Great Moments In Law Enforcement, A Continuing Story
And the taserings continue in earnest:
he FBI is investigating after a Trotwood police officer used a Taser on a pregnant woman.Trotwood Public Safety Director Michael Etter said the incident happened on Nov. 18. He said the woman arrived at the police department asking to give up custody of her 1-year-old son.
Etter said an officer spoke with the woman as she held onto the child outside the police department.
“(He) attempted to obtain information on both the mother and the child, at which time the mother refused to give any information and became very agitated,” Etter said.
Surveillance video from the police department shows the woman trying to leave with the child. The officer then grabs her coat in an effort to get her to stop.
Etter said the officer was doing what he thought was in the best interest of the boy.
The video shows the woman struggling with the officer, who then takes the child from her and gives the boy to another officer. The first officer then forces the woman down on her stomach, and he then uses a Taser on her neck.
In defense of the officer, she may have been planning to ask a GOP candidate a question in the next debate, so we are glad this was handled quickly and without incident.
*** Update ***
Via Radley, yet another tale of America’s finest at work.
Dug Jay
Per The Gallup organization:
The basic data—based on an aggregated sample of more than 4,000 interviews conducted since 2004—are straightforward.
Anecdotal evidence drawn from a review of this site and its regulars would strongly suggest that the results reported for Democrats are grossly overstated.
Jay
Your Flash player link appears to be broken?
Alan
I don’t see why our law enforcement officers even uses tasers. Why don’t they just use electric cattle prods? Isn’t that what they are using tasers for anyway?
James Seidler
The increasing use of tasers as an easy option to punish civilians or shock them into compliance is really alarming. As I wrote on my blog yesterday, an 82-year-old woman and a man sleeping on his own couch are just a couple recent victims.
John Cole
And let’s not forget the left wing bias in statistics! It is probably much worse. Although the thing that would have been nice is if they pointed out what makes us crazy is dealing with wankers like you.
r€nato
well, cattle prods are sorta bulky. Have you ever seen how much gear cops carry on their belt? Taser is kinda like a compact, more portable cattle prod…
so has anyone checked on the woman’s party affiliation? Or her countertops? Or her kerning?
r€nato
I predict that the election returns in 2008 will also have a clear Democratic bias.
r€nato
well Republicans are also significantly more likely to think things in Iraq are going really well.
Bill Arnold
What I don’t understand is why police departments that just want their officers to have a portable torture device don’t issue ordinary stun guns. Tasers are single-shot, right?
Bill Arnold
(ack, duplicated Alan’s thought due to comment lag. )
Jake
The children! Won’t somebody think of the children?!
Tsulagi
The numbers no way surprise me. One thing you can say for Republicans is no way in hell they suffer from lack of self esteem. Generally they’re the guys in mom’s dark basement with orange colored skin from all the Cheetos they eat. But positive they’re the next Jack Bauer.
Here’s a classic poster child for intelligent Republican mental health. That guy never forgets to drink his Brawndo.
Bill Arnold
Very cool mosaic of stun guns here.
My inner evil geek is drawn to either the Blast Knuckles, or the Cell Phone stun guns. But the Double Trouble is probably best for torture purposes.
MNPundit
So time to figure out how to stop them. Is there clothing or some sort of electrical field that can be used to mute or block the charges?
rob
Wow! I am going to have to look in to this. I lived in Trotwood until I graduated from college. I still live in Dayton. I have Miamisburg cop friend I am going to call to see if there is any other info on this.
ThymeZone
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Zifnab
This is nothing. When I was his age, my mother used to tie me up in a burlap sack and beaten with a slab of frozen ribs. And she was the nice parent.
That boy should be grateful he’s getting off so easy. And he should go out and get a job. What’s a one-year-old doing getting dumped off at a police station? Freak’n welfare anchor baby.
STEVEinSC
They don’t use cattle prods because there’s the stand-off factor to consider.
Jeff
What happened to those laws where parents can drop off their child at any hospital, fire station or police station, no questions asked, to avoid the babies being thrown in the garbage. Or is that only for newborns?
bob
It seems more and more that the police are just another gang of thugs.
STEVEinSC
Once upon a time in bad old liberal days we had police as negotiators to resolve crises without violence. We’re post 9/11 now, in the macho conservative times, and instead of negotiations we have trigger-happy snipers on the roof.
capelza
The taser is becoming more of a weapon of punishment against someone, be it a pregnant woman, a first grader or a blind elderly woman….not about catching or restraining a suspect, but rather inflicting it on someone that irritated the cops….it is ridiculous.
Jeff, there are laws like that, but I’m not sure they are nationwide.
BFR
I’d suspect this is a case of correlation not exactly equaling causality. I’m guessing religious affiliation & intensity is probably the actual driving factor – I don’t recall where but I think I’ve read somewhere that deeply religious people tend to be happier, which I would presume would also translate to a better image of their own mental health.
Whether this is because they’re actually happier/saner or not is a different story.
Dreggas
Well Of course they do, they also think they’re napoleon.
Dreggas
DON’T TAZE MY FETUS BRO!
F
Ohhh, Ohhh, I know what I’m getting for Christmas.
Thanks for the link Bill.
Bill Arnold
The future will soon bring us a genuine pain gun. I wonder how a civilian version of this in a belt-attachable form factor will be justified to taxpayers by police departments in the U.S.. The worldwide market for these, perhaps combined with a stun gun, will be huge.
srv
I think y’all are rushing to judgement here. Maybe the fetus knew something about a terrorist attack.
Cindrella Ferret
That’s why we have a 2nd Amendment. It has become necessary to protect ourselves from the government.
Napoleon indeed. But, the French are back in vogue with the Real Americans now that someone more to their liking has taken over the Presidency of France. By the way, does anyone know if we can start eating French Fries again? American Fries are good but I did prefer the French version. (Those damn Frenchies sure do know food. Hot Damn!)
srv
The future’s so bright, I gotta wear a farraday cage.
Jason E
Dug Jay Says:
Per The Gallup organization:
PRINCETON, NJ—Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.
The basic data—based on an aggregated sample of more than 4,000 interviews conducted since 2004—are straightforward.
Anecdotal evidence drawn from a review of this site and its regulars would strongly suggest that the results reported for Democrats are grossly overstated.
What the hell was the point of that? What does that have to do with tasering a pregnant woman? Have you been sitting on that little gem all day, and just had to post it somewhere no matter how little (if anything) it had to do with the subject at hand. That’s pretty cute.
I don’t suppose the higher “sanity” number for Republicans could be because they’re arrogant assholes who always assume they’re right and never question themselves or their assumptions about the world? Nah, couldn’t be…
The Pirate
This is one instant of tasering I think was clearly justified. The woman was clearly resisting arrest.
Dennis - SGMM
Police-issue Tasers use a powder charge to fire two barbed darts through clothing and into the skin. The darts pull one wire each, from the Taser cartridge, behind them. The officer can then trigger as many jolts as he or she sees fit from the battery in the Taser. The cartridge itself can be reloaded in less than five seconds. The only defense it to attempt to drop and roll in the hopes that you break the connection between the darts and the Taser. Once you’re jolted you temporarily lose muscle control so you have to try to break the connection between jolts.
I’m a civilian employee of our local police department. Thankfully, our police are thoughtful, humane, community-based, cops who use force as a last resort.
PhoenixRising
parents can drop off their child at any hospital, fire station or police station, no questions asked, to avoid the babies being thrown in the garbage
Yeah, that’s for newborns. Once the umbilical stump is gone, it’s child abandonment…which is why your local firehouse isn’t a holding tank for mouthy 13 year olds.
Here’s my foolproof idea: Raise Christmas money by holding up cash registers in Trotwood, Ohio. Where the cops are such wusses they can’t subdue a pregnant crazy lady who’s holding a toddler. Or once she’s put down the toddler, whichever, they’re clearly not trained to stop actual crime.
Can somebody link me to the recipe for the foil vest?
jcricket
With apologies to Queen
Don’t taze me now… i’m having such a good time, I’m having a ball.
Don’t taze me now…
kid bitzer
actually, what i find worrisome is that tasers may actually be reducing the violence level, not raising it.
maybe in the old days the cop would have just shot her, and then concocted a story.
that’s certainly what the chicago cops used to do. routinely.
and on the whole, a tasing hurts less than a slug in the skull.
RSA
Similarly:
Not to mention:
So much for self-assessment surveys of performance.
chopper
come on, this woman was asking for it. she was clearly pregnant.
Perry Como
Don’t mentally ill people often consider themselves “normal”?
Let’s go to the granite counter tops!
Jess
Re: Dug Jay
No one is really all that mentally healthy, especially in America, but sociopaths are more likely than most to deny their psychosis.
Fledermaus
In other news dog bites man film at 11:
Jon H
“They don’t use cattle prods because there’s the stand-off factor to consider.”
Yeah, cops are chickenshits. Scared of everything.
Jon H
Just wait until the civilian taser guns start being used so casually.
Also, I seem to be the only person who realizes that a taser gun is an ideal tool for a rapist or child abductor. They can just sit in their van and wait for someone to walk by, and ZAP. The victim is helpless and can be gagged and loaded into the van.
Jon H
“maybe in the old days the cop would have just shot her, and then concocted a story.
that’s certainly what the chicago cops used to do. routinely.
and on the whole, a tasing hurts less than a slug in the skull.”
I think that’s the excuse they give. But a light club whack to the knuckles or funny bone would be sufficient in many situations a taser is used now, and far safer for the person who has annoyed the arrogant chickenshit cop.
Remember when the taser was for use on angeldust-fueled unstoppable maniacs who could not be stopped by batons?
I guess cops are so wimpy these days they can’t handle a pregnant woman without a taser.
Jon H
Uh, just to be clear, when I mention the rapist-tool angle above, I raise the issue thinking it’s a bad thing, and only a matter of time before it starts happening.
I’m not encouraging the use of tasers in that fashion.
Michael D.
I was all for the availability of non-lethal force like tasers, but am I the only one who thinks that police are using it quite liberally? (OMG she looked at me wrong. Bzzzzrrrrttt)
I’ve seen stories of several people being killed by these things. Ironically, if cops only had guns, we’d probably see less crap coming from them.
I’m so tired of this bullshit. I want tasers banned. My opinion: Law abiding citizens canhave them. Cops can’t.
Robert
The legal requirement is for the use of minimum force. As the woman was already on the ground and the office could readily handcuff her. Instead the officer specifically choose to use his taser as a torture and punishment device, judge, jury and executioner. Clearly an excessive use of force and subject to assault with intent to do bodily harm charges, a person that clearly should not be armed and in a position of authority.
Psycheout
Uh, would someone call the police, please?
Giuliani’s crony, Bernie Kerik, already made his seven figures ($6.2 million). So I guess he won’t mind.
Why didn’t I invest in TASER when I had the chance? ::slaps self::
Psycheout
May I offer you an Aqua Dot? They’re really tasty.
Kirk Spencer
I defended – partially – the officer in the traffic stop. This yahoo… no. In addition to things mentioned, I’m aware that the department there has a specific policy prohibition against tasing pregnant women, and she’s visibly pregnant.
binzinerator
Uh, this woman, just like that don’t-tase-me-bro dood, were zapped like steers in a cattle chute.
Which leads into the answer to this other question:
Because stun guns are “cattle prods”. Cattle prods are what fascist thugs use to cow the populace and torture their victims with. And when you say “cattle prod” everyone knows it. The inhumanity is built right into the name. We know using cattle prods on people seems to cross some line of decency. They’re not for people, duh.
That’s why our cops use tasers. It’s the cattle prod made over for people use. The name itself helps hide the reality of their actions—they can say something like “the subject took a ride with the taser”. As opposed to the effect of this statment: “We used a cattle prod on the neck of a helpless pregnant woman.”
Easy enough to figure out the advantages to a cop, if they’re the sort who likes to zap people just to show ‘em who’s boss.
Plus, the public, intelligently enough, would get nervous if cops started to walk around with cattle prods swinging from their belts. “Cattle prod” is a mega-clue where civil liberties are going to go.
Tasers. Even better than cattle prods, and they don’t suffer from all that thug-and-torture baggage and all that negative PR that goes along with it.
It’s a perfect twofer: The pigs who misuse them don’t look like sadistic fascist thugs, even when they are, and their superiors who cover for them can claim it saves lives.
Bill Arnold
Cattle prods are not the same as stun guns. Stun guns (& Tasers) are optimized for immobilization, not pain. From the link I gave,
These two devices differ mainly in voltage. The voltage in a stun gun is high enough to dump electricity into the entire body. The lower voltage in a cattle prod only shocks someone at the point of contact.