Tasers
They're like a remote-controlled rugby tackle.
Florida cops tase naked jogger
Florida police tased a 18-year-old this week after spotting him going for a jog wearing nothing but a pair of swimming goggles. West Melbourne Police officer Ken Sells spotted Zak Anthony King out for what appeared to be an early Monday morning constitutional. However, Sells quickly realised King was stark naked, save for a …
-
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Not just tackle
Naked onto tarmac while losing control of all of his muscles. He is lucky to get away with just bruises and abrasions.
What's next? Tazering someone through a car window while driving or tazering someone who is on a bicycle? Whoever gave that officer firearms training should have their contract terminated outright.
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
The other options
The other option was for the officer to tackle the guy with his body. I'd imagine falling to the ground on your own weight would hurt somewhat less than being clobbered by another person and both of you falling to the ground with another guy on top of you.
What would you propose the officer have done? Yell at the guy until he got tired and stopped running?
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:51 GMT steward
There's something called a nightstick
which could be used to trip the jogger, or hit him with, without exposing him to a potentially lethal electric shock simply for exposing his body.
Or they could have called in another car or two to trap the offender. Or officers on bicycles, motorcycles, or if they have them in that city, horses.
Or they could have just left him alone, and gotten to work on rapes, murders, burglaries, robberies... oh, I forgot, those jobs are more dangerous than electroshocking a nude man.
-
-
Friday 15th October 2010 09:47 GMT Mark 65
@Alan 6
Exactly! I mean...
"Sells eventually flicked the switch, hitting King in the head and back and causing him to hit the pavement."
He hit him in the head! What the fuck? That means he must have been aiming up the top end rather than centre of mass unless the dude was performing some "touch the ground whilst running" training manoeuvre. He could have killed him just because he was running as nature intended - admittedly illegal but certainly not worthy of death. Fucking fat donut munching wanker.
-
Friday 15th October 2010 10:04 GMT Fred Flintstone
Taser = Whip
A Taser may be non-lethal, but it hurts like hell from all I've been reading. So it's a whip which conveniently leave no traces for others to see. No embarrassing concussions other than when you're zapping someone in motion, so no indication of any suffering you have inflicted.
I'm amazed the big heavy cop could not stop the skinny and mildly deluded stripper. Maybe he couldn't keep up?
-
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
bdfjlvbgadj
Tazering someone through a car window while driving...check
Tazering someone who is on a bicycle...check
BONUS: Running them over because they were too close to your car when you tazered them
BONUS II: Planting a gun on the body
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/death-of-teen-on-bike-shows-risks-of-expanded-use-of-tasers/1112106
-
Friday 15th October 2010 12:42 GMT Dave 15
Difficult to know...
It really is difficult to know why there are so many police when they seem to have nothing better to do than complain about hedges or assault scantily clad joggers. (I suspect the goggles mean he strictly wasn't 'naked')... The guy didn't even resist but was still subjected to force and injury by a cop with unlimited time to be a waster.
Personally I think we should disband ALL police services the world over they seem to be full of aggressive jobs worth incompetants.
-
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 14:44 GMT The Fuzzy Wotnot
Trogs!
Sounds like was one sandwich short to start with, even more reason to NOT taser the poor sod. It's obvious by the fact that he had nothing on but his birthday suit, that he was unlikely to whip a weapon, well no weapon he could seriously hurt anyone with!
Another example of the State's finest behaving like the thugs they constantly try to deny they are.
-
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:04 GMT David Beeston
Are you serious?!??!??1
Cop should lose his job. These things are only meant to be used in times when there is a danger to the public or the officer. They are meant to be used as equivalent to when someone would otherwise be shot as the almost non-leathal alternative.
This is clearly not an appropriate situation to use a taser. He was naked. Not going to be any concealed weapons. No real danger or threatening behaviour to the cop. I reckon the fat cop realised that the guy was gonna out run him and couldn't be arsed chasing him anymore.
Shame on you sir. Shame on you.
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:06 GMT Darkwolf
Perhaps...
...the officer was thinking the guy was Captain Jack Harkness, who does have a habit of being able to pull out weapons from "somewhere" although being totally nude.
( See Dr. Who episode "Bad Wolf")
Captain Jack Harkness: [after listening to Trin-e and Zu-Zana discuss what they're going to do to him] Hold on, ladies, I don't want to have to shoot either one of you.
Zu-Zana: But you're unarmed.
Trine-e: [as Jack reaches behind his back] You're naked.
Trine-e: [Jack has just revealed a small gun that he now points at Trin-e] But that's a Compact Laser Delux.
Zu-Zana: Where were you hiding that?
Captain Jack Harkness: [with the gun pointing at Zu-Zana] You *really* don't want to know.
-
-
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
If the cop can't do it, then call in someone competent
The orderlies in mental hospitals deal every day with far harder cases. They don't threaten the patients with violence and they don't shoot them with tasers. (Or at least not usually.)
It sounds a bit as though the police in the USA need to set up a proper procedure for dealing with naked people who won't do as they're told (respect their authoritah). That procedure could be as simple as phoning the nearest mental hospital.
On the other hand, I bet The Register only reports on the cases where tasers were used. For every such case there are perhaps hundreds of other cases where the police behaved in a civilised fashion. Would it be possible for some slightly more investigative journalist to found out what the normal or recommended way of dealing with such cases might be?
-
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 15:51 GMT Anonymous Coward
According to the Taser Gospel, the cop would have otherwise had to shoot him dead
Watch the video closely and you will notice that the copper tells nude-guy to put his hands behind his back, while the taser continues to clack away in the background. Not surprisingly, buddy fails to comply. This is actually SOP for most taser deployments. The 'excessive force' is built in.
Is this version of the video missing eight seconds (from 38 to 46 seconds)? I guess they chopped that out because otherwise the excessive duration would have been too obvious.
Cue massive lawsuit.
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 16:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Indecent exposure
I thought, well in the UK at least, that your todger needs to be a full mast for it to be indecent exposure.
Presuming this guy's old chap was flacid when running, it seems difficult to justify tasering the guy on those grounds.
In the laa-and of the freeeeee
And the home of the braaaaave.
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 22:34 GMT Smudge@mcr
Naked jogger
A jogger used to run naked past my Gran's house at 3am every night.
One day she told a passing Police Officer who said he could not do anything about it until he received a complaint.
My Gran replied " I am making a compliant, can't he jog any earlier I haven't been to sleep in weeks!"
( The old ones are the best)
-
Thursday 14th October 2010 22:37 GMT kain preacher
@If the cop can't do it, then call in someone competent
The orderlies in mental hospitals deal every day with far harder cases. They don't threaten the patients with violence and they don't shoot them with tasers. (Or at least not usually.)
Thats when they get six or seven people to hold him down and sedate him. The problem with that is if he is on drugs sedating him could kill him, drug interaction. If he is on drugs struggling can lead to a condition called stressed induced heart attack. But most of the times the cops just wrestle the guy to the ground like what the orderlies in the hospital would do.
Last comment. Before every tars th US police with the same brush, I've seem to notice that alot of these cases come from Florida and Texas.
-
Friday 15th October 2010 10:55 GMT Alfred 2
A few things about this ....
disturb me.
Was the naked jogger actually wet? (There was mention of him apparently having been swimming.) Wouldn't that have made the use of a Taser extrememly dangerous?
I also find a couple of comments here a bit suspicious. The suggestion that a big burly cop shuld have jumped on a small naked jogger, or tackled him. Am I the only one that thinks man rape migh not be preferavle to a tazering??
Mind scrib please.
This topic is closed for new posts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
