Posted on 09/25/2008 9:36:02 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge, officials said Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Whoops.....
Next time, just rope off the sidewalk below to protect the innocent then shut the windows.
Oopsie-tazee!!
“An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge”
well... there you go.
Actually, he landed to death....picky,picky.
But VERY funny! LOL
At least he can’t be arrested for “attempted suicide,” now.
Suicide by cop.
SO what are the exact guidelines for a naked man on a ledge?
There’s a lot of freepers who jump to the cops’ defense when they kill w/ their tasers. Here, we have a man who is naked (can’t be hiding a weapon), on a ledge (not charging the cops), clearly unbalanced. Yeah, the right procedure is to hit him w/ electricity so he can’t control himself on that ledge.
The cop should be arrested for manslaughter, not just suspended.
He didn't die from trauma from the fall - he died hours later in the hospital because of trouble with his heart.
Most healthy adults can survive a 9 foot drop.
The coroner will determine whether the shock of the fall, or the Taser, or drugs or a preexisting condition contributed to his death.
In any case, this was handled very stupidly and needs to be looked into.
The way it is being used now includes not complying with a police officer's demands or for the police not to have to resort to physical force.
Use of the tazer has resulted in death on multiple occasions. In effect, police escalate their response to "potential deadly force" when someone could have been wrestled to the ground or dragged out of a car.
I think guidelines for use of the taser should be instituted. At a minimum, the tased party should be wielding a weapon or attacking a lone police officer. It's totally unacceptable that a group of police officers should taze an unarmed lone suspect.... PERIOD!
How can anyone justify doing this to a naked man? The man was mentally distrubed. He needed help.
“An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge,”
It says it right there in the guidelines “do not use a taser on a naked man teetering on a ledge.” Seems fairly obvious the policeman broke a rule.
Word
Not if you land on your head.
Most adults will protect their heads in a 9 foot fall, but not if incapacitated from being hit by a taser.
The officers probably just didn't think of that when they tased him and figured that even if he fell, it wasn't that far down. The just didn't think about the fact that he might land on his head.
If that's the case it's still negligence, but not the wanton disregard for his safety that you might assign to them in hindsight.
They should have unquestionably have known better.
Guys, he was already circling the drain. Dancing naked, crazy and raving on a ledge? Please. Give the cop a break, it’s always easy to _say_ what you would or wouldn’t have done.
All you guys thinking the cop needs to go to prison should be utterly ashamed of yourselves. Pick up a badge and show us all how it’s done if you’re so savvy. The cop was trying to save the damn nut. And he probably faced more risk than you’d enjoy while doing it. He was within 21 feet of the abyss with a nut. Things can turn into a very nasty tussle up there,, very fast.
The good guy, an NYPD man who deserves our compassion today, prob thought he saw a chance to apprehend him,,, not a _perfect_ chance mind you, but the best chance he would probably have.
All the jerking anti-cop knees are getting kind of silly. Steady yourselves, it always doesn’t look like TJ Hooker and end with a perfectly executed Kung Fu takedown that doesn’t hurt the bad guy. Last, had he sat there patiently, trying to talk, feed him burgers, learn his hopes, dreams and secret fears, whatever, and the nut jumped,, you’d all be finding another reason to whine that he should have tried *something* and not just sat there.
The cop was the good guy, im glad he’s out there, and hope he doesn’t get abused too much.
You can’t save em all, you really can’t.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.