UPDATE: According to the Times Argus, he is planning on suing the city.
We know what to expect, don't we?
Once again, the Barre Police have assaulted a harmless, unarmed person with their Tasers, this time in the context of what they referred to, apparently without embarrassment, as a “welfare check”.
I guess they determined that the welfare of a human being is adversely affected by the introduction of 50,000 volts.
Then, once they took the guy down using their Tasers they did what any self-respecting police department would do: they arrested him and charged him with disorderly conduct. After all, the police would never let someone get away with being assaulted and injured by the police without charging him with something, right?
This time the judge wouldn't hear of it. At a preliminary hearing this week district Judge Brian Grearson threw out the charges, concluding that there was no evidence that the injured victim's behavior amounted to disorderly conduct, even though State's Attorney Tom Kelly argued valiantly that yelling was enough.
Although Kelly conceded that Magoon complied with a police request that he drop the backpack he was carrying at the time and never actually threatened any of the three officers on the scene, he insisted there were grounds for the criminal charge
“At the very least his behavior was tumultuous,” Kelly said, suggesting Magoon's alleged shouting in a public place was enough to clear that bar.
Not according to Grearson.
“Anything other than yelling?” the judge asked.
What comes next? Well, now that the charges have been dismissed the victim's lawyer indicates that he is likely to sue the Barre police.
In addition, as with the incident earlier this year, we can expect that the Barre Police Department will conduct an investigation and conclude that its officers were blameless and acted in conformity with the Taser policy.
But what about this: How about taking these deadly weapons away from the police? they've already shown that they can't be trusted with them.
when I read that line in the paper about shouting being a valid reason to subject someone to a life threatening assault (use of a taser) … all I could think was “holy shit!”
So the question arises: where do our esteemed gubernatorial wannabes stand on all this? And I’m not asking rhetorically.
Judge Grearson is deserving of many kudos for using his common sense of justice to control police tactic abuses.
I have been reading too many articles that went the other way from police tasering 86 year old bedridden ladies, 8 year old children having tantrums, epileptics and diabetics having seizures, a man who fell off a bridge and was hurt, and people of color walking home from the grocery store.
This is the first time I’ve heard that the police were not exonerated of a sociopathic attack against the public.
I have been despairing of our police remembering who they are supposed to ‘protect and serve’ !
Especially after the G20 and G8, meetings, and national party conventions in Denver, Seattle, St. Paul, London, and most recently Toronto.
I’ve also noticed a concerted attack on the press from the coverage of the meetings and conventions mentioned above to the gulf oil spill and spraying of Corexit by BP and our own Coast Guard.
We’re watching the dissolution of our society…. and I am grateful for Judge Grearson putting a stop to it in one corner of Vermont.
But he should watch his back from political retaliation…. and we should watch his for him too !
according to the reporter
Considering Barre PD has had Tasers for less than a year and used them three(?)times what would be considered excessive use by the reporter?
a great deal of PR was devoted to convincing everyone that they were a safe tool for law-enforcement. They oversold that very questionable attribute and laid the groundwork for all of the abuse that followed. It would be very interesting to obtain records of the developers’ early sales efforts, PR planning etc.
… they’re pushing hard to outlaw anyone who photographs the police in the act of using excessive force. Aided by over-zealous state attorneys, they’re trying to kill the messengers who document the atrocities and hold them accountable.
Odd, really, that on the one hand law enforcement will insist that when they taser random people for no apparent reason they’re justified in doing so, and yet on the other hand they lash out furiously whenever someone happens to be in the right place at the right time to catch their actions on video or has the audacity to complain about their treatment at the hands of the police.
Why… it’s almost as if, deep down, the cops know they’re doing something wrong, but instead of refraining from doing it, they’re more interested in stopping anyone from knowing about it or daring to complain about it. Remind me again who pays their salaries and who is supposed to be comforted by their presence in our midst?
Hardwick Police announced at the July 1 Select Board meeting that they have bought tasers and are going to begin training with them.
The police chief is from North Miami Beach, Florida.
The police have two major types of power. One is force: the gun, the pepper spray, the taser, the physical training, the backup at the other end of the radio. The other is respect: people’s respect for the law, the justice system, and the police.
I’d propose that respect is the more potent of the two. A police officer who commands respect can deal with a hundred people, easily, and without violence. It is the idea in the minds of the people that they and the police are on the same side, promoting the same values, and subject to the same laws, that give the cop power. Cooperation might be grudging (“Time to quiet down and go home, folks!” “F___ing buzzkill, man.”) but people understand, deep down, that a cop is the personal manifestation of the community will.
A cop with a gun but no respect is just another gangbanger in a fight.
If I were a cop I’d be angry at officers who misuse their authority. They are a danger to other police officers, taking away their most potent professional tool – the idea in the minds of the people that cops are the good guys.
More specifically the police need, at the very least, the same kind of strict rules of force applied to tasers as they have for firearms. Same internal investigation when used, same reporting, same penalties. The only place I see the taser as being appropriate is when the officer or someone else is being threatened with immediate physical harm with a non-projectile weapon such as a knife or club. Otherwise, no weapon = no weapon.