On June 29, 2009 McFarland and his wife Pearl were returning home from a charity fundraiser just before midnight. McFarland injured himself as he stumbled and fell down the long steps to his front door...The ABC News link has further details, and a video of the man being Tased.
His wife called paramedics, who helped him into the house and treated him. As the paramedics were leaving, two sheriff's deputies arrived...
The deputy tells McFarland he is going to take him to the hospital because he may be suicidal.
"We want to take you to the hospital for an evaluation, you said if you had a gun, you'd shoot yourself in the head," the deputy can be heard saying.
McFarland says it was just hyperbole. He was tired and in pain...
Then, McFarland tells the deputies in no uncertain terms to leave.
As he gets up to go to bed, McFarland is Tased. Not once, but three times.
The TASER is such a useful tool in a police officer's tool box. I think, however, that many departments don't train enough common sense into their officers to know when to use and when not to use them. Clearly, these incidents are still the exception, not the norm, but if left uncorrected, it will continue to get worse.
ReplyDeleteI'm also wondering if this wasn't a convenient way for the deputies to get the man to the hospital, as many jurisdictions' protocol on TASER use is to transport the recipient of the shock to the hospital to treat the small wounds where the electrode leads stick into the skin.
More alarming is the continuing surge in using SWAT teams for just about every type of warrant service, but this could easily become a second-level concern.
M*****F*****s.
ReplyDeleteClearly the cop's yelling "stop resisting" by rote so that the county attorney has a bogus line of defense when this goes to court. I'll bet that bit of script is part of taser training. What's the guy curled up in pain doing that can remotely be called "resisting". This is an aggregious case of field punishment for contempt of cop. The cop should be arrested for assault and battery.
"Stop writhing on the floor in agony because you foolishly sought help from the state." would have been more appropriate.
ReplyDeleteAnd if they act this way with a camera running, what the hell happens behind closed doors!!!
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