It's yet-another-cop-tasering. And, really, I'm late to this particular story - it made it's way through the blogosphere last weekend. I care enough about the topic to dive in a week late though.
If you haven't seen this tasering, well, here's the 2-part "uncut" version via YouTube:
It's approaching the point at which I just don't know what to say. I guess in lieu of my own thoughts, I'll simply quote Billy Beck's (apologies for the profanity in the quote):
I cannot conclude otherwise: this sonofabitch of a cop needs to get stuffed into a cage, forthwith.
Once more, children: we are cultivating exactly the very mentality that once herded human beings into cattle-cars without hearing the sounds of its own conscience. These automatons -- these political homunculi -- are being cultivated to not reason to a moral conclusion on their own powers.
I say that Tasers are only accelerating this dynamic: touted as "non-lethal" (which is now known nonsense), they are more and more instant resort to force exactly where human beings ought to put their minds to work. And I will not entertain any judy-boy bullshit about how hard cops have it. Fuck them. I long for an America where cops were men, able to rationally face the dangers of the work that they chose, instead of walking "policy" statements in action without minds and morals.
Pay serious attention to his whole issue. This is going nowhere good, in a big-time hurry.
Dale Franks of QandO borrowed the above mentioned Billy Beck's term "the Endarkenment" in his commentary on this and I think it appropriate to do the same.
Some choice quotes from Dale Frank's commentary:
Morons cannot maintain a sophisticated, technological civilization. And slowly, and ever so surely, that's what we're becoming.
And it's not just the lack of critical thought. It's the lack of being able to think morally or philosophically. take a look at this: [embedded video of the tasering]
And there's something I want you to notice. It's important. The cop pulls his taser immediately. The man is offering no threat, the officer tells him to get out of his car, walks back to the RMP cruiser, drops off his ticket clipboard, and draws his taser before asking the man to comply. In the absence of any threat at all, the officer initiates force.
The rules for dealing with the police are now getting much simpler. Comply, instantly, or be tasered and arrested.
...
We're losing America. I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.
Today it was reported that the Utah Department of Public Safety has come to the conclusion that the officer's "actions were lawful and reasonable under the circumstance." If that's the case, might I suggest Utah change their laws such that these action can't be consider lawful?
Over at HotAir, all the commenters who thought the tasering was justified and said as much in the comments of HotAir's original blog post on this story are taking the Utah DPS conclusion as evidence they were correct. For instance, "JetBoy" comments:
*pats self on back*
I’ve got the “bragging rights”! I never doubted for a moment the officer was well within his authority to use the taser on that dude.
You have to always remember…the officer who pulls you over has no idea who you are or what you’re capable of. Cops get shot or worse all the time from simple routine traffic stops. And expecially since the officer was alone, he has every right to protect himself from someone who repeatedly refused the officer’s demands.
JetBoy - enjoy your bragging rights. Myself, I'd prefer actual rights. Like the kind that should be keeping people - even people that act like jerks - from being tasered by cops.
I think the sheer number of HotAir commenters that don't seem to find anything wrong with what this cop did is what I find most disturbing. This idea of "screw the average citizen, we've got to protect our cops!" How contrary to how things should work. As this coming from the commenters at a conservative blog.
I'll just conclude with this:
- We're giving our police military equipment.
- We're using SWAT teams to take down non-violent offenders.
- Citizens getting involved with police are engaging in actions that many other citizens identify as not causing any threat to the police, but are getting tasered by the police anyway.
- I'm officially concerned.
Update: The good old days?
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