We have another taser incident at a sporting event. It is unclear why the man was approached. Some reports suggest that he was in the wrong seat and was not obeying the commands of the officers.
There is again a question of the need for the taser, which creates a scene that is made all the more chaotic with the intervention of a shouting individual and then a fly ball.
One alleged witness left the following account:
I was sitting about 5 rows in front of him and he was actually a Texas fan and he kept yelling obnoxiously. The usher who had been very nice went over and made a joke. And dude flipped out screaming and swearing saying get outta my fing face and calling him the n word. They called security and he was still screaming and swearing. So the police came and while they were trying to put handcuffs on him he kept trying to swing at them. So they tasered him and he fell and hit his head.
While the man is clearly uncooperative and perhaps belligerent, it is unclear why a shot of 50,000 volts was needed.
We previously saw the use of a taser on a woman accused of sitting in the wrong seat at a football game, here.
At last night’s A’s game against Texas, a belligerent fan gets zapped by Oakland police officers (1:05), another fan gets pushed down the stairs (1:25), a woman makes things worse by screaming, and then a foul ball lands (1:42).
in that film they could have placed hand cuffs on him at any time they wanted too but as usual the taser is fun for the cops to use. all cops who have tasers should be required to be tasered before they use them
So have any of you actually ever been to a sporting game? Having gone to 40 or 50 in my life in, there is not much room to navigate between the seats. A person who is belligerent and refusing to come quietly poses a danger not only to himself but to everyone else around him, being as superior numbers are useless being as there are too many obstructions to coherently surround someone. So if you wish to have caused probable (not possible, but probable; it is remarkably easy to injure someone in a place that is largely concrete and filled with sharp angles if you are swinging around trying to avoid the law) bodily harm not only to the police officers but also to the fans around him, by all means, deny the use of a taser to incapacitate only the person who is causing the problem.
And as far as the state of sporting games go, you folks just suffer from living in the wrong places. Here in MN seats 3 rows behind home plate cost just $50, and if you come on the right days you can have tickets, hot dog and a drink for $10. The games that I have gone to range from pro hockey to pro football to college football to pro basketball in MN, WI, and IL, and I have NEVER come across an exceptionally unruly person. So please don’t blame the bizarre prices and bad behavior of your respective states on the game, as it does little but show your prejudice.
it would have been better if other fans just went up to him and kicked the crap out of him for being annoying. there was no need to taser him in any way – just put the hand cuffs on him and drag him out and into jail. tasers in the hands of jackasses is not a license to use them
How simple is it to just obey an usher when you get snagged sitting in the wrong seat??? Or even better why argue with cops??? Do you think you are going to win??? Just get your big ass up and move. He deserved to get tasered in the face if you ask me.
Really? Misuse of the taser? You have to be kidding me. It says in a witness quote that the man was swinging at officers. Umm, seems like a good time to use the taser to me. You could use the OC Spray, but you run the risk of hitting an innocent bystander, so that’s ruled out. There are a couple officers, so you could wrestle him and run the chance of injuring an officer or a bystander and bring even more attention to the scene, once again, wrong answer.
This was dealt with professionaly and I applaud the officers in this one. The public just doesn’t get it sometimes. The Taser is a useful tool that saves lives and prevents unnecessary injuries to officers, suspects, and innocent bystanders.
If the Public has an issue with the Taser, I would gladly hand them my badge and duty belt and sit back and watch them deal with these situations on their own. Police Officers can not do anything right in the Public’s eye. Thanks to the media, we live under a magnifying glass.
Henry you have you rumors all wrong TASER was never meant to replace firearms. It it use to subdue idiots who refuse to be placed into handcuffs and who wish to resist arrest.. A baton strike would have broken bones and pepper spray would have pissed off all the fans sitting next to this A-HOLE…The TASER is considered equal to Pepper spray and was the correct tool to use in this case…. Ck out Beaver VS Federal Way Police.. This case spelled it out.
Frank,
Yeah, I mean what do people think they are? Innocent until proven guilty or some feel good hippy crap like that?
Whats the big deal A taser is NON lethal and less painfull than a night stick. People need to get it through their heads to OBEY lawfull police orders and COMPLY. Fight the charge in COURT not there at the scene. In this day and age you dont run through a airport yelling you have a bomb and you OBEY police when they tell you to comply
You have a 0% chance of being tasered if you simply do what the officer requests.
As usual, the most obvious question is: Why do THREE cops need a taser to cuff ONE guy. Where I come from police would be embarrassed to need weapons to accomplish this. Are they training these guys in Oakland to be policemen or ballerinas?
Okay, now that I understand that this guy was a Texan, I’m cool w/ the tasering.
Police should be instructed that tasers may be used only when, prior to the availability of tasers, use of a gun was permitted. I thought that the use of tasers was supposed to substitute for the use of guns so that people are not killed unnecessarily. They were not intended for situations that are not life-threatening. If a cop uses a taser when there is clearly no threat, he should be prosecuted for assault and battery.
I live about 45 minutes from Oakland and I think that Oakland fans are the worst. I went to a Raider game last year and there were a half dozen fights before my father and I left in the 3rd quarter. Ive also been to many A’s games and they are not much better.
Its funny though that right across the bay at AT&t park, this kind of stuff almost never happens.
This may be the first Taser story listed, of what has turned into dozens, where I think its’ use may (I say that tentatively)have been justified. In a stadium the rows are close and a large, drunken out of control fan may well be difficult to handle manually, while presenting a problem of danger to those around him.
Regarding baseball itself I’ve been a lifelong fan and yet I haven’t gone to a Major League game in perhaps 15 years. The crowds are annoying and even 15 years ago the prices were exorbitant. I did attend a spring training game this year and for a ticket, soda, hamburger/fries the cost came to over $30 and that was for a game where most of each teams regulars weren’t even playing. In NYC, with each team’s new ballpark, buillt with government subsidy, the prices are outrageous and beyond the reach of average fans and families. All to see one game out of a 162 game season. Front row seats, field level at Yankee Stadium for instance cost $2,600 a game.
This has become true in general for all sports and has created a divide where corporations buy up the best seats as giveaways to clients and the rest of the fans(short for fanatics)still pay exorbitantly. At least the Roman Colosseum
had free bread and circuses. In corporate America we get our people to pay for the privilege of being distracted from the overall societal corruptness.
It is a distressing fact though that as life becomes increasingly isolated by the use of the computer, another remaining vestige of people getting together has become so obnoxious and burdensome. On the other hand though, given that at the old Colosseum the people rooted for Gladiators murdering each other, or people being torn apart by wild beasts, maybe the end of crowds socializing wouldn’t be so bad. After all today its’ the mayhem of football, or Rugby in England, tomorrow it might be gun slinging shootouts and fights to the death, to keep the people drunk and distracted.
Must have been something in the air… some idiot ran on to the field during that game also.
Prof.,
If I may make a request on behalf of the baseball fans lurking here, would you consider publishing (if readily available) your lecture “Baseball – All American Sport or Tool of Satan?”
Thank you.
“And dude flipped out screaming and swearing saying get outta my fing face and calling him [the usher] the n word.”
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While this use of the taser may have been unwarranted, I am impressed with the other problem suggested by the witness. Namely, the belligerent, unruly fan hell-bent on causing a scene or embarrassing those in close proximity with vulgar remarks, and uncalled-for anger. This is an too common problem which caused me sometime ago to refrain from taking my family to sporting events. I have been cursed at, spit at, and swung at by drunk Cretins masquerading as sports fans. In essence, these miscreants take the occasion to get drunk, get wild, and get ornery simply because they purchased a ticket. I note with interest the dearth of other patrons in his immediate vicinity BEFORE the police arrived. One wonders why?
Well Abner Double day who also served as a Union General for the Federalist would probably agree that the man had to go. However, since at LA is in First Place who really cares.
Really, the use of Tasers is too often reported, well maybe under reported in some cases. But really a baseball game? This is just Bull Shit. Send em to SC a Horse is lonely tonight.
Look at all the empty seats… definitely deserved the taser… They need to make the taser illegal. It is used far too often.
I still remember your lecture in first year Torts entitled, “Baseball – All American Sport or Tool of Satan?” You now have more proof of your point