Ok.. I lied... I guess I'm not done arguing this.. because, I've checked up on UCANSEE, and ISEE, that we generally agree on most things.... so, I'll continue to try to convince him that he's wrong on this one... :-)
The difference is... Gardner KNOWS he doesn't have to obey any order given by Massey. He DOESN'T HAVE TO GO BACK and look for any sign... and, HE knows it. All he has to do is.... Give Massey the ticket, and say 'goodbye"'.
Put yourself in Gardner's shoes... You KNOW... This guy can do NOTHING to prevent you from issuing this ticket.... WHY? Do you feel the need to arrest this guy ??
I mean.. really.. with a 15 month old baby, and 6 month pregnant wife, what threat is this guy to society? In WHAT WAY, is he a threat to the public at large?
The obvious answer is... NONE. So, why do you want to arrest him? Because, he's pissed you off. I'm sorry.... that's just NOT a good enough reason.
I’ve seen the quoted UTAH code relevant to not signing, and frankly, I just can’t believe it.
If you don’t have to sign the ticket, and aren’t taken to jail, then why do you even have to pull over?
You say (or someone did) that the policecam is evidence.
What if it quit working?
Your signature is in lieu of posting a bond as a promise to appear in court.
If UTAH says you don’t have to sign, then UTAH caused this situation to become a reality.
The officer ‘could’ have just let him go, but he had made up his mind that he was going to take the driver to post bond.
The officer has that ‘choice’ as far as I can tell from the UTAH code, and if the driver appears to be resisting arrest, then the taser is a less life threatening device than a pistol.
You are blaming the officer for not ‘being cooperative’ with the driver, and yet you just don’t see it yet.
After he actually got the driver in cuffs, had he found, say, some crack pipes, or a pipe bomb, or a bag of meth stuffed in between the seats, this all would have been a different story.
Many here seem to paint the driver as a ‘saint of innocence’, and yet, based on his behavior, and the wife’s, I still wonder if the officer didn’t conduct a very thorough search.
But that is just speculation.
For whatever reason, Gardner felt that he should ‘arrest’ this driver and that the driver was resisting arrest.
Based on the ‘officers’ point of view, using the taser was his choice at the time, to subdue the driver while he handcuffed him.
The driver, was CLUELESS, BOSSY, REFUSED TO LISTEN, and none of those excuses are going to hold up well in court.
It would be real interesting if we could have some stats from UTAH stating how many times, when being given a ticket and refusing to sign, did the officer just let the driver ORDER THE OFFICER AROUND, then get in his vehicle, and leave.
Do you have any of those statistics?