Police Use Tazer On Women who is 8 months pregnant

Police Use Tazer On Women who is 8 months pregnant

www.wftv.com

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- An Alachua County deputy is under investigation for using his taser on a pregnant woman.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I almost do not even know what to say. The cop claims he couldn't tell if she was pregnant. I first saw this story on CNN around 5am EST....a very very quick story. You could tell she was obviously very pregnant, she was as huge as a house as well she should be at 8 months along. I am very curious if race played a factor. I will try to find more on this subject.

www.wftv.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

edited to add: It was report on CNN that she also had to be hospitalized before being booked into the jail due to contractions from being tazed. He got her twice, once in the shoulder and once directly on the stomach.

[edit on 31/8/2007 by section8citizen]

I seriously had it with the tazer guns. I remember that when they were introduce their use by law enforcement officials, it was as a non lethal weapon, it seems to me that I hear now a weekly story about someone dying because police use of it.

And they always have an excuse to defend their actions, I have heard from : " We didn't knew that he had a heart condition" to " He wasn't compliant so we had to taze him 5 times", obviously is a lethal weapon if it is used improperly or in unknow circumstances, just take it out, get rid of it, and make them do police work in the old fashion way.

The more weapons you put in hands of an law enforcement officer the less he going to think about the steps of proper use of force.

Just get rid of it.


[edit on 31-8-2007 by Bunch]

when they didnt have tazers everyone was complaining that people were being improperly shot.....if you give them something weaker...there will be complaints that the cops use it too much........


p.s does anyone have a link with more than that she was tazed and the guy's under investigation?

[edit on 31-8-2007 by wenfieldsecret]

reply to post by wenfieldsecret


There is way of use force, there is guidelines, procedures and the like, the thing is that, even myself that I'm military receive training in the proper use of force, there are 5 steps and trust me if you have to shoot someone even at war, you better have a damn good reason for it. The Rambo stuff just does not fly anymore.

Too many weapons to choose for it seems to me right now in the hands of law enforcement officers. Is not about people getting shot or getting tazed is about giving them the proper training and having them following the proper guidelines.

Less weapons more training.

What a sad state of affairs. However, there is a big message here. Don't mix it up with the police.

Second message... I'd rather be hit with a taser than with a slug from a 45.

i know that there are steps to what level of force you are allowed and in most cases it's only force of equal or lesser value....(i like the term for trade ins)....however, i dont know if he had already tried to step in and stop the fight....or what all had happened.....

due ot my location i cant watch video links....which is what cnn has.....and the link here says that he tazed a pregnant woman and he's under investigation.....

Originally posted by wenfieldsecret
p.s does anyone have a link with more than that she was tazed and the guy's under investigation?

[edit on 31-8-2007 by wenfieldsecret]

Like I said on my original post, I will try to find more on this story. Sorry but I wanted to take a shower first, but nothing stops you from researching it yourself. You basically have the same info I have thus far.

More links?

WCJB TV-20 I think this one also includes a video story.

Gainesville Sun

Tampa 10

Palmetto Cops

Still a new story and not all the details are out yet. If I find more I will post it.

Florida seems to be a hotbed for the Bad tazer PR. They seem to be cruel and unusual...

reply to post by section8citizen


thanks i cant research as well as i'd like too....i have limited internet access.....

if she was an obese woman i would understand....i have seen women before it was hard to tell they were pregnant.....

You have got to be kidding me... Eight months pregnant and he couldn't tell? That's about the most absurd thing I've ever heard in my entire life. All he had to do was look at the woman and he would've had a pretty good idea that she was pregnant.

Gainsville Sun
Forgey said there are no known health concerns associated with using a Taser on a pregnant woman.

So electrocuting a pregnant woman and her unborn baby is perfectly safe.... I hope the baby wasn't hurt due to the officer having an itchy trigger finger on that taser.

Some really interesting comments on this thread and I thank you all for insights. In reading everyone's posts I began to wonder if indeed there have been any real injuries or deaths as a result of this "non lethal weapon". Personally I have never heard of anything serious until this case (pregnant and going into contractions due to taser) so I began to look around and apparently it has been a discussed issue for a few years at least. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Taser Concerns grow as death and injuries mount

Another Taser death case in TX

This was interesting At first I thought I would be fair and present the other side as well, but oops...this guy worked for Taser Intl!

Death by Taser Source is questionable.

Seattlepi This one will provide links looking at taser deaths in Seattle as well as around the country.

Seems like a lot of these are from 2005, if I find anything more recent I will post it.

Originally posted by wenfieldsecret
reply to post by section8citizen

 

thanks i cant research as well as i'd like too....i have limited internet access.....

if she was an obese woman i would understand....i have seen women before it was hard to tell they were pregnant.....

Like I said I originally caught this story on CNN Headline News around 5am EST oor so. I understand what you are saying, I too have seen women who are pregnant and I never would have known if they didn't tell me. In this case, no! I saw the interview with the women and she is OBVIOUSLY pregnant. Seriously, Stevie Wonder could have seen it. Also one must keep in mind she was tased not once, but twice and one shot was directly to the stomach. Yet he claims he didn't know? You can not touch a very big belly like this women had (and she is kinda petite) and NOT know. Either this guy is a complete idiot or he knew and did not care. The fact that he hit her twice tells me it is the latter.

redply to post by wenfieldsecret


Your arguement further proves my point. Is a judgement call and may be if the officer did not had a tazer he would deal with the matter differently, now what I want to know is, how a male officer gets so intimidated by a women that he feel the need to use a tazer.

To me it seems like they give tazer now to officers and instead of training them they go like: " Here is you stun gun, if anyone gets rowdy use it", obviously and I hope that's not the case, but to many of this incidents happening since it was brought to use, to make me think is not serving the purpose that it was thought initially.

to section8

if it was super obvious then i can not defend him....i cant watch streaming videos or download anything so i havent seen the picture.....

to bunch

people do misuse it.....but if you take it away, they'll only have three options....fist, club, or gun.....and as a previous poster has said....i'd take getting tazed over being shot anyday.....


p.s. i found a picture....it is extremly obvious she's pregnant......

[edit on 31-8-2007 by wenfieldsecret]

Is the baby ok?

I didnt see any reference to that anywhere.


Lukily I know for now, emphasis on the for now that this wouldnt occur in my country. If it did the police officer would be suspended from the police force.


I hope the police officer is charged with something or at least repremanded and demoted.


Please keep us updated on this. It is a worrying sign if this is swept under the carpet.

Well .. would you folks have rather the deputy just went right to his pistol or baton? Its also very simple; dont want to be attacked by the cops then do exactly as the agent/deputy/officer/trooper says and if what the officer is saying/doing is wrong then fight him/her in court.

I dont know how it is in other areas but where I live (Suffolk County, NY) only first line supervisors (sergeants and lieutenants) and officers/deputies assigned to the Emergency Services Unit of the county police department or the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team are issued tasers and they can only be used under the same use of force guidelines that exist for shooting people with live ammo as an alternative to having to use deadly force. As for the town and village police ... they are only just beginning to advance into the 1990s in terms of technology so I am not sure if they have tasers.

Less weapons more training.

Basically your saying we should go back to the old days of nothing more then a pistol, a baton and handcuffs? No mace, tasers, tear gas, etc?

[edit on 31-8-2007 by ChrisF231]

I saw this story on the news. The pregnant woman was trying to break up a fight between two people and when the cop tried to intervene, she tried to hit the officer so he had to use the tazer on her. I can see how in the middle of a brawl, that it would not be obvious that someone was pregnant. Why in the hell would a pregnant woman be in the middle of a fight between other people anyway?? I'm believing the cop's side of the story.

Geez, stories like this make me think that people are just starting to turn into wimps. Not on the fact that the woman got tazed, I think thats deplorable. But on the reason that the officer stated for why he tazed her, he felt that she was going to hit him!
Now, if that was me, and the woman was had a petite structure, as section8citizen pointed out, I would be willing to take a few swings that I would attempt to block and get out of the way before I resorted to using such force.

Really, are some members of the police force such pansies that they're not willing to take a good swing? I'd think most officers would rather face that then some of the things metropolitan police have to deal with. I say some members because I know there are good police officers out there, but it seems the training and adherence to proper procedure should weed out dumb asses like this.

Just kind of makes me mad and I agree with the removal of tasers from the general arsenal. Keep them around for riot and crowd control, but not for general patrol.

reply to post by ChrisF231


My points is that law enforcement should be train and retrain on how to go about the proper steps of using force.

There is to many facts that have not come out in this particular case but the bottom line is that it all comes down to judgement call from the part of the officers, now there is no way to predict how a particular agent is going to react to a situation, that's the flaw with this weapon, it only less than 1 amp for a person to go into cardiac arrest. It should be use as a gun, as a last resort, if the officer feel the need to put someone on a tazer is basically the same in some cases to pull the gun out.

Now I would check for info on this equipment to see how they operate, I will come back with my findings.

One death is too many when they advertise this equipment as non lethal.