Here is some breaking news. This video was only released yesterday, and it demonstrates a clear and frankly unbelievable abuse of power by a Utah Highway Patrol officer.
Some guy was pulled over for speeding and argued with the police officer a bit about the speed limit. It’s a bit hard to hear but it sounds to me like the guy was going about 60, but the highway speed limit changed to 40, and that is exactly where the cop pulled him over. I’m guessing it was a classic speed trap.
Anyway, the police officer writes him a ticket, which he refuses to sign, so the cop pulls him out of the car and tasers him. Meanwhile his pregnant wife is freaking out!
Now, stupid things the driver did:
- Argue with a dumb, hick cop who is clearly out to bust you in a speed trap.
- Refuse to allow himself to be handcuffed.
- Turned his back on a police officer who was pointing a Taser at him.
Even stupider things the cop did:
- Be intollerant to the point of inciting the behavior of the driver.
- Failing to diffuse what was not even a hostile or dangerous situation.
- Tasering a man during a traffic stop without even attempting to reason with him, stop him, cuff him, or anything of the sort.
This abuse of power is just like the 20 or so other examples from my article The Tasering Will Continue Until You All Submit! And again, I point out that this police officer completely ignored any reasonable Force Continuum methodology just because he knew that the torturous Taser was all he needed. Plus you could tell at the end that he was getting a kick out of telling his buddy all about what he had done.
As I’ve been predicting since the police Tasered the UCLA student and the 11 year old at school, the tasering is going to become more and more routine, and for lesser and lesser reasons until society in general demands that it’s use be curbed.
So keep in mind that this son of a bitch wants you to know that next time you get pulled over you better not give any lip or you’re gonna get the tase! Beeotch!
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
Yeah Jake, you’re right.
The first thing I thought when I saw him walk up to the car like that was that it was awfully bold. But in the greater context of things it seems about right. If you’re manning a routine speed trap you probably don’t see much action, so he’s got a big head.
Also explains why he has to make his own entertainment by tasering some poor guy.
John
Dawn,
Thanks for sharing that. It is unbelievable! 4 big cops standing around and they’ve got a single guy completely cornered. But instead of just wrestling him to the ground they Taser him.
And he’s already in an airport so we know he doesn’t have any hidden weapons. So there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever. But this is exactly what I’m talking about. These police are placing the use of the Taser lower on the force continuum list than a simple takedown.
And the real shame is that society is just allowing it to happen.
John
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.