<p>I think the police have been encouraged to become Taser-happy by the company which manufactures them. While I disapprove of the conduct of the driver, you know what? You’re not required to be nice, or even polite, to a police officer. You have a First Amendment right to tell him he’s full of it, if you want to. The police don’t have the right to taser people for “causing a problem.”</p>
<p>All the officer legally had a right to do was get the lady’s signature on the form. Once he got that (and she agreed to sign after she got out of the car and before he tased her) he had no business restraining her any longer, and he should have simply let her go. It was a speeding ticket, nothing more. He doesn’t have the right to arrest her for being rude or belligerent. I understand that lots of people end up being arrested for “contempt of cop” - but that doesn’t make it right. </p>
<p>I find the incident unsettling, and the attitude of people who figure it was OK to taser the lady because she was rude and insulting to the officer to be inconsistent with the basic underpinnings of American freedoms.</p>
<p>Police officers have been shot by elderly beligerant people. If he restrains her, bruises her, I bet she shows up complaining police brutality and then it is more subjective as to the amount of force used.</p>
<p>Not quite true. The officer had already decided to arrest the woman, had told her that he was going to take her to jail, and she tried to resist arrest. A suspect who is not compliant and who is resisting arrest is liable to get tasered. He warned her SIX times before he tased her that she had better cooperate or she would be tased, and she ignored all SIX warnings. She paid for her stupidity.</p>
<p>And keymom is right. I can recall a case a few years ago in which a State Trooper in Texas pulled over an 80-something year old man, started walking up to the car, and was immediately shot in the head and killed by the elderly driver. </p>
<p>Bottom line-when an officer tells you to do something, SIX TIMES, you do it. If you don’t, you deserve to get tased.</p>
<p>I think she was uncooperative, belligerant, and deserved it. I agree that, for the cop, there was no good solution. But I do think he did what he ultimately had to do. I’m thrilled it was all caught on tape. It’s amazing how people’s stories change when it turns out that reality has been videotaped.</p>
<p>This is one reason why taping custodial interrogations is such a good idea, and why detectives universally praise it once their department adopts the practice. It’s mandated in Illinois in felony cases, but most jurisdictions that require it do so as a matter of policy rather than law.</p>
<p>I can’t be the first one to see the irony in this situation, given that the white supremicist who killed the security guard yesterday was* 88 *years old!</p>
<p>I’m on the cop’s side. To me, it’s very simple: you don’t fight the police, and you don’t resist arrest. I don’t think the police should have to touch a person to get control of them–that can be dangerous for the cop–the person can be unexpectedly violent, or HIV-positive. If the cop says, “Do X or I will tase you,” you should just do X. This is no different than the “don’t tase me, bro” incident.
Note: I guess I don’t think the police should tase people who completely passively “resist” arrest. But this case wasn’t like that.</p>
<p>The police have got to have a fall back position when the person getting the ticket won’t sign the ticket. It was trying to force grandma to sign the ticket that escalated the encounter.</p>
<p>If the encounters are being taped, then what’s wrong with being able to check a box saying that the person refuses to sign the ticket?</p>
<p>Repeating “I’m a 72 year old woman” is not going to excuse you from breaking the law or resisting arrest. Should the officer have said, “Oh in that case, do anything you like. Sorry for the inconvenience.” She provoked the officer over and over and over. You’d think by 72 she’d have learned how to behave, rather than throwing a tantrum like 3 year old. Speaking of which, I wonder if she taught her children to behave this way. Maybe a month in jail will give her time to think about it.</p>