously not all that strong, as the kid was not disabled in any way. You could still hear his foul mouth spewing.

I guess the police should have said...'well, okay, since you don't want to leave...just stay'.

You gotta be kidding?

[GLH3IL]

Oh for heavens sake....get a grip. I'm a cop, and your drivel here is about as offensive as it gets. Cops are living stuck dealing with crap that would make you vomit if you had to deal with it. This kid clearly was asking to get shocked, and he got his little happy wish. It is sad that folks die from Tazer shocks....but they also doe from pepper mace, baton strikes, and empty hand control tactics....almost all of such deaths are accidental. A tiny minority of them are a result of abusive behavior.

The fact is when people choose to resist the police and refuse to comply with commands...they take a risk of injury when they do so. it's just reality. Don't want to be tazed? Don't want to be pepper sprayed? Don't want to get shot? Don't want to be hit with a baton? Don't want to be wrapped up into a painful empty hand control tactic? Well follow instructions....don't resist...and if you feel the arrest is unjust...or unlawful....hire a lawyer and file copmlaints, law suits or both. If you comply you help your case, if you resist you hurt it. Common sense is a neat thing isn't it?

[nicollo]

You're kidding yourself:

The constitution is under assault in so many ways. I am afraid we will all long for the days of the kindly cop. (Go rent "It's a Wonderful Life" if you don't know what a kindly cop is." The state is slowly becoming an enemy of the people.

In the days of "Wonderful Life" cops regularly beat people with or without merit. Just read any newspaper for a week or two over any given year in American history, and you'll find plenty of citizen-police interaction. Some merited the violence, some didn't. It's an act of supreme arrogance to assume that things are different today than from before. Read up on your history -- here, headlines involving excessive use force by police over a four month period in early 1900:

DR. PETERS DENOUNCES POLICE; Says Arrest of Thousands of Small Boys a Year for Little Pranks Should Be Stopped. -- Jan 15, 1900
BLUE LAWS IN BALTIMORE.; Every Store in the City Ordered Closed on Sunday -- Police Take Names of All Offenders. -- Jan 29, 1900
POLICE KILL SAFE BLOWERS.; Quincy (Ill.) Officers End the Careers of Two Burglars and Wound a Third -- Jan 29, 1900. p. 2
HOAX MAY END IN DEATH; William Moore Shot After Giving False Alarm of Fire. POLICE SAY REVOLVER FELL Declare Policeman Haverkamp Did Not Fire, but Doctors Say the Bullet Coursed Downward.-- Feb 5, 1900
POLICE WATCH FOR NIHILISTS.; Secret Service Officers and Guards Protect the Czar.-- Mar 7, 1900
MRS. LESLIE CARTER AGAIN ILL.; Succumbs in Cleveland -- Police May Have Something to Do with It. -- Mar 8, 1900
POLICE YIELD IN QUEENS; District Attorney Says Law and Order Win first Round. Grand Jury Will Continue Its Investigation of Protected Vice -- To Call Accused Policemen. -- Apr 13, 1900
BOY SWIMS FROM POLICE.; Jumps into a Canal Twice to Avoid Being Arrested. -- Apr 14, 1900
ACCUSES POLICE CAPTORS.; Mr. Shea Charges False Arrest -- Why He Whistled in Cel --Apr 22 1900

The police do and always have represented larger policies and wishes of the public. That's called a democracy. If you want dip-wads to curse out the police who are enforcing simple rules then go ahead and defend this moron. The police in this case did nothing beyond what the larger society insists upon: safety for our students in a university library.

Look over those early 1900 headlines: blue laws, morality codes, anarchists... and so on. The cops were only enforcing democracy's will.

It would seem to me that you are either misguided or opposed to our system of government.