Police brutality
Cop tasers a woman twice during a routine traffic stop:
The woman posed absolutely no threat to the cop. None. Zero.
See, this is why cops shouldn’t carry tasers. They think the things are relatively harmless, so they whip ‘em out and fire away like they’re on Star Trek. Phasers on stun, Mr. Chekov. But goddamnit, tasers can kill people — and have.
If that had been a gun, the cop wouldn’t have fired it. If it had been a billy club, he wouldn’t have knocked the woman upside the head with it. But it was a taser, and so Mr. Asshole Cop decided to get all SWAT team. Goddamn freak.
I hope the woman sues and gets a bazillion dollars.
35 Responses to “Police brutality”
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janicen says:
I’ve always believed that the only time a cop should use a tazer is to use it INSTEAD of deadly force. It’s become a convenience for them to use it to subdue a suspect without getting their uniforms dirty. WTF he used it on this woman is beyond me. He should be thrown off of the force. I was in a very similar situation many years ago, before cops had tazers. That could easily have been me. Thankfully, the cop had the patience to ignore me and just wrote me up for speeding.
Our society has changed. We have to be afraid of the police, afraid in airports, afraid when we talk on the phone, afraid of what we say in private e-mails, afraid to protest. It hasn’t been very long since this wasn’t the case. I remember freedom.
August 14th, 2009 at 10:51 am EST -
myiq2xu says:
When did they pass a law that says we have to instantly comply with everything a police officer says or go to jail? (with a bonus tasering in some cases)
Koresh forbid the cops have to spend a few precious seconds talking to people who are upset because they don’t think they deserve a ticket.
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Violet says:
That video just makes me apeshit. That could so easily be me. And if you read the woman’s account, she was trying to comply with the officer’s directions (until he scared her shitless — that’s when she refused to get out of the van, and he started pulling her out physically).
Yep, if you get pulled over by a traffic cop, prepared to be kneed to the ground and tasered. Welcome to America.
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RKMK says:
What I never understand is… why the fuck do they do this shit ON CAMERA? *mindboggles*
At least this shithead set this woman up for life, lawsuit-wise. And hopefully, he will be summarily fired.
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Bella Donna says:
The thing is, I know that cops have to go through intensive training and actually have a taser used on them before they are allowed to carry them.
What I think they forget sometimes is that usually they are undergoing the taser training shortly after joining the force, so they are in their peak health, physically.
A lot of times I think they use it instead of manhandling a person, because they think it’s less likely to cause harm/look bad.
I just don’t see why he felt it was necessary to use it against this woman.
Maybe the rule should be “If you think it’s going to look/sound bad for you to physically wrestle this person to the ground, it will be equally bad to taser them.”
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yttik says:
It would be nice if Obama would invite the woman over to the white house for a beer. Or perhaps he could have spoken for Malika, the 15 yr old in Seattle who was beaten up by the cops on video tape. Instead he went and promoted the police chief, making him drug czar.
What happens to women at the hands of cops in this country is one reason why I was tearing my hair out over the Gates’ incident. If he had been a female, they would have drug him out of that house by his hair, probably tasered him, and than charged him with assault like they did Malika.
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yttik says:
For a more light hearted “cops on camera”, don’t miss this story:
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/l.....Crash.html
It just cracks me up, they must have forgotten the camera was rolling while they plot how to set this woman up, admit to lying, acknowledge what they are doing is illegal, etc, etc.
Never underestimate the stupidity of male arrogance gone awry.
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Miss Malevolent says:
He asked her to get back in the car. She didn’t comply and argued with him. Instead of getting back into the car. Then after he says he’s going to arrest her, she wants to get back in the car.
He should’ve tazed her.
No I’m not a cop, no I don’t think all cops are good. But in this instance from what I can see on the tape,she was in the wrong.
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janicen says:
yttik, the arrogance of the cops in that video is stunning. While I would not deny that sexism on the part of police could be the problem since I have never personally known a cop who wasn’t a sexist, I wonder if classism isn’t also at play. In both of the videos, if the women had appeared to be wealthy and capable of hiring expensive lawyers, the cops may have acted differently. It scares the hell out of me that my daughter will be driving on her own in a few months.
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Gayle says:
I agree with you Violet when you say cops are more likely to use tasers because they view them as harmless (although they do sometimes kill).
I don’t think tasers should be legal. Not for cops, not for anyone.
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Richard Aubrey says:
The last assertion, that the woman posed no threat, is only knowable afterwards.
Alternatives are not guaranteed. The worst I was ever hurt in martial arts training was helping a woman with the hip throw. She was so much smaller than I that on one of the throws I didn’t have enough time to get all the way over and fall as I should. That was in the late Sixties.
I was in the bump shop a year ago and the therapist asked me to put my head back, turn it both ways. She opined that I was really tightened up and restricted in my movements. Been that way since that unfortunate fall.
Several years ago, a group of American senior citizens were visiting Costa Rica off a cruise ship when they were approached by a gunman. One of the Americans, ex-military, grappled with the guy and killed him. The description of the hold he used didn’t seem likely to kill anybody. There was some speculation that there was a broken collar bone whose ragged end cut a major bleeder. Not known for sure.
Point is, any attempt to force compliance will meet with resistance and there could be–not infrequently is–an unfortunate result and sometimes an unintended catastrophe.
And, of course, no technique to force compliance would avoid looking bad.
The taser might be the least risky.
My wife and I stopped for a lady who’d rolled her pickup in a blizzard. Eventually, after dealing with the personal injury accidents and so forth, a cop and a wrecker showed up.
So three large men with agency (we had cars) one of whom for sure was armed (the cop) and the woman decided her fate. If the vehicle was drivable, one set of possiblities, if not, the wrecker driver would take her to a restaurant where she could meet a friend and then the vehicle to a dealer.
Far as I could tell she was not at all apprehensive and when I checked a day later, all had gone well.
Sometimes happens. Never know. -
RKMK says:
I don’t think tasers should be legal. Not for cops, not for anyone.
Sidebar: To be honest… I kind of want a stun gun. Because I’m a single, small-framed woman, who has the audacity to walk alone a lot of places, and I get harassed. I’ve had a couple of scary incidents at night, and I wouldn’t want to have a GUN-gun and shoot anyone, but I like the (clearly theoretical) idea of non-lethal incapacitation of my attacker.
(Of course, I realize that in the real world, I likely wouldn’t be able to reach for it in time, so the attacker would dodge when I tried to connect, etc. But the idea is still attractive.)
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votermom says:
According to the news article, cop arrested her and LEFT THE 2 KIDS in the van. There were bystanders and she told them her husbands phone and the bystanders called the husband and he was able to pick them up 40 minutes later. So those kids were unattended in the van for 40 minutes — they could have been kidnapped, murdered, frozen (NY in January).
That should be some kind of negligence charge in addition against the cop.
Jerk. -
spring says:
How about this one, from April, 2009: a woman’s child is murdered, and she’s hysterical… so the moron cops taser her.
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Northwest rain says:
Her crime — driving while female. Pig cops stop women all the time for NO other reason than they are female.
Anyone who even sides with the cop in this case is an authoritarian personality.
The bastard cop lied — said she was using a cell phone — she WAS NOT. Then he claimed she was speeding. she WAS NOT.
I’ve been pulled over for speeding and I WAS NOT SPEEDING. I went to court and proved the pig cop was lying — LYING. Just do the research — cops have quotas and they will pull over a victim to meet the quota. The love to pull women over.
This women refused to play the abused victim — because she knew she wasn’t speeding and she wasn’t talking on a cell phone.
So what the fuck is wrong with her getting out of her car — she knew he lied — and the instructions on fighting traffic tickets say to get out and get the information on the cops car and to see the instrument he used.
I am sick and tired of ass holes who defend the bastard cops. These guys are preying on women — because the bastards can get away with meeting their speed ticket quota.
That cop should be castrated and shut up away some place where he can never abuse another woman again. The ass hole assaulted her and put her down in the middle of the road. BECAUSE he knew he can get away with this. An example needs to be made of this bastard cop.
And men wonder why many women consider them the enemy — UNTIL we KNOW for certain that the guy in person is a decent fellow.
So many males act like Neanderthal bastards when they see that the driver is female.
What this cop did was a hate crime — especially since he left the kids on the side of the road — IN A TRAFFIC LAND — to freeze or be murdered by another male asshole.
/end of rant.
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Sasha, CA says:
Abuse of women by law enforcement and corrections officers is a topic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention, especially when compared to similar cases involving male victims. While any woman can become a victim of police brutality (as this case shows), sex workers (particularly street prostitutes), drug addicts, parolees, and incarcerated women are the most vulnerable. Rapes, sexual assaults, and other forms of violence committed by law enforcement and corrections officers against female sex workers, drug addicts, parolees, and prisoners are so common as to be routine. The victims — the majority of whom are survivors of childhood sexual abuse — are typically not considered to be credible witnesses so their attackers feel free to assault them with impunity. Cops and COs who do not assault the women themselves usually look the other way or cover up for their buddies. Not that much of a “cover up” is necessary given a climate that views these women as barely human. Their rapes are considered a subject for jokes (and, in the case of incarcerated women, for porn), not police reports, and when one of them is found murdered, some cops will refer to the murder as an NHI case — stands for “No Humans Involved.” Consequently it’s not unusual for misogynistic serial killers to “practice” on prostitutes and drug addicts before they begin targeting more “respectable” women. They know the cops won’t spend a lot of time looking for the murderer of someone they think of as subhuman, so early mistakes are more likely to go undetected.
Interesting also that most people think of prison rape as a problem primarily affecting men, when a greater percentage of incarcerated women than men are raped. While men tend to be raped by fellow inmates, incarcerated women are typically raped by guards or other prison personnel (IMO, having male COs in a women’s correctional facility is a mindbogglingly bad idea). One would think the fact that most of these rapists are government employees combined with the fact that the majority of women behind bars were convicted of non-violent, often victimless crimes, would result in greater public outrage, but clearly that isn’t the case. After all, the victims are only women.
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Briar says:
Obviously encouraging the police to tazer people rather than reason with them costs a lot less, and is more likely to encourage a fearful and intimidated obedience when the next uniformed bully barks an order at you.
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Swannie says:
WTF is the matter with you VIOLET .. you know women simply are not important in this country … hell they cannot even get elected vice president ,, much less president in this country ..
Now the day that happens they might become important . Heck the day some women figure it out that if they get elected they might become important ; they might become important that was redundant wasn’t it ?? But hey it is so hard to figure out you know… … and oh wait you knew that …;) -
myiq2xu says:
I don’t see this as an example of police sexism anymore than the Gates incident was an example of police racism.
It’s more basic than that - it’s abuse of power.
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Violet says:
Speaking of cops gone wild:
A police officer takes Bob Dylan into custody because..well, why? The article focuses on the fact that the young cop didn’t recognize Bob Dylan, but what’s missing is any explanation for why she felt it imperative to take him into custody. Is it illegal now to walk around in the rain? To look at houses with “For Sale” signs in the yard? Would it have mattered if he wasn’t Bob Dylan? What business was it of the cop’s?
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gxm17 says:
Northwest Rain, outstanding rant!
I too am sick and freakin’ tired of this all too common abuse of power AND the folks who defend the abuse. This cop should lose his job. Period.
Let’s hope the woman sues, and wins a small fortune. Citizens will continue to be the prey of the police our taxes fund until the system that employs these cops feels it where it hurts, in the pocketbook.
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Simone says:
One of my children lives in a small western town where the police began to enjoy beating people they arrested a little too much. There was a town meeting where about 200 people met with the police and told them, “You can keep arresting us. Fair’s fair. But you keep beating on us, we’ll kill you.” Nearly all the 200 had showed up carrying guns openly.
And that’s been that. The police continue to arrest the townspeople when it seems they have committed crimes - that’s their job. But they no longer gin up claims of resisting arrest and they no longer use excessive force.
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JeanLouise says:
I’m shocked. This officer’s actions were an abuse of power but I’m not shocked by that. It happens and the man should be fired.
I’m shocked by the bigotry shown toward police officers by some posters on this blog. Tens of thousands of police officers have millions of interactions with people every year. Of course, there are going to be some abuses. Those abuses need to be addressed but the wholesale character assasination that has taken place on some blogs, including this one, is unacceptable to me.
If someone wrote about blacks or women the way that some of the posters here have written about police officers, there would be a well-deserved setdown administered by the more level-headed posters.
In fact, most police officers do not abuse their authority but they do put themselves at risk every day so that people like you can live in a safer society. I suggest that you all move to Somalia or a like location if you don’t want to live in a society with individuals who put their lives on the line for you for about fifty grand a year. Let’s see how long you last in that society.
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Monchichipox says:
Please JeanLouise the average minimum wage female cashier deals with a lot more assholes on a daily basis without using a taser on anyone. Show me a couple of videos a female cashier tasing a cop as a customer because she’s tired of explaining that THE 12 OZ. IS ON SPECIAL NOT THE 6 OZ and I’ll buy into your argument.
Plus just because you are calling out a few assholes doesn’t mean you are criticizing every police officer in the land.
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JeanLouise says:
As it happens, I’ve held both jobs and I dealt with significantly more danger (and assholes) as a police officer than as a cashier.
The tenor of the comments leans toward dehumanizing police officers as a whole and demonstrates a total lack of understanding of what police officers deal with on a daily basis.
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Jackie says:
This cop should loose his job and pension.
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Hammer of the Dyke says:
#23 JeanLouise
“….In fact, most police officers do not abuse their authority but they do put themselves at risk every day so that people like you can live in a safer society. I suggest that you all move to Somalia or a like location if you don’t want to live in a society with individuals who put their lives on the line for you for about fifty grand a year. Let’s see how long you last in that society….”Personally, I think talk like this is rather overblown. You know, I wore a military uniform for a long time, and, believe me, there are many ‘feminists’ who won’t speak to me because of it. That is their right. The police and the military swear an oath to uphold the law of the land or swear to obey the constitution (or some like document). If they do not obey these dictates, they deserve to be pilloried. It is not painting every police officer with the same brush to say so.
Still, there is a type of dangerous “us versus them” thinking that often prevails in police-type organizations and leads to egregious, “wilding” behavior by members of police, military and paramilitary organizations - who get a hard-on (I mean this literally, I’ve seen it) for this kind of action. Granted, these individuals are few in number, but they do enormous damage. And, police and military organizations need to take responsibility for the cultures, “the thin blue line” mentalities, that produce and/or accept these individuals. I know that Norm Stamper, a former police chief, has addressed these issues in columns on the grossly commercialized Huffington post. Still, they are very good writings; I believe the last column he wrote addressed sexism in, and by, the police.
Anyway, post 9-11, I have noticed a new, all civil rights bets are off, mentality in the police and military forces of many nations, using the erosion of civil liberties to give rise to the inner brute. I think that it is very wrong to paint members of police and military organizations as self-sacrificing angels who are desperately trying to save humanity. The police and the military, by their very natures, attract and recruit authoritarian personality types.
Police may complain about dealing with assholes, but being an asshole is not against the law. It seems like you are accusing people of lese-majeste, but how can they help it, when, in fact, it is often police officers who behave like assholes, i.e., believing that everyone is a criminal-some just haven’t been caught, expecting people to grovel or to remain silent in the face of deliberate baiting? Perhaps you’d rather brush this sort of thing under the rug, but others would not. That is their right.
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Violet says:
If someone wrote about blacks or women the way that some of the posters here have written about police officers, there would be a well-deserved setdown administered by the more level-headed posters.
People are writing about abusive cops who abuse their authority. And you’re comparing that to racism and sexism? Are you out of your mind?
What next? CIA torturers? “How can you criticize those poor torturers! It’s just like telling racist jokes!”
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JeanLouise says:
Perhaps you’d rather brush this sort of thing under the rug, but others would not. That is their right.
**********************You should re-read my post, Hammer. I said the abusive officer should lose his job. I never suggested brushing anything under the rug. My issue is with those who tar all police with the “authoritarian=abusive” brush. Btw, military service does not equal police service in any way. That’s why we don’t use the military to patrol American cities except in an emergency. It requires a different mindset.
The attitude that’s being promoted on this thread and others leads to the us v. them attitude that the police respond to when confronted with uncooperative members of the public.
I have one suggestion for people. Grow up. Take the damn ticket, show the ID, then complain if you feel the need. It’s a civil society. Try acting in a civil manner.
As for you 9/11 theory, I disagree. Imo, the change from “Officer Friendly” to a more authoritarian style is based on FBI data that shows that Officer Friendly gets killed more often than officers who take control of a conflict situation sooner rather than later. It certainly changed the way that I evaluated conflict situations.
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JeanLouise says:
Violet,
I have a great deal of respect for you but you need another vacation. You misread my post completely.
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RKMK says:
JeanLouise, “bigotry” usually applies to an irrational prejudice based solely on someone’s immutable characteristics, i.e. gender, race, religion. sexual orientation. “Police officer” is not an immutable characteristic, so one can’t be really “bigoted” towards them.
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JeanLouise says:
A bigot is a person who is intolerant of or takes offense to the opinions, lifestyles or identities differing from his or her own, and bigotry is the corresponding attitude or mindset. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigotry
***************Bigotry is not limited to immutable characteristics. In any case,this is bigotry;
“Yep, if you get pulled over by a traffic cop, prepared to be kneed to the ground and tasered. Welcome to America.”
Clearly, hundreds of thousands of traffic stops are made without incident each year. Still, Violet felt free to post tripe like the above comment, indicting an entire profession.
As I know more than one good, kind, professional law enforcement officer who has died while making a traffic stop, I object to her characterization.
Call it whatever you like.
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Hammer of the Dyke says:
JeanLouise,
Sir (en francais, vous vous appellez au nom d’un homme), I did read your post. I still consider your response overblown. We will have to agree to disagree. I see nothing in your response that leads me to change my opinion. Police and military should not be regarded as self-sacrificing angels. Indeed, it seems to me that the blog-posters experiences with police have led them to form a poor opinion based on fact. This hardly amounts to bigotry. The question should be, “What should we do about bigoted (brutal, wilding, etc.) police?” You, as a former police officer and cashier, should want this problem solved. Police are not justified in behaving brutally simply because an FBI study shows that “nice guys” are more often harmed on duty. Anyway, there are studies of community policing that seem to indicate just the opposite, i.e., that respectful integration into a community decreases crime and engenders greater understanding on the parts of both the residents and of the police.
I am quite aware of the differences between the military and the police, thank-you. Nonetheless, my point was that a certain type of mentality or culture can develop, in both organizations, that is very dangerous to the public at large. This is what I don’t want to brush under the rug. You say you were a police officer, so I know you have seen it. I see it all the time with the police who hang out in my ER, even breaking the law by reading patient medical records without a subpoena. Who benefits if we pretend that this kind of pack mentality does not exist? Are police not obligated to grow up and behave in a civil manner as well? You seem to be a little overly sensitive. I think that the reporting of police misbehavior is a good thing that needs to be welcomed. I do not want to fight alongside the dishonorable, nor am I too proud to admit that the dishonorable are there, giving us all a bad name.
Your tone is a bit abrasive, insulting and whiny (Tripe? I found Violet’s comment to be quite a propos of the subject matter): what have you done to reform the readers’ views of the police?
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Hilda says:
Hammer of the dyke,
Excellent, excellent posts - I agree 100%.
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Hilda says:
There are so many issues in this case. 1) 1/31 - undoubtedly he wanted to increase his ticket production for the month 2) children left alone 3) no radar gun used. 4) confusing demands And of course, the physical assault and tasering. Why would he think he could get away with this? Because, judging from many police blogs I’ve read, most of his fellow cops see nothing wrong with this, and were it not for the law suit, no one would likely have seen the video.
The sheriff states (in a separate artice) that the taser gun has video and sound on it and I can’t wait for that to be released. There are also witnesses (bystanders) as well as the EMT who responded as well as hospital records when she was admitted.
