Cop Tasers Fleeing Handcuffed Girl, Head injuries put her in vegetative state

[psyks]

Case in point; tasers can be just as lethal as firearms. This wasn't an inescapable accident. She was running away, high, in handcuffs. The cop could have judged that she wouldn't have been able to catch herself as she fell, but because the taser is being lauded as the "non lethal answer to the gun", police officers feel like they have the right to use it with impunity. This is what happens. Stupid fucking cop made a lazy decision and now a woman is in hospital.

You know what else can be just as lethal as guns? Pretty much everything. She was high, resisting arrest and if you had even bothered to read the Officer's statements, you'd have seen that he was still worried about her safety if he grabbed her, which is why he chose the statistically safest option. Her hitting her head in the way she did was a one-in-a-million chance that could still have happened had he done literally anything else.

But you armchair judges know better, right? He's just a fat lazy pig, right? Glad to see you're on the case!

Statistically safest option my ass. She was already handcuffed. If he didn't have the taser, he would have resorted to a less violent means of detaining her. I have no idea how you calculated 'a million to one' as the probability of cracking your head on the ground when you're tasered with your hands tied together. Also, she had coke in her system which would have increased the probability of her suffering a cardiac arrest upon being tased. Safest means of detaining her? To me it seems like the second safest next to shooting her in the legs.

I didn't call the guy a pig. I called him a stupid fucking cop. One implies that I hate police officers on principal, the other implies I disagree with their stupid policies and lazy initiative.

 

[anthony87]

Will someone please explain to me why the drugged up coke head who resisted arrest after being arrested for a hit and run is coming off as the good guy here?

She tried fleeing from the police. Something bad happened. Now she has to deal with the consequences.

You're not that old, eh? Surely you had a time in your life when you hated figures of authority out of some sort of 'rage against the machine' spite, no? I remember when I (and others my age then) went through that kinda phase. Or maybe they thought her Facebook pictures were hot or something...

I wonder how different this thread would be if the over weight cop tackled her instead of using a taser, and the added force of his weight/tackle caused the same injury...

Meh, the only difference would be that every instance of "Why didn't he try to tackle her?" would be replaced with "Why didn't he try to taze her?"

Other than that, people would still be seeing the girl as some sort of downtrodden victim.

 

[anthony87]

I can't really feel too bad for her. It takes a special kind of stupid to run from the police AFTER you're already handcuffed.

All it takes is fear, looks like she was correct to be afraid.

"Correct to be afraid"?

The cop didn't taze her because he's a psychopath who gets his jollies from electrocuting people. He tazed her because she RAN AWAY.

She wasn't afraid, she was a fucking moron.

 

[mrdude2010]

Once you're handcuffed, you're caught. Feel free to run up until then, but once they slap the irons on, it's about time to be searching for a better lawyer. I don't feel sorry for her. Was the tazing unnecessary? Yeah, unless the cops were hilariously fat. Would they have faced a sexual harassment lawsuit if they had tackled her? Yeah, probably. Obviously it's unfortunate that this happened, but there's a certain point where you have to wonder whether it's really the cops who are in the wrong here.

 

[TWRule]

People make mistakes, she shouldn't have run, he probably shouldn't have tasered her, but it really doesn't deserve all the outrage. Being fat just makes it easier for you people to take the opposite side. 'He's obviously lazy' 'can't be bothered to chase her'
The same mistakes have been made time and again, and if you want your police to be able to be efficient and good at their jobs then you have to accept that they might occasionally go too far, and as much as you try to prevent that it isn't foolproof, you just have to deal with it on the rare occasion when it does happen. The officer in question isn't likely to be going on with day to day life as if nothing has happened.
The only other alternative is to stop them being as ruthless and effective, and then you end up with lawlessness.

That's a false dichotomy and a slippery slope fallacy. There are more options than ruthlessness or impotence, and taking this girl in without making a vegetable out of her is not going to contribute to the latter.

 

[mrdude2010]

also: natural selection at work.

 

[godofslack]

I don't feel like it's unreasonable to expect someone in law enforcement to be able to outrun a 20 year old, 100 pound drug addict. If he had been able to out run her, he probably wouldn't of had to tackle her or tase her. That being said, it is the only thing he could of done at the time. He should of been fitter, if he was she'd be fine, but it's should of would of could of. Personally, I'd require him to get in shape before going back on the force.

 

[Siege_TF]

Pretty sure she would have been crushed to death if he did manage to chase her down and tackle her.
Tazing was probably the safer option.

 

[SickBritKid]

Maybe busting out the taser was unnecessary since, well, she was right there, but on the other hand she was running. So yeah. Unfortunate, but shit happens.

Plus, you have to give the cop credit for remembering he was a taser and not busting out the gun and shooting her in the chest 10 times. Thats an improvement over what we have seen recently.

If you're talking about the incident in LA where two cops tazed a guy, who was completely unaffected, and then shot him when he attacked them with a claw hammer after multiple warnings, then you're an idiot, because they followed procedure to the precise letter in terms of dealing with armed, belligerent suspects.

 

[Idocreating]

I can't really feel too bad for her. It takes a special kind of stupid to run from the police AFTER you're already handcuffed. And it really isn't their job to run you down if you run. If I had the tool to stop you from running right now, rather than continuing to chase you for however long, I'd do it too.

I echo this statement. While the officer could have chased after her (After all, she's handcuffed and that does impede your ability to run) and not used the taser, the woman deserves her fate.

I mean, if your so fucking stupid as to run from the police AFTER you've already been cuffed, then maybe braindead is actually an improvement for her.

 

[SickBritKid]

No sympathy, as she shouldn't have run from the Police
But seriously, he could have caught her, the use of the taser was unnecessary, I hope he gets something for this
Also you can see why she's in a vegetated state, lands pretty much straight on her head onto the pavement... Ouch.

The cop explains, in his interview, why he didn't: he outweighed her by a good 100 or so pounds. If he tackled her, she would've been in the hospital with a crushed ribcage.

 

[SickBritKid]

Maybe busting out the taser was unnecessary since, well, she was right there, but on the other hand she was running. So yeah. Unfortunate, but shit happens.

Plus, you have to give the cop credit for remembering he was a taser and not busting out the gun and shooting her in the chest 10 times. Thats an improvement over what we have seen recently.

If you're talking about the incident in LA where two cops tazed a guy, who was completely unaffected, and then shot him when he attacked them with a claw hammer after multiple warnings, then you're an idiot, because they followed procedure to the precise letter in terms of dealing with armed, belligerent suspects.

I find your reply very surprising. Anyone who visits the internet knows American cops like to use their weapons no matter if its justified, and there are thousands of examples of this. Which is what gets me wondering: how the hell did you pinpoint one specific incident and think you are right when there are literally thousands of others I could have been talking about?

For the record though, no, I was not talking about that particular one. Try again.

"Anyone who visits the internet."

Peh. You DO realize that basically ALL of those videos of "American cops getting gun-happy" are cherry-picked, one-time incidents that're then blown out of proportion to include "All American cops, regardless", right?

I was pointing to that incident because it was the most notorious one in recent memory. I wound up having an argument with a fuckwit who couldn't get it past his thick skull that you can't reliably shoot to wound with guns, no matter what video games teach us.

 

[Ishigami]

From what I've read on the internet US cops seem to learn that they can use Tazers basically for everything and on everyone. Because it is so much easier to just electrocute someone then for example talk someone down or overwhelm physically it is used without measure.
The ultimate tool to regain the respect someone else just denied them...
A disrespect full women behind the wheel ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXH-MwUt5E ) is hardly a reason to use a Tazer in my eyes for example.
All this ?they had it coming? talk is nonsense to me. The Tazer is a weapon despite many media portraying it as ?harmless tool? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser_safety_issues ) and using a weapon for minor offenses is simply out of the question for me.
Anyway in this case for example he could have grabbed her (not to much of a distance between them) or tackled her. Mind you when you get tackled you're instincts are still working and she would have used her arms to soften her fall. Abrasions? Probably. Bruises? Likely. Broken bone? Maybe. Brain damage? Highly unlikely...
As everyone know when you get electrocute you have no control over your muscles, she could therefore not use her arms to soften the fall.
Judging by the footage I say another case of hitting the fly with the sledgehammer... the cop should be fired for using excessive measures and in order to prevent such things from occurring ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7uudtvX8yo&feature=related ) the rules of using a Tazers equalized to that of regular firearm.

 

[Timberwolf0924]

Moral of the Story

Don't think you're some hardass who's going to get away and your ass won't get tazered.
"Oh no poor girl, boo hoo!"
Dumb broad shouldn't have acted stupid, cause now she really is.

You're the argument for compulsory sterilisation at birth

Say what you wil, but still, she's retarded now. Hope it sticks and the cops pay her to go around the country saying "I was once a drug dealer who ran from the c-c-c-c-cops.. b-but now I'm wetarded cause I twied to wun when handcuffed"

It's all she deserves..

 

[SickBritKid]

From what I've read on the internet US cops seem to learn that they can use Tazers basically for everything and on everyone. Because it is so much easier to just electrocute someone then for example talk someone down or overwhelm physically it is used without measure.
The ultimate tool to regain the respect someone else just denied them...
A disrespect full women behind the wheel ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXH-MwUt5E ) is hardly a reason to use a Tazer in my eyes for example.
All this ?they had it coming? talk is nonsense to me. The Tazer is a weapon despite many media portraying it as ?harmless tool? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser_safety_issues ) and using a weapon for minor offenses is simply out of the question for me.
Anyway in this case for example he could have grabbed her (not to much of a distance between them) or tackled her. Mind you when you get tackled you're instincts are still working and she would have used her arms to soften her fall. Abrasions? Probably. Bruises? Likely. Broken bone? Maybe. Brain damage? Highly unlikely...
As everyone know when you get electrocute you have no control over your muscles, she could therefore not use her arms to soften the fall.
Judging by the footage I say another case of hitting the fly with the sledgehammer... the cop should be fired for using excessive measures and in order to prevent such things from occurring ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7uudtvX8yo&feature=related ) the rules of using a Tazers equalized to that of regular firearm.

Remember that the girl in this video was outweighed by at least 100 pounds by the cop, who was almost a full foot taller than her.

Breaking her fall with her hands or not, if he'd have tackled her, she would've probably received WORSE injuries.

 

[SickBritKid]

Again, I find that amusing. One time incidents? Ummm.... What? It happens all the time. Its obviously not a one time incident.

Even if these kinda things were incredibly rare, it would be terrible. We are talking about taking somebodies life here. "Oh yeah but it only happened once and the cop will never do that shit again and hurr durr" - no, fuck that. When you KILL SOMEONE you better have a good fucking reason. There is no greater action than ending a life. Apart from ending multiple lives maybe, but you get the point.

You know what I meant when I said "one-time."

I'm talking about those incidents being rather rare, in relation to the area in which they occur most times, and yet they're being conflated to encompass ALL American cops despite the fact that at least 90% of them are decent folk who NEVER get brutal with a suspect.

 

[Ishigami]

Yea being tackled by someone who is supposed to be trained to tackle people would have killed her on the spot, because that the only thing worse than being in vegetative state I can think of...

I think I beg to differ.