Don't tase my Granny, Bro!

Quote :

Lonnie Tinsley claims that he called 911 after he went to check on his grandmother, whom he found in her bed, "connected to a portable oxygen concentrator with a long hose." She is "in marginal health, [and] takes several prescribed medications daily," and "was unable to tell him exactly when she had taken her meds," so, Tinsley says, he called 911 "to ask for an emergency medical technician to come to her apartment to evaluate her."
In response, "as many as ten El Reno police" officers "pushed their way through the door," according to the complaint.
The grandma, Lona Varner, "told them to get out of her apartment."
The remarkable complaint continues: "Instead, the apparent leader of the police [defendant Thomas Duran] instructed another policeman to 'Taser her!' He stated in his report that the 86 year-old plaintiff 'took a more aggressive posture in her bed,' and that he was fearful for his safety and the safety of others.
"Lonnie Tinsley told them, 'Don't taze my Granny!' to which they responded that they would Taser him; instead, they pulled him out of her apartment, took him down to the floor, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of a police car.
"The police then proceeded to approach Ms. Varner in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation.
"The police then fired a Taser at her and only one wire struck her, in the left arm; the police then fired a second Taser, striking her to the right and left of the midline of her upper chest and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain and to pass out.
"The police then grabbed Ms. Varner by her forearms and jerked hands together, causing her soft flesh to tear and bleed on her bed; they then handcuffed her.

More details available here: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/24/28330.htm

And here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/60261.html

Another tragic story..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3056776/Father-kills-children-Mechanic-called-ex-girlfriend-before-committing-suicide.html

As long as we're lumping vocations together...

Hell.... just living in the U.K would be enough to put a gun to my head

(Notes the coincidence that nitro's link is about a mechanic) Hmmm, wonder why?

Though it's not quite the same as cops gone crazy in a team effort.

But one thing about the mechanics case is very disturbing in that he'd threatened to commit suicide after breaking up with his ex, and again after breaking up with another girlfriend who knew her, yet he was allowed unsupervised time with the kids.

Blackie Kuhn wrote:

Hell.... just living in the U.K would be enough to put a gun to my head

I hear that. LOL

10 cops storm in and assault a bed-bound 84-year-old woman... They taze her, step on her oxygen hose 'til she nearly passes out, cuff her, and tear her skin.

And ya'll's only response is some trite tit-for-tat post about a suicidal mechanic.

Nice.



I pledge allegiance
To the Flag
Of the United Police State of America
And to the Republic
For which is stands
One nation
Under Gawd
Indivisible
With Liberty and Justice for all
Unless the police choose otherwise
And assault & murder with impunity
For Theirs is the kingdom
And the Power
And the Glory
Forever.

Amen.

Sounds like she sat up without warning them that she was about to make a move that could be considered threatening.

The lesson here, Bighead, is that you must learn passivity. Work on it.
We are here for you when you need us.

I'd be interested to know what move a bed ridden 84 year old granny on oxygen could make that'd be threatening. Unless maybe she ripped open her nightgown and flashed them.

I'm wondering if a couple of addresses might have gotten switched somehow. An ambulance arriving at a drug lair might just scare them straight.

A mix up in calls could be to blame, but you'd think the cops would figure out the difference sooner than they did. Just a weird scene.

Bighead wrote:

10 cops storm in and assault a bed-bound 84-year-old woman... They taze her, step on her oxygen hose 'til she nearly passes out, cuff her, and tear her skin.

And ya'll's only response is some trite tit-for-tat post about a suicidal mechanic.

Nice.

Nitro's post was of course to antagonize you. But has anyone said they agreed with what the cops did?

If the allegations are true, the cops were not should not only be fired, but imprisoned.

My point was that once again that Bighead posts only negative towards law enforcement. Assuming that by default that all cops are jack-booted thugs, which is an opinion that he is allowed by law.

However, a simple web search, can supply unlimited information on how there many unstable people in any vocation you choose to throw a dart at.

I don't have the time or interest to get into a link-slinging war with you, Nitro. But we both know that I can find a dozen reports of nasty behavior by cops for every one you come up with about mechanics. Not that this is relevant AT ALL to the topic at hand.

This kind of behavior by police should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law- otherwise we're ALL in danger from these hired thugs. And there's no action too low for these people. What's next? Using a taser on a 6-year-old? (it's already been done). How about a woman in a wheelchair? (already been done). Or a college student who wasn't walking fast enough to suit the cop? (already been done).

I have yet to hear of a cop using a taser against an infant, but it's only a matter of time.

Good point

Tazers have become too easy to defend. They are too easy to pull the trigger on being non-lethal for the most part. Should be treated as pulling a standard weapon.

I personally take offense to you lumping them all together.

By 'them', I assume you mean all police?

What's to resent? Do you have a personal stake in this?

In the vast majority of criminal thuggery that I read about, there are multiple cops involved. And do you EVER hear of one saying "hey- don't tase granny. That shit is illegal. I'm gonna arrest YOU. Because you're breaking the law. And it's my job to arrest people who break the law!" No. They ALWAYS act as a unit. They always back each other up, relying on sheer numbers and brute force.

I lump them all together because they act together, think together, protect each other, lie for each other. Their world view is 'us against them'... and we mere civilians are "them". Even though I'm likely more law-abiding than most of you, I find that my own freedom and safety are in VASTLY more danger from the police than from any 'criminal' element- even here in the ghettos of Wichita.

For Fuk's Sake, the United States incarcerates more people than ANY other country in the world- 'civilized' or otherwise, western or eastern, communist socialist or capitalist- we top them ALL. Both in sheer numbers AND per capita. Not even bananna republics or dictatorships can compete with us- and yet "freedom" is our rallying cry. Our country and our culture is SICK. If we had an ounce of sanity and 'freedom' left, these cops who tased granny would have been lynched already.

Right!

In other countries, you vanish or are killed.

So nitro, are you suggesting that the US has an incarceration rate of 715 per 100,000 population and that Denmark and Switzerland have incarceration rates of 74 per 100,000 because more are killed or vanish in Denmark and Switzerland? Or how about Japan with a rate of 54 per 100,000?

I might believe Haiti or Cambodia have even lower incarceration rates than Japan because of that, but it can't explain every case.

My personal feeling of why the US has surpassed even Russia in the prisoner count is because of the US public itself and our politics. Politicians plant fears in the public mind with the help of a vast media. They use a few dozen hot points in every political campaign to cause fear, and of course then suggest voting for them will be what's needed to stop what scares you.

It began with real threats, such as bank robbers, rapists and the like. But then the US took a nasty turn and started treating those whose behavior simply offends, or frightens someone as criminals. Does sawing the barrel off a shotgun or smoking weed in itself harm another? Is every person arrested on alcohol related offenses a real threat to society? Are prostitutes or others convicted of obscene behaviors really going to destroy the nation? Are they a direct threat to all of us? No, of course not.

But the US has adopted a disturbing pattern of 3 way public "protection". We arrest you because you offend someone's morality. We arrest you because you scare someone. We arrest you because of what someone thinks you "might" do in the future. We don't arrest you because of what you actually did to harm another, but just because someone else who had the political pull to get a law passed didn't like what you did or how you live.

We, the American public, are the creators of the police state.

For anybody who might question our modern notions of "crime" and the political context behind them, here's a long but interesting read:

http://www.publiceye.org/defendingjustice/pdfs/chapters/toughcrime.pdf

Quote :

n. 27, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Business as usual for Las Vegas police Sequioa Pearce was made to kneel before the Las Vegas police officers who held her at gunpoint in her bedroom Friday night, June 11, and watch them shoot her unarmed fiance in the head.

The 20-year-old, who was nine months pregnant, could see Trevon Cole reflected in the mirror from the bathroom, where he, too, was being held at gunpoint as officers told him to get on the floor. He met her gaze in the mirror. She watched him put his hands up.

"All right, all right," he told the cops, according to Pearce.

Then she heard the shot.

Officers rushed her out of the apartment. Trevon Cole, 21, employed as an insurance adjustor while working on a political science degree at UNLV, died minutes later.

Officers were serving a pot warrant on the apartment near Bonanza Road and Eastern Avenue. The warrant was based on Cole having made three marijuana sales to undercover police.

The shooting poses a small problem for police. Pearce, who survives, says police were upset they could find no drugs in the apartment that night, that Cole was unarmed, that he put up no resistance, that he owned no firearms.

Of course, any old bag of pot from the evidence locker can be presented at the coroner's inquest. No attorney for Cole's family will be allowed to ask any questions.

How to explain the gun going off, though? The shooter, officer Bryan Yant -- who has now been involved in three shootings, two of them fatal -- says Cole made a "furtive movement."

Ah, yes. Was it in the third or the fourth day at the police academy that they covered what to do when you've just accidentally shot an unarmed suspect in the head?

As we've seen in the deaths of Henry Rowe, John Perrin and Orlando Barlow, there's a standard prescription. First: Pray to heaven it was a homeless guy or a Negro; those cases are always found to be "justified." Second: Check to see if anyone remembered to bring the "drop bag" of drugs. But third and most of important of all: Memorize this phrase: "He made a furtive movement toward his waistband."

Now, if only they could show Trevon Cole owned a gun. No one on the coroner's jury would care where they found the gun, as long as they could show he or the girlfriend had one. After all, the coroner's jurors are led through their paces by prosecutors who don't have to worry about any pesky cross-examination, like pet rabbits dressed up by little children and walked through a tea party in the doll house.

Ten days after they killed Trevon Cole, police were at another apartment complex in historically black West Las Vegas, near Owens Avenue and H Street.

A patrol officer "heard shots fired" and "saw movement at an open upstairs window" in one of the apartments there, said a Las Vegas police spokesman. Concluding that was where the shots came from, he called for backup.

Officers then approached the home with a bullhorn, demanding that anyone inside come out.

The only person home was Shannon Sutton, the 18-year-old brother of ... Sequioa Pearce! This was the apartment of Sequioa Pearce's mother, where the young mother had gone to stay after Yant killed her fiance. What a coincidence!

Police said they entered the home immediately to check whether anyone inside was in danger. Officers handcuffed Sutton and sat him in the back of a police car on a charge of obstructing a police officer because he would not immediately identify himself.

The rest of the family, including Ms. Pearce and her week-old daughter, returned home in time to see the incident unfold.

A Metro spokesman said officers did not need a warrant to check the home to see whether anyone inside was hurt, but they did need a warrant or written consent from a resident to search for guns or ammunition.

So, Trenia Cole -- Sequioa Pearce's mother but otherwise no relation to Trevon Cole -- said officers demanded she sign a written consent form in exchange for a promise not to transport her son to jail.

Trenia Cole signed the card, asking only "that you don't tear up my house," which, of course, they did.

No firearm was found.

Awww.

It doesn't matter whether this kind of police behavior is "not uncommon" -- it's illegal, and it's fair to wonder why cops expect us to respect the law when their own attitude is, "Screw the law, do whatever's most expedient."

Either they had a suspect who deserved to go to jail, and they let him loose in order to extort the waiver of Mrs. Cole's Fourth Amendment rights, or else they threatened to haul an innocent young man to jail in order to extort her waiver of her Fourth Amendment rights.

Either way, extortion under color of law.

And why?

Does it really merit a search just because police believe you "have a gun in a residence"? If so, a roster of people who have been issued Clark County gun registration "blue cards" might make a nice starter list.

The only deadly shooter involved with this family recently was Yant. Has anyone handcuffed him and sat him in the patrol car and insisted his wife or mother sign a consent form for a warrantless search of his home, on threat of hauling him to jail?

After officer Bruce Gentner emptied his 14-round Glock at John Perrin, who was armed only with a basketball, the family submitted a written question to the hearing master of the coroner's inquest, asking whether Gentner had been on steroids at the time. The question was never asked.

No warrantless search of the Gentner home to see if the officer was on steroids.

Who else heard this gunshot? We're supposed to believe it's a coincidence they were looking for a gun in the apartment where Sequioa Pearce retreated after cops killed her unarmed boyfriend?

"It seems like it might be related to the Cole incident," says the family's attorney, Andre Lagomarsino. "Either this is just a crazy coincidence, or they're fishing."

The family buried Trevon Cole in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Taxpayers will end up forking over a couple hundred grand to settle this one.

Bryan Yant won't pay a penny.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal, and author of "Send in the Waco Killers" and the novel "The Black Arrow." See www.vinsuprynowicz.com/.


Find this article at:
http://www.lvrj.com/...e-97255569.html

Ok, they haven't tased an infant YET (to my knowledge), but they're getting closer all the time:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20266747/

http://www.nowpublic.com/health/mentally-disturbed-taser-coming-right

It is rumored, however, that some fine officers have taken tasing to new heights- tasing what no man has tased before:

Quote :

Police Taser Lassie, 7 Hour Old Infant, Corpse of Mother Teresa
Quote


(AP) Police in the tiny Virginia township of Able Falls are up to their ears in complaints over their use of the township´s eight new 100,000 volt Taser units.

Included in the list of subjects Tasered before arrest are:

* Two red fox squirrels spotted ´prancing suspiciously´ near a power substation.

* Nineteen rest home residents who officers described as ´unruly´ in the Day Room at Trembling Hills Convalescent Home.

* The newborn baby of Mr. and Mrs. John Hills, which was described by officers as ´in clear violation of the hospitals´ Quiet Hours, and unwilling to comply with an order to comply.´

Able Falls Chief of Police Richard Snodgrass defended the actions of his officers. "Each incident had been carefully reviewed, and in each incident it was determined that the officers responded with appropriate force," said Chief Snodgrass, who then Tasered his desk blotter, a Swing-Line stapler, and a passing Cub Scout troop.

"The Taser is fast becoming an important tool for law enforcement everywhere," he added, after Tasering a framed photograph of his wife. "Many of our officers never really got the hang of the pistol-whip or the baton beat-down, and this offers them a valuable alternative."

Chief Snodgrass then Tasered THIS REPORTER SHIT OUH *THUD*

Heard a lawmaker call for $50 per trigger pull on tazers. Sounds prudent.

I like that idea. I'd up the price significantly... but it's an interesting approach.

I mean, I'd PREFER that we prosecute our hired thugs who needlessly assault and murder people... but we all know that ain't gonna happen.

Law suits seem to be the way it's done. Internal investigations may or may not go in the plaintiffs favor, especially if the plaintiff is a known criminal, or even just a trouble maker. Internal investigations that find wrongdoing tend to end up with said officer being put on paid or unpaid leave, or reassignment as the punishment.

And contrary to popular belief, a law enforcement officer that can be proven guilty of excessive force or other injustice can be personally sued if you get no justice from the internal investigation.

Personally, I think if an officers actions are an honest mistake they should be treated as such. If they intentionally step over the boundries and violate someone's rights or harm them I think any action taken against them by the department should be your signal to hit with a massive personal lawsuit. And no, I don't mean sue them for eveything they have because they stopped you and gave you a speeding ticket you didn't deserve. Make your response fit the situation.

Bighead, did you know there are groups of law enforcement officers who are pushing to reform certain drug laws? Not all cops want to bash in doors and taser/shoot anyone they see.

I have two problems with the 'honest mistake' thing. First of all, internal investigations and courts assume BY DEFAULT that any criminal act by the police was an 'honest mistake'- only the most egregious, obvious, and difficult to cover up acts are ever prosecuted. Secondly, YOU AND I are subject to the full force of the law- even for 'honest mistakes'. But the police aren't, because they're above the law.

That's great that a few cops are lobbying for drug law reform- it shows that they have some sliver of humanity and intelligence in them. But they're still dangerous criminals. If one has been a cop for any length of time, then they HAVE witnessed criminal behavior by their coworkers and let it go... and probably engaged in it themselves. Not to mention the fact that they harass, intimidate, and assault for a living. I still wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.

Ok, to my knowledge no police officer has ever tasered a baby. But IMO, it's only a matter of time- there is NO action to low for these thugs. And as you can see from this story (upheld by the courts!), they're getting closer all the time. I've already posted two stories about cops tasering parents HOLDING their baby. Now here's a case where the a federal appeals court has rules that cops were justified in using a taser on a pregnant woman because she refused to sign a traffic ticket.

Land of the Free, baby!

Quote :

http://my.earthlink....44-431fbfff2295
Court: Seattle police OK to stun pregnant woman
GENE JOHNSON
From Associated Press
March 26, 2010 9:14 PM EDT

SEATTLE (AP) — Three Seattle police officers were justified when they used a stun gun on a pregnant mother who refused to sign a traffic ticket, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a case that prompted an incredulous dissent.

Malaika Brooks was driving her son to Seattle's African American Academy in 2004 when she was stopped for doing 32 mph in a school zone. She insisted it was the car in front of her that was speeding, and refused to sign the ticket because she thought she'd be admitting guilt.

Rather than give her the ticket and let her go on her way, the officers decided to arrest her. One reached in, turned off her car and dropped the keys on the floor. Brooks stiffened her arms against the steering wheel and told the officers she was pregnant, but refused to get out, even after they threatened to stun her.

The officers — Sgt. Steven Daman, Officer Juan Ornelas and Officer Donald Jones — then stunned her three times, in the thigh, shoulder and neck, and hauled her out of the car, laying her face-down in the street.

Brooks gave birth to a healthy baby two months later, but has permanent scars from the Taser. She sued the officers for violating her constitutional rights, and U.S. District Judge Richard Jones allowed the case to continue. He declined to grant the officers immunity for performing their official duties and said Brooks' rights were clearly violated.

But in a 2-1 ruling Friday, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. Judges Cynthia Holcomb Hall and Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain held that the officers were justified in making an arrest because Brooks was obstructing them and resisting arrest.

The use of force was also justified because of the threat Brooks posed, Hall wrote: "It seems clear that Brooks was not going to be able to harm anyone with her car at a moment's notice. Nonetheless, some threat she might retrieve the keys and drive off erratically remained, particularly given her refusal to leave the car and her state of agitation."

They also noted that the force used wasn't that serious because the Taser was in "touch" mode rather than "dart" mode, which hurts more. They reversed the lower court's opinion and held that the officers were entitled to immunity from the lawsuit.

The officers' lawyers, Ted Buck and Karen Cobb, said the officers made the right decision under the circumstances they faced.

"Police officers have to have the ability to compel people to obey their lawful orders," Buck said. That's all the court recognized today. The 9th Circuit just applied the law instead of getting caught up in the otherwise unfortunate factual circumstances."

The majority's opinion outraged Judge Marsha Berzon, who called it "off the wall."

"I fail utterly to comprehend how my colleagues are able to conclude that it was objectively reasonable to use any force against Brooks, let alone three activations of a Taser, in response to such a trivial offense," she wrote.

She argued that under Washington law, the officers had no authority to take Brooks into custody: Failure to sign a traffic infraction is not an arrestable offense, and it's not illegal to resist an unlawful arrest.

Berzon said the majority's notion that Brooks obstructed officers was so far-fetched that even the officers themselves didn't make that legal argument. To obstruct an officer, one must obstruct the officer's official duties, and the officers' only duties in this case were to detain Brooks long enough to identify her, check for warrants, write up the citation and give it to her. Brooks' failure to sign did not interfere with those duties, she said.

Furthermore, Brooks posed no apparent threat, and the officers could not have known how stunning her would affect the fetus, or whether it might prompt premature labor — another reason their actions were inexcusable, Berzon said.

Brooks' lawyer, Eric Zubel, said he would ask the 9th Circuit to rehear the case.

"This is outrageous — that something like this could happen to a pregnant woman, in front of an elementary school, at 8:30 in the morning, to someone who posed no threat whatsoever," he said.

You know, I'm gonna do a little googling. They police MAY not have tased an infant yet (that we know of).... but what about a toddler? Or a paraplegic? Anybody want to make a bet?

Ok, a few minutes of googling did NOT reveal that any cops have tasered a paraplegic- but I'm chalking that up to a lack of thorough research- I'm SURE it's happened. But they've managed to get pretty damn close:

How about tasering a man with no legs: http://vodpod.com/watch/3928874-police-brutality-legless-in-wheelchair-tasered-and-exposed

Or dumping a paraplegic out of his wheel chair (and then another cop walks by and laughs about it): http://www.videohazard.com/police-brutality-scumbag-cops-abuse-paraplegic-man-in-wheelchair-then-laugh-about-it/

America's Finest have managed to tase a pallbearer WHILE CARRYING HIS FATHER'S COFFIN: http://blogs.app.com/saywhat/2008/11/20/cops-taser-pallbearer-carrying-dads-casket/

And last but not least- sodomy by taser: http://gizmodo.com/5322387/police-sodomizes-man-with-taser




And people still defend these thugs.

Oh- I almost forgot: Cops tasered 3 kids, threatened one with sodomy

http://www.prisonplanet.com/lawsuit-cops-tasered-3-kids-threatened-one-with-sodomy.html


Don't worry folks- no charges were filed.

Pretty damn brutal

I think you missed my point Bighead. I am saying if something done really is an honest mistake, it should be taken that way. If it was not an honest mistake, or you have reason to believe it wasn't, the civil suit should take place.

My feeling is that investigations into police wrongdoing should be handled by a completely unbiased outside agency. If a cop is in a traffic accident on duty I think it is supposed to be handled by a different agency than his own. For cases of misconduct I would take it a step further and have a non law enforcement agency handle it.