This is a topic that has me exceedingly disturbed, and unfortunately, I may be on the wrong side of this argument. In fact, I am so bothered by this that I will be abandoning the standard listing of reasons and will just write. In the last few weeks several police departments have come under scrutiny for their use of tasers on civilians who are breaking the law and not obeying the orders of these officers. Sadly, I am on the side of the police officers in each of the big three news stories. Each story is completely unique, so I’m going to dissect each one, and why I am on the side of the cops. I am going to go chronologically in the order they were reported, not necessarily the order they actually happened.
The first story was about a 56 year-old grandma. . . . in a wheelchair. . . . . who happened to be schizophrenic . . . . . and was in her sisters lawn . . . with two knives . . . . yeah, she was threatening her sister to the point that she called the cops. So the police arrive with 2 cars, 4 people. They surround her, try to restrain her and can’t do it without risking getting sliced up. So they tased her. Unfortunately, she has a pre-existing heart condition that they don’t know about and the tasing, while not knocking her out, ended up killing her by causing her heart to fail.
Here is why I am on the side of the law. This is a lose-lose situation for them. Either they physically harm the threatening person, and risk getting sued by hurting them, or they don’t restrain the violent person and somebody gets hurt . . . . and then they get sued for neglect.
Seriously, if you call the cops to remove a violent person from being in your vicinity, you can’t complain when they do it effectively and keep you safe. Even more so in the case of your knife-wielding, violent, head-case of a sister who, in all fairness, was going to die sooner rather than later. Honestly, this kind of smells like a set up to me. The family probably knew what the cops would do, knew about the heart problem, and said, let’s see if we can get rich quick. They even had a lawyer filing paperwork before the autopsy was completed. This is why stupid people ruin the world for the rest of us. This is what happens when you don’t tell the cops your knife-wielding, wheelchair-ridden, crazy sister has a heart condition. I am against suing people who did their job right.
The second story was the jackass college student who verbally accosted Senator John Kerry at the end of a Q & A session on a Florida campus. You know the headline “Don’t Tase Me Bro”, yeah, this is the one. He asked him a ludicrous question, which Senator Kerry was going to answer. However, instead of calmly waiting for the answer, the kid became combative, cutting Senator Kerry off, raising his voice, and, in general, ranting at him the way you rant at the person who just cut you off during rush hour. So the police ask him to step away from the mic; the kid refuses and keeps yelling at Senator Kerry while the Senator tries to calm the crowd (which was weird, because usually his voice puts people to sleep).
In any case, after “failing to comply with a lawful order” and being warned multiple times of what they will do to him if he continues down this path, the police began to physically remove him from the premises. So what does this Birkenstock-wearing, collar-popping, hippy do (that isn’t an exaggeration, look at his picture in the link at the end of the blog)? He fights back and physically tries to keep the police from touching him, and that’s a big no-no.
Despite his pleas, and the ever-quotable “don’t tase me bro”, he gets tased several times. Still, he keeps pushing back and resisting their efforts to get him out of the room. Regardless, I’ve used the word resisting several times for this one, and that is important. When the police tell you to do something, and you don’t, you are breaking the law. Now, I don’t think the kid should’ve been tasered. He wasn’t physically threatening anybody, he was just a pain in the ass who needed a lesson. Still, if you don’t listen to the cops, you are going to get something you don’t want. Be it a ticket, some handcuffs and a squad car ride, or being tasered six or seven times for five seconds a pop.
The third and final story is probably the funniest. A drunk girl gets belligerent at a bar. The cops are called to remove her. She resists, runs away, hides in a car that isn’t hers (behind the steering wheel no less), gets caught, and runs again. On the second running, the cops tased her, because, by Ohio state law, if you are drunk and in the drivers seat, you are driving drunk, even without keys. Still, so she gets tasered and writhes in pain on the ground in full view of the cop cars video camera (it makes sense that she is in pain, you are being filled with volts of electricity, not taking a bubble bath). This is where it gets good. They put her in the back of the cop car, she is on soooo much crap that she kicks the window out between her and the cop, so he has to tase her some more. He calls to get a car with a cage, and she is still fighting, and when being moved from one car to the next, tries to escape again. More tasering ensues. In any case, she gets arrested, taken downtown, booked, etc….
This story happened over a month ago, and now that she sees the other people getting tasered and the people in New York suing the cops, she is going to sue. This is the final lesson in dealing with the police. If you are drunk in front of the cops, don’t run, fight off every tough person urge and bit of paranoia in your body to just sit still. Typically, they just take you to detox and a friend can get you, or you get out in the morning. Seriously, she went from being asked to leave a bar for being drunk and belligerent, to probably going to jail, or at least being put on probation.
The reason these stories are important is that they bring to light the fact that the taser, with all of its minor electrocution fun, is the billy club of the 21st century. In the days of old, each of these people would’ve taken a lump or two to the head, chest, or legs, been restrained, and it would’ve been over-with. Now, the nightstick is too blunt, too violent, and possibly too easy to permanently hurt somebody. So we’ve moved beyond it into transportable electrocution. And you know what, I couldn’t be happier. Anything that punishes people in a temporary way for being idiots and wasting the time of the police is great by me.
So enjoy your tax dollars at work people, watch somebody get tased the next night you are out on the town at closing time. And don’t forget to applaud your officer for his efficient use of a new technology. Read the articles, see if you agree with me.
http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20070918/NEWS/709180325/1007/NEWS
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/louisville-ky/TQQJPOC013NVKSPG4
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