# Officer tasers woman twice..for driving on a suspended license **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 20, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399 "2006-07-20T22:23:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/61 "2006-07-21T01:40:49Z")
[QUOTE=drachillix] Would it have made a difference in your opinion if the driver was larger and male with the same history? [/QUOTE] No. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/62 "2006-07-21T01:52:10Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] As I indicated earlier, even we have more rights than many of us realise. And if someone (a) refuses to leave a vehicle and (b) is considered dangerous (note that A does not necessarily mean B), it’s much safer for all involved to just close the road and deal with the situation properly. [/QUOTE] You do not have a right to resist arrest or refuse lawful orders of a police officer. How would you advise them to proceed? How many of your tax dollars is it worth for this person, with warrants, to choose to stay in her car for as long as she damn well feels like it. Shall we drag out the psychiatrists, the media, her friends and family, let it turn into a circus requiring 20-30 officers? option C: Taser the dumb bitch and cuff her. 30 seconds, handled. I’m sure she knew she was being arrested, warrants for FTA on prior traffic tickets don’t just appear from nowhere. Maybe all of the mail from the county was insufficent warning of her impending plight. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/63 "2006-07-21T01:53:45Z")
When the officer tells you to get out of the car it’s best to respond by getting the fuck out of the car. I’ve never known anyone that has been tasered for not complying right away but I do know a few who have been pulled through their drivers side windows with such speed they didn’t relise what happened till thier face was in the pavement and they were getting hand-cuffed. It seems to be a patented manuver that also serves the purpose of encouraging seat belt use. I’m not sure which method I’d prefer. I think I’d just comply and get out of the car on my own. She was in idoit like my freinds and has learned the hard way to follow instructions. I don’t see a problem with the officers actions. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/64 "2006-07-21T01:56:47Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] No. [/QUOTE] So if a 6 foot 200 pound man took a swing at an officer a taser is a less appropriate response than say a baton? Would drawing their sidearms been more appropriate? What was the magic solution? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/65 "2006-07-21T02:07:54Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] …if someone (a) refuses to leave a vehicle and (b) is considered dangerous (note that A does not necessarily mean B) [/quote] Clairvoyance is not a requirement for American police officers, though I suppose it would be nice to know who you can fart around with and who might pose a deadly threat. > [@](#): > > it’s much safer for all involved to just close the road and deal with the situation properly. _Close the road??!?_ For someone resisting police? Just how much time do you folks have on your hands over there? The commutes here are long enough as it is. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/66 "2006-07-21T02:11:47Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] So the police are employed to arrest people, no matter what? Please expand on this. [/quote] They’re not the jury, if that’s what you mean, deciding whether the person is guilty or not. If they have indications that a crime has taken place, they arrest the person and turn the evidence over for prosecution. > [@](#): > > Wow to you too, for knowing that she was such a clear and immediate danger as to justify such extreme measures. I _don’t_ know and didn’t claim to know if she was dangerous. Neither did the cop. The possibility always exists, though. I certainly don’t blame him for erring on the side of caution if there’s any possibility the suspect may harm themselves or others. The luxury of hindsight is not one which is afforded to police officers when they’re staring down a situation which may become hostile. Now, we know she didn’t have a weapon. At the moment, how was the police officer to know? Everything that happened to her is her own fault. If she would have complied like a reasonable adult, none of this would have happened. Show me a video in which the cops tazer a passive, compliant suspect and I’ll be right beside you, saying that those cops were wrong and should be punished to the full extent of the law. And, **control-z** , “swatting” a police officer is assault. The law doesn’t make exceptions for “gentle” hitting. How hard are you supposed to be allowed to hit them before they get upset? ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/67 "2006-07-21T02:18:46Z")
Having had our car written off by some asshole driving without a license, I’d be all in favour of making Tasering a default punishment for anyone caught doing it. I’m only _half_-joking about that, too. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/68 "2006-07-21T02:56:07Z")
[QUOTE=Rick] I got five bucks that says a policeman ordering you out of your car during a traffic stop is a legal order and will be upheld in any court in the land. Are we on? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Read the rest of my post, dimwit, in which i said: > [@mhendo](#): > > I’m not saying that was the case in this particular instance; i’m just pointing out that your vision of apparent police infallibility and absolute authority is both troubling and wrongheaded. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/69 "2006-07-21T04:24:44Z")
[QUOTE=Bites When Provoked] Having had our car written off by some asshole [/QUOTE] Hear! Hear! The last time an insurance agent wrote off my car, without a license, I damn near shot her. ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/70 "2006-07-21T04:49:00Z")
It should be noted that being tazed has not yet been found to be the direct cause of death for anyone. I personally believe that anyone who is tazed should find the cop later and thank them for doing so. If we remove the tazer from the police arsenal, we leave them with either beating the shit our of someone or shooting them. Now, about using a tazer on a woman who refuses to get out of her car. Honestly, what do you expect? She was given a lawful order. It dosen’t matter if she was being arrested, about to be arrested, or if the officer just wanted to talk to her outside of the car. It’s no different than if you’re walking down the street and an officer stops you to talk for a few minutes. You’re not privy to the knowledge that someone who is wearing the exact clothes you are just shot someone. Looking like someone who just shot someone else will likely get you detained for a few minutes. You can try to ignore him, but it won’t turn out well for you in the end. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/71 "2006-07-21T04:49:21Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] Hear! Hear! The last time an insurance agent wrote off my car, without a license, I damn near shot her. [/QUOTE] Is she an insurance agent if she doesn’t have a license? ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/72 "2006-07-21T04:54:32Z")
That’s why I \*almost \* shot her. **Bites When Provoked** wants to have insurance agents without valid drivers licenses tazed, which is too tame for me. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/73 "2006-07-21T09:47:12Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] That’s why I \*almost \* shot her. **Bites When Provoked** wants to have insurance agents without valid drivers licenses tazed, which is too tame for me. [/QUOTE] D’oh! Now you’ve made me giggle - which is making it \*very \*hard to maintain the irritable and self-righteous attitude I’m working on. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/74 "2006-07-21T13:13:23Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] \ Show me a video in which the cops tazer a passive, compliant suspect and I’ll be right beside you, saying that those cops were wrong and should be punished to the full extent of the law. \ [/QUOTE] Well, I don’t know the background of [this](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/news/video/0726taser.html) video, but I would like to. (I’d like to also read the account of this case, why the police were subduing him etc. The video is pretty poor quality.) Apparently the fellow died from his treatment. The link is a pop up window with ActiveX control. I don’t know if the woman should have been tased so quickly or not, maybe so. She could have become violent, and maybe the cops were afraid of what they heard her saying into the phone, since she was giving her location. I think I’d want her cuffed and in the cruiser too, if I heard her telling someone else where she was after the attitude she was showing. I’d be afraid of having a confrontation with 2 unruly distrustful outraged people. Even so, I do think there are cases where the taser is used far too quickly and casually. Just that the one in the OP might not be one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/75 "2006-07-21T13:15:12Z")
Ah, [here](http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pages/Jan05/020105tasers.html) is a news account of the video I just linked. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/76 "2006-07-21T13:27:00Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I tell you, I wouldn’t normally strike an officer but if they tasered me that quickly and out of the blue I’d want to do some damage. I’m sure this woman felt the same, which is why she needed to have her silly ass Tazered. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/77 "2006-07-21T13:41:11Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] Ah, [here](http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pages/Jan05/020105tasers.html) is a news account of the video I just linked. [/QUOTE] My 'puter won’t let me view the video. (Must not have the right software). So, I’ll go from what the article says. For me, the first paragraph sums it up: > [@](#): > > Gordon Randall Jones went down after police shot him in the back with a Taser. He was shot about a dozen more times before police subdued him enough to load him into an ambulance, where he died on the way to the hospital. The officers didn’t needlessly taser a passive, cooperative suspect. This man was crazed. They had to keep reapplying the shocks because he wouldn’t stop struggling. The police had few options, as I see it. They could let the man attack them (or bystanders), or they could use the less-than-lethal tools at their disposal to try to subdue him. There’s no reasoning with a crazed person, nor is it reasonable to expect officers to put their own safety at risk. My husband frequently reviews use-of-force videos at his workplace when there’s allegations that the officers were too rough. Occasionally, he does see where the officers have violated policy, and he punishes them appropriately. But most of the time, there wasn’t actually a violation, even though the outcome _sounds_ violent, especially to a lay-person who isn’t familiar with techinques. As the article says: > [@](#): > > "Is it perfect? No. But there are so many statistics that show that departments that use it have fewer injuries to the suspect and the officer alike. Yes, people will die. People have died from being hit by pepper spray and “rubber bullets.” It’s unfortunate, but I don’t blame the officers or the manufacturer of the taser device. I blame the suspects who were acting in manners that forced the officers to use it. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/78 "2006-07-21T13:49:03Z")
[QUOTE=the news article in post 75] But law-enforcement officers commonly use Tasers to subdue people who do not pose a serious or immediate threat, according to a report from Amnesty International that called for the moratorium. The report claims that analysis of the weapon’s effect on the elderly, drug addicts or people with heart conditions has not been adequate. “That gap in the knowledge about how a Taser works on a range of individuals is precisely the problem,” Amnesty International spokesman Alistair Hodgett said. “Any electrical item you pick up at your local store has undergone more testing than Taser.” [/QUOTE] And then again, **Lissa** Amnesty International is calling for a moratorium on the use of tasers. There must be more to this than what that article says. I don’t know what a proper balance between officer and civilian safety would be in this, but I hope one can be found/maintained. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/79 "2006-07-21T14:37:25Z")
I think the problem is that tasers are being used to get a suspect to comply, instead of doing the decent thing and simply reasoning with a person and giving them a chance to listen. I think the officer, despite his apparent cool demeanor, lost his temper with the lady and took it out on her. Tasers amount to torture and should only be used when someone is a threat to themselves or others. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399/80 "2006-07-21T14:42:06Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] I think the problem is that tasers are being used to get a suspect to comply, instead of doing the decent thing and simply reasoning with a person and giving them a chance to listen. I think the officer, despite his apparent cool demeanor, lost his temper with the lady and took it out on her. Tasers amount to torture and should only be used when someone is a threat to themselves or others. [/QUOTE] Oh, bullshit. I watched the videos the first time we discussed this. I watched them again for this thread. The officer acted in a totally correct and professional manner. However, I don’t think you will ever understand this; your posts indicate that you apparently have severe issues with the police. And your statement that tasers amount to torture is rank stupidity. However, to give you credit, you did say that they “should only be used when someone is a threat to themselves or others”. And in this instance, that is exactly what happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/officer-tasers-woman-twice-for-driving-on-a-suspended-license/365399.md?page=5)