Posted on 12/13/2012 11:45:40 AM PST by servo1969
NEWTON, Mass. —
A local family says a language barrier may have resulted in police using a Taser on a woman after she tried to buy too many iPhones at a local mall. Police, however, say the incident isn't that clear cut.
Xiaojie Li, of Newton, said she is embarrassed by Monday's Pheasant Lane Mall in New Hampshire incident.
"So my mom says she don't know why they called the police, because she doesn't understand what they are talking about," her 12-year-old daughter Jiao Jay said.
Jay said her mother bought two iPhones last Friday, and was told that was the limit. When she took video of others she claimed were buying more, the store manager asked her to leave.
The confrontation involving the Taser happened when Li went to the store on Monday to pick up two iPhones she ordered online.
"The management of the store asked us to have her removed. The officer approached her, told her she wasn't welcome in the store, and she refused to leave," Nashua Police Capt. Bruce Hansen said.
Police say the store had issued a stay-away order against Li.
"Two days prior to that, she had been asked to leave the store by store personnel for doing something that they didn't want," Hansen said, referring to Li's photographing other customers in the store.
A video posted on YouTube shows Li and police officers on the floor outside the Apple store at the Nashua mall. The crackle of the Taser and Li's screams can be heard on the video.
"She was scared, she didn't understand," said John Hugo, who said he was Li's fiance'. "I was outraged. You go into a store, and you end up getting brutalized by the police."
Hansen said the woman had been resisting arrest for about 15 minutes before a second officer arrived at the scene.
"So then the police took my mom's phone and tried to take my mom's bag. And my mom tried to ask them why, and they just threw her to the ground," Jay said.
The 44-year-old mother of two was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest.
"My mom feel really upset with what they did," Jay said.
Nashua police see the situation differently.
"She wasn't mistreated in any way. If she left the store when she was told to leave the store, it would've been done at that. She was told she was under arrest after repeatedly being told to leave the store. She didn't submit to the arrest. The officer used the Taser on her to get her to submit to the arrest," Hansen said.
According to Nashua police policy, Tasers may be used "when the subject has signaled his/her intention to actively resist arrest in an aggressive, hostile manner or when a need arises to incapacitate a dangerous, combative, or high risk subject where other use of force techniques exposes the officer, the subject or the public to unnecessary danger, or when other force techniques have been or may be ineffective."
The policy continues, "The weapon is a level of force normally required to overcome passive, defensive, or offensive resistance that is intended as an act of overt aggression toward the officer where an individual refuses to comply with verbal instructions."
Li will be in court in January.
I bet the Apple store has video that will tell the tale, either way. And I can see it going either way.
There's probably an app for that.
self entitled ‘immigrant’ who speaks NO useable English and is upset because she can’t get anyone to accommodate her demands. I am sooooo sick of this type of crap I could vomit. If you don’t want to learn English as used in the US then stay the hell wherever you are....you are no longer welcome
Uh, right click and taze...
No cops taser an annoying woman who to is too selfish to learn English and does not understand the word no.
The officer approached her, told her she wasn't welcome in the store, and she refused to leave,"
That is the crux of the whole mess. I have experience with a customer's behavior of this sort. If the police are called and they hear you ask the customer to leave and the customer refuses for any reason, the customer is now trespassing and the police will remove the customer. Period.
Second thing;
There are 11 references to "the store" in the article. But only one reference to "the Apple store" and that one does not come until the seventh time that the location of the incident is mentioned.
Why would WCVB hesitate to use the words "Apple store" and then only once out of 11 times the location is even mentioned? Trying to limit bad press for the Apple Co.? Just askin'.
No iPhone for you!
Most likely a store employee misidentified her as a Big China resident, and Apple has a policy on NOT selling stuff to foreigners who live outside the area where they can and will provide warranty service for i-phones ~ and other stuff.
Sounds like she was a US resident.
BTW, the very devices she was purchasing are made in Big China, and as a result there's not a manager or sales geek in the company who will refuse to sell them what they ask for. If they need hacked to work in China, that service is readily available there.
The cops probably don't have a clue in this one, but folks who've been thinking about shopping in the store in Newton probably ought to go somewhere else.
Every conman carries at least 3 different phones on him; one legit, one set up in a fake business name to scam people and one for the other girlfriend...maybe she was buying them or her accomplices...: )
Next thing I know this guy threatens me with the cops. I started dialing for the Postal Inspectors. Then, I walked off leaving the several thousand dollars worth of product sitting there.
The next day was Monday and I called Best Buy headquarters and told them the problem. Their security puke was GONE FOR GOOD that evening. Guy never came back. Probably had no idea what hit him. Fur Shur if he hadn't given me the card back I'd called the fibbies next ~ and they have a jump out team within half a mile ~ probably gone in there and shot the place up ~ stealing those cards is a big deal to the federales!
They’re not going to shop elsewhere for NH has no sales tax. Which is why the Massholes are there to begin with.
The lady was there on Friday and caused such a scene she was given a “stay away” order and told not to come back.
She came back on Monday anyhow, ignoring the order, and when she wouldn’t leave the store called the cops to enforce the order.
When she wouldn’t leave for the cops they tased her.
Sounds like she got what she deserved.
Or maybe she was Christmas shopping for her friends and family. I don’t know, which do you think is more likely?
she’s lucky, if the cops thought she ate dog for lunch they might have shot her with a real gun figuring the dog was making her act up.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
This is a principle that used to be respected, but today, everyone seems to have some sort of law degree that disagrees with that. Don't argue with cops, argue with the judge in court. The cop will hurt you and he can't judge the case on the spot. She should have just bought Samsung or went to another store with a straw buyer. Don't resist arrest.
PS. Just as an aside, my daughter is a Sheriff Deputy that is working the Keystone Pipeline security in Texas. She is having a blast arresting these idiots imported from all around the country that have been coached on how to harass the police. She loves it when she puts them in jail and then they find out she works the jail after guard duty at night. They start to regret all the cussing and spitting they did the day before. LOL!!
To hell with your attitude, the cops are the enemy, don’t forget it. They’ll shoot your dog, electrocute your retarded child and anything else they have equipment for.
They are dressed up like rambo wannabees and can’t wait to use their steriod hyped equipment.
I’m sick of them, to hell with cops.
A whole lot of talk and no action. Lots of hot air, but nothing of substance. Maybe it's time everyone settles all of this once and for all and stops trash talking. All of you talk big words, but do nothing at all. You are a bunch of anonymous cowards hiding behind computer screens. If you're not going to do anything, then be quiet.
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