Grandmother Tasered at Traffic Stop

Grandmother Tasered at Traffic Stop

www.myfoxaustin.com

A 72-year-old woman is pulled over for speeding, then tasered and sent to jail. Kathryn Winkfein says she drives to Austin about twice a month to do her shopping. But on a Monday afternoon, a Travis County Constable deputy pulled her over, on her way back to Granite Schoals.

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This ' Dangerous' speeding 72 year old woman was tasered after refusing to sign a speeding ticket . The officer reported "She was using profanity, then she got violent ". These kind of stories worry me. Our police are being trained That 'It's ok to use these kind of Gestapo tactics without any repercussions (unless they are caught on tape ) .

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

[edit on 1-6-2009 by L.HAMILTON]

[edit on 1-6-2009 by L.HAMILTON]

The cop couldn't subdue a 72 year old woman without the help of a taser? What a wuss! We read about so many of these cases, I've lost all respect for police. Thanks for the post. Star and flag for you.

Quick stop that crazy violent speeding great grandmother before she uses 'the force' and kills someone....

What a weak piece of ..........

He'll probably be sent back to jackboot school for only using a tazer.

A few things here... if a police officer feels physically threatened by a 72 year old woman that officer should be on suspension until they hit the gym for a while.

Secondly and more importantly this is getting out of hand. I am not sure what kind of orders are coming down from the police chiefs but long gone are the days when police officers were part of the community. Jack-boot gestapo thugs will have very bad long term repercussions for the divide amongst the LE and the citizens considering what is coming down the pipe. When LEO start seeing the citizens as the enemy then I feel that is a sign a much larger problem of the entire organization as a whole. Obviously this is becoming wide spread across the country. I hope these officers remember their humanity sooner than later.

[edit on 1-6-2009 by Anonymous Avatar]

I want to see the dash cam to see how it all went down.

If the dash cam doesn't show what the cops says, then the cop should be fired on the spot and charged with assault.

i hate the cops so dam much what is it with little people given a little power over the public. What type of gutless *Snip* insecure scumbag cowardly little *Snip* would do something like that what a frekn hero

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[edit on 6/1/2009 by semperfortis]

reply to post by L.HAMILTON


For cripes sake, these cops are really getting out of hand now ! Any cop that can't subdue a 72 yr old unarmed woman without using his taser has no business bein a cop ! And he tasered her in the chest !!! Geez man he could've given her a heart attack

I hope he has some proof other than his word

If the cop was telling the truth wouldnt they release the dash cam footage to clear things up?

Or is there a procedure they have to go through before any footage is released?

Either way tasers have made police less capable of performing their duty.
What happened to negotiating skills?

How do you even consider yourself a decent person after tazering a 72 year old women for any reason? Really though i remember over a decade ago George Carlin said something like...

*Snip*

The same applies here, i garuntee you i would have no problem apprehending a 72 year old women for something as meager as speeding. This guy has real problems.

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[edit on 6/1/2009 by semperfortis]

Ok let's say I look past the guy not finding some other way to control a 72 year old. Should police even be allowed to taser somebody that old? What if her heart skipped a beat or something like that?

In all honesty since the title said grandmother I thought there was going to be some twist like she was 48 or something. 72? I would be afraid that the electric shock would kill the woman. Should this officer be charged with attempted murder?

I got it, old people are not the best on the road. Some of these older people were around to see the model T main stream. But seriously, he used the taser?

reply to post by L.HAMILTON

I;d ask to see the dashboard tape before I disclaim an old lady getting violent or threatening, they do it plenty and expect to get away with it. I;ve never met a cop that did not have a story to tell or two about old women driving cussing them out, getting abusive or even trying to run their foot over to leave a traffic stop.

Why is everyone bashing all cops for the actions of a few?

This would be the same as bashing, and blaming every "white men" for some "white men" being NAZIS, or bashing and blaming every "black man" for the actions of a few black men, or bashing and blaming "all hispanics" for the actions of a few hispanics....

If ALL COPS were doing this, we would be seeing people being tasered every hour or so.

This cop in specific however should be suspended without pay, if not fired. That is unless the woman was reaching for a gun, or a knife, then i could see why a cop would do this, even to a 72 year old woman, but there is no mention of this in the story.

[edit on 1-6-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

My parents are old, my father is 75 and in bad health with heart problems. If one tasered him, I don't care how many badges he had on, he would have to take a good a$$ whooping. Do these morons have any idea that they can kill these older people with a taser? Especially if they have heart problems.

reply to post by secretagent woooman


I have no drought the woman most likely did something wrong and got violent.

One thing that I was thinking about while writing my post what that he could have been afraid of touching her too much. If you have this irate old lady getting violent you never know what she is going to say if you lay hands on her. He might have ended up in some sexual assault or battery case right now.

I dunno, that could have been running through his mind, I don't know how they are trained. If I was the guy I would rather you be reading about this than either of those.

so, if he couldn't use a taser, what would he have done? Shot her? Use the billy club? tackled her to the ground and arrested her?

I am not one in favor of tasers, they get used too much for any reason what-so-ever. Get rid of them.

another one of these threads???


and another event that has happened and will pass with nothing being changed


going to go on record with this one

i fully believe in NONVIOLENT change

but if i ever witness something like this, and a cops abusing his power

he may have a gun, but we're fist fighting until he shoots me

someone needs to stand up to these "authority" figures and say when enough is enough


actually

what we should all do

is all of us carry our own civilian tasers, and when some jerk cop (not a good cop) but a jerk cop pulls this crap, we dont fist fight, we dont wrestle, no one gets shot, but instead we just taser the cop whos tasering the person

see how he likes it

if that happens to enough cops while they are in these abuse of power situations maybe they will start thinking twice about being jerks and be more willing to try to de-escalate situations rather than doing what they do

Originally posted by theknuckler
so, if he couldn't use a taser, what would he have done? Shot her? Use the billy club? tackled her to the ground and arrested her?

I am not one in favor of tasers, they get used too much for any reason what-so-ever. Get rid of them.

he couldve simply treated her as a human being

try to calm the situation down

especially when its over something like a speeding or traffic ticket

and if the woman really is so psycho or uncontrollable and crazy

he should wait for backup, for more officers or witness to be around


and then detain her properly

no one has to worry about any rape or bs harassment if theres witnesses (or a camera in the patrol car)

no one gets electrocuted

no one abuses power

these are supposed to be trained cops, id bet my life, myself or any number of people i know could de-escalate the situation or if truly necessary, couldve detained her without such excessive use


if its a traffic stop, just simply box in her car and shes going no where


use our gift of language and handle the situation as a human being with compassion

rather then being some power hungry egomaniac

This story reminds me of another story about an 8 year old kid that got tazered for being out of control...

Tazer usage is way out of control. I mean we are talking about tazering people to weak to defend themselves. Anyone in prime health should be able to handle unruly youth and elderly. To use a tazer on either is to just be a weak bully hell bent on dominateing the world... God help the officers family. I sure would hate to be that cops son...

COP: "Did you do you homework timmy"

Timmy "no"

COP: Pulls out tazer ZAP!

Their is something wrong with todays police. Its the big pink elephant nobody wants to talk about.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
Why is everyone bashing all cops for the actions of a few?

This would be the same as bashing, and blaming every "white men" for some "white men" being NAZIS, or bashing and blaming every "black man" for the actions of a few black men, or bashing and blaming "all hispanics" for the actions of a few hispanics....

If ALL COPS were doing this, we would be seeing people being tasered every hour or so.

This cop in specific however should be suspended without pay, if not fired. That is unless the woman was reaching for a gun, or a knife, then i could see why a cop would do this, even to a 72 year old woman, but there is no mention of this in the story.

[edit on 1-6-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

ludicrous and foolish (i dont believe you are, i believe the idea is, that there are still those out there who think this is a isolated incidence is foolish)

this has been the reply for at least 2 years plus regarding this situation

in the beginning, it was a reasonable thing to say

now its ridiculous

because it does seem to happen almost every day, it definitely happens several times a week, at least the ones that are reported or picked up in the media

its not just a couple cops here and there

its a severely large amount

no its not all cops

no not all cops are this way

but there are TOO MANY who are

and really, do we have to wait till it is happening every hour until we finally step up and say enough is enough and something needs to be done about our police force?

because lets be honest, if its happening on a hourly basis, it doesnt matter what we do, it will already be too late by then to ever even think about changing things