No.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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:
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.
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?
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.
Read the rest of my post, dimwit, in which i said:
Hear! Hear! The last time an insurance agent wrote off my car, without a license, I damn near shot her.
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.
Is she an insurance agent if she doesn’t have a license?
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.
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. 
Well, I don’t know the background of this 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.
I’m sure this woman felt the same, which is why she needed to have her silly ass Tazered.
Regards,
Shodan
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.