back to article Texas cop tasers gobby granny

A gobby 72-year-old Texas great-grandmother who got a bit physically "non-compliant" after being pulled for speeding copped a light tasering for her trouble, ABC reports. Dashcam vid shows Bieze tasering Winkfein Officer Chris Bieze collared Kathryn Winkfein en route to Austin doing 60mph in a 45mph zone. The Travis County " …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    What a cowardly bully

    It's not clear from the picture, but it is quite apparent in the video that the cop is a good 12-18 inch's taller and a lot rounder then the little old lady he is abusing.

  2. Ted Treen
    Black Helicopters

    Quelle surprise!

    There's certainly footage been cut from that vid.

    Have Texan plod been trained by the Met, perchance?

  3. Lionel Baden 1

    fair nough

    should be respectfull to the police

    gobbing off at one wont get you anywhere ....

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I'm not normally one to side with the coppers...

    But seems pretty clear here:

    "Stand back or I will tase you"

    "Go ahead, tase me!"

    "OK"

    Bzzzz

    Move along, nothing to see here....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The signature

    http://stillanightowl.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/some-traffic-ticket-myths/

    A quick search suggest this:

    "Signing a ticket is not an admission of guilt. The signature is merely an acknowledgment you received the ticket and a promise to appear in court. Refusing to sign the ticket — and there are drivers who think that if they don’t sign, they can lie in court and say they weren’t there — will do nothing but agitate the officer and invite more scrutiny. In some states, such as Texas, refusal to sign a ticket can mean a trip to jail. Houston attorney Robert Eutsler says that if you don’t sign the ticket, the officer has the choice to either take you to jail or write on the ticket “refused to sign.” “It’s a promise to appear in court on a certain day — that’s all it is,” says Eutsler. “It’s certainly a myth that if you don’t sign it, it’s going to get dismissed. You’re more likely to get arrested, and the officer is going to get very upset.”"

  6. bertie bassett
    Happy

    not just our coppers then..

    good to see it's not just wacqui jacky's storm troopers that know how to beat up on defenceless citizens

  7. SuperTim
    Coat

    Tase/Taser=Lase/Laser

    Given that Taser is a proper noun (like Roger or Derek) and not a device that "tases", then there is no correct verb as such, but given the history of Laser usage (an acronym), then tase would be justifiable, as this has been the case with lasers for many years. a Laser lases you as a taser now tases you. I presume in star trek world, one would be phased in a similar manner.

    Given the proper noun though, maybe you could indeed be "roged" by some new weapon called a Roger.

    Mines the one with the "Homer" in the pocket, getting ready to Home you.....

  8. David S
    Black Helicopters

    GILT

    Serves her right, sure enough. As the guy said...

    "...she made a very simple interaction with the police a very difficult task."

    And heaven knows we ought to make things easy for the guys with the guns.

  9. Eddy Ito

    "By the book!"

    WTF? Who wrote that fucking book? They could use a good bit of e-justice themselves. I'm guessing the book says, "Fuck it. Just use the taser. They have to put up with your shit but you don't have to put up with anything you don't want to. You don't have to feel threatened in any way, remember, you are the law!"

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Health and safety

    I noticed from a recent article about UK police taserings (tasings?) that the thinking nowadays seems to be veering towards use of the taser in preference to physically restraining people, possibly because there's less likelihood of accidental bootings, broken limbs, suffocations, and stuff, and subsequent lawsuits and claims of brutality etc?

    So really it's modern PC PCs protecting themselves by keeping their distance from perps!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Tase

    As in "Don't tase me bro!"

  12. Tawakalna

    if you think the cop was in the right here..

    ..then you think it's ok to electrocute an OAP for having an opinion that you don't agree with. doesn't matter if she said "tase me" or not, it was the act of a COWARD and a BULLY. He is meant to set an example as an officer of the law and a responsible member of society, good character and all that, and here he is demonstrating, and being backed up by his superiors to boot, that it's perfectly ok to incapacitate an elderly lady just because she mouths of, using an often lethal "non-lethal" weapon to do so. If she'd been coming at him with a knife, even then it would have been wrong. he had the physical presence and training to deal with her in many different ways but no he pulls out his taser. what a hero. If she was my granny and i lived in America I'd go and break the b*st*rd's legs, copper or not.

    after all if a copper can't cope with harsh language from whatever source without getting violent then they aren't coppers, they're just thugs in uniform. god help her if she'd been a young black man, i imagine that she would have been shot whilst resisting arrest.

    there's something fundamentally wrong with you if you think what he did is ok or excusable. but then there's something fundamentally bl**dy well wrong with the world these days all over, isn't there?

  13. Jakub

    "simple encounter very difficult"

    well, i thought police are supposed to be trained for difficult encounters, if there weren't any difficult encounters, then i don't think we would need so many police.

    Problem is that some uniform sporting taser toting Marine wannabe finds it easier to tase someone into submission than to try to deal with them properly first - its just easier isn't it, it doesn't involve thinking. Even if she was relentless, and i mean totally impossible, don't tell me he couldn't have still dealt with it better.

    From the video i'd say the granny was definitely being...upfront, but no where do i see a threat to the officer or anyone else, and if she wants to dispute the ticket, thats her right. Tasers wind me up, they're a cop out....

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good job she didn't have a cell phone

    http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/06/07/high-school-student-tasered-for-using-a-cell-phone/

  15. Michael O'Malley

    Crap

    She deserved all she got. Why does age allow you to be abysmally rude, as she was?

    I think the noun should be taser, but I'm conscious that words get their own life. Over a century ago, toilets produced by the excellent business of Thomas Crapper carried his name on them. After a while they came to be known as Crappers. The rest was history.

  16. Binkley
    Flame

    Not so innocent grandma

    If you've seen the longer version of the dashboard video, this altercation went on for over 7 minutes. The grandma was foul-mouthed and obstinate, to say the least. The cop was trying to arrest her when he got her out of the truck and she basically resisted arrest. I'm not one to favor the cops, but whether she's 72 or 27, she should have done what she was told and had her day in court.

    Even more telling was the outright lie she said in her statement that she was neither abusive or disruptive...the video certainly tells a different story.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good

    I'm sick and tired of people thinking they can be arseholes just because of their age. For the good of society mouthy shits aged 1-18 or 60-death should be tased* at the first sign of any belligerence.

    There are days when you just have to love Texas, even if it was stupid enough to elect George Bush as governor.. twice (why does no one ask why George Bush Jr is the only member of that family that speaks with a Texan accent).

    * Both tased and tasered are spelling errors apparently.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Tawakalna

    Seems more like resisting arrest to me. Better she tasered than gunshot, no?

    I have a piece of little known news for you, ready? in America, many people have guns. OAP's with guns can usually be considered rather dangerous. Gobby resisters of arrest who have been warned vis. a vis. said tasering should naturally be considered potentially dangerous and therefore fair game.

    And you sir, are a prick. A prick, sir.

  19. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Zap her again!

    Granny needs to chill the hell out. I think if the cop had tried to cuff her w/o tasering her, she would have hit him, and then she'd be in jail for assaulting an officer. So he actually did her a favor. And after she gives him that much static, she's going to get cuffed. No two ways about it.

    "not argumentative/not combative" my left butt cheek! She needs to spend a couple weeks in jail to sit and think.

    I had a granny like that, and she'd go off like that regularly. I wished I'd had a taser.

  20. Mike 85

    lethal force?

    considering a taser is a substitute for a gun that's less likely to kill and is to be used in the same circumstances as any other lethal force...

    is that officer up on charges of attempted murder (it was obviously premeditated, he said so himself prior to doing it)? has he been asked to justify his decision that is was appropriate to use lethal force against someone who is not any form of physical threat to him and is not directly endangering his life?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This speeding senior thought she could outbluff the law

    but she got more of a charge than she bargained for.

    /Sheriff John Bunnell

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Tawakalna

    Hear Hear

  23. Chris C

    Demolition Man

    Am I the only one who is reminded of Demolition Man wherein the police department sees Phoenix being violent and one of the officers says "We're police officers. We're not trained to handle this!"?

    As for the "I'm not normally one to side with the coppers..." AC, I suppose it would have been OK for him to shoot her, too, if she said "Go ahead and shoot me"?

    And as for Mr "should be respectfull to the police", no, not necessarily. Respect is earned, not given. Courtesy and tolerance should be given to everyone, but not respect. All of the police officers I've had contact with do not deserve respect. I don't doubt that there are good cops out there who became cops because they want to help and protect people. But I think you'll find that the majority of them became cops because they have a god complex and get off on the control it gives them.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You will obey!

    "She turned a simple interaction with an officer into something difficult..." Sheriff T. Pepper

    And so she was physically punished for making things 'difficult'? There was me thinking that only violence, or resisting arrest was enough to warrant a reasonable physical response and that physical punishments were illegal?

    Or is it that Tasers leave no physical marks? How the world has changed.

  25. Mashiara

    re knife

    > If she'd been coming at him with a knife, even then it would have been wrong.

    >

    Disagree

    1. "there are no winners in a knife fight", don't get into those, there will be cut and stab wounds.

    2. Knife is a very dangerous weapon even in amateur hands.

    In fact if someone ever really attacked me with a knife I would end the fight real quick in the most efficient way available (as a civilian I don't carry firearms and the leatherman is not suitable for fighting so this means unarmed unless I happen to have something resembling a stick) and the attacker will be lucky to survive with repairable damage as there will be zero consideration for the attackers safety (ie. don't bother trying to avoid breaking joints or bones, don't worry about him hitting his face or other part of the head [this is potentially lethal] to whatever terrain features are at hand, and if the knife cannot be separated from the attacker it will be directed away from me: towards him...).

    Even with the local *really* strict laws about "overuse of force in self defence" (which just about automatically considers everyone who has ever trained martial arts "overuse force" if they so much as touch the guy) knife or any other deadly weapon means just about anything is justifiable (kicking his face in when he was already incapacitated in the ground is not, though).

    The whole "attackers safety" is bit weird concept, but that's the state of the law here, if someone comes at you with just their fists and boots you are expected to subdue then without causing damage (if you have a good reason why you could not simply run away), martial artists are supposed to be able to do this (even if they have only trained for a few months, which is absurd, I have trained little over ten years and still don't consider myself much of an artist), "regular joes" get small bit more leeway.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    don't verb nouns

    the verb is clearly "to tase" and a "taser" is an object/person who tases, while the recipient it clearly the tasee

  27. MinionZero
    Stop

    What kind of world are we creating?!...

    Police Officer quote: "She made a very simple interaction with the police a very difficult task."

    What so that's reason to risk killing her?! ... She used harsh words at a police officer ... so thats enough to risk killing a 72 your old woman with 50000 volts?!

    My god, what kind of world are we creating where words can be so violently suppressed. Yet we are suppose to just accept this behavior!?!

    Its yet another example of how our societies are going backwards not forwards.

    Also so much for "land of the free" where this kind of behavior is just accepted against a little old 72 your old woman! ... I've always been suspicious of a country that tries so hard to keep convincing and so brainwashing its people into believing they are free, when the evidence like this video, keeps on showing they are not free. They are just oppressed by a different set of rules and these rules are very clearly backup up by considerable violence.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Still wondering

    How she could have been charged with resisting arrest? If she did, the tase(r) people should refund the officer

  29. Maestro
    Paris Hilton

    Granny zapping? Seriously?

    As an officer of the law, he is expected to remain calm and in control of a situation, not loosing his cool. Using a taser of a 71 year old woman - confrontational or not - is an abuse of power. Yes she was in the wrong, and she was clearly being difficult, but a taser is a dangerous LAST SOLUTION to someone who is physically resisting arrest, surely? Something tells me this little old dear couldn't exactly put up much of a fight his this guy wanted to cart her off to jail.

    Just because an irate OAP retorts "Go ahead, tase me!" doesn't warrant that reaction from officer. The are several instances where people have been seriously injured / killed through the use of tasers, most of them far younger that 72.

    I for one am disgusted at this and hope that the officer is brought up on charges of gross misconduct. If he's unable to control himself. let alone a difficult situation, he's no business wearing the badge.

    To those of you who condone this - do you honestly believe he'd exhausted his options? Should tasers not be an absolute last resort, short of firearms?

    Paris - because we all know she loves a good shock.

  30. Test Man
    Dead Vulture

    Hmmm

    Don't tase me bro.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is the verb to tase or taser?

    The verb is "electrocute" or "assault".

    Fortunately (relatively speaking) in this case, it is not "murder".

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Hmmm

    I have little sympathy for her.... but my concern is that Tasers are not seen here as non-lethal, but "less-lethal" - the cops seem to consider it totally non-lethal and use it as a tool for enforcing compliance, which is a bad mistake as it has often resulted in death.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (untilted)

    Insisting on what has been agreed here is an irrelevant signature, is bad enough. But threatening the refusnik with gaol is nothing short of official bullying; and what we have come to expect from authorities. Likely to upset the officer ?!? They should be trained to take it in their stride, or else they are falling in their job. And should realise that giving a ticket is likely to be upsetting to those they've just booked. Taking it like "water off of a duck's back" is the sensible option, stops things escalating to ridiculous levels.

  34. Martin 19
    Unhappy

    "You will respect my authoritah!"

    *bzzzt*

    Simple message sent by this: Annoy/disrespect a policeman = get a tazering.

    Bad, bad things..

  35. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Pirate

    RE: Matthew 13 and cop-bashers

    RE: Matthew 13

    Lol! Still makes me chuckle whenever I hear that line.

    RE: cop-bashers

    To all the idiots protesting the tasing, do you have any idea how dangerous it is just stopping on the hard shoulder on an A road, let alone a motorway? Police officers in places like the US and UK are trained to keep the time spent stationary at the side of the road to a minimum, and to definately avoid any kind of physical confrontation that could spill out into the roadway as that is usually fatal. Age is no protection under the law - the officer may not have handled it the best way possible, but the granny was out of control and seriously looked like she was going to clout the guy. Any such struggle could have ended with the granny or the cop or both getting hit by a car, whereas the tasing put an end to the granny's behaviour and stopped any chance of a road accident from her bad behaviour. Personally, I don't have a problem with the tasing - she should have grown up by that age.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    www.Excited-Delirium.com

    www.Excited-Delirium.com (do not forget the dash).

    One of many blogs on the subject of tasers. Many arguments examined and shredded. Cheers.

  37. This post has been deleted by its author

  38. Camilla Smythe

    Guh Tchuh!

    This is one of those previews from a 'German Granny Sex Movie' where she gets double teamed at the side of the road by the two officers left in the cop car when their mate is unable to reload his Taser.

  39. Joe M

    What are the police?

    The police are a necessary evil in all societies, but in civilised societies we should always remember that they are just as evil as they are necessary.

  40. Mad Mike
    Thumb Down

    Walk Away

    This is really interesting as it shows the amazing hypocracy of the situation and law these days. Loads of people would say she should have simply signed and gone on her way to have her day in court later. No problem. Maybe so. Maybe she made life unnecessarily difficult. However, so did the cop. When she refused to sign, he could simply have written 'refused to sign' and then walked away. No more problem. But no, he had to take it further. Whether he intended to arrest her or whatever doesn't matter. He had the choice to do his duty fully and then walk away. He chose not to take it. Instead, he chose a route that was bound to lead to confrontation and trouble. Why? Because he's a cop and he has a god given right, that's why. In other words, he likes lording it around the place. Path of least resistance isn't of interest to him. Forcing others to do what he says or take the 'consequences' is.

    So, I'm not defending the granny. She made life unnecessarily hard. However, the cop was equally guilty of the same. Difference is, he's got a badge and an ego...... And a taser and a gun. I bet he ends up shooting and killing someone unnecessarily in the future because he refused to take the path of least resistance.

    Stupid and very poor cop.

  41. BioTube
    Boffin

    The worst part about this

    Is that Travis county tends to be very lenient with its sentencing - even considering the punishment for refusing to sign, that tasering will probably make up the majority of her punishment. Oddly enough(or not), neighboring Williamson tends to throw the book at just about everybody and throw it HARD.

  42. WhatWasThat?
    Alert

    Closed Captioning

    Because there is no subtitles here, I would like to point out that the people were from Texas... and it is clear as day that when the lady's response to the officer annoucing an action, what she said (written out) was...

    "Go ahead, tease me!"

    How is anyone that is told they will be ridiculed expected to prepare for (controlled?!)electrocution?

  43. kain preacher

    @Mad Mike

    in all 50 states you will be arrested for not signing the ticket. Signing the ticket is your promise to appear in court. No the officer does not have the right to walk away . Its mandatory for the cop to arrest. I've yet to seen a police dept that would allow the office to simple write refused to sign ticket. In most DMV hand books in the US, it tells you refusal to sign a ticket will land you in Jail.

    Now here is the question. You have some that's is 72 and wont let you cuff them ? Do tase them , or use physical force.

  44. Pierre 3

    By the book? You gotta be kidding!

    As far as I remember, the Taser was introduced as a less-lethal replacement for guns. To be used in the situations when you'd otherwise shoot the adverse party. So if he did everything "by the book", it means that he would have had the right to shoot the old lady. My guess is he wouldn't even have dare to *threaten* her with a gun. So he shouldn't even have *mentioned* the Taser, let alone taken it out -and certainly not used it!

    Just a bullying twat using a potentially lethal weapon against a non-threatening weak person because he did not want (or wasn't able) to use words. Who said merkin coppers are armed apes, trained to kill?

  45. Not Fighting Gravity
    Thumb Up

    If you do the crime you do the time!

    What happened to respecting an officer? If this were anyone else the officer would have been praised. Age descremination or does the law apply to everyone? If he tried to hold her physically he could have broken bones. Should we turn her loose if she has a big enough fit? Rude is rude. The guilty person is the elderly lady, Not the officer.

    Where do we draw the line. I commend the officer. It is his job to enforce the law and she should have obeyed the officer.

    She got exactly what she asked for and will now get thousands of dollars because she was supposedly abused. Any other country she would be in jail. If she were a LITTLE OLE' LADY,(AND I USE THE TERM LADY, LOOSELY) THIS NEVER WOULD HAVE COME TO THIS. THE BLAME IS ON HER NOT THE OFFICER.

    Interesting, lady like behavior.

  46. Eric Hood

    Abuse of authority is nothing new.

    If you have a hammer every problem looks like a nail.

    In a similar story police in Cincinnati twice tasered then shot a Chihuahua. Vicious nasty creatures that they are.

    You could have subdued it with a milk crate or a swift kick perhaps.

  47. Alan Dougherty
    Thumb Up

    @Mat B

    Exactly.. whats more dangerous?.. A deranged old lady pushing and shoving someone (anyone) on a hard shoulder, or taking them down quickly before there's two fatalities?

    If he had went in physically, then the lefties would cry 'brutiality'; he went in with a taser, so the lefties cry 'brutality'. If he had let her loose to run around her car, there might have been two funerals to attend for family and friends.

    Rock and hard place.. He was on a hiding to nothing in that case.. you can also see that he has his back to the road, to stop the mad biddy from running on to it.

    NOTE TO ALL DRIVERS - Sign the tickets, say yes Sir, Thank you Sir, Three Bags Fulls Sir, and fuck off home. If you feel you're hard done by, get a solicitor to sort it out after.. don't get yourself, or anybody else killed by arguing there and then*.

    *Unless you're on crack and are transporting 40k's of quality homegrown... I like to watch a good high speed pursuit as much as the next man.

    Can we have a Taser icon?

  48. Skyraker
    Unhappy

    Tasers are a non lethal last resort

    You don't fucking tase old ladies.... end of.

    This shit will be commonplace here soon. My (late) old man was a (oldschool) copper, he'd think nothing of a punch up with a scrote who was up for it.. your nicked, job done. Old school coppering at it's best. Tasers should be meant as a last resort to a tooled up knobhead who presents a real life threatening danger not a member of the blue rinse brigade who is a 'bit pissed off'.

    Tasing fucking hurts.. bad. It would have been less painful / torture to have brained her with his truncheon. So it's non lethal... so is fucking waterboarding and that doesn't hurt.

    Fuck this copper, fuck tasers and fuck Nu Labour for allowing them over here.

    (I know this was a septic moment and not here)

  49. TJ 3
    Flame

    Get real.

    Bah. 10 years ago she would've been shot. Shes lucky all she got was tazed. Technology is a wonderful thing. And for those stating "lethal force" Please, get tazed, and then go get shot. Then come back and tell me which one has more "lethal force" That makes everything have lethal force. "The cops started chasing him, his heart couldn't take it, he had a heart attack and died, Cops should no longer chase people!" Right, Next time Jimmy jobless is ransacking your house looking for money to make his next score, I'll be sure to tell the cops outside to just wave as he makes a hasty exit. Because we don't want poor Mr. Jobless to have a possible heart attack, do we?

    If you ask me, bitch was looking for a meal ticket.

  50. greesh
    Dead Vulture

    The granny mouthed off...

    But this poor dog ...

    http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/823986/police-taser-shoot-boys-2kg-chihuahua

    copped a tasering and then shot, 3 times no less - for just nibbling some fingers!

  51. Maty

    wonderful place Texas

    After watching that vid, I'd say cop and granny were perfectly suited - a pair of violent numbskulls. Incidentally, WAS granny speeding? 'Cos getting hit by a speeding 72 year old's car is a lot worse than getting hit by a taser.

    Nevertheless, a taser should not be used as an electrical whip.

  52. QuiteEvilGraham
    Unhappy

    What the fuck have you bastards been smoking?

    Sorry, going to have to go off the deep end here...

    So you think that it's ok for a public official to use allegedly "non lethal" force on an elderly woman for simply being rude to him? Perhaps one day you'll cop it for having red hair? Or a big hooky nose? Or just "looking like someone who deserved it because they look like/probably are a total cunt"? (perhaps the most likely scenario considering the above).

    Christ on a fucking bike! Now I understand how the BNP got two seats in the EU elections. It's not a protest - the voters are genuine bona fide wankstains.

    Can we have a "Most of the contributors of comments regarding this article are fuckwits" icon please?

  53. Alan Dougherty
    Thumb Down

    @Skyraker - Really?

    'It would have been less painful / torture to have brained her with his truncheon.'

    So you think physical blows to the head of a pensioner is less harmfull than a tasering? Tell that to the famlies of 30 year old males that have died by head trauma in simple fist fights.. you want to bludgeon old ladies? what does that say? Hoon.

    Old age makes bones brittle.. that includes the skull.. thank fuck you're not a copper.. or are you? Been in any kettles lately?

  54. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    The verb would be "to fire"

    Since "TASER" is a proper noun and trademark, removing a letter is not appropriate. Also note that "TAZER" is trademarked as well. So, "to TASER" would be most correct. Regardless, the trademark holder uses "Fire a/the TASER weapon".

    The big issue is simply that police are now trained to "fire a TASER weapon" instead of bothering to use their strength and training to enforce compliance with a "lawful order". They do not feel it necessary to calmly explain the consequences of an otherwise calm refusal to sign - they simply resort directly to electrical violence.

  55. P. Lee

    Abusive Granny vs Policeman

    Really, how difficult would it have been for him to grab her wrists and cuff her?

    Even if she started hitting him, would it have hurt?

    When "by the book" conflicts with "common-sense" we need to examine the book.

  56. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    no title should be required

    She is a 72 year old woman.. One should think that in her 72 year long life she would be able to recive a ticket with out acting like a little brat. Did the cop react correctly? well according to his training manuel, yes he did. Could he have reacted differently? yeah sure he could. He could physicaly restricted the 72 year old woman risking all sortes of injuries to her. Hell if they are a bit unlucky they could end up on the road and get skuiched by a 40 ton SUV. But yeah thats proberbly better than a teasoringolomi where there is no risk to one part and very little risk to the other.

  57. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @ QuiteEvilGraham

    "Can we have a "Most of the contributors of comments regarding this article are fuckwits" icon please?"

    Perhaps most of the commentators are from the US where this lady would, prior to the use of Tasers, have been shot. Not that it's a good excuse, but it's good to understand their perspective.

    Would a traffic policeman in the UK used his truncheon ?

  58. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    When....

    are they going to start waterboarding?

    They need to keep these young 70 year olds in check you know.

    *\. Really is another world.

  59. Tawakalna
    Unhappy

    @Lee

    you said:-

    "And you sir, are a prick. A prick, sir."

    any right you had to take part sensibly in this discussion was just lost there. No need for that was there. Plus you think it's ok to electrocute old ladies just because they mouth off.

    You just revealed exactly what sort of person you are. I'm the sort who doesn't believe that it's right to assault old people regardless of whether one is wearing a uniform or not. That makes me a better person than you, "sir," prick comment aside, "sir." Now get back to your Guns n Ammo and Soldier of Fortune magasines and fantasize about killing defenceless people and creatures if that's what you get off on.

    some people eh?

  60. WhoAreWe

    bollocks to granny

    "Would a traffic policeman in the UK used his truncheon ?"

    Only if she were a protestor who had Max Clifford as a media rep and there were cameras there to take the photos.

    Also, I agree with one of the other ACs: "Since "TASER" is a proper noun and trademark, removing a letter is not appropriate ... So, "to TASER" would be most correct."

    A taser is an item, a name (and therefore the word is a noun), so the infinitive would be "to taser". Conjugations would be:

    I taser

    You taser

    He/She/it tasers

    Past participle: tasered

    Gerund: tasering

    If it weren't for some grubby 21-yr-old undergrad with poor English, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Florida_Taser_incident)

  61. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wish our cops were more like that!

    Sorry but the granny was the architect of her own doom. She could have simply accepted the ticket. She refused to, she refused to show the officer any respect...she even gave the officer permission to "tase" her.

    I think she deserved what she got. I just wish our police in this country took less sh*t from the scroats here.

  62. Alex King
    Thumb Up

    Sod the granny

    As a biker my life is threatened daily by people who think they have a god-given right to do anything they like on the road and not accept the consequences. The sort of sh*tty attitude this woman exhibited to someone simply doing their job is indicative of a generally bad attitude towards other people in general that can be potentially lethal in many ways.

    She's already endangered her own life, that of the officer and probably other road users as well. Could the officer have used different/less force? Maybe, I don't know - I wasn't there and I doubt anybody else here was either, but she put herself in the wrong by speeding in the first place, she had to ber restrained somehow, and a taser is as good a way as any.

  63. Peter Hood

    Uhuh

    Brought to you by the very country that also delights in capital punishment (while smacking the PRC across the wrist), no matter how many times demonstrably innocent people are killed, and so many other bizarre phenomena. When Americans wonder why we regard them with such distaste I have a list of things to bring to the attention of their ritalin riddled 'consciousness'.

  64. phix8
    Flame

    She had it coming

    I like how one commentator mentioned how much physically stronger the policeman was - so he could have beaten her up? Yeah then there would be NOTHING to talk about and NO story... yeah right!

    Her behaviour was very overbearing and aggressive, he could have just backed off - in which case he might have been hit by the moving traffic which might have even been what the nasty old hag was going for. She verbally attacked him for shoving her - which from the look of it made her and the officer a lot safer from the traffic.

    People have argued police aren't entitled to respect, but that doesn't mean they have to be challenged - if this was a young man nobody would have a problem with it, so its strange that the fact that she is an old woman makes it newsworthy. Want to talk about respect? Way I see it, simply not dying, doesn't entitle to someone to ANY respect and if she wants to be treated like a delicate flower she shouldn't try and boss around law enforcement personnel. She was warned and warned again, she deserved every volt.

    If that much electricity didn't teach her some manners I hope they give her the chair!

  65. Peter Hood
    Thumb Down

    Sod the granny?

    I'm a biker too Alex, I've even had people admit they were putting my life at risk whilst working as a despatch rider, but that is another thing. Of course if you want to extrapolate from your experiences of life threatening circumstances and threaten the life of an elderly woman with an excess of electrochemical stimulation, thereby running the risk of stopping her heart, you go boy; to the USA, join up, knock yourself out.

    If the copper had any sense he would not have invited the situation by placing himself on the white line. Had he made his approach more cautiously she would not have been in a position to make him feel disposed to use the taser, but you just can't get the staff these days, can you?

    Poor body language, poor placement, poor voice modulation. Poor copper. Marks 1/10 for policing skills. Send him for CPD.

  66. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ducking Fumb

    How ducking fumb is this guy?

    Whether or not she invited him to "tase" her there was no need to do it. However, it's the fact that he did it in front of his own dash cam that makes him a grade A nimrod.

  67. Chris 58
    Thumb Up

    Boohoo

    So all of you folks that think the officer was wrong and that he should have let her spout off....why should he? She was wrong, she was confrontational from the start (she should never have even gotten out of the vehicle), she was walking him into traffic (although he could have done a better job explaining why he was moving her back away from the road), and wasn't cooperating with the officer. Yes, officers are trained to deal with situations, but why should they allow people to curse at them or whatever? If I work at any place of business and a customer pulls that crap, I'm not going to follow "the customer is always right". It's called act like an adult and cram it folks. You broke the law, you were speeding. Pull up your Depends and take the ticket. If you're going to piss and moan, then you get tazered. It's better than what you used to get...ie the baton. So shut your trap and take it....you deserved it. Yeah I'd be mad if it were my grandmother, but if you're the one that broke the law, then shut it. It's not abuse, it's what they are trained to do.

  68. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rrrrrespect....

    When reading this I can't help but think of South Park's Cartman dressed as a policeman screaming "Respect my authoritaahhh!" Funny 'cause its true. ;)

  69. John F***ing Stepp

    Texas is kind'a our London.

    Same quality police protection.

    I don't go there and don't recommend you do either.

  70. Ed Gould
    Flame

    re: Texas Cop Tasered Granny

    Lets use some common sense here. We are talking about a traffic ticket here not an violent felony or aggravated assault, we are talking about a speeding ticket.

    I watched the video and if the cop had any clue what so ever he would not deliver 50,000 volts to an elderly women. I am not sure what that kind of jolt would do to a pace maker but I am guessing that she would be dead. The "policeman" ( my name would be a thug) went far beyond normal restraint of a non arrested woman. I did not see handcuffs come out and it was clear he was way beyond his meager intelligence to do this to a 72 year old woman. I guess this type of action by a Texas Policeman is acceptable in Texas.

    This is one of the MANY reasons why any sane person would steer clear of Texas. A

    Another short version of a story I heard on the radio about 25 or so years ago in Dallas. A man was shot and killed by a doctor who was chasing after him to pay a bill for fixing a bullet wound. The doctor chased the guy several blocks and then shot him dead. They let the doctor off as it was claimed to be justifiable homicide!

    Stay away from Texas.

  71. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When you're dealing with someone past 70...

    I would have thought any kind of physical restraint is high risk, esp with females because of the possibility of Osteoporosis. So if some kind of restraint was necessary then there were no good options. Is a Taser less or more risky for that individual than a truncheon, or attempting to restrain by grabbing arms etc? I don't know that I'd want to call that.

  72. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    They elected GW Bush

    For pete's sake , these are the people who elected Bush and you expect them to

    use their common sense , brains and act civilised ( all sides ) ? Come on ..

  73. Hans

    Respecting authority

    Yup, the old dear deserves it, she didn't respect the Police authority.

    Why do the Police command respect? Well, because they are the ones holding the lethal weapons.

    Showing respect for police 'because they bloody-well said so' is reason enough for us all.

    If the Police asked her to kneel down and kiss his boots as a sign of this respect, so be it.

    If she fails to do it on command, go ahead tase/taser/zap or just blast her. That'll win respect for the law.

  74. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    by the book - total crap

    He pushed her away from the "speeding" traffic, that was occasionally wandering by a whole lane away from where she was standing on the shoulder, than zapped her because she complained.

    rule 1, in the USA, do NOT piss off anyone in uniform.

    rule 2, see rule 1.

    I was once queuing for passport control at a US airport, trying to get into the land of the free. There was a ridiculously over-uniformed and badged person standing at the head of the queue with the job of directing people to a desk when the previous passenger left (a non-job if ever I saw one!). So they said to someone a few places in front of me "desk 7", and the person starts walking to desk 7, but on the way another desk emptied so this person goes there instead - all the desks are the same so why not?. The over-badged one races to him and starts yelling that this person is an idiot and has to do what she says. He said "why does it matter", which was all it took - 4 guys each 7 foot tall and 20 stone turn up and march him off. Over-badged one walks back to the line, where everyone is thinking "hmmm, land of the free?", but doing exactly what they are told.

    Do NOT piss off anyone in uniform.

    Oh, and I love the Department of Homeland Facism, sorry, Security. At each airport they have their promises on display, including something like "we will cordially greet visitors to our country". Cordially must mean something different in the US - from experience a barked "NEXT!" is about as good as it gets.

    Paris, because, well, Paris in uniform, handcuffs....

  75. Alex King
    Thumb Up

    Yes, Sod the granny (@Peter Hood)

    The cop "invited the situation" did he? No - she did: She drove dangerously, disobeyed reasonable instructions, abused the cop, and then - literally - invited him to taser her.

    I can't square her behaviour with being "elderly" either. Old, perhaps, and certainly a grandmother, but the only qualifications for that are failing to die for a long time and both you and your offspring figuring out how to have sex, and I don't see why either of those should automatically demand respect, particularly when she's acting every bit the spoilt brat in a potentially lethal situation.

    I'm as much against police brutality as the next man, but if you break the law, get caught and then whine and argue the toss then you deserve everything that's coming to you.

  76. Michael Miller
    Thumb Up

    She did not follow reasonable instructions.

    She was in a highly agitated state. He had no way of knowing if she had any sort of weapon. He controlled the situation in the least violent way.

  77. Richard Russell
    Alert

    Little fascists

    The shitty fruits of New Fascism are everywhere, even on this site, it seems. "She deserved it!" they say. "She was in the wrong so anything can happen to her and it's OK!"

    So you do something wrong and there's no more rule-of-law? No more justice? No more decency? Is there only rule of law as long as you do what you're told? Beyond that, whatever "less lethal" implements we happen to have are OK to use, right?

    The elderly may not deserve respect "just for not dying yet" (rather like you, really) but at least they remember the meaning of the old-fashioned words "humanity" and - most importantly - freedom.

  78. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Little Old (Texan) Lady

    She might be a little old lady but as I understand things, little old ladies in Texas carry big old guns. Now if you've ever seen the devastation that a stroppy little old lady with an umbrella can do in a post office or bus queue then you'll be able to visualize what a stroppy little old lady with a big old gun can do. Police officer was entirely justified.

    Until Americans stop thinking it is their right to carry concealed weapons then the police should assume that they are carrying one and act accordingly.

  79. Enigma9
    IT Angle

    Disgraceful

    Thats terrible a little old lady being shoved out the way, then Tarazed, but then again if she was arguing with the long arm of the law, then no surprises really. But still shocking that a Granny would resort to trying to get physical with a very large and by the looks of it, intolerant police man.

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