What's Wrong With American Cops?

[Snowboy]

Closing statements it is then.

Under UK eyes the cop over reacted.
But, under US ones the cop did what was right.
If a cop Points a taser at you and gives you a command then you follow it or you get tasered.
If you have acted in such a way that the cop has had to pull the taser in the first place then it's 100% your own fault.

Anyon who uses YouTube clips to make judgements on entire nations must be very surprised when they find cats that can't play pionos.

[Matt Harper]

So, at what point does the cop "assume" that there isn't a gun involved? He's trained to assume nothing. Why can't you grasp that?

[Rovinghawk]

Snowboy said:

But, under US ones the cop did what was right.

Tasering an unarmed, unthreatening, gobby woman is 'right'?

Snowboy said:

If a cop Points a taser at you and gives you a command then you follow it or you get tasered.

That would appear to be the case- that doesn't make it right, though.

Snowboy said:

If you have acted in such a way that the cop has had to pull the taser in the first place then it's 100% your own fault.

The argument is that she didn't act in a way whereby he needed to do so.

[Snowboy]

Matt Harper said:

So, at what point does the cop "assume" that there isn't a gun involved? He's trained to assume nothing. Why can't you grasp that?

I think it's a lack of personal experience.
No matter how much one reads it's still hard to comprehend quite what it's like with guns in the US if you grew up in the UK.

To be sitting in a bar and notice that several people have guns on their belts or under their jackets is very odd.

Or watching regular well dressed people come into the gun range and pull a gun from their handbag or sock for some shooting practice.

It's only when you see it first hand that you realise quite how many normal people carry guns in the US.

[carinaman]

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/318215/8/Danielle...

Lazy git! He's fired that taser like changing channel on TV.

And now she has DNR on her. And we had people here after the shove on Tomlinson saying people don't die after banging their heads on the ground.


See Winsor is correct about the fitness test, otherwise we'd have officers that can't be bothered to run using tasers as harpoons too.

Edited by carinaman on Thursday 10th October 18:27

[Bigends]

carinaman said:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/318215/8/Danielle...

Lazy git! He's fired that taser like changing channel on TV.

And now she has DNR on her. And we had people here after the shove on Tomlinson saying people don't die after banging their heads on the ground.


See Winsor is correct about the fitness test, otherwise we'd have officers that can't be bothered to run using tasers as harpoons too.

Edited by carinaman on Thursday 10th October 18:27

Cowardly fat st. She was cuffed -how far was she going to get even if she got away from him? Spose she might have run home and got a gun - outrageous - he wants locking up.Whats he doing letting her run anyway - all his fault

[carinaman]

PC Savage obviously bought a retirement home in Florida:

http://gawker.com/florida-man-literally-arrested-f...

What was he expecting wearing a loud shirt like that?

It's a bit like me getting tasered for typing in the wrong forum.

Edited by carinaman on Thursday 10th October 18:38

[jaf01uk]

carinaman said:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/318215/8/Danielle...

Lazy git! He's fired that taser like changing channel on TV.

And now she has DNR on her. And we had people here after the shove on Tomlinson saying people don't die after banging their heads on the ground.


See Winsor is correct about the fitness test, otherwise we'd have officers that can't be bothered to run using tasers as harpoons too.

Edited by carinaman on Thursday 10th October 18:27

Come now, Snowboy and Matt will be along in a minute to point out the error of our ways at being outraged, they have experience you know and we don't so how dare we form an opinion, over to you guys..........

[carinaman]

Cole only tasered her as she was running out into the road and at risk of getting run over?

Despite the cuffs she could have been reaching for her gun?

I am trying to find a link to some young woman that got tasered outside a sports stadium for walking away from the police. I thought the compensation was $80K ish, but perhaps it was more than that and I am thinking it was 80K as I converted it from US $ to £ GBP? The compensation award was something like 7-8 years after she got zapped.

[Tannedbaldhead]

carinaman said:

PC Savage obviously bought a retirement home in Florida:

http://gawker.com/florida-man-literally-arrested-f...

What was he expecting wearing a loud shirt like that?

It's a bit like me getting tasered for typing in the wrong forum.

Edited by carinaman on Thursday 10th October 18:38

Where another worry lies was, if convicted, resisting arrest probably get's you put away for years.

When Occupy and students were protesting against the bankers in a number of American cities it was bad enough that peaceful protests who's crime was merely to sit on a university campus link arms and sing "we shall overcome" were pepper sprayed full in the face with a fire extinguisherful of the stuff. Bad enough but not enough because worse still was that public prosecuters were warning that should a protester engaged in protest they would be instructed to move, if they refused they would be arrested for obstructing, once arrested if they did not get up for the arresting officer they would be charged with resisting arrest and, as having to pick up limp protesters could strain the backs of these huge ex-military type cops it also constituted an "assault and battery of an officer" to which the protester would be charged. They were looking at severalteen years jailtime. In addition to this kids wearing gasmasks were warned by police chiefs they ran a serious risk of being shot on site. Their argument was that if the police on the ground felt they could not protect themselves from a protester with CS Gas and pepperspray they would have to resort to live ammunition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4

[carinaman]

Tannedbaldhead, I wasn't coming at it from an anti-US angle. Regarding your last post, hard of thinking British police officers aren't above playing the system to their own ends. That's how I know about section 29 and Professional Standards Assessment Officers writing what looks like essay padding waffle.

[streaky]

Red Devil said:

streaky said:

I grew up on an island where able-bodied men were deputised as needed, and chucked ne'er-do-wells in the harbour on arrival. Mind you, the previous administration (30 June 1940 to 9 May 1945) shipped them off to slave labour camps - S

Ah, but which one? Those dates make it obvious where you're referring to.

The one with a JE postcode.

Streaky

[carinaman]

That's why they had Mansell and his tache there as Special Constable.

[XCP]

I thought that was the IOM.

[carinaman]

You could be correct there XCP. I know him and his two lads passed the IAM test on the same day in Devon in Audis.

[Matt Harper]

carinaman said:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/318215/8/Danielle...

Lazy git! He's fired that taser like changing channel on TV.

And now she has DNR on her. And we had people here after the shove on Tomlinson saying people don't die after banging their heads on the ground.


See Winsor is correct about the fitness test, otherwise we'd have officers that can't be bothered to run using tasers as harpoons too.

Edited by carinaman on Thursday 10th October 18:27

Now this one is pretty outrageous. She presented zero threat to the cop, as she was fleeing and on foot.

Taser should be a tool of defense rather than apprehension - I'm not going to speculate as to his motivation, but whatever it was, it was wrong.

[carinaman]

XCP said:

I thought that was the IOM.

I was wrong. Seems he also served as a Special with Devon and Cornwall.

[Snowboy]

jaf01uk said:

Come now, Snowboy and Matt will be along in a minute to point out the error of our ways at being outraged, they have experience you know and we don't so how dare we form an opinion, over to you guys..........

I think that's more than a little disingenuous.
This story is nothing like the other one as well you know.

[pcvdriver]

Snowboy said:

I am not.
Are you a stupid soccer mom who argues with cops?

Snowboy wishes he was a cop don't you think?.....

[spitsfire]

Tannedbaldhead said:

Where another worry lies was, if convicted, resisting arrest probably get's you put away for years.

This is a big part of the problem, I think. Idiot policies such as '3 strikes and you're out' mean that a fairly minor offence can end up with a ridiculous prison sentence. It makes the stakes so much higher, and the suspect will take far greater risks to escape. After all (and I'm not excusing such actions), I think a fair proportion of people would resist if they were looking at life in a US prison for having 2 previous convictions and a couple of bags of weed in their pocket.

All this 'tough on crime' stuff is, to my mind, as well thought out as 'spare the rod, spoil the child'.

From a Scottish perspective (and I'm sure England and Wales aren't much different), I'm glad that our judiciary are a lot more reasoned and considered in their approach, particularly their reluctance to apply 'politicised' sentencing to offenders - http://www.scccj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08...