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).
working man,
Your Dad appears to be someone you can be very, very proud of and who was exactly what a Law Officer should be.
“MIKE S – You are the prime example os someone educated with no sense. Your views regarding officers as “servants” are as antiquated as the view that mentally ill should be hiden away from the public. Your earlier comments regarding obey, can just as easily be transferred to the term servant. Reality is that they are often criticized and rarely recognized. Im glad you were able to “rise above” with a father. Mine was killed in the line of duty when I was 6, “serving” the public.”
bp,
I truly am sorry that you lost your father at age 6 and I now from losing my folks at an early age how much that hurts. My guess is, not knowing you but knowing what I felt losing my folks, was that it made you very angry. I would respectfully suggest that you do something to deal with that anger or it will come back to hurt you, or those you love. I’m not trying to put you down, but here is why I am saying this.
1. Everything I’ve written to you has been done respectfully,
not because you might be an officer, but because I am respectful of others in general. In each case you answered back in a very disrespectful way and one that can be interpreted as you believing yourself superior to me.
2. You’ve used the term “educated” as if it was a swear word. Why is that. Do you think that “educated” people look down on you. If someone with education looks down on someone without as much education, that someone with education is to me and
ass h**le. My father was the smartest man I’ve ever met and he dropped out in 9th grade. No one here was putting police down because they are “uneducated,” so where was this coming from? More than that as I’ve said I’ve known and even been friends with many officers in my lifetime and I knew many with Master’s Degrees, one with a Doctorate and plenty who were college graduates. Even if p.o.’s aren’t that well educated, they are in general fairly intelligent. However,
there also are some who are fairly intelligent “ass h**les.”
Just like with any other people.
3. You didn’t even bother to read close enough, or pay close enough attention to realize that I pretty much thought this tasering was justified. That worries me regarding how you do your job if your are a P.O.. If anyone should pay close attention to what’s going on around them it should be a P.O., because lack of attention could easily lead to a loss of life.
4. The definition of police officers, firepeople, sanitation people and other people who work for the government is civil (or public)servants. Yet you seem to think you are better than that and that you get to boss the public around and have no feeling that in a public job, you are indeed a public servant.
“Reality is that they are often criticized and rarely recognized.”
You are wrong and it’s sad if you don’t know it because the evidence is all around, starting with the fact that most TV Dramas are ones where the Police are shown in a very good light. The original CSI is the top rated TV drama. Secondly, you can’t name me a politician in the country who doesn’t speak well of the police in general.
What you don’t get, because perhaps you spend time bitching with your police buddies is that the police have developed an “I can’t get no respect” chip on their shoulders, when the reverse is true. Do you honestly believe that all police are good, honest people, because if you do you are lying to yourself? There was a NYC Police Sergeant, who had an office to hang out in my father’s car dealership, who was the “bagmen” for all bribes for traffic tickets in the Borough of Brooklyn. I knew the guy and I knew what he did. Do you think he shouldn’t have been blamed, or that he was above the law if he was a police man? If you really do then I would suggest you are not fulfilling the oath you swore to uphold justice.
Wow I was going to post something supporting the use of a tazer if the guy became violent but the Tazer Lobby beat me to it.
Hey Poohbear,
Cross me and see how long you stay on patrol too, sport. What the officer did WAS THREATEN ME. For no other reason that stating I would be in court. If you think that’s acceptable, then screw you too jackboot. I bet my law degree vs. your limited cop knowledge that I can push systemic buttons much better than you. Threaten me after you’ve written a ticket and see how long it takes me to get you trouble. I start chewing ass from the Duty Sergent and work my way to IA. We won’t even mention the ration of shit I am capable of delivering to the Chief and Mayor’s office or the press. He’s getting a write up a minimum over this. Had he acted worse? As in follow through with the threat of his bullshit ticket? You bet I’d have him riding the pine. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. This time is no different, Officer Reach Exceeding Your Grasp. Try your threats and bullshit against a citizen who doesn’t know both the law and his rights next time if you don’t want it to bite you in the ass. He wanted to act like Mr. Big Penis and it backfired on him.
Too bad for him.
Looks to me like the guy got what he deserved. What sucks is that he’ll probably sue someone and will win.
Never been a cop. My deceased dad was a Tennessee sheriff for 8 yrs. and chief deputy for another 7 yrs. He also spent 2 yrs. as a small town chief of police. In all those years he never pulled his gun on someone that he was arresting. He sustained several injuries including having a ruptured disc in his neck removed. He was man enough to prefer risking his own safety over the possibility of seriously injuring or killing someone.
The one time he pulled his gun in the performance of his duty was on other police officers. A guy that I had actually gone to high school with had been severely beaten by town police and as the sheriff he went to the city jail and after seeing how badly injured he was demanded that they release him into his custody. When they refused he pulled his gun and took him from their jail. He rushed the guy to the nearest hospital were he died from the night stick beating.
I can speak for what my dad’s reaction would be to the police using a taser on this guy. He would be enraged. If they worked for him they would have been immediately fired and charged with a criminal act.
BTW, I did spend some time as a military police and never hit someone with a nightstick. On a few occasions I had to arrest drunken out of control soldiers. Once I had to fight a drunk soldier for about 5 minutes before getting some help in subduing him. I ended up with a broken nose and both ankles badly sprained. I would have done it all over again before hitting him in the head with a billy club or using something as serious as a taser.
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Results 1 – 10 of about 156,000 for death by taser statistics. (0.17 seconds)
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A quick perusal of the return for that search will quickly show you that stun guns are far from non-lethal and on the very cutting edge of abusive police behavior.
It’s called “indexing” and “computers”, salty.
You shouldn’t spew out authoritarian apologist bullshit over a medium that people can easily debunk your claims over. Unless you just like looking foolish.
And it’s spelled “douche bag”, you simpleton, but what should I expect from some jackass who thinks “hippies” is still an insult. You might be less ignorant if you’d gotten out of the house since 1969. Nixon resigned, you know, but there’s still hope for you fascists yet.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/12/17/cp-tasers.html
http://symtym.com/2004/11/sudden_taser_death_syndrome/
http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-follows-are-names-where-known.html
Interesting post and video.
Assuming what I saw on the video was accurate, the man was placed under arrest, was non-compliant in responding to the officer’s verbal commands, and began pulling away from being restrained–I imagine the use of a taser in that scenario fits within the officer’s departmental use of force policy.
From a policing perspective, when someone is placed under arrest and refuses to comply, it is never a pretty sight. If the officers would have not used the taser, a fight would have certainly increased the chances of others getting injured. Also, the crowd’s reaction would have been likely the same.
MOJO: All your dad had to do was yank that cuff hard enough and he’d have it away from them, you fool. Those nice men were trying to take it easy on the old guy rather than pummeling him. If you had a weapon anyone could take it from you and use it against you too. What idiot’s gonna give your dad a gun anyway. Try using reality as a basis for comparison. There are plenty of people who should/could have been shot and were Tasered instead. They’re alive today because of this device. Your dad being one of them.
MARS: It cannot kill, try reading the medical research compendium containing REAL science that proves the Taser is safe. Take a class on electricity and look at the internal components of the device. I’m sure you also believe all those people that Amnesty International lists as fatalities had no prior drug history or were experiencing aggitated delirium with a neuroleptic malignant syndrome either, you doushebag.
You know what? Forget the Taser and let the cops go back to nightsticks.
Everyone has an opinion about how cops should do their jobs, unfortunately most of the opinions come from ignorance and what is seen on TV. Picking apart an incident for days, weeks, and months is not something police officers have the luxury of doing when they are on a scene. I do believe police have to be accountable for their actions, but the opinions people present as facts without having walked a mile in an officer’s shoes is sad and bothersome.
Again, I have to ask: What kind of lameass training did these THREE cops get that they couldn’t cuff ONE overweight guy without tasing him?
Good Lord, what a bunch of pussies!
BTW: Salty, you’re an idiot — many many people die from tasering. Maybe you want to get off the couch and do some research. Here’s a hint where to start: http://www.alternet.org/rights/44455/.
Salty –
“The one cuff not attached to anything is a dangerous instrument”
Which the officers gave him? So if a cop pushed a gun into his hands then now he has a dangerous instrument and must be shot? Follow the logic, genius …
“There are countless douschebags walking around today that shouldn’t be because of the Taser. ”
What does that even mean? Because of the taser there are more so-called douchebags walking around today? Do you mean because of the taser’s misuse and the lawsuits that ensue there are actually more douchebags walking around? You may be right, friendo.
“It does not kill, you hippies, it can’t.”
It actually can and it has. Try a little research yo’self, fool.
And BTW, “hippies” is such a dated term. We would prefer “pinkos”, “commies” or “punks”.
And while you’re at it, Officer Crew-Cut, why don’t you just spray the guy down with a fire hose and sick the dogs on him?
Your world must really, really suck …
Stop watching so much youtube and take your pills.
Here’s what happened. The officer gets one cuff on and the fat man refuses to stand up. The second officer moves around to the back with the Taser while the fat man taunts a third officer. What a mature reasonable person, right? Once the fat man pulls his hand away he’s resisting. The one cuff not attached to anything is a dangerous instrument that can be swung around like a weapon and cause serious injury. The officer deploys the Taser and has a disconnect. You see the fat man react but it does not lock him up unti the officer drives the Taser into his back and completes what Taser calls Neruomuscular Incapacitation. Only for a second until the fat man falls out of his seat and is taken into custody. There are countless douschebags walking around today that shouldn’t be because of the Taser. It does not kill, you hippies, it can’t. Or there’d be hundreds of thousands of overweight officers who’ve died after being Tasered in training. Stop watching TV and do some research.
OK, he was already being handcuffed. The officer had cuffed him, after he was tasered. I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t any of the officers, but after he gets tased, the damn officer sticks him again, with the taser. At that point, they take him out. Now the guys falls down, injures himself. Ok, he may have deserved it. I’ve been at games, where a’holes, really get out of hand.I think that last taser was excessive. Alot of people, made comments, “he deserved it”. I just think that last one, should have been done, that’s all.
Wow, after reading this thread I’ve decided that other than most of the regular’s input I’ve missed out on absolutely nothing.
Carry on …
bp:
“MIKE S – You are the prime example os someone educated with no sense. Your views regarding officers as “servants” are as antiquated as the view that mentally ill should be hiden away from the public. Your earlier comments regarding obey, can just as easily be transferred to the term servant. Reality is that they are often criticized and rarely recognized.”
***********
Unfortunately, you forget the other choice in your scenario for those we entrust with the right to use deadly force: if not our servants, they will become our masters. Mike S’s notion of public servants is about as “quaint” as the Geneva Conventions are, and you as the offspring of such an honorable man should know better even if our neocon blight did not. Police officers have their crosses to bear, but please don’t insult us with the notion of victimhood for these officers. I know of no politician, public official, or everyday citizen who doesn’t acknowledge the dangerous and necessary work of law enforcement. They are not free from criticism however — nor should they be as long as humans wear the uniform. Finally, your rather unlettered comments about Mike S are over the top. Mike S puts incredible thought and time into his well argued responses, and your silly conclusion that he has “no sense” reveals more about you than your pitiful attempt to denigrate Mike S.