Tasering is as American as Apple iPhones
by digby
What could be a better reason to shoot someone full of electricity than committing the heinous crime of trying to buy too many iPhones?
"She was scared, she didn't understand," said John Hugo, who said he was Li's fiance'. "I was outraged. You go into a store, and you end up getting brutalized by the police."
A Boston area family says a language barrier may have resulted in police using a Taser on a woman after she tried to buy too many iPhones at a local mall.
Hansen said the woman had been resisting arrest for about 15 minutes before a second officer arrived at the scene.
"So then the police took my mom's phone and tried to take my mom's bag. And my mom tried to ask them why, and they just threw her to the ground," Jay said.
The 44-year-old mother of two was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest.
"My mom feel really upset with what they did," Jay said.
Nashua police see the situation differently.
"She wasn't mistreated in any way. If she left the store when she was told to leave the store, it would've been done at that. She was told she was under arrest after repeatedly being told to leave the store. She didn't submit to the arrest. The officer used the Taser on her to get her to submit to the arrest," Hansen said.
According to Nashua police policy, Tasers may be used "when the subject has signaled his/her intention to actively resist arrest in an aggressive, hostile manner or when a need arises to incapacitate a dangerous, combative, or high risk subject where other use of force techniques exposes the officer, the subject or the public to unnecessary danger, or when other force techniques have been or may be ineffective."
The policy continues, "The weapon is a level of force normally required to overcome passive, defensive, or offensive resistance that is intended as an act of overt aggression toward the officer where an individual refuses to comply with verbal instructions."
Sure, there's nothing wrong with that at all. A women who doesn't speak English is suspiciously buying iPhones and doesn't understand why the police are trying to arrest her so she gets shot through with 50,000 volts.
Take a look at that policy:
The weapon is a level of force normally required to overcome passive, defensive, or offensive resistance that is intended as an act of overt aggression toward the officer where an individual refuses to comply with verbal instructions.
Are we feeling free today? Like super-duper free? Do you think it's a good idea to give the police a torture weapon which they are authorized to use in cases where they have divined that a person is intending to be "overtly aggressive" by being passive or defensive?
Are you feeling free today? Really, really free?
.