This just infuriates the he-- out of me. Where in the he-- do these officers get off thinking they are acting within the scope of the law? I hope this citizen not only wins his suit, but puts these LEO's on the street, never again to wear a badge and a gun. The only bad thing about it is the taxpayers are going to foot the legal costs for their actions. In such a case, taxpayers should be free and clear and the offending LEO's should bear the full burden of their illegal actions.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/north_bay&id=7639987
Yet another article from a media outlet that refuses to see what's really transpiring. Did you watch the entire newscast because the newscasters obviously didn't review the footage properly? What boils my blood is the civilian that thinks he or she knows about use of force when they clearly do not and have no LEO experience what so ever. Those are the folks endangering our officers by making false claims that this kind of action was wrong when it clearly was not. Elderly people are fully capable of inflicting injury and putting up one heck of a physical fight, so don't count them out just because they're old. When the po-po shows up, you have likely done something to bring them there.
LEOs informed him that they were going to take him in for an evaluation. He does not have a choice in the matter if this is going to occur...it is going to happen for the reason that he said if he had a gun he would shoot himself. Threat to commit suicide...potential to hurt others as well, both of which mean the ability to make his own decisions must be evaluated by a medical professional...against his will if necessary.
Next, he refuses to follow lawful orders from the LEOs by remaining on the couch. This is called passive resistance folks...it IS resistance. Next he attempts to stand up, that alone could be considered an act of hostility and the LEOs practiced restraint and ordered him to sit down, then put his hands behind his back. Again he refused and became verbally resistive as well. With him attempting to walk off he is no longer in passive resistance, he's beyond that and possibly in defensive resistance. You can bet if they went hands on it would have become very physical.
There's the threat of harm to self, the potential harm to others, the potential harm to LEOs. Taser IS justified to limit the ability of the subject from being able to hurt himself or the officers (or others).
1st discharge. Then you see an officer attempting to get a hand behind subject's back, he's resisting. He's ordered to stop resisting and warned he will be tased again, but he keeps resisting. 2nd discharge. Same order to stop resisting is given and subject continues to resist. 3rd discharge.
Want to claim the issue of the heart condition? Get Taser certified and you'll quickly find out that the statistics and personal experience illustrate that the Taser affects the nervous system (pain response portion), not the circulatory system. It is extremely difficult to link any death directly to the use of a Taser, the big issue would be if it were used on someone with a pacemaker.
