Grandmother Tasered at Traffic Stop

Stories about bad cops always make me sad, I have had a couple bad experiences myself. If you think about it a cop pulling up behind you should make you feel safe and protected, but no one I know ever feels anything even close to safe around police that's how far its gone and how backward we have become. In fact I felt safer going into poor high crime areas late at night as a pizza delivery driver than I felt around a bunch of cops who I knew would try to extort me out of some free pizza knowing a ticket could make me lose my job. What has our society become

Please, make your community strong so abuses like this should not happen. Ask for more critical voting so issues that re-occur will lead to a termination of office. Please ask how local democratic goverment collect thier concentsious. Ask your local goverment to allow responsiable collection of facts and opinions. Please keep religeon, science and deseption sperate. Please dont let the consitution read for the business by the business of the business. The retainers of these fine states are there for the money. Dont make we the people sound like a joke. Is a civil war more preferable than equality? Do you really want to see people die over monitary value? Do you want newly pledge citizens who see this system work and take that pledge with a smile and act the way our representives do? Because it seems to be an act dosent it. The same issues over and over with only small shifts to keep you your children involved in nothing
influential. Just imagine if we enforced monopoly laws again. Premoted equality among the people Small business is the foudation of our economy
and yet thier is still no free trade in america. The south seems to of never died. You stop to point at this issue and ask why? But you knew why and how because you watched injustice occur and did nothing you are one year farther and supporting yourslef only. Just another foudation of abuse and your congressman will spend days on this issue. Guess what will be enforced. Nothing new, just another reason to delay civil issues. As a voter you let business take controll of every esential vote and you are handed your american idol results from the vacating applicants party.
I dont know what to ask of anyone to let them know how critical today is
but we can see the turn around of America and find sovernty as a Nation once again.

This story is appalling.

I feel the same way that many of you do.

It seems that far too many police are just hauling these out far too often.

We've had a taser in the last few hours, here in Canada.

A 55 year old woman was tasered.

Distraught woman gets tasered

She was wielding a bloody knife though, not wielding her voice like the poor old Jewish gal who didn't deserve a tasering.

Originally posted by SvenTheBerserK
is there a procedure they have to go through

That thought caught my eye.

I'm pretty sure that any time a L.E.O. shoots a suspect with his sidearm, they are put on leave until an investigation of their actions has taken place. Does the same happen if they only use a taser on a suspect? Any L.E.O.'s here who could give us a clue as to what goes on in that case?

I understand their use as a less-lethal option, but less-lethal doesn't mean non-lethal.

reply to post by chiron613


It is not just this one story, it is this one story along with many others.

reply to post by XcLuciFer


This is one of the things that angers me. If that 15 yr old girls father had thrown her, slammed her into the wall, punched her, and drug her around by the hair like that cop did, he would have been charged with child abuse and more, no matter what the reason even if she had attacked him first. Child Services would have been called in, and he would have most likely lost his parental rights, but when a cop does it, it's ok. It's this menatlity that the cops are somehow above the laws that they are supposed to uphold.

reply to post by chiron613

.......but what about pepper spray in her hand, moving to spray the cop? Then a tasering would be completely justified.

If she had in fact attempted to spray the cop with pepper spray, then yes i would say that he had to defend himself from that. However if that were the case, or if she had a weapon the police department would have already stated that. All they said is that she became violent, any cop worth his salt should be able to control an unarmed 72 yr old woman without using a taser, plain and simple it was excessive force.

But almost none of them resorts to unreasonable violence.

That's the problem, more and more of them are becoming so desensitized to tasers and their use that they don't view the use of a taser as being violent at all.

Despite their reputation, almost all police are decent, responsible people trying to do a thankless, impossible job.

IMO if that were true, then they would not tolerate bad cops on the force, they would be turning in the bad cops and cleaning up the force.

Question:

Why are so many of you so quick to judge this police officer as guilty? Some of you even said innocent until proven guilty, correct?

That goes both ways.

I admit I work for law enforcement and probably am biased. I am a detention officer after all. But, I think I have an open mind towards this: If this police officer really did something wrong, fire him!

However, if he did his job according to SOP and this lady was indeed acting up, I hope he gets commended.

We were not there. Most anyone here is speaking on emotion and not logic nor common sense.

There is not a day that goes by when I do not see someone in the law enforcement community either get attacked, spit upon, cursed, lied to or whatnot.

I have seen coworkers go to the hospital because they were attacked. My family as well as I has been threatened. My sexuality was questioned, was told what a loser in life I am, my mom's a whore and dad’s worthless..... After said threat by the individual I fed him, allowed him out to shower and gave him his mail and commissary. I was then asked to do another 8 hours for a total of 16 hours at work in a day.

This was not just one isolated incident. This happens all the time.

With the added stress you have at the job handling inmates, you have to walk a fine line. You're supposed to be a robot and have no feelings. Problem is we’re all humans.

You can do 100 good things.. give someone a special call, grant them back commissary, give someone an insightful talk to encourage them a better way of life etc etc etc... yet screw up once, you're fired.

You're supposed to be perfect. Problem is no one is. If anyone here can say they are perfect, prove it to me. Otherwise, think twice about your post. You're just making a fool of yourself.

I don't endorse a bad cop. If this cop is bad, I hope he's gone. At the same token, just as the majority here are saying this lady is innocent, encourage the cop as well. That means be equal to both sides.

Exactly folks. When I do occasionally see the flashing in the rear view mirror. I have zero fear of getting a speeding ticket. I have before, insurance goes up a little...so freaking what.

It is a fear that is justified in that 8-10 times I have ever been pulled over in what is something minor the officer tries to make the situation progress into something that is serious. As a teenager one pulled me over for "noise ordinance violation" for having my stereo too loud in the vehicle.

I apologized and understood the violation. He proceeded to take his night stick and punched my stereo breaking it while cursing at me. He was doing his best in an attempt for me to fight with him. Instead I looked at him all shocked and said, "Well that was mean." He cursed some more and gave me the ticket. The judge's ruling on the case was that I was a lying teenager.


My dad called the police to report a small child playing the street when he went out with my mom and her Biddie friends. He had just gotten out of the hospital for open heart surgery a few weeks before. The officer accused my elderly father of being a child molester. His whole response was trying to intimidate my dad into fighting with him.

His exact question was, "Why are you concerned about this little N (racist word). His entire line of questioning centered around making embarrassing accusations of child molestation in front of their friends, colleagues, etc. . He threatened to taser him and arrest him as a child molester. My mother tried to talk the officer down and he threatened to shoot her.

Meanwhile the small child wandered off around the corner walking in the middle of the street. He instructed my parents to leave the area which they did.

One of the funniest events was being in an electronics store buying a name brand stereo. I was checking them out when an officer on duty (apparently shopping himself) grabbed my arm and told me to stop turning the sound up. I told him I was buying a stereo and wanted to see how they sound. He kept bugging me and following me around the store. I called the manager out and told her that I would like to shop if this cop would quit harassing me. She threw him out of the store and banned him from the premises. On the way out he threatened to "Get me".

That is the point though. A lot of officers attempt to escalate simple situations and try to stir events to make them much more complicated and violent. Good cops, yeah some and even have relatives as cops. Bad cops, you bet and they are supreme behinds.

Tasering a 72 yo woman is uncalled for. But, heck they taser small children too and people in wheelchairs. It doesn't matter to them.


Here are some local cop madness for fun.
Officers drag racing new police cruiser without insurance total it. Order new cruiser on taxpayer expense (poor town too!)

Officer is caught with 15 pit bulls emaciated in his back yard. His punishment is sitting in a cell for 1/2 hour, still an officer.

Officer has 50 calls from his wife to the police due to beatings. She is dismissed and finally moves away. Wins millions in a lawsuit against the small town. Officer is fired and rehired one town over. Drunk on duty and runs over a crossing guard and three children. Gets several months in jail because it was an accident. Gets fired, gets hired one city over.

Belligerent crippled man refuses to turn down his radio. Officers take him inside his home and shoot him. Officers claim they thought he pulled out a gun and pointed at them. His gun was his cane for walking. Changed story when that wasn't working.The next was the crippled man lifted the cane over his head and tried to strike them. His doctor testified that the man could not raise his hands over waist level due to spinal cord injury. He also could not point the cane at them because he would not be able to stand without it. Officers let free because they "thought their life was in danger". Crippled man was found dead with a gunshot to the face and boot marks over his body.

Sheriff gets busted for using prisoners as his own work crew. He was hiring out the prisoners to do landscaping and other odd jobs (even prostitution). All the money earned went to his pocket. Demoted to officer.


Gotta love the south...not lol.












[edit on 4/6/09 by toochaos4u]

reply to post by Midav


Just personally, as a psychiatric nurse, I've seen way too many cops that enjoyed hurting people, that enjoyed shackling people, that hid behind rules and regulations to get their rocks off.

All 'standard operating procedure' does is let agencies hire more idiots that can't make a wise decision for themselves.

I saw them slam a door on the head of a young black girl who's only crime was to go to ER because she was out of phenobarb. When they couldn't direct her i the middle of a seizure, they threw her in the car and broke her skull for it.

I've fired aids that were abusing elderly mental patients, and later had them wave me down in their new police car - they'd become cops.
Two guys I went to HS with used to get the smaller boys at break, pick them up, spread their legs, and run their crotches into poles just for the heck of it - guess what they do now? Both cops.

I personally wouldn't admit that I had anything to do with them, if I did. People are always saying "who would you call if blah blah." Well, someone broke into my friend's house once and pulled a gun on the two of us. I offered him some pizza and called him a cab. I didn't call the cops. Heck, I'm more scared of the cops than some crackhead bozo with a gun.

A lot of times, these cops need to be using nothing more than good communication skills. But a baton and a taser let them be judge, jury, and executioner, and that suits a bully's ego just fine.

[edit on 4-6-2009 by hadriana]

reply to post by hadriana


There are indeed bad cops out there and would never ever deny that. It is a huge responsibility and for some the power gets to their head. I have seen it.

On the flip side, I have seen cops help people. I had one help me change a flat tire a while back. If a person only wants to see the negative in a badge, that is all they will see.

If people are going to generalize, they should walk a mile in the shoes of a cop. It is a stressful job. A shame that cops.. police officers… have the same weakness that you, I and everyone else has.... they're human.

A cop should not be able to do this, if she has a pacemaker, the charge, be it a small, could have stopped it. I mean, if she was really getting violent, which i super highly doubt, and only 72 year old wouldn't be the hardest to restrain without going to violence or tasers!?


[edit on 4-6-2009 by danzi]

The following assumes she resisted arrest,
Playing devils advocate on this one for a change lol.

It was safer to taser her than physically restrain her due to her age.

If she did put up a struggle at that age bruises can easily occur with even slight pressure making it appear as if she was physically assaulted not to mention at her age bones are very frail extended resistance by her, assuming the cops use the standard holds and restraints could break or fracture a bone/bones at that age. Chances are she's lucky they just tasered her had they struggled with her at her age she would be in a lot more discomfort right now.

Granite falling to the ground can do all the same things but she then can't claim battery by the officer.

Just imagine the officer dropping her to the ground because she's struggling, standard knee to the back, hand over the neck, breaking her spine in 2 places maybe killing her or restricting her airway causing her to suffocate or a rib breaking and puncturing her lung.

Originally posted by Midav
reply to post by hadriana

 

There are indeed bad cops out there and would never ever deny that. It is a huge responsibility and for some the power gets to their head. I have seen it.

On the flip side, I have seen cops help people. I had one help me change a flat tire a while back. If a person only wants to see the negative in a badge, that is all they will see.

If people are going to generalize, they should walk a mile in the shoes of a cop. It is a stressful job. A shame that cops.. police officers… have the same weakness that you, I and everyone else has.... they're human.

big deal a cop did his job without an attitude and helped you fix your tire lol that was nice of him acting like a normal human being lol. I have known many cops and the most of them are little men with a napoleon complexes, low self esteem, insecure, wife beaters who cover for eachother all the time. This is the problem when someone insecure gets abit of power there hole image of themselfs would fall apart if and when they lose there jobs. thats why thay still rep all this pd stuff when its got nothing to do with them anymore. It takes real balls to run across a road and get your diggs into someone on the ground held by 5 other vertically challenged officers or pull out your tazer a shoot someone with it ,not because he's being violent but because he see's you for what you are a ahole on a power trip.
To be perfectly honest i have had jobs of a keeping the peace nature and have worked in more stressfull jobs than a mere dumbass beat cop and i have never ever beat a man with 5 other bubbys to back me up ,i have never tazed someone because i was imtimadated by him .

And most importantly i have never turned a blind eye to anyone, even a buddy or buddys beating a man 5 on 1 odds or hurting someone because of my own personal issues and inadiquicies. That isnt loyalty that's cowardice.
But anyone with real courage would know this inherently. I hate these aholes

Street or Loyalty isnt an excuse

Why don't cops, for once, ever ask the psychiatric profession how they handle violent, abusive, noncompliant people without weapons?

I really think that would help - if cops would spend a bit of time learning just how far good communication skills can go!

I don't know how many times I've had to make a 6' tall big male patient do something he didn't want to, and he was already psychotic, and I've stood there agreeing with him. "Yes, it sucks. I understand you're upset. You were driving before I even got out of diapers. It's just the law. I don't always like it either, I can tell your a nice woman. It would be my luck the one time I sped I'd get caught too.... You want to take a minute to think? We do need to get this signed though, you can contest it in court if you like, this is just saying you acknowledge that I gave it to you, not that you are guilty...." (Well that was usually the case when WE had to get someone to sign by law, it was more a receipt statment than a guilt statement."

I mean really...honey will get you SO much further, just being sympathetic. Yes, it works with 72 year old dementia patients, it works with 28 year olds stung out on drugs.

I just always, always tried to remember that NO one really wants to be hated, no one WANTS to get in trouble, people (even people that do awful things) want to think they are good, that someone understands.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

It is really that simple. It kept me from getting hit bad or otherwise hurt for 15 years. I got rushed and smooched once by a wet crazy hispanic lady with post partum depression, but that's the worst I ever had happen. I saw a lot of techs and nurses with less careful communication get hurt bad and some even a set of fingers bitten off.

Inpatient state forensic psychiatric care is a very dangerous profession, I just think the cops could really learn something from the workers. Especially when it comes to dealing with mad old people.

reply to post by Insubordinate Soul


That quote was not by me - someone else said that. I've never seen a cop do anything good in my life. I hate that, but it is true. I had one tell me to 'go buy a map lady' once when I simply asked for directions.

This whole thing gets my dander up. I would not say a cop has an easy job. I would not say that it isn't dangerous.

A lot of people have dangerous, difficult jobs, and there is a lot less tolerance for incompetence.

If an airline pilot screws up, a LOT of people can die. Why don't we hear stories EVERY DAY about how bad THEY are screwing up?

There were a lot of things wrong with this incident in my opinion.

1. Why did the 'officer' engage the elderly woman alone? He should have called a woman officer if the situation was going to get physical in any way.

2. Why did he not use any methods other than violence? Write the ticket, say 'thank you very much' and go about your business. Move on to the next 'perp.'

3. If he wasn't willing to restrain her physically, out of perhaps fear for her safety, why taze an old woman without knowing of any pre-existing conditions that could lead to her death when tazed?

4. Could it EVER be ok for a strapping. supposedly physically fit SERVANT of the people to shoot high voltage electricity into the body of someone's grandmother, or mother? What about their kids?

It angers me to read 'well, she didn't die or have any damage because of it.' Well woopty friggin doo. You got lucky this time.

Many, many others have not been so lucky. EVERY DAY we get to read about someone dying from this 'non-lethal' means of enforcing the will of an officer on the person paying their wages.

I don't think there are very many people in the WORLD that trust cops. I think they are seen as extensions of a corrupt system.

Right or wrong, it doesn't matter to me. I know some cops that I trust and I know some that I don't.

In an episode of the Jetsons a long time ago, George got stopped and the judge was brought up on a video link, justice was dispensed immediately, by the JUDGE, NOT the cop. I think too many cops think they are the judge. If there is no oversight, and it's always their word against the poor scmuck that got tazed, beaten, harrassed or killed, then there will be no justice.

Criminals deserve to serve their time. It doesn't matter wether they were wearing a badge or not when they committed it.

Screw the dash cam. Wire the cops with COMPLETE video coverage. Headcams. If they somehow go off for a few seconds, fire the cop. Absolutley NO TOLERANCE for abuse of power and a highly armed, armoured and combat trained individual running willy nilly doing as THEY please.

Here's another idea. Stop pulling over little old ladies. Take a video, send her a ticket in the mail. Move on to something worthy of the effort. Stop all the drug trafficking yet, officer?

reply to post by Insubordinate Soul


If a person only wants to see the negative in a badge, that is all they will see.

Thank you for reinforcing what I said. I already have a reply, even if you don't agree with it.

You must be a rare gem that you can have an even more stressful job yet remain calm compared to a dumbass beat cop as you have said.

I like the internet because, oddly, I meet such rare gems every single day.

reply to post by Midav


see this is what im talking about lol are you an ex-cop lol ? ever see or hear of your buddys beat someone or abuse their power???? .... of course you did. Any of your buddys beat their wifes or assault some kid or make a falsehood or mislead on a report of course you did lol. The most common one is i didnt see anything or i just got on seen. Dude as i said i know cops im not looking at this from the outside ,i have fam in the cops from special armed task forces to Detective Sergeant. actually i think he got promoted again so highter than Detective Sergeant lol.

And yes i am a rare gem and have had (many) even more stressful jobs and yet remained calm compared to a dumbass beat cop Im tryed and tested man but this isnt about me its about some scumbag coward who tasered a very old woman. Ill Tell you something man ,if that was my mother or grandmotrher no law or lesser person would stop me grievously hurting that little man it would be the last time he could squeeze a taser trigger.

Let's review the article.

She was speeding.

She exited her vehicle... That's bad

She was swearing and got violent. If that's true, what should the police officer have done?

1.) Get physical. Force her to the ground and cuff her.
2.) Use his baton
3.) Taser
4.) Lethal force.

Clearly, the officer's life was not threatened so number 4 is out.

Throwing a 72 year old woman to the ground is likely to injure her.
Clubbing her with a baton is likely to injure her.

Taser may or may not injure her.

So, what should the officer do?