Oh, you were serious when you asked me to get out of the car?

[WayAbvPar]

Ignore and attack the police at your own peril.

I am not sure how I feel. The woman in the car was being a snotty bitch and thus got what was coming to her, but was it apropriate force? It is tough to tell from the video if she actually takes a swing at either officer. If she did, then it is more than appropriate IMHO.

I did enjoy the end when the cop tells her they have both been tased before and know it isn't as bad as she acts. Heh.

[Samwise]

I think I have to concur with the "snotty bitch" assessment.  If a cop pulls a taser on you and tells you to get out of the car or he'll use it, and you keep yakking on your cel phone like he's not even there, and you then get tased and dragged out of the car, you're not allowed to act surprised about it later.

[HaemishM]

I'm there with the snotty bitch argument. What the fuck place was this person raised that they think it's ok to ignore a police officer's request to step out of the fucking vehicle? He wasn't being abusive, he wasn't being harrassing, he asked her politely to step out of the vehicle. Not only did she refuse, she continued to jaw on her goddamn cell phone, as if telling whoever she was talking to was going to help her in her situation. I've been pulled over before, and asked to step out of the car. I did so. Had I not, I'd have expected the cop to beat the fuck out of me, or at the very least, use whatever appropriate force was necessary to ensure that I did as he requested.

As for the tasering, it's a much better method of subduing someone than say a fucking baton across the noggin. Except in extremely rare cases, it will cause no lasting physical effects, something you cannot say about the baton. There are way too many possibilities for permanent or significant injury with a baton. Taser just puts you down, with little to no danger to the officer.

I notice the bitch tried to say "YOU ARE RACIST" and "I"M GON' SUE!" before she was hauled up off the ground. Good luck with that, dumbass. The tape shows he made no racist comments or anything towards her, he followed procedure and she was driving with a suspended license. She's shit out of luck.

[WayAbvPar]

She's shit out of luck.

I think that is my favorite part  :-D

Instead of a ticket for a suspended license, she gets resisting arrest as well. Have fun with that one, dumbfuck.

[Nazrat]

The best part is to play the traffic stop video with commentary.  She wasn't on the phone when she was pulled over.  She tells the police that he can't use his radar while driving, that he is pulling her over for her race, etc.  The officer even outlines that she was speeding, has a broken windshield, is not wearing a seatbelt and has a busted tailpipe.  He calls for backup and then gets her license from her.  At that point, she decides to call someone. 

Oh well.  He should have just hit her with the baton a few dozen times.  She was beg for the taze next time, I bet.

[Merusk]

What you hear is not the whining or crying of a woman in pain.  Oh no, I've heard that whining and crying before when I put-down some actual authority on my nephews.  Same pitch, same over-dramatic sobbing.  It's the shocked sobbing of 'fuck, they really CAN make me do what I don't want to.'

[Samwise]

You know, that was my reaction as well.  Having been around a lot of small children, I've learned to differentiate between "I'm in pain and can't help myself" crying and "Hey look at me, I'm making lots of noise" crying, since one you need to react to and one you need to tune out.  And the noise she was making sounded like a tantrum.  Hell, even the"Put on your shoes" when they were trying to get her to stand up and the "DON'T TOUCH ME!" shriek when they tried to pull her up off the ground sounded like something you'd hear in a house with a spoiled brat of a child. 

I guess this is what happens when those kids get older, eh?

[Paelos]

I just love seeing cops beat anyone on a cell phone in a car. Beat them all please.

[Trippy]

The way the video is edited makes the arresting officer look worse than the full unedited video would've, in my opinion. In the arrest clip you see and hear the officer ask the women to step out of the car and she refuses and things escalate to the tasing. However if you listen to the commentary the training officer says that the officer told her she was under arrest for having a suspended license and then told her to step out of the car but you don't hear that on the video (and I have no reason to think the commentator is lying since the newspaper has access to the full unedited video). Without the commentary, even though the women was a total whiny bitch, it's not clear why the officer needed her to get out of the car and so the tasing seemed kind of unnecessary.

Edit: fixed typo

[Paelos]

Suspended license means you go into the clink. That's why she has to get out of the car. Cops don't go rooting into your car to get you out because it puts them at a disadvantage tactically. Once you are outside of the vehicle it is much easier to subdue you and take you into custody. Therefore, when a cop says exist the vehicle, exit it. I'd say she got off easy just being tased.

[CmdrSlack]

Had her license not been suspended, this would have most definitely been excessive force (at least in Chicago it would have been a winner for someone suing the CPD).  Since driving on a suspended license = getting arrested, then yeah, it was ok to ask her to get out of the car.  Since, you know, they have to arrest her.  However, had it just been a regular traffic stop, there's no reason to ask her to get out of the car.  In fact, I don't quite think you HAVE to get out of the car if an officer asks in a regular traffic stop. 

But that gets into a bunch of criminal procedure stuff that I haven't had to care about for over a year. 

Having played with the electronics shop version of tazers in HS and having been smacked by a cop with a nightstick before, I have to say I'd much prefer the tazer over being clubbed ever again. 

[Samwise]

Does being tasered create any lasting pain or injury?  I've gotten some fairly painful shocks before, though nothing of the taser variety, and although it's extremely unpleasant at the time and makes you very anxious to avoid it in the future, I don't usually think of electrical shock as being a lasting pain (like the sort of thing that'd have you crying about it for five minutes afterwards).  Does that change once the voltage gets high enough?

[CmdrSlack]

Does being tasered create any lasting pain or injury?  I've gotten some fairly painful shocks before, though nothing of the taser variety, and although it's extremely unpleasant at the time and makes you very anxious to avoid it in the future, I don't usually think of electrical shock as being a lasting pain (like the sort of thing that'd have you crying about it for five minutes afterwards).  Does that change once the voltage gets high enough?

From what I understand, it depends on the tazer and its voltage, whether it's repeatedly used, etc.  For excessive force, there really doesn't have to be lasting damage to make it actionable because the nature of the violation is moreso Constitutional than anything else.  The lasting damage helps, and makes the case stronger tho.

I wonder whether a tazer would kill someone with a pacemaker though.

[Samwise]

I was more wondering whether there was any merit at all to her wailing after being zapped.  I mean, I'd probably be lying on the ground wailing sort of like that if you kicked me in the nads really hard, because that creates a long-lasting sensation of physical agony.  Is being tasered comparable to being kicked in the nads?

[HaemishM]

In fact, I don't quite think you HAVE to get out of the car if an officer asks in a regular traffic stop. 

You may not have to, but it's probably not a good idea not to. Because really, all that's going to do is escalate the situation further. You get pulled over by a cop 999 times out of 1000, if you don't act like an assmonkey, you aren't going to get a beatdown, nor will you get excessive force used against you.

However, sitting on a cell phone, refusing to get out of the car when you've been told you're being arrested and telling the officer he's not doing his job right and he's a racist, is probably going to get you some painful consequences.

As for tasers, I think they are mostly non-lethal and non-harmful, except in very, very rare circumstances. A pacemaker might be one, or some weird electrochemical shit might be another. But I don't really know for sure. I'd have to Google it.

[Pococurante]

If I were the cop I wouldn't chance that there was no gun in the car.  Tasering is definitely appropriate force.

[HaemishM]

Taser safety:

Maybe, but nothing really definitive has been shown.

But how safe is it to zap someone with 50,000 volts?

Dr. William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, says he doesn't know how Tasers will impact patients who have cardiac problems, epilepsy or mulitple sclerosis.

"We simply don't have definitive studies of any of those things," Schulz said.


Though dozens of people have died after being Tasered, their maker, Taser International, insists the stun gun is never the cause. They say fatalities come from pre-existing heart problems or people on drugs.

Amnesty International disagrees.

"At the very least, Taser ought to support extensive, independent medical tests that can prove once and for all whether or not there are dangers," said Schulz. "We don't want people walking around 'tasing' one another with 50,000 volt shocks. These are not fun and games."

The ACLU thinks they might be dangerous.

[Furiously]

I think they pulled over a seal.

[Trippy]

Though dozens of people have died after being Tasered, their maker, Taser International, insists the stun gun is never the cause. They say fatalities come from pre-existing heart problems or people on drugs.

How could it *not* be the cause?

[TheWalrus]

  It feels kind of hot at first. then dull throb in the immediate area. But no lasting "Oh fuck I'm on fire" kind of feeling. Still, not high on my priority list of things to get done again in my lifetime.

[schild]

My left arm has been on fire before. 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my hand, wrist and forearm.
I've been maced in the eyes.
I've been hit with pepper grenades and pepper pellets.

This was all in the course of 2 months when University of MD was kicking ass at basketball.

I'd probably take any of those pains again over tazing. I'm quite fearful of electrical shock. As far as I'm concerned, despite knowing technically how a computer works, all things electric are run by gnomes and they are magical.

[Riggswolfe]

1st) She deserved it. It's obvious. Especially if you watch all the videos.
2nd) She was going way, way over the top with all that wailing. It reminds me of a relative I have who will get sick with say, a nasty cold, and literally lay in bed and moan real loudly so you know she's sick. It's an attention thing and I have no patience for it.

Frankly, those cops were saints. I'd have been much less polite than them.

[TheWalrus]

I just watched the video. She sounds like a fucking air raid siren!  :-D

[Llava]

Okay, let's say you're not sure that you really need to get out of the car in this situation.

"Get out of the car or I will taze you."

Hm.... maybe I should think about getting out of the car.

"Get out of the car or I will taze you!"

He sounds kinda serious...

"Get out of the... I'm going to tell you one more time.  Get out of the car OR I WILL TAZE YOU."

I think I'll get out of the car now.

She knew exactly what was coming, she'd been warned 3 times.  What did she think was going to happen?  Did she take her tazer vaccine earlier that day and was surprised to learn that it didn't work?  Did she think it was going to be a "Get out of the car before I count to 3 or I will be forced to count to 3 again" situation?  I wish the tazer shock would've sterilized her.  Hey, I just had an idea.  Give the police sterilization mode on their tazers.  If you're acting sufficiently stupid, they are within their rights to stop you from multiplying.

[Der Helm]

Wow, I haven't heard such wailing for quite some time. Last time was when some kid in the kosovo (kid in this case meaning 14-16 years old) grabbed my pepper spray, sprayed it on his hands, then, as the effect kicked in rubbed it in his eyes.

Stupid sucker ran all over the place, screaming and crying like he was on fire. I had to chase him for 15 minutes until I was able to stop him and wash the shit out of his eyes.Well, at least he had a reason to scream, pepper spray IS quite nasty.

[Bunk]

Hold on here. You kicked him in the jimmies, and pepper sprayed his hands so that he would rub it in his eyes. And then you chased after him to help him wash it out. Now I'm assuming that he was a friend or relation since you went to help him afterwords, but generally people don't kick friends or relations in the jimmies.

On second thought, my friends and I did occasionally do shit like that to each other when we were 16. I wouldn't do it now though...

[Samwise]

Wait.  Where did jimmy-kicking enter into that story?

[NiX]

Wait.  Where did jimmy-kicking enter into that story?

I asked myself the same question. I believe his story goes: Kid grabs spray, sprays his hands, burns hands and stupidly rubs his eyes.

As for the experience of being tazed: Not fun, but not traumatic. I'm pretty sure a well placed shot to the nuts would sterilize a guy.

[Bunk]

Yea, looking at it now, I'm not quite sure how I misread his post that badly. Oh well, I think my interpretation was more interesting anyways.

[HaemishM]

Everything gets more interesting after a kick in the jimmy.

[Yegolev]

said Schulz. "We don't want people walking around 'tasing' one another with 50,000 volt shocks. These are not fun and games."

Dumbass.  Not supposed to be.  50000 volts is for subduing someone dangerous.

I seem to remember being told that voltage doesn't kill people, amperage kills people.

[Murgos]

Voltage is potential for work (basically by having extra electrons or lacking electrons), amperage is flow of electrons.  If you shock someone by touching them with an object with higher potential and the person is grounded then those extra electrons will try to go to ground and chances are that that is through the body and out, thus creating current, possibly across the heart.

Dying from a high voltage shock is very rare but in the right circumstances, it's been known to happen.

[TheWalrus]

I'm willing to let criminals take that risk for me.