Cops Beat, Taser Man to Death, ‘They Just Weren’t Done Until He Was Dead’

The Daily Caller ^ | 15 May 2014 | Robby Soave

[mandaladon]

A Washington man is dead after police tasered him four times and beat him with their fists and a flashlight, according to eyewitnesses.

Neighbors report that what happened between 44-year-old Ron Hillstrom and University Place police was essentially murder.

“You beat this man to death last night for no reason and we caught you, period,” said one of Hillstrom’s neighbors, who saw the incident.

Police were called to the parking lot of Hillstrom’s apartment complex in the early morning hours. Hillstrom was having some sort of psychotic episode: He was pacing in a circle and muttering that people were after him. He was unarmed, but carrying a screwdriver.

A representative for the police department said that Hillstrom’s actions necessitated police force. He fought with officers and tried to bite them, according to Sheriff Ed Troyer’s statement to komonews.com.

That’s not how the neighbors described it.

“No, he did not charge the police, he was just doing what he was doing before the police came,” said a different eyewitness.

Not in dispute: The fact that officers tasered Hillstrom four times.

[trisham]

Police flashlights are very heavy. I can imagine that they could be a worthy weapon.

[Smokin' Joe]

police’may have gone too far. but a screwdriver can kill you when stabbed with it.

Funny how the police get to claim that (I'm not arguing that point), but Bernie Goetz was vilified (and, iirc, convicted) for shooting the 4 who jumped and attempted to rob him with sharpened screwdrivers.

Pity the rules aren't the same on both sides of the badge.

[Shimmer1]

See post # 8

[Secret Agent Man]

i just knew screwdrivers were considered weapons as the doj crimestats track them as far as weapons people usually use to murder others,and from the comments from burglars as to why they carry them.

didn’t know that factoid about goetz’s attackers. givcen he was outnumbered his response should have been legal under disparity of force law.

[Vendome]

BTTTFL

[Vendome]

I once had a nasty paper cut.

Cartarized it to stop the bleeding.

[Vendome]

Cop Sucker .....

[Vendome]

That actually looks like a righteous beat down....and they stopped well short of what was deserved....

[null and void]

The context of him nearly running down the cop with the tack strip does provide a certain context, doesn’t it?

[apoliticalone]

The public is quickly becoming saturated with cops that overreact instead of protecting and serving. Yeah we know there are plenty of criminal low lifes out there but we also are getting weary of SWAT teams used to shoot pets and family. The media needs to follow up on these events where citizens are not “served and protected” while paying for high compensation and grandiose pensions, that most of us can only dream about at 20 years of service.

LEOs that abuse need to be charged and face a lifetime dossier when they fail to serve and protect the public. TV cop shows need to become more authentic and with less propaganda too.

[Smokin' Joe]

Goetz committed the grievous crime of shooting young attackers with more pigment in NY.

Needless to say, the spin machine erupted with the whole bit of 'innocent young boys...getting their lives together...unjustly...hints at racism...and the usual crap about 'taking the law into his own hands' and the anti-gun bit'. The screwdrivers were played down as weapons to justify the rest of the spin.

[Vendome]

Totally.

[Robert Teesdale]

I tire of the lies in these reports.

Is a man dead? Witnesses report a restrained man being clubbed to death with fists and flashlights.

Cops didn’t just decide to beat a guy to death for no reason.

Failure to instantly obey the commands of the State is rarely met with other than instantaneous force. In many aspects this case rather grossly fits the unmistakable trend of modern American law enforcement.

Maybe they were fully over the top and need prison. Maybe the attempt to stop a psychotic lead to his death and the cops acted professionally.

There's a very simple recipe to put a stop to it. Decisively, expensively, and messily - but a stop.

But to claim no reason is BS.

I expect the comment was intended to mean, "no reasonable justification" rather than "no reason". There was clearly a "reason" they bludgeoned this man to death. The thrill of subjugation and killing is certainly a reason, if not reasonable.

Communist agitprop has always been to make cops the enemy, so I am skeptical about all these blanket easy condemnations.

I'm skeptical about people being called communists when they oppose gang murder by jackbooted thugs.

Not that cops don’t abuse their position and commit police brutality, but the goal of the Communists and left has always been to slander police and any institution of social order as much as possible to cause mistrust and fear among members of society.

Disingenuous and, frankly, somewhat disgusting. It isn't "slander" of police and "institutions of social order" that's causing mistrust and fear among the People.

It's a pregnant women holding a baby being shot through the head by FBI snipers. It's men, women and children being shot, gassed, crushed and burned to death by the BATF. It's homeless men being machine-gunned by local police departments. It's "tight buttocks" being used as grounds for multiple forced colonoscopies. It's teenagers dying after having their throats carved out by "sharp objects" in a hunt for drugs. It's armored cars roaring down Boston streets pointing machine guns at terrified residents. It's dogs being shot in the name of officer safety. (It's parakeets being killed in the name of officer safety too.) It's the lies and abuse of the citizenry that is being captured on video... which then is "somehow" destroyed.

I think there's a hell of a lot more behind the looming existential upheaval headed this nation's way than the mutterings of communists against social order.

[Robert Teesdale]

Are there more cop attacks now than in the past or just more documented due to cell phone and dashboard cameras?

You must, Sir, be joking.

Do you not feel the tightening yoke of the State?

[Robert Teesdale]

So can an umbrella, a comb, a pencil, a handkerchief, or an open hand.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

RONALD REAGAN, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981

And the bloody, furious mind of the determined.

[ifinnegan]

I tire of posts like yours where you just lie and distort and propagandize with your hate and fear mongering.

Then will come the demagoguery.

[Robert Teesdale]

I tire of posts like yours where you just lie and distort and propagandize with your hate and fear mongering.

What untrue facts have I advanced?

What have I distorted?

What do hate do you believe I hold?

What fear am I mongering?

Those are strong accusations. I invite you to back them up with something beyond finger pointing.

Then will come the demagoguery.

In advancement of what?

I invite you, Sir, to explain yourself.

[Orangedog]

Oxymoron. A screwdriver can be a weapon.

"You better back off or I'm going to make your glasses really wobbly!"

[Orangedog]

There is no situation that can’t be made worse by calling the police.

[ifinnegan]

You sell Satanic snake oil of the worst order.

The type that destroys the soul.

I ask you to re-evaluate your relationship with God.