I had seen this video on the news yesterday, but it didn’t give the full context so it seemed like perhaps the cop might have indeed felt in danger by a man wandering outside. However, watching it in the full context definitely shows a complete lack of danger to the cop. And that is scary to the rest of us that there might be some other similar cop out there who would be willing to use more force than necessary, search our car without probably cause, and not be able to talk reasonably with us. Scary stuff.

do some research first before ranting….if you do not sign your ticket the police can arrest you….he was evading arrest though the arresting officer should have been a bit more verbal…like i’m putting you under arrest for not signing your speeding ticket….and i’m about to taser your ass in front of your pregnant wife if you dont bend over and spread your cheeks

government authority drunk with power :( that’s crazy, thank you for the enlightening post

HOLY. CHRIST.

This cops is an idiot. I love how he goes up to the wife after he has the “perp” in handcuffs, wandering around while he charges up to the wife to “explain”. Then he threatens to taser a pregnant woman. Then he tries to explain himself for a while to the wife. And refuses to read the guy his rights.

Oh, and he charges right up to the window of the driver at the beginning of the stop. Good thing this guy wasn’t a crazed escaped convict, wielding a gun…

Here’s a video of a recent killing of a man, by taser, by police. The poor fellow could not speak English and had been left unassisted for something like EIGHT DAYS, while his mother frantically searched for him on THIS side of the “security” barrier. No one would help either one of them.

This one makes me very ashamed of our police – AND Vancouver airport personnel…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHKk5qQRzL4

By the way, apparently the Utah Highway Patrol have gotten some feedback about this:

http://highwaypatrol.utah.gov/

Check out the message on the home page.

If Andrew Jackson was the driver of the SUV, then that would be one dead officer Gardener.

We see the 40mph (temporary) speed limit sign at the beginning of the video, which the patrol caar is clearly obstructing. Speed traps should be illigal as they abuse the intent for the authority we grant to police and amounts to legalized theft.

Was it absolutely necessary to shoot the speeder? No, and what if the driver (victim) had died? Would that not have been murder?
We should have a diversion program for 1st time speeding offenders, at least wait until the second offense before we allow police to shoot our citizens in-the-back! -Where is the honor in our police today?

We also clearly hear Officer Gardener lie to his fellow officer. Can we in good conscience countinue to allow an officer to testify in our courts, aftter we have a video of him lying to a fellow officer?

The guy had his back turned and was walking away when he got tased. That’s crap! My friend got tased over the weekend by an off-duty cop in a bar. These are the people we have patrolling our streets, power hungry, low-paid, undereducated, ex-high school football jocks. Very sad.

That was an illegal search at the end- the cop can only search the front to look for a weapon that can be used by the driver – since the driver was in custody he had no probably cause to search any more.

There is a lot of abuse by police that goes unnoticed. Several years ago there was an older woman in Portland, OR who was tasered. The woman was sitting in her car in front of her friends house after church, chatting for about 30 minutes. She was dropping her friend off. She was not in a no parking zone. An officer pulled up behind them and told the woman she couldn’t sit in a parked car there. When the woman asked why the officer asked the woman for her ID. she wanted to know why. the officer tried to pull her from the car, she resisted and the officer tasered her. He gave her a ticket for running a stop sign! By the way, the woman is a minister over 70.

I found out about this when doing research on abuse by police officers. I myself was pulled over by an officer who refused to tell me why he pulled me over. He raised his voice and my 3 year old autistic son started crying in the back. I turned to quiet my son and the officer opened my suburban door and twisted both arms behind my back, permenantly injuring my right arm by twisting the ligaments so far they cannot be repaired. He arrested me for assulting an officer. He claims I kicked him in the groin (with my car door shut and my seatbelt on, i am good, hu!) I was in jail over the weekend for no reason, and was not given a reason i was pulled over. 4 months later I was MAILED a ticket for assulting an officer. After hiring an attorney I was finally told that I was pulled over for jumping a curb (extremely narrow bank teller, pulling out into 2 lanes of traffic going right, in a surburban) and he suspected me of drunk driving. Of course I was never tested in any way for drugs or alcohol. In the end I had to pay a lawyer $3000 to get the charges dropped, but was told I did not have a case against the officer for injuring me. I have had almost constant pain in my right elbow for over 3 years now. This officer was acting out of anger, although i have no idea why. I did nothing to provoke him, apparently he was just having a bad day. (or he just hates white women mabye, who knows) Bottom line was, police have the right to abuse you without a reason and there is nothing you can do about it.

The thing thats over looked is that the police officer searched the vehicle with out asking or anything.. I believe if anything his rights were violated that way. The guy was an idiot, lucky that stupid cop used his taser.

In court, this will get thrown out, and the officer will be remanded (civil suit) as the officer never read the man his Miranda rights.

He never said “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” Plain and simple, after he had the man in cuffs, he should have read him his rights. After he arrested him, he should have read them. He never did.

Case and point, thrown out of court, the man and wife sue for mental and possibly physical abuse.

You cop-haters never cease to amaze me with your wishful thinking and/or ignorance.
First, the man was told he was under arrest and he began to walk away, despite having the Taser aimed at him. You would prefer that the officer physically tackle the man, risking inflicting physical injury to both the suspect and the officer? The Taser only inflicts pain and muscle incapacitation for 5 seconds, by far the lesser risk of injury.
Second, you obviously have no understanding of Miranda other than what you see on TV. Miranda applies to police interrogations after the suspect is in custody, and if the officer fails to follow the rules, anything the suspect said after being arrested will be suppressed, but the case won’t be thrown out unless the statements given in violation of Miranda were the primary evidence in the case.
Third, the search of the vehicle is totally lawful under the guidelines of “search incident to arrest” as outlined in by the U.S. Supreme Court in a lesser known case (Stroud).
Fourth, the speed limit sign may not have been the first one in the temporary speed zone, we don’t know because the video does not show that far back, so any comments about it being a speed trap are just speculation/wishful thinking.
Could this officer have handled this situation better? Absolutely! I’m guessing he will probably be given some form of counseling to improve his performance, but I doubt that it goes any further than that, as much as you haters will want it to.

Both acted stupidly.

I saw this video a couple of weeks ago for the first time…
I also saw ‘Das Experiment’ and ‘The Wave’ to name a few. This stuff will continue as long as people and society doesn’t change, i believe. We allways took the ‘easy way out’, chose a solution on the short run and never even thought about the negative aspects.

You cop-haters never cease to amaze me with your wishful thinking and/or ignorance.

1st of all, i don’t think there are a lot of ‘cop-haters’. There are a lot of people who hate the abuse of power. It’s not because you have the law on your side that you are right. In my opinion there was no reason what so ever for the cop to 1) arrest this guy and 2) taser him after he refused.
We’re living in this Super professional society wich is becoming less and less humane. How fast was this guy driving anyway? Was he a danger to others?

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. — Salvor Hardin

We declare our right on this earth…to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary. — Malcolm X

I’m sorry to say but the officer could have handled this situation a lot better. I have been a police officer for 12 years and have never had a basic, and what I consider minor ticket turn out this way. Obviously the man didn’t want to sign the ticket, the reason was he probably thought that it was an admission of guilt. I would have immediately told the man “sir, you signing this is not an admission of guilt, you are simply showing your received the ticket”. Problem solved, that’s a little something called tact, and using your brain.

Believe it or not, being professional and conducting yourself properly will almost always make the bad guy look stupid.

“I don’t yell with my mouth, I yell with my pen” – PTL. Mayo CHPD.

someone needs to shoot that cop with the taser. What he did was illegal and I hope to God that he went to jail for that. The cop freaked out, shot an a man with a taser and came close to zaping the girl with it to. His whole department should line up and fire tasers into him, show him what its like. Personally i’d aim for his balls, so he can’t ever produce another creap like himself.

It really amazes me how different the cops treat white law breakers and how young whites treat cops. I can almost be assured it would not have been a taser but a loaded 9mm if it were a young black man. But the young black man would not have gotten out the vehicle to argue with cop about speeding…

WE THE PEOPLE ? FAMOUS WORDS IF WE WORK IN NUMBERS. THE POLICE NEED TO BE POLICED THEY SHOULD GET THE SAME TREATMENT BY LAW AS WE DO? FORTUNATELY I CANT DO IT A LOAN BUT IF OTHERS WOULD STAND UP AND WORK ON THIS AS A TEEM IM SHORE THE GOVERNMENT COULDN’T OVER LOOK THIS MATTER AND THESE OFFICERS WOULD HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO OBEY THE LAW AND IF THEY DON’T OFF TO JAIL WITH THE REST OF THE CRIMINALS…WELL LIKE I SAID IM ONLY ONE BUT IF I GET A REPLY MAYBE THIS WILL GO SOMEWHERE ANY THANKS FOR READING THIS ………..WE THE PEOPLE…..THATS ONE TO REMEMBER???????

The Officer decided to give the guy a ticket (For whatever reason) so it did not make any sense to argue with the officer about doing his job. That’s what court is for. Never complain about or argue with a police officer, just take notes on what he’s doing wrong and contact a lawyer and internal affairs to make a complaint against the officer. I promise you, If you make a complaint at the internal affairs office regarding an officer’s behaviour. That Officer will be sweating his balls off while he’s being investigated just as you were sweating your behind off thinking about how you are going to pay or fight that ticket. The only diffrence is the Officer could be fired or suspended if your complaint proved he acted unprofessionally or unethically.