Police in Pennsylvania tasered a man who was trying to save his own pets from a fire. The police said that they warned Damon Baker three times and then shot him with a taser when he insisted on using a hose on the house before the fire department arrived.
Baker’s wife is pregnant with triplets and Damon helped her and two children get out of the house. He then used his garden hose to control the flames on the side of the house. He was trying to protect 11 Ball Pythons that escaped from their cage and were loose inside the burning home. Only five snakes survived.
Baker will not be charged.
We have previously seen tasers used on family members seeking to save loved ones or homeowners trying to save family or pets from a fire.
Source: Pittsburgh Channel
“Come on now, its the least amount of force that is available to the police to use. Flash light leave marks, Gloved Fist get DNA on them Bullets have marking as well, what else would you expect a cop to do to show that they are in charge. ”
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AGH!!!!hahahahahahahahha!…I am aghast in shock and hilarity…hahahaha
HenMan,
I liked your comment, and I think we have reached the same conclusion. As I wrote here in June 2009:
I can certainly think of a situation where a person is distraught. However I cannot think of one where a person is distraught and that justifies tasering them.
When investigations into the use of tasers are finding that 1/3 of uses are in cases where no crime was committed, and 1/3 of cases result in the victim needing medical attention, then you have to ask why is the taser being used so much? As HenMan says above, it’s because it’s a form of punishment which the Police can use against anyone they like with little fear of adverse consequences.
HenMan,
“I was outside, at the end of the garden hose, trying to spray down the side of the house to keep it from spreading so rapidly,” said Baker.
Police on scene said they tried three times to get him away from the fire to protect him, but he resisted so they were forced to subdue him with a Taser.
Come on now, its the least amount of force that is available to the police to use. Flash light leave marks, Gloved Fist get DNA on them Bullets have marking as well, what else would you expect a cop to do to show that they are in charge. You forget this mans house is burning, his kids are safe, including the wife. Who the hell gives a rats ass about some 14 pythons. The rats are probably happy that they didn’t make it. The cops showed them professional courtesy. You see these snakes will not be eating these rats. And well Broom handles cost the city too much money. So in reality the taser is the least amount of force that the cop could use under the circumstances.
Does anyone know who started this fire and how the police showed up before the fire department? There were two houses on fire….you know there was an arson investigator that was nationally acclaimed for his successful investigation in how fires got started. Well, the reason he was so damn good is…well….he started most of em…..don’t a number of cities cross train fire and police personnel? Hmmmmmm
I think all too often today the taser is being used as a weapon of extra-legal punishment. This has become “trial by pissed off cop” rather than “speedy and public trial by an impartial jury…”. Too many tasings have been fatal to keep calling tasers “non-lethal” weapons.
Alex & Jericho,
I’m not suggesting that the police officer was automatically in the right, or that his actions shouldn’t be looked at critically. However, surely both of you can think of a situation in which someone is so distraught they are a danger to themselves. I don’t think it would be at all out of line in that situation to tase someone as a way to subdue them for their own good.
Also, Jericho,
my 5 pythons or babies
Snakes are not children, no matter how much you may care for them. I would, of course, have an entirely different reaction if the police tased a man trying to rescue his 5 children.
Hows that for drivel….
I wonder how smoked python tastes anyway. You know we smoke all kinds of shit in Texas…..Food too….
The last time I tried to smoke a turkey, well….it was like really heavy….I had to use a rope and pull it over a tree limb (not that that has never happened in Texas) not as greasy as a chicken though…..which are lighter in most cases…..
I realised something just now…
All cops are bad..
the good ones just get bought or set aside.
See ‘Mineral Management Service’
“…I can see the police tasering him as a good thing.”
Yeah, euhm, let me stop you there. I don’t think I need an ass in a hat with a two-digit IQ hurting me when I’m trying to save my 5 pythons or babies from a fire with a hose.
If you’re going to stop anyone from saving anyone, start with Glenn Beck. Now that would be an appropriate precedent, to be expected from, say, a cop with a three-digit IQ?
Speaking of oxymorons…
In a world where torture has become acceptable should we really be surprised by the police’s propensity to Tase.
“If the man with the hose was overwrought with what was happening and was putting himself in real danger,” then that’s his decision and he shouldn’t be put in real danger by getting tasered.
@Blouise: “They could have spit…”??? Hell, all that coffee from the donut shop could have been put to a good use, don’t ya think? They can’t ALL be non-stop Jack Bauers!
After two or three days, tops. Until then, his hair will still stand straight up from his scalp, and small rivulets of steam will intermittently escape from his ears.
If the man with the hose was overwrought with what was happening and was putting himself in real danger, I can see the police tasering him as a good thing. Reading the story that way just requires some trust in the police officers to make a good judgment call about the man’s state of mind and how much danger the man was in. I know that trust is in short supply these days . . .
AY,
No buckets, huh? They could have spit… or maybe poured some coffee on the blaze … happy go lucky tazer men!
An LEO once told me that some of the laziest people he knew were his fellow officers.
Well hell CM How would you have written it?
I am waiting for your to serve me my doughnut and then I’ll protect it with all of my might…where the hell is the coffee….man you just can’t get good service at the waffle house anymore…they will hire about anyone….just about…
A Y
“The above was meant only in satire.”
When attempting weapon of mass destruction level sarcasm, don’t spoil it by explicitly saying that it is sarcasm. The idea is to walk a very fine line so that your audience is never sure what side you are actually on, it is even better if you are yourself unsure.
Try to make it so that the statement is equally meaningful when taken as arguing one way and also the opposite with irony. Execpt for that last line a good attempt, I grade you as 75% effort in industrial strength sarcasm.
Blouise,
Most of the Cops are overworked (eatin doughnuts and drinking coffee don’t count) underpaid (they aren’t supposed to get them free anymore) and facing layoffs. Why should they? They don’t even have to help save someone with respiratory issues, its not in the job description.
Show me in the policy manual where it says that they have to save pet and/or even snakes (maybe out of professional courtesy.) They only say that they will protect and serve.
This guys acts endangered the safety of the police department in total. Hell yes he should have been tased, maybe even shot. That person is lucky that he wasn’t shot as the first means of the officers safety. Geeze don’t these people understand how difficult it is to watch…especially when a house is burning…
The above was meant only in satire.
“Baker will not be charged.”(JT)
Ok … but why isn’t the Prosecutor going after the cops? I mean, would it have done them any harm to pitch in with a couple of buckets? Come on boyos, nobody is going to criticize you if you help a civilian now and then.