This video is the latest case of a person seriously injured by multiple taser hits from police. Angela Jones, 50, went into cardiac arrest after three hits from police at a routine traffic stop. Jones had objected to the police officers demanding to go through her purse and then tried to get back in her car when she was shot with the taser.
The officer stopped to question Jones who was stopped along the side of the road. She denied drinking but the officers removed her from the car and questioned her for 15 minutes. That seems a reasonable response since they had to be sure that she was not a DUI case. It was then that they asked her to give them her purse. She refused and said “I just don’t feel like I want you to take my purse from me.” She ran back to her car and the officer then tasered her. One officer deployed his TASER® X-26 TM three times. Jones can be heard screaming in pain as the officer yelled at her not to move . . . while tasering her. She then stopped breathing.
One officer was able to revive her with CPR on the sidewalk.
There was no illegal drug or alcohol levels in Jones’ system. Nevertheless, police charged her with resisting arrest and possession of less than one ounce of pot. It is not clear what she was being arrested for at the time. We have previously seen cases where alleged abusive police conduct results in questionable charges against a victim — an incentive to settle the claims against the police and a rationalization of the alleged abuse. In this case, I am curious as to why a driver cannot refuse to hand over her bag. If they were arresting her, they can search the car and the purse at incident to the arrest or as part of the custodial exception at booking. They would not have to ask permission.
Then there is the controversial use of the tasers, including shooting people in the chest (which the manufacturer warns against). Police too often use tasers where they would previously physically restrain a person. The speed with which tasers are deployed in many cases has drawn widespread criticism. There is a growing view that tasers are becoming the instant response of many officers to any resistance or problem.
When Jones runs back into the car, I do think that there was legitimate concern by the officers that she might be grabbing a weapon. It is certainly an uncommon response even when arguing over a search. That makes this routine traffic stop less routine in the end. However, the need to use the taser — particularly three times — remains a question. My greatest concern is the criminal charge since I fail to see the basis for the arrest before the tasering.
What do you think?
Source: CBS
Was the weed in her purse before or after the LEO’s killed her?
Frankly,
Thanks. Your answer begs the question, what if they manufacture some sort of probable cause and find nothing? Or, they make an arrest and find nothing?
I suppose you could say that if she did not have pot in her purse she would not have been paranoid and if she had not been paranoid she would not have run and if she did not run then she would not have been tased. As pot is still illegal in CA, there was a law broken now wasn’t there.
Frank: Nope, white & this is one of the things that will hit home with the white comfortable suburban crowd – it is not just ‘them coloreds’ getting this treatment
Mike S: I’d suggest extreme caution if you ever deal with the police – do whatever thing they ask & do it quickly. No experiments with electric shock in your case!
Several: Its not illegal to search her purse if she consents to it. If she does not the officer either has to invent probable cause, arrest her or get a warrant. Of those the easiest is probably cause. Many drug sniffing dogs can signal on command thereby allowing the officers to say they suspected drugs were in the purse. The cops could hold her there until the dog arrives.
Criminal law enforcement. Reckless disregard, assault with a deadly weapon. Police need to be prosecuted for indiscriminate use of tasers.
There is NO excuse for this behavior. Tasers are lethal. There was no cause herefor lethal force in this case.
“Isn’t illegal to try to search the woman’s purse? Don’t law enforcement officer need at least probable cause to request to search a purse? As I remember there is a Supreme Court ruling on this. Comments?” -Marco
Anybody?
I agree that the officers exceeded their authority and the use of these tasers is out of control. They were not arresting her and she should have been allowed to leave.
Isn’t illegal to try to search the woman’s purse? Don’t law enforcement officer need at least probable cause to request to search a purse? As I remember there is a Supreme Court ruling on this. Comments?
Not criticizing the woman, but what she did wrong in this instance was to start for the car. Officers are trained to be a bit paranoid about the risk of the person getting a weapon. She was clearly not under arrest, and did not want them to look in her purse. What people are beginning to learn is to repeat the broken record mantra, “Am I free to go now? Am I under arrest? Am I free to go now? Am I under arrest?”
The officers should be fired and charged with battery. Pardon the pun.
If they were arresting her, they can search the car and the purse at incident to the arrest or as part of the custodial exception at booking. They would not have to ask permission.
Right IF they arrested her….BUT for what!?!? These guys were clearly fishing…and had no reason to taser her.
The above account refers to 15 minutes of questioning and states: “That seems a reasonable response since they had to be sure that she was not a DUI case.” Really? There was no evidence given that she was DUI. She merely stopped by the side of the road.
As someone who has had 3 heart attacks; congestive heart failure; 29 years of angina; many instances of ventricular fibrillation; and finally a heart transplant I’ve learned many things about the functioning of the heart even though I’m not a Doctor. Many don’t realize that our hearts are a “muscle pump” that beats due to electrical activity. We have two ventricles which blood must flow through and their pumping of blood must remain in constant rhythm for the blood to flow properly. A disturbance of that rhythm will cause the blood to flow improperly and can lead to ventricular fibrillation and tachycardia, which can kill you. Been there, lived through that. My point is that a laser strike to the torso, with 50,000 volts of electricity, can disrupt that rhythm in may people and put them into a dangerous state. With my experience the idea of being tasered is a very scary one and the continued upswing of its use is a definite problem.
Beyond that though, watching the entire video I fail to see why the police officers were unable to handle this woman with normal physical restraint. This was only a threatening situation for this woman and certainly not for the police. She had every right to refuse to let them look through her purse, since there was no cause to suspect this woman of anything. The fact that toxicology reports showed no intoxicants in her system proves this was not a case of DUI. This leads me inescapably to some conclusions. The first is that the taser was used punitively at her “offense” of not obeying their orders. Secondly, since when did resisting arrest become failing to obey an unreasonable order by police, when there was no indication that there was any cause for the person to be arrested in the first place?
By the evidence of the video, which ran for over forty minutes, this was a clear case of police brutality and putting a citizen in danger of losing their life. The LEO’s of this country need to be dealt with harshly in these frequent cases, since that would seem to be only way to get through to them that they are not our “keepers”, but merely public servants hired to enforce the law and keep order among us. The “Law” they enforce should be equally applied to them when they break it. As far as I’m concerned these officers were guilty of deadly assault and should be treated as such.
Assault with a deadly weapon. Lethal weapon. My computer does not have italinan or Latin on it or Bold or underline, so I can not emphasize the words deadly and lethal. What this means in legal discourse is that the pigs shot her with a weapon which is little different than a gun which shoots out a bullet with gunpowder behind it. This seems to be a point that gets over looked in the lead articles on this topic on this blog. One can only use deadly force when when is in fear of deadly force. Until California or other states pass a law that says Pigs Cant Shoot To Kill with a Taser for Mouthing Off then these pigs are subject to criminal law and civil law and civil rights judgments for money and injunctive reliief. The superiors on the police force are liable for the monetary judgment, If it is a municipality that piggos work for then the town is liable. For large sums of money. Enough to put them out of business. See 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. If you are a young budding lawyer who is bored with doing divorces then look into this.
Some states recognize the inhumanity of killing by electrocution and have gone to lethal injection. I supposse the police forces will be shooting poison dart guns next year after they begin to phase out the electrocution guns.
Attach the electrodes to the offending cop’s balls and taser them!
Pig headed law enforcement.
“The officer stopped to question Jones who was stopped along the side of the road. She denied drinking but the officers removed her from the car and questioned her for 15 minutes.”
What was the probable cause to think she might have been DWI? Nothing with respect to her driving. She denies alcohol or drug use. Presumably officer doesn’t smell anything suspicious. She doesn’t look to be stumbling around. She responds appropriately to questioning. Fifteen minutes of questioning seems unnecessary unless there was reason to believe she was intoxicated. I’ve been stopped by cops for traffic violations and actual questioning/interaction with the cop never takes more than a minute or two.
I saw this on the news yesterday….. The cardiac institute states pretty much that the manufacture is misrepresenting its data when it says that their is no evidence to connect heart attacks and the use of tasers….. Yeah…. I’d say the same thing as well…..
Let me take a wild guess………….. African-American woman?
Let this be a lesson to you citizen – do not resist!
Seriously though, police are going to come to deeply regret the day they installed cameras. For every case where the video provides proof they acted appropriately there is another showing them getting out of line. But the worst part is it is destroying their credibility. I think it is seeping into a lot of comfortable suburban white folks brains that cop can lie and that they do cover up for each other. Once they figure out its not just kinds n coloreds that get this treatment it is going to be a lot tougher for the police to get the sort of automatic belief from juries they are used to.