News Flash: If You Use a Taser on a 72-Year-Old Woman, You're a Coward

Unbelievable.

Jonathan Turley:

I do not see how the police could view this as a proper use of a taser. Bieze threatens to taser her again if she does not put her hands behind her back. He then tasers her again. He then charges her with resisting arrest.

The video is a textbook example of how tasers have served to escalate the level of force in such encounters. While Bieze might have called for back up or physically restrained Winkfein, he moves almost immediately to the use of the taser. The fact that Constable McCain would watch this video and find (here) that Bieze acted properly raises serious questions of his own judgment.

This is all because she refused to sign a speeding ticket.

Cop Commits Suicide After Taser Death

Oh man, this story was horrible before, and it just got much worse:

A police lieutenant committed suicide Thursday, days after he ordered another officer to fire a stun gun at a naked, distraught man who then fell to his death, police said.

The body of Lt. Michael Pigott, a 21-year police veteran, was found in a police locker room at a former airfield in Brooklyn, New York, dead apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner for public information. He used a weapon that was not his, police said.

Condolences to the officer's family and friends. What a tragedy.

Let's Put Tasers in Schools

It makes perfect sense.

And the articles arent' saying, but it sounds to me like they're talking about arming officers with tasers in all levels of school. In elementary schools even.

What the hell?

Dead Man Was Taser'd Nine Times in Handcuffs

The case goes to the grand jury:

Baron "Scooter" Pikes, a 21-year-old sawmill worker, had tried to run from police in Winnfield, Louisiana, when they tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for cocaine possession.

But a coroner's report found Pikes had been handcuffed and on the ground when first hit with the Taser and might have been dead before the last two shocks from the 50,000-volt device were delivered.

He taser'd him because he wouldn't stand up fast enough. Jesus. Then he covered it up and said Pikes was high on cocaine and PCP. But drug tests came back negative.

Now to a Louisiana grand jury.

Cousin of Taser'd Seizure Victim in Comments

I've gotten a response this morning to a link I posted on Saturday about a 30-year-old doctor who had a seizure while driving in Palm Beach County, crashed his car - and was taser'd when he confusedly fought with paramedics.

The response is from his cousin:

Mark is my very dear cousin. He is a compassionate and loving young doctor who puts everyone's need before his own. The idea that after suffering from a seizure and being involved in an serious car accident and showing visible signs of injury and distress, the very people who were supposed to be saving his life and removing him from danger instead tased him 11 times. Thank god he is now out of his coma but is still in critical condition. I am utterly disgusted and of course my main concern is his full recovery but what in such a case of police brutallity I can't rest until justice is served. Please pray for him.

They tased him 11 freaking times. And he showed visible injury, the cousin says, and the ordeal put him in a coma. Just impossible to understand. Absolutely deserving of a police brutality investigation and lawsuit and possibly criminal charges.

My best wishes for your cousin.

Have a Seizure: Get Tased

Unbelievable.

Update: That story gives the victim as "Mark Holder, 30; this story as Dr. Mark Holder.

Updated: here.

Deaf, Nearly-Naked Man Tased in His Home

There's a big anti-taser bandwagon happening right now - as it should be. On that note:

Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

"I ain't never been so scared," says Williams.

Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn't real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf.

"I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can't hear! I can't hear!"

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. That's when they shot him with a Taser.

Because when cops are on a call for a possible shooting, even a guy wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and attempting to communicate that he CAN'T FREAKING HEAR deserves to be shot with a taser.

Is it safe?

This is Murder

These officers murdered this man. There is no other way to see it.

They went into that room already having tasering this guy in mind, as shown in the video, and within seconds did taser him, in response to exactly nothing like violence from him. Then they shot him again. Then he died. Then the cops lied about it, saying that he fought them. He didn't. They lied.

They murdered him, and they should be treated as murderers.