Video: Oklahoma Police Officer Uses Taser on Handcuffed Woman

Originally posted by 31Bravo

so he did exactly what he allowed to do as an LEO.

The lawsuit will determine if he was allowed to do that and when they lose the suit the taxpayers will have to pay.

Originally posted by 31Bravo

Spit in the face is no joke because there are some nasty germs out there

you can use that as your defense right before the judge finds you guilty and throws you in jail.

Originally posted by kaptabs
This is a double edged sword for me.

I agree that being spit on is just foul, its a seriously vile act from people who frankly you would rather not touch let alone be covered in their personal fluid. I don't know one person of decent standing who would resort to balling spittle in order to launch it on or at another human being. Its absolutely filthy.

However, there are so many ways of handling this situation without flooding someone with a highly dangerous flow of electric shocks. And LEO's (or whatever you like to call Police Officers) must be trained to manage these types of situations by any OTHER means before the use of a tazer becomes even a possible plan of action.

This has now become a chicken and egg issue for me though ultimately.

If people had more respect for the job these Police Officers have to do then they would (you would hope) not feel the need or desire to spit on them in the first place. BUT the only people who can help change the opinion of Joe Public about Police Officers is the Police themselves by showing restraint and taking actions that highlight their interest in Public Safety and Fair Play in regards to the law all round.

While Police Officers continue to show no regard for the public or seem able and willing to circumnavigate moral and ethical laws that come attached to administrative law, the more likely that the unsavoury factions of the public are going to be hostile to begin with.

And, don't get me started on how much easier this whole thing would be if alcohol was discontinued as the accepted social drug. Next to coc aine (the use of which displays heightened arrogance as opposed to actual aggression anyhow), alcohol is easily the most violence-inducing within the typical drug pallet. Someone who had been relaxing all night with a bong would likely not dream about spitting on a person of temporary authority.

Just my two cents. Tired of this crap now.

edit on 1-12-2012 by kaptabs because: (no reason given)

I don`t see any chicken or egg here, you can`t demand respect you have to earn it and every time the tax payers read a story like this they lose a little more respect for the police.

She CLEARLY spit on him. Would a punch to the face have been more appropriate? The video is less than 30 seconds long, has no audio, and doesn't show the full story. With no audio, if he had tackled her or took any other action people would be screaming "police brutality"....to sum it up, if you SPIT on a cop, I don't care if you're handcuffed or not, it's not going to end well for you

reply to post by Tardacus

How many times do I have to say it? Even a civilian fight is justified if someone is defending themselves. The judge will more than likely find the officer in the right.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed

Man....that's just wrong.

No no, don't taser anyone handcuffed officer.

In a totally unrelated incident, a Cleveland bus driver uppercuts a passenger for spitting on him;


What do guys&gals think about his use of force?
It looks like he really lays her out Tyson style....

I often feel people go overboard with police "brutality." They are actually fairly lenient in favor of an officer who tases a suspect. If a suspect is considered a danger to themselves, others, they feel they have no control over their actions, if there is the potential they might flee and be a danger to themselves or others, etc., they may well be able to tase without repercussion.

Spitting on someone is a hazard.. but not much of a hazard, to be honest. If this person had say, HIV, and spit at the officer, and it either got into his mouth, eyes or nose, or in an open wound, the chance of his contracting HIV would be 1 in 1000. So.. not massive odds. But then.. do you think it's fair the officer has to take that chance due to a drunken woman?

He went overboard imo.. the spitting deed was already done. I'd have tried to restrain her further or put her in a holding cell until she calmed down. Had she tried it a second time.. then tase away I say.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Hence, why we have jails in the first place.

I generally agree with the sentiments you express in this thread. I do think there's one thing you overlooked though, and it's at the beginning of this post, here:

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
reply to post by Rikku

 

You are right, she should not have spat on him, but she was a drunken civilian. Officers of the law are held to a higher standard of behavior due to the authority they possess. With the badge comes responsibilities.

I have seen you in other police brutality threads trying to portray it as if the victim deserved their abuse and you add something like "I hope it taught them a lesson".

This mentality of yours lacks logic and compassion in my opinion.

edit on 11/29/2012 by Corruption Exposed because: (no reason given)

You see, the officer was drunk as well. Power can be quite intoxicating. Many cops are addicted to some mix of "power" and adrenaline. Maybe a shot or two of righteous anger for good measure. And for those of you who doubt it, or think I'm speaking metaphorically, perhaps you should do some reading about how many psychological and emotional states can, themselves, become addictive.

Police apologists are about as ridiculous as their hateful "got what they deserved" type comments. IMO most of these people are real cops and wannabe cops, and most of the rest are probably brainwashed Fox viewers. If you pay attention to discussions like these, they can rarely "win" an argument with logic and reason. Instead they rely heavily on (biased and poorly formed) opinion.

One great site to read about (and witness) police abuses is www.copblock.org

If you want to see a great example of not only police abuse, but mindless police-apologism, take a look at this post (and its comments):

www.copblock.org...

If you read at copblock enough, you can tell which members *cough*commonsense*cough* will stick up for the cops no matter what. Some people are just like that. Deep desire to get a pat on the head and a cookie for supporting the authorities. Quite similar to some of the "apple polishers" you may remember from school. I guess some might say it's the same at this site.

I really hope this cop gets what he deserves, and learns a hard and painful lesson.

reply to post by Tardacus


I understand that you want this to be clear cut, I do too. In fact, to us it usually is; Way too exessive.

But I feel you are being facetious to be facetious here?

Police have lost the public's respect/trust with bad press for a number of years now. The Public treat Police with distain, while the Police train to use force when threatened although with apparent shade of grey regarding where the line is drawn. Police academies and training are completed faster than ever before andh new enrolees less scrutinised. Young Policemen, grown up in an untrusting world post 9/11, are easily irritated/flustered when Public show distain/resistance and during this collision we are seeing an increased use of over the top force used by the Police. The Public is further dismayed and any trust/respect left is running thin. This increased resistance and lack of respect further irritates the Police and now the entire force appears to close ranks. New laws are passed increasing the number of acceptable actions for everyday Policemen while said laws also create feelings of increased power but decreased accountability. Police aggression is now somewhat justified in-house and most often trigger happy Policemen face suspensions at best, following an inquiry. In all the confusion the new breed of Policeman becomes convinced the Public is a dangerous enemy forgetting circumstance while the Public now believe the Police are entirely unjust.

Start the cycle again but from a much worse starting point.

There are many chickens and many eggs chasing each other round asking the same questions.

Although, NO, this does not excuse excessive behaviour.

reply to post by 31Bravo


Tasing a handcuffed perp inside a police station when there's a half a dozen other police officers at a hands reach is not protocol. I'm not def defending her at all, just so you know, she' in the wrong and she's in handcuffs for a reason. But police are held...well, should be held at a higher standard. They should be able to keep cool under presure and not jump the gun....literally. But unfortunately, this happens more and more. Is it in their training, dehumanizing people as to be able to take them down more easily? I don't know. I will know soon enough, my nephew is becoming a cop. I 'll have a bunch of questions to ask him.

I would rather be punched then spat on. Not because of potential viruses, because its degrading. I agree that the tazer is over the top, I hate to see people convulsing in pain, loosing control, its frightening to watch.
The Officer reacts without hesitation, which leads me to believe it was something he was looking forward to using. This is very disappointing. The right thing to do ; wipe spit off face , and put a shield on her.
I retract all previous statements on the topic...

If the cop was worried about saliva and disease, the best thing to do is to taze someone causing them to spit saliva out of their mouth involuntarily?

Dumb ass cop IMO.

Originally posted by SmikeS

Originally posted by LadyGreenEyes

Originally posted by SmikeS
Evidently the tazer barbs are to be removed by an RN

I didn't see any barbs.

From the OP's link;

Ms Williams doesn't fall to the ground during the attack but her lawyer claims the real damage was done when officers removed the taser's barbs, out of the view of CCTV.
'They sat her down on a bench and yanked them out... they were embedded in her upper-left breast, if you can imagine,' Jeremy Beaver said.

I think she might still have a case, especially if they left a scares on her breast.

Well, possible the video isn't clear, but even if there were barbs, so what? She SPIT on him. There is no call for that sort of behavior, and had I been in his place, my inclination would have been to knock her down. That's flat out nasty. This case just screams of some nasty woman being arrested for a crime (and note, we have not yet heard what she did to get arrested...), then pulling a stunt like spitting, knowing she would be tazed, and subsequently filing a lawsuit, to try and get off for whatever she did in the first place.

I can understand people being wary around the police, because there are some bad apples (as with any other group), but come on; do you automatically trust the criminals?

As an Oklahoma girl, I get it. I've lived here my whole life and while I've never actually done anything that would warrant arrest, jail or anything like that..I've been in fear of cops since I was little. I grew up in a town that has one of the highest crime rates per capita. Even though we were poor growing up and I lived in the worst part of town, I was never afraid of the gangs hurting me, I was afraid of the cops. They tormented me as a teenager, they would search my car for no reason, and find nothing of course but they were skeezy cops that one time brought out a leash and told me the drug dog went off on my car..when there was no dog on the leash. Crazy stuff like that. They brutally pushed my brother into the ground once for having a little bag of weed on him. He had never had an arrest either or even a traffic ticket. One time in my car with my children as an adult, I smoked the clove cigarettes Bali Hais, and the cop accused me of smoking pot and searched my car. He found nothing, but pulled out a joint and said it was in my car. At that point I hadn't so much as even thought of pot since I was a teenager. I was pulled over while taking my daughter to the hospital, and yelled at for not calling an ambulance(even though I lived too far for the ambulance to even make it to my house). I was threatened to have my car taken from me, while I was on the way to pay my tag tax. The cops here are brutes and unless you are known on the political scale of people, or look and dress a certain way, you are treated very badly by the police. They terrorized me and my children so many times my children are afraid of them. I'm not a bad person, and I don't look or dress bad, I guess you could say my style is sorta boho-hippie, I guess they don't like that, once they smacked my beatles sticker on my car while they were searching it for drugs. My husband has a beard, but it's well kept, and I guess we just don't look conservative enough. We get picked on a lot here, so do the minorities. Crime is getting worse though, because they worry too much about the petty crimes than the major ones going on under their noses.

reply to post by Violetshy


Sounds like you have one of those nasty, corrupt police departments. I have heard other stories (personal and news) of entire departments for some towns being that way. I would guess this problem is also in the city officials' offices as well? Sounds like your place needs a major overhaul come election time! Well, suppose they could cheat for that....others certainly have!

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


I just started another thread here about abuse in another Oklahoma Jail:
I Believe in the Justice System; this isn't it.

It has a Reddit link to a whistleblower from another Oklahoma Jail. It seems that inmate abuse isn't something that is a random occurrence.