We have another taser related death. This one is out of Arizona where Mark Andrew Morse, 36, began to have breathing problems after being tasered by a highway patrol officer. He later died.
The officer spotted Morse walking in the carpool lane on the Interstate. Morse had just left his fiance after a quarrel and the officer says that he “became combative” and “took a fighting stance” when questioned by the officer.
The police officer reported that he thought Morse appeared to be on drugs.
For the story, click here.
Kudos: George Gobble
106 degree body temp, on the Hwy, combative, breathing issues, no answers for the family.
In this one, I don’t see excessive force being alleged. If not, how was the officer to know what this guy was on? I do not initially see anything that the officer did incorrect. It was 1 am when the guy was walking in the roadway….
Time for a national movement that recognizes the power of Todd Palin.
He can teach them how to survive a taser episode.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-monday-cant-trust-that-day.html
The civilian took a “combative stance.” There is not indication that he used violence of any kind or threatened the officer verbally or physically. Yet the officer use a potentially deadly force against him.
Somehow that doens’t seem to match up too well.
Was this the only police man for the nearest 50 or so miles, that he couldn’t wait for backup.
Having asthma myself, I have often wondered if the users of tear gas and tasers take into consideration that they may be inflicting a leathal assault on a person who is already physically compromised.
Why did the victim have breathing difficulties?
The linked story is very light on facts but unless there’s something provably dangerous that Morse did beyond the reference of ‘taking a threatening stance’ this event needs a lot more official scrutiny.
Combative. Stance. Really, officer? Since you seem to be an expert on standing and stances I have a clarifying question.
Offensive stance or defensive stance, officer?
It’s also an important distinction.
More scrutiny indeed. What’s next? He gave you a combative look? The finger? Awwww. Let’s be clear. Unless he is actually attacking you or others he is free to stand any damn way he pleases up to and including standing on his head. Just like he’s free to look at you like you’re a turd in a punch bowl and to give you the finger.
The real question is are you fit to do your job if you can’t manage a “combative stance” without a taser.
Unless a blow is in transit, it is not combat, but rather two people thinking of combat. I know, I know. Thinking is hard when you can pull a trigger instead of, oh, I don’t know, manage the situation that hadn’t actually turned violent yet without applying violence yourself, Officer Bad Example.
Those are some nice boots, Jack.
Buddha, he was in the carpool lane at 1 am this is off of I-17 in Phoenix. The metro center is not to far away. This is one I don’t think not knowing a little more could I indeed say the officer was in the wrong. This is a well traveled Hwy.
Still waiting for the correct number of deaths to occur due to the use of tasers that will ultimately make the use of these things illegal. Before they existed, how many deaths were related to say … nightsticks? What was the big problem before the miracle of tasers came along?
I don’t know ask Malice Green or Rodney King. Two cases that might give you the answers to why Night Sticks are such a bad ideal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_Green
This case shows you its not such a good idea to have a ranking NAACP member on the jury or to let the jury while sequestered be shown MalcolmX.
I do think that the officers were guilty. I do, but they got screwed by the same system that I deplore as well. The Sct would not hear the appeal of one officer convicted but did the other officer. Same damned trial.
It did not help too much that this happened shortly after the King case.
AY,
I gotta agree with your assesment. Without additional information I’d be hard pressed to conclude that the officer was in the wrong. Had this event taken place in a parking lot, I might suggest that a little more restraint be exercised. However, in the middle of the highway, I think this guy was a danger to himself and others.
I don’t see any report from his fiance that would indicate a severe infection, so I’m thinking the high fever was probably drug induced.
http://psyweb.com/Glossary/drugferver.jsp
Had this guy run into traffic, getting himself killed, or causing some innocent motorist to to swerve to avoid him (possibly causing injury or death to any number of others) we would probably hear calls for “why didn’t the dumbass officer taser him?”.
There’s a good chance this guy would have died without being tazed. Adults just don’t do well with high fevers.
In a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, I think we must side with the police officer.
If more info had been forth coming I may have a different opinion but since it is lacking. This is the best I can do.
how did he get the officer to stop? i’ve had breakdowns and/or flat tires at odd times of the morning and the police always drive right past me.
And of course, the reason we don’t have more information is because the only information we have is from the cops. In thirteen years of criminal law practice I rarely saw a report that is not full of lies. And when someone doing nothing more than even what this guy allegedly did winds up dead, you can rest assured these turds will lie.
Look at all the preemptive taser attacks by the police union thugs we see immediately on apprehending a non-resisting suspect.
Tasers were supposed to be a substitute for guns (and sometimes nightsticks) in cases where for example, a guy is 10 feet away and brandishing a knife. Now they’re used routinely even for passive resistance or mouthing off to our sovereing police.
Meant to ask, why is it that we never get the name of the “officer” in these situations. A cop shot a 35-pound family dog the other day in Colorado for no legitimate reason (it barked, she feared for her life) and they won’t give out the name of the cop.
These union swine must be taught that they work for us, not the other way around.
Hey – when Police officers in France taser kids: “Le oops! Eeet was zee meestake!”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/10/schoolkid_tasering/
OK, it probably was more Keystone Cops than Gestapo, but it’s interesting that the immediate response is to admit that it was a goof, not that “the kid was in a combative stance.”
Whatever happened to prosecuting cops for use of good old fashioned excessive force?
Wait, don’t tell me. The democrats think they’d need a 60 vote majority to convict; right?
Yeah, I’m right. It’s snowing, therefore I’m always right; right?
Jeepers, now even religious wackos are getting in on the act.
MADISON, Wis. — A Baraboo man was accused of repeatedly shocking a male dance instructor with a stun gun, claiming the instructor was a “sinner” who “defiles married women.” A Dane County prosecutor said the suspect, 59, hastily arranged a dance lesson at the instructor’s Madison home and showed up with a stun gun and sledgehammer last Friday. The criminal complaint said the man told a detective that his church does not condone touching while dancing and that he was going to scare the instructor “and tell him to leave the women alone.”
The Wisconsin State Journal said the instructor told police that the suspect phoned for private dance lessons, and when he opened the door to his home, he began to shock him repeatedly in the neck with the stun gun.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/10/wisconsin-man-uses-stun-g_n_457528.html
Well what do you expect from WI?
Its starts snowing in late October and they start having a beer about the same time. Then in May the snow stops and the snow stops and so does the drinking.
Simple, passive, peaceful frustration might be expressed in a physical manner that is completely indistinguishable from this “combative stance” nonsense.
go get ‘em ‘Buddha Is Laughing’ – nice boots Jack indeed
There have been 3 different stories told to the family by two different law agencies and none of them make sense. There was not even any reports of this to the news until the 8th of Feb..The truth is we are all be kept in the dark by the law and we are the people who’s taxes feed their families.My brother was unarmed ,had no criminal record was here on vacation to introduce his soon to be wife to our mother and wound up dead “at the hands of the law enforcement we pay to protect us.Does any of this make any sense to anybody because it scares the hell out of me and should every american citizen.AND HOW DARE THEY NOT GIVE HIS LOVED ONES HONEST INFORMATION…Instead they try to some how make their incompotance his fault. If you were to reverse the rolls my brother would be charged w/ murder…YOU WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN Mark Morse I Love You…
69 taser-related deaths in America since last year. That is about one per week. Something is seriously wrong…
Does anyone in this thread know the race or national origin of Mr. Morse?
peace, Villager