Tweet
Here we go again. A cop is caught using a Taser not in the place of a gun, but as a device to ensure compliance from a belligerent person who is not a threat to the law enforcement officer.
Dash cam video has been released to FOX 7 showing exactly what happened between a Constable’s deputy and a 72-yaer-old woman, before she was tasered last month. The officer says says Kathryn Winkfein mouthed off, and was physically non-compliant. Winkfein told us that wasn’t true. Precinct 3 Sgt. Maj. Gary Griffin says he’s reviewed the dash cam footage and he’s standing by his deputy–he says followed policy.Just after two in the afternoon on May 11, the video shows Deputy Chris Bieze stopping Kathryn Winkfein for speeding on a notoriously dangerous strip of Highway 71. After completing the paperwork, the officer returns to Winkfein’s truck, but she refuses to sign the speeding ticket.
“Take me to jail,” Winkfein demands on the tape, “I’m a 72-year-old woman.” That’s when the deputy opens the driverside door to arrest the great-grandmother. “Give me the ******* ticket now,” Winkfein curses. The deputy shoves her. “You’re gonna push me? A 72-year-old woman?”
The shove, the Constable’s office says, served to get the two out of oncoming traffic. Then, the deputy warns her one of five times.
“Stand back, ” Bieze says. “I’m gonna tase you.” She responds by saying, “I dare you.”
The deputy announces he’s going to taser Winkfein, and the woman hits the ground as the taser is deployed.
I do not see how the police could view this as a proper use of a taser. Bieze threatens to taser her again if she does not put her hands behind her back. He then tasers her again. He then charges her with resisting arrest.The video is a textbook example of how tasers have served to escalate the level of force in such encounters. While Bieze might have called for back up or physically restrained Winkfein, he moves almost immediately to the use of the taser. The fact that Constable McCain would watch this video and find (here) that Bieze acted properly raises serious questions of his own judgment.
34 Comments
the problem I havewith this account is that the police always seem to be operating from an attitude of not needing to explain the reasons for their “commands”
Instead of just ordering her to “stand back”, why the hell didn’t the officer tell her “because I don’t want you to wander onto the road and get hit by oncoming traffic”.
Why don’t they ever feel a need to provide an explanation for why they are ordering someone to do something?
Don’t you suppose that an explanation (when tere is time to give one) would promote greater compliance with the command?
Fuckin pigs…I do NOT trust cops. The people who look after such things need to have a serious look at the idiots they’re hiring for law enforcement.
This is why I hate cops in generalSure there are likely more good cops than bad cops, but it doesn’t matter when they act like the “good ol’ boys” club and punishment is rare and lenient when it is obvious that the officer was in the wrong.
Tasers aren’t non-lethal, they can cause death just like a gun can, but officers power-trip and use them to force compliance. This jerk should go to jail for assault on an elderly woman.
Heck, you can’t even exercise your right of free speech to criticize an officer or verbally make know your disapproval of them without them arresting you and slapping a disorderly conduct charge on you. More and more it seems like citizens have no recourse against the pigs that are supposed to serve and protect
I’m sorry but……this time I’m on the officer’s side. I’ve watched the video more than once, and as a Texas resident, I believe he did what he had to do. She challenged him, was belligerent, 100% uncooperative and was posing a danger to him and herself from oncoming traffic. Too many Texas police have died on the side of the road from such actions. Plus, she may have had a gun in her truck (100% possible here!). The officer did what he had to do in order to bring this to a swift end. Would it have been better if he’d broken her arm(s) to get her handcuffed by forcing her hands behind her back? Maybe having her battered and bruised would have been better because beating her into submission would definitely been a better solution, right? The taser is a non-lethal way of subduing someone, and by her own actions, she was in need of being subdued. Her howls of pain make my skin crawl and I do feel sorry for her, but she brought it on herself.
Egads.I want to take these weapons away from police officers — yesterday.
She’s 72.He’s pretty decently sized. How hard could it have been to restrain her physically?
I was in Fry’s here in PhoenixThey were having a Taser demonstration. They actually sell these things to the public here.
If you notice……he did try to restrain her. She wrestled away. 72 year old folks bruise and break pretty easily. Can you imagine the outcry if she was physically “roughed up”? Broken limbs? Bruises? The public would have been in a fury! Yes, he’s “decently sized”. Yes, he could have overpowered her. But at what physical cost to her? It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
I’d like us to examine centexman’s explanationPlease give it some pause. I feel a little compelled by his argument.
I totally agree that she needed to be subdued.But I don’t agree that the taser was the right way to go about it. He could have easily restrained her, handcuffed her hands behind her back, and let her cool off in the back of his police car for a while until she calmed down and agreed to sign the ticket. He could have done this without causing her physical harm –a person’s arms aren’t necessarily broken when they are handcuffed!!– and while keeping both of them safe.
The taser (or any other instrument of force) should be used as a last resort, IMHO. In this case, I think he resorted to using the taser without using his other options first.
“Here we go again”http://www.pamshouseblend.com/…
Just watched clip, question for centexmanWhy couldn’t he say WHY he needed her step back? Instead of “Step back or i’ll taser you.” he could hav tried “step back because it’s too dangerous on the road”
Or why didn’t he just give her wht she asked for:
“Take me to jail,” Winkfein demands on the tape, “I’m a 72-year-old woman.” That’s when the deputy opens the driverside door to arrest the great-grandmother. “Give me the ******* ticket now,” Winkfein curses.
Centexman, this is a serious question. I want to know.
racaulk, you sound reasonablecentexman, I want to give you a fair chance to respond. And everyone here should too.
If you are busy centex, than you can say “I’ll come back later and respond later.”
We’ll continue our dialogue, but we’ll hope to hear some more commentary.
What if…Honestly isn’t there a difference in how a police officer should handle a beligerent 72-year-old and a beligerent 22-year-old? If the taser didn’t work what was he going to do — shoot her? What if she had a pacemaker or heart problems?
Traffic ticketsI have no defense of the cop’s quickness to use the Taser, but why do some people have to turn a simple traffic ticket into a confrontation? Just accept the ticket and be on your way. If you think the ticket is unfair, fight it in court. (Here a tip I learned: cops often don’t bother showing up in court to testify on a traffic ticket. If they don’t show up, the ticket is thrown out.) Fighting with the cop on the scene isn’t going to get you anything positive.
BTW, I am not clear on why a driver has to sign the ticket. If they don’t sign, does that mean the ticket isn’t valid and is unenforceable?
In my experience here in Canada, the driver doesn’t have to sign anything. The cop just gives you the ticket and you either pay it or fight it. If you do neither, they will force to pay any outstanding fines when you go to renew your license or vehicle registration.
It’s so obvious…This is racial profiling!
You can hear her on the video saying, “It’s because I’m a white woman in America!”
Whoops… wrong story. I must be thinking of a different police confrontation
You can win in traffic courtI’ve gotten one ticket for rolling through a stop sign. I didn’t do it and I went to court to fight it.
I went prepared with photos and diagrams with measurements.
And, I won.
People told me it couldn’t be done. But, I knew that the facts were on my side.
BTW
I can beat those photo tickets, too. All I have to do is take my twin brother to court with me.
Someday, those photo tickets are going to be declared illegal because identical twins can easily beat them. You see, they have to prove who was driving the car — you don’t have to prove your innocence.
Why you have to sign a ticketIn many (probably most or even all) states, a traffic ticket is the equivalent of a summons or a “notice to appear in court” and it is issued in lieu of an actual, physical arrest. By signing the ticket, the accused offender is agreeing to either pay the fine or appear in court to contest the charge. If the accused does not sign the ticket, the deputy or police officer must take the person into custody until the accused can see a judge in court — in other words, arrest.
If a person doesn’t sign the ticket, how is it going to be “proven” that he knew he was supposed to be in court? If that can’t be proven, then how can a judge issue a warrant if he doesn’t show up?
BrilliantWish that I had a twin!
Sometimes, you don’t even end up before the judge.I went to pay the fine and it was suspended. But then, I’m a 4’10″ white female.
Winning in courtI won on one ticket that I got for making a perfectly legal u-turn at 4:00 am. As it turned out, the cop wrote down the wrong section number on the charge. Another one, the cop didn’t show up so it was thrown out and on a third, I lost the case but the judge was impressed with my defense so he reduced the fine to “time served” which he explained was the time I just spent in court fighting the ticket.
In addition, I have had 3 tickets in two different provinces that I never paid or contested, but when I later got stopped or renewed my license the computer didn’t have any records of them.
Great pointThey bark out commands and expect you to listen as if you’re a child, and it is especially bad when you know you haven’t done anything wrong and the cop won’t explain what’s going on or why they’re questioning you. Why aren’t they trained with some kind of social competence?
The reason they call them Police “Officers”If a person doesn’t sign a ticket he is supposed to be arrested. When you are sited you are technically under arrest. You refuse to sign you go to jail. Works that way almost everywhere in the United States. But if for some reason the ticket doesn’t get signed the arresting officers will either tear it up or turn it in to the court.
A police officer among other things is also an officer of the court. Meaning they have some standing or integrity in court unless what they testify is disproved with factual evidence. So if they turn in a ticket even unsigned it could be treated as if you signed it though most courts would look unkindly on the officer and skeptically on the ticket unless more proof is provided.
I think the cop could have done better but he is in the right on this one.I mean I do feel for here because tazing is no fun and it is not meant to be. And to be clear this video seems to have much of her rant deleted compared to the one I have seen on television, where this rant starts from the time he has to forcibly remove her from the car because she is trying to drive off. Maybe its a different incident but it looks like the same woman and she made way more than one attempt to get back in her car and leave or to step out in the middle of the street.
But the point is the verbal abuse is far less of an issue than the actual physical attempts to leave, dodge, or break the officers hold on her which she seems to have done a number of times. You can make that little old lady defense if you want to but the minute he told her he was going to site here she was technically under arrest and anything she did after that to attempt to leave was resisting until she signs that ticket. One look at the cops shoes kind of says it all. His body is actually on the highway and his arches are right on the line. When she struggles with him at that point she is doing so actually on the highway! I have to say I would have tazed her too.
why do people think they can pop off to the cops and not pay a price?With Gatesgate, “don’t tase me bro,” this incident, and others, it seems people are genuinely shocked that they can’t treat cops like customer service people (i.e., talk funky to them, “dare” them to do something, choose to disregard what is asked of them).
I was taught to avoid the cops if at all possible, but if you get into a situation with them then STFU and do what they say so you don’t get arrested/tasered/assaulted.
Maybe these incidents are symbolic of the lack of respect and a culture of entitlement based on an attitude of “I can do what I want without consequence.”
I would askwhy you think a cop must be shown deference? Wearing a uniform and a badge doesn’t automatically entitle you to respect. It just doesn’t.
good question. I would say because of the power differential.A friend got mad at me and said I was being “too pragmatic” versus following an ideal when it comes to how I think you should deal with police.
For me it’s one of those “it may not be right, but it is what it is” situations. I think you’ve got to pick your battles. Some things are worth fighting for or going to jail for. In many of these “disorderly conduct” instances/taserings, I wouldn’t classify the precipitating (sp) events worth putting myself on the line like that.
Everyone is free to do what they want, but they’ve got to be willing to pay the price for their actions.
And I’d probably wind up going to jailIn Michigan, you don’t have to sign anything if you get a ticket, so I can fully imagine a scenario where some power-tripping cop arrested me in another state because I questioned the need to sign the ticket when I honestly didn’t know what putting the pen to the paper legally meant.
Why should a cop be shown deference?Because he’s a cop. We respect the office, even if we don’t respect the person.
I do, anyway.
TRiG.
So by that logicwe should disrespect the people who misuse the office.
Sorry for the delay……however I’m still with the officer here. Notice that the first time he states that he’ll taser her if she doesn’t calm down and behave, she replies with, “I dare you.” This woman was not of any mind to cooperate with the officer. Like many folks, I have received a ticket (or 2…) in my lifetime. I sign the ticket when asked knowing that I can fight it later should I feel justified in doing so. This woman was acting like she was better than that and wasn’t required to follow the same laws as the rest of us. When she finally realizes that he’s not going to put up with her “Entitled” BS, she tries to leave but by then it’s too late. From what I saw, I wouldn’t have been surprised if, had she gotten back in the truck, she would have either pulled a weapon or just drove off at high speed, either outcome making the situation MUCH more dangerous for more than just her. Again, yes, the officer could have physically restrained her. Then… we’d of heard from everyone being up in arms because the big, bad cop bully had used “excessive force” and roughed up Grandma. All of which could have been avoided had the lady just signed the dang ticket. Being here in Texas, I know (and know of) a LOT of older folks who have this “entitled” mindset and still feel that western justice has a place in our society.
Oh.. one other thing…This vid clip isn’t the entire thing. There are cuts in it. Go to YouTube and find the entire clip. She’s a LOT more belligerent than this clip lets on.
Sorry for the delay……but you’ll find my latest response above.
Is this the right thing to do?I won’t comment on this video but some police officer’s are just plain rude. They should stop Tasing People into compliance out of convenience.