<p>So, what are your thoughts on this? Be sure to watch the video before forming an opinion. After seeing the report on the news this morning, I can’t help but think she deserved it. No matter what age, we should respect authority, especially if we are in the wrong as she was in speeding and then refusing to sign the ticket and threatening to get back in her truck. I think she thought because she was elderly, the officer would just let her off the hook.</p>
<p>Bet her children, grandchilden and great granschildren are so proud when they watch the tape! She was being a jerk from the first minute. I think cops should reserve major force for when they truly feel threatened, however.</p>
<p>I agree with SplashMom. The officer was completely within his rights. He gave her more warnings that she perhaps deserved, probably as a concession to her age, but she ignored him. Saying “I dare you” to a cop? :eek: Whatever happened to showing respect for authority? I felt that he showed respect to her and tried his best to avoid using the taser. She totally deserved it.</p>
<p>If you find what a police officer is doing is inappropriate, you cooperate, then file a complaint later. The side of the freeway is not the place to make your statement.</p>
<p>He didn’t need to taser her to stop her. The taser should be used only when there are major safety issues that can’t be addressed by less violent means.</p>
<p>I saw this on Morning Joe this morning. Unbelievable. The cop should be fired and every cop in the department needs to go to some serious training on dealing with adversarial people.</p>
<p>“So should have just physically manhandled her instead?”</p>
<p>Well, yeah. That’s what police do. The taser should be for large, strong people the police officer reasonably thinks he cannot subdue physically, or people with weapons.</p>
<p>I’m 100% in support of the arrest; the tasing just seems out of place.</p>
<p>^I don’t know which one would have caused more injury–physically trying to cuff an older lady or tasing her. Looks like tasing her didn’t cause any lasting physical injury.</p>
<p>This hits close to home, as my almost 81 year-old grandmother conducts herself quite similarly to the woman in the video. We keep telling her that she’s going to end up in jail or dead, but she doesn’t believe us. “Why would anyone do such mean things to an 81 year-old widow?” she says. It’s too bad she doesn’t have high speed internet, because I would send this to her and make her watch the video.</p>
<p>There are people who died after being tasered. It should be used judiciously and not for punishing adversarial suspects. I wonder if the police officer felt very threatened by the granny. He was 2 to 3 times her physical size. </p>
<p>I watched the tape. The police officer came across as a bully. That shoving her back in the beginning, that was not for her protection - he was rough, it was to intimidate her. He was mad that she was not respectful to him.</p>
<p>Hint to all those out there defending her-if an officer tells you to back up or you will get tased, and repeats the warning again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and you still fail to comply, chances are you are going to get tased. </p>
<p>The woman would have probably been seriously hurt if the officer didn’t have a taser and had to tackle her instead; IMO she’s lucky she got tased, given the officer’s size she definitely would have ended up in the hospital if he had been forced to get her on the ground another way.</p>
<p>I thought tasers were supposed to keep cops from having to use deadly force. To taser a 72 year old in the chest is a potential death sentence. They were not supposed to be used to torture people as pain compliance. IMHO. </p>
<p>Now I wonder if the police could have handled a mean little old lady without a taser before they had the things ?</p>
<p>They can use lower power settings too. If they had given her the full shot she would have been in worse shape. That was a mild stun and did the job. She was none the worse for it and a physical teakdown could have broken some bones on the old bat.</p>
<p>When I first watched the tape, I thought, “Oh my heck, she’s going to get run over by the traffic.” Getting her out of harm’s way was priority one. Officer did his job. </p>
<p>That old lady was out of control and shown to be a liar when she said in interviews that she wasn’t combative or resisting at all. Once the tape came out, she clammed up and hired a lawyer. Finally acting smart…</p>
<p>I didn’t like the way The Today Show showed the video AFTER asking how people would feel about their 72 year old grandmother getting tasered. That started with a bias against the police officer, and although the officer could have handled it better, the woman was taunting him.</p>
<p>Pepper spray and nightstick? You grab her arms and cuff her behind her back. We’ve all seen cops do this to healthy young men on TV.</p>
<p>I’m not just concerned about physical injury. It’s true that she might end up with a broken wrist or something if he’d wrestled her instead. But I’d like to see torture instruments like tasers reserved for occasions when there is no alternative but lethal force or the cop has a reasonable fear for his own safety. I don’t see that here.</p>