Texas Cop Uses Stun Gun on 76-Year Old Man for Expired Registration
Posted by Zenphamy 10 years, 4 months ago to Government
Oh my, another case of a poor misunderstood policeman just doing his job against the evil citizen.
And the beat (ing) goes on.
And the beat (ing) goes on.
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Yet every such act of heedless police brutality just feeds the public's antipathy, leading to ever more brutality, much as U.S. foreign policy of endless war breeds resisters we call terrorists.
It is worrisome that our society resorts to violence as the first step in any confrontation. That is how civilizations end.
Can reason reverse this self-destructive emotional poison? Can rational values be achieved on a seedbed of irrational destruction? Can resolution replace conflict, reparations replace revenge, rationality reverse insanity?
It is up to us to affirm and to continue infusing the culture with those rational and non-violent principles. People want to live, and to live free. Respect for the individual is key. Hold that focus in the face of encroaching madness. Don't let it go.
OK, Z & K you've almost got me convinced of the state of the police in the USA. But I was brought up to respect the police and expect proper treatment of myself by them. Just how prevalent is this kind of conduct?
Too many great State and Sheriff officers have been killed by someone they've pulled over. Now police officeres are trained to expect the worst when someone does the unexpected.
That is all I can say because I was not there, and all I really know is what is shown on the video.
I'm not sure this is a case of anger management as much as it is youth and inexperience. The officer is 23.
That said, when being pulled over by a police officer in a vehicle, you should pull over to a safe location, turn the vehicle off and put your hands in plain view (typically on the steering wheel) until the police officer comes to the window and you have the first interaction. At that point, you can ask the officer what the problem is and begin to explain your perspective. After the officer has ascertained that you are not a physical threat, you can then ask to exit the vehicle if you believe that is necessary.
The problem in this scenario is that by charging out of the vehicle the officer is immediately put on guard as to a possible threatening situation. From the officer's perspective, he has a vehicle that is past registration - which could be a stolen vehicle or a license plate stolen from another vehicle. Most up to date law enforcement systems will provide the officer info on the vehicle model and color and info on the registered owner. It takes a couple of minutes for the officer to get that info, that's why after they pull you over they often don't immediately come to your window. If you get out and start moving towards the police car, that officer has no idea what is happening and they are going to assume the worst scenario - which seems to have been what happened here.
Is a 76 yr old man a likely threat? Maybe, maybe not, depends on whether he has a weapon and just what kind of shape he's in. Likely not, but if you're a young cop, are you going to bet the rest of your life on no threat?
The cop overreacted, clearly. But Vasquez could have handled the situation differently as well. The cop needs to be sanctioned, for sure, but I'm not going to jump on him as some sort of stormtrooper. He was relatively inexperienced, and likely startled by someone who got out and started moving towards him.
Civil Suit: Title 42 USC sec 1983 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4...
A couple of years ago I stopped my truck and horse trailer some distance away from a night-time police action on the road ahead. I did not exit my vehicle, nor did I move my truck to anywhere near the police. Eventually one of the cops, who had been holding a flashlight that I could occasionally see blinking, came back to my truck and asked why I had not obeyed his order to move forward. He said I could be arrested. "Why did you make me walk way back here?"
I had been assuming the road was closed, and that I would need to turn my rig. Instead it was a police roadblock checking vehicles for some unknown purpose. "Haven't you ever been through a roadblock before?" the cop asked. Well, I said that I had, but that was really incorrect. Before I was driving a car, and it was daylight. I didn't think to mention that to the cop.
Later I asked a cop elsewhere about what had happened, and learned that if I HAD tried to turn around I would at least have had my tires shot out. Don't know what I would have done with the horses if that had happened.
That being said, this officer clearly needs to be able to evaluate a suspect better. This isn't a 260-lb youngster who looked like he could play linebacker in the NFL. And its pretty clear by his attitude that he has a hair trigger - I'd advocate anger management counseling for him and mandate ride-a-longs for a year before sending him back out on his own.
That's not showing my cop manhood respect. Think I'll get my old prison job stick out of my car trunk.
The good ole' days! That's when cops were really manly men!
Hey, you talkin' to me?
Whack! Whack! Whack!
I don't have to take that, ole' geezer!
Whack!
And let that be a lesson to ya.
Either way the cop should be fired, arrested for assault and put in jail for no less than 90 days.
Either way the cop should be fired, arrested for assault and put in jail for no less than 90 days.