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Another to add to the Taser files, this time a man in Marin County had the “pleasure” of being electrocuted by law enforcement in front of his wife while in his home. The deputy sheriff captured the whole thing on video. The deputies, by the way, had no search warrant or any other legal reason to enter McFarland’s home. (Via ABC):
On June 29, 2009 McFarland and his wife Pearl were returning home from a charity fundraiser just before midnight. McFarland injured himself as he stumbled and fell down the long steps to his front door.
“Mainly it was to my knee and the front of my leg, my shin,” McFarland said.
His wife called paramedics, who helped him into the house and treated him. As the paramedics were leaving, two sheriff’s deputies arrived. “All of a sudden, they just showed up, they came in here like there was a fire going on, like a gunfight was going on,” McFarland said.
…The deputy tells McFarland he is going to take him to the hospital because he may be suicidal.
“We want to take you to the hospital for an evaluation, you said if you had a gun, you’d shoot yourself in the head,” the deputy can be heard saying. McFarland says it was just hyperbole. He was tired and in pain.
The deputy orders him numerous times to get up or else. “Stand up, put your hands behind your back or you’re going to be Tased,” the deputy says. McFarland keeps refusing.
The exchange goes on for about five minutes; his wife keeps pleading with the deputies not to Tase him, saying he has a heart condition.
Then, McFarland tells the deputies in no uncertain terms to leave. As he gets up to go to bed, McFarland is Tased. Not once, but three times.
“There’s got to be a problem in terms of training and on supervising deputy sheriffs in the county; it’s hard to imagine something so shocking could happen,” McFarland’s attorney John Scott said.
McFarland says he never had any suicidal thoughts. In fact, he considers himself lucky to be alive.
“I’m a survivor of pancreatic cancer; one of 4 percent in this country,” McFarland said.
After the multiple Tasings, he was arrested, thrown in the clink, charged with “resisting arrest.” That was later tossed out by a judge.
19 Comments
We have a presidentwho advocates torture and even assassination (including the assassination of American citizens) as official public policy. Why should police torturing citizens be a concern?
Electrocution vs. ShockWhile I do not wish to detract from the seriousness of this post, I find the misuse and overuse of tasers to be extremely abhorrent and clearly think this particular indecent and many, many others fall into that category, it should be noted that the word ‘electrocution’ has a very clear meaning. Electrocution means death by electricity and has no other meaning. Persons who are electrocuted are dead by definition.
From Websters:
Definition of ELECTROCUTE
1 to execute (a criminal) by electricity
2 to kill by electric shock
The word was coined in 1889 and is an amalgam of ‘electricity’ and ‘execute’.
A person who receives an electrical shock and lives, can only be said to have received a shock or a dose of current.
Not to mention a president who is supposedly a “constitutional scholar”but one who acts as if there’s no such thing as the 4th amendement: see for example, the Henry Louis Gates case.
no longer just policeWe now lionize our “First Responders”, it’s no longer our “nation” – it’s “The Homeland”. Folks rarely talk about “cicizens”.
In other words, we are treated, more and more, like “subjects”.
Some folks want us to have uniform identity cards. Others want our various different police agencies to have greater power. Of course, they only want that power to be directed toward “them” (whoever their particular “them” happens to be — Black, Brown, Asian, Latino, Gay, Lesbian, Trans, different).
Our Police no longer “protect and serve” – it’s now “stop and frisk” – it’s “preventive policing”. They have military style weapons and uniforms – they are no longer “cops”, they are some sort of “internal security forces”.
In other words, even the old, “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of” crap is far less true than it once was. Heck, even white folks are being abused these days.
Our police are out of control – and they really like it that way.
Watch what you say around paramedicsThe paramedics obviously called the cops due to their hyper-extensive take-no-joke suicide training.
The cops – have no excuse for what they did and showed terrible judgment.
TazersLast night I saw a report on the news that gave out the statistic that since 2006, there have been 405 police taser gun deaths in the United States.
It’s outrageous to see this man spasming on the floor while deputies (with their fingers frozen on the triggers of their tasers) shout “stop resisting!” If they had shot this guy with their handguns would they have shouted “stop bleeding!” ? or, “stop dying!” ? Or maybe in that case they would have yelled, “stop resisting” because you were lying on the floor bleeding and couldn’t comply with an order to clasp your hands behind your head. (and then tased you)
police gone wild,if i were on the jury i would recommend jail time for the officers in question. thugs.
The Truly Sad PartThe truly sad part of the charade that Obama is permitting to occur at DOD is the fact that even if he eventually lifts the ban sometime in 2011, something not even likely at this point, he will not get any credit for doing so. He has put the LGBT community through so much angst and disrespect over his first two years in office, and has failed so miserably in his role as “fierce advocate,” that any gesture he makes after 2010 will be seen as too little too late.
He is a profound failure on LGBT rights. There is simply no other way of seeing it. Accordingly, his reelection in 2012 is unimportant to LGBT people. If we win, we lose, if we lose, we lose.
Obama is beyond hope. He cannot recover LGBT support. It is gone for good. If LGBT folks Democrat at all, it will be for reasons that have nothing to do with LGBT rights. Most LGBT voters, I suspect, will simply stay home. Others may even vote Republican if they are in that income bracket and see it as advantageous to their wallet. Obama, and the Democratic Party have seen to it that voting Democrat — if your interest is LGBT rights — has no tangible benefit.
With that option closed, folks move on to other issues.
BastardsWhere I am from, a cop who did that would quickly have his brains sprayed all over the living room with shotgun fire, the cops would call the house before coming to arrest someone. A society where citizens are better armed than cops is a happy society where both the citizen and the cop is on good behavior.
I defend cops, 99% are decent people that deal with the absolute dregs of society so we don’t have to, but this ahole needs to lose his batch and maybe visit the clink.
arghCan’t spell while eating Chinese leftovers
Tasers should be banned and outlawedToo bad I can’t sit on the jury for this case. I would vote for equal Taser time for the cop and a fat juicy monetary settlement for Mr. McFarland.
Or just clarify when it’s appropriate to use them.Electroshock weapons were marketed as an alternative to more-deadly force (i.e. firearms); that should be the extent of their legal use. ”Alternative to using a gun,” though, has turned into “alternative to communication skills” — and tasers are being used as an excuse for violence even against fully restrained people.
it’s no longer our “nation” — it’s “The Homeland”. Well the Nazis already used “Fatherland” and the Russians alrady used “Motherland,” so the Rebublicans had to come up with something else. I expect “Homeland” excelled in the focus groups.
pigs will always be pigs
Until you need oneWhen some guy is skulking around your house at night with a gun and a flashlight, suddenly mr. policeman officer is your bestest friend, and needs to show up right away to risk his life for your stuff.
They never show up when neededthey neither protect nor serve. They are the mop up crew in DC.
“Until you need one”“Until you need one” – unless you are LGBT, Black, Brown, “different”, etc – then, when he or she finally does show up they might well try to figure what YOU did to “provoke” someone to rob, attack, rape, assault, YOU.
Good chance YOU are “really” the guilty party.
Now, I realize stuff like this doesn’t usually happen to nice, “normal” white folks – but it does seem to be happening more and more.
Our militarized police/security forces seem to think their real job is to keep you “in line” and protect “society” FROM you. The new way to define “society” seems to be, “rich folks property”.
We do seem to be well on the way to a police state – all for our own good, of course —– right?
The idea of police personnel “risking their life for your stuff” is grossly exaggerated.
If you look at statistics for job safety, police work is no more dangerous than most other jobs.
Moat dangerous jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, highest risk of on-the-job fatality:
1. Fishers
2. Timber cutters
3. Airplane pilots
4. Structural metal workers
5. Farm workers
6. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
7. Roofers
8. Electric power line workers
9. Truck drivers
10. Taxi drivers
Cruelty…This is the limit of cruelty. The cop who has done this, must be tased in return for misusing his authority.
Pure Hoodia