What happens when a 72-year old Austin grandma talks back to a cop who shoved her on a routine traffic stop? This:
What’s pretty sick to me is that people all over the Web are justifying the tasing as if she was really some sort of a threat to the cop or to anyone else. Kind of like when people justified this disgusting incident from a couple years back:
Abuse of power is to me one of the most disgusting things there is, and is never justifiable, but the issue is even more disturbing so when it is shown against non-threatening individuals like these.
Tasers are not squirt guns. What kind of people are these police officers?
Oh, and for those of you who might still think that this kind of thing is legit, the consequences can be much worse.
Via / Mahalo
Well, I don’t know how everyone else feels about this, but I can tell you I am disgusted with the Officer who tasered that 72 year old woman in Texas! This is nothing short of excessive force. I can understand that the woman was being beligerent and using foul language. Guess what? That’s part of being a COP!!! I deal with irrate customers in my line of work everyday-ITS CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE. You suck it up and get your job done with minimal consequences for all. Had this officer had some common sense and decency he could definately resolved the situation much more peacefully! DON’T GO TO AUSTIN TEXAS-next they will be raping little old ladies there.
What a power-hungry two-bit bully this cop is. A big guy battling an old lady. Reminds me of that other two-cent bully Kim Jong Il. I would fire him on the spot, he showed no respect to her whatsoever and was combative from the start. Respect for the law and police is not an entitlement, it has to be earned.
I live in Austin and I am appalled by the actions of this constable’s officer. After she is made to get out of the vehicle, you can hear her saying that she will sign the ticket and yet the officer keeps going with his overly forceful attitude. I believe a good number of police vs citizen confrontations like this happen because an officer either starts in with or responds with a bad attitude and ignites the situation. Lee Stanford is right, good customer service has to be employed and police officers should be held to the same standards that we hold any other professional to if not more, because we certainly can not refuse to do “business” with law enforcement. This officer should loose his job. Every day that he is allowed to remain on the payroll makes the whole city look bad.
I live north of austin and am disappointed that this episode resulted in a 72 year old woman who stands less than 5 feet tall being tasered. However anyone who watches the video can clearly see that she instigated the confrontation and at every step in the process she was combative and verbally abusive to the officer. It should be understood that contables, sherriff officers and police officers are not customer service representatives, they are law enforcement officers. And while respect is not an entitlement compliance with the law is a requirment, when someone does not obey the order of a law enforcement officer they put themselves at risk for whatever action that officer feels necessary for compliance. For those that see the taser as excessive force don’t forget that a lot of folks down here carry permited weapons so a belligerent 72 year woman should be treated with the same amount of caution as a 25 year old belligerent man. If you don’t want to visit Austin because of this episode, I say come on down follow the law and you’ll be just fine, Austin is a wonderful place. And if you stray and do get stopped by an officer you will be fine if you just follow their instructions like any other law abiding citizen. If you can’t follow these simple rules we would rather you spend your time somewhere else.
mr stites-you must be one of these bullied school children that is trying to get back at everyone for being kicked around as a child like most cops are-wake up buddy police abuse is coming to an end-maybe you can condone these actions but the rest of our tax paying citizens will not tolerate it anymore-nobody i know wants to even visit your police state that you call austin, they may be tased for using bad english or parking their car-
Ken don’t fret I was never bullied growing up nor did I stand by to see anyone bullied. I was simply raised in an environment that taught me to abide by the law and when the law was wrong to fight it in an appropriate way which is peacefully. For those that believe that they are either above the law or that it is their right to excercise insubordination with respect to lawful orders, it should be understood thay have put themselves at risk. When someone responds the way this woman reacted, the officer’s actions are not abuse. With respect to police abuse in general I wish you were right but I don’t agree that police abuse is on the way out, as police officers are humans and none of us are perfect. As far as Austin being a police state first of all the State is Texas, Austin happens to be our Capitol City; secondly if everyone agreed with you and all of your aquaintances about visiting Austin we would not have one of the fastest growing populations in the country and the flow of tourism enjoyed during great events like South by Southwest and Austin City Limits. So if you don’t want to come to Austin because of one story about an unfortunate incident then stay away it is your loss.
I have haunted by this story and the video and most of all by the brutal comments on some websites – if it happened here (NZ) the whole chain of police command would be facing heavy repercussions right up to the Minister of Police.
The constable is evidently totally out of control and should not be in uniform.
We all want to admire US and US policy world wide but my golly some of you make it hard to do.