Police Brutality Story of the Week
Wednesday 21 July 2010 - Filed under Law enforcement
Rhonda Cook of AJC in Atlanta:
Janice Wells called the Richland Police Department when she feared a prowler was outside her clapboard house in the rural west Georgia town.
The third-grade teacher had phoned for help. But within minutes of an officer coming to her backdoor, she was screaming in pain and begging not to be shocked again with a Taser. With each scream and cry, the officer threatened her with more shocks.
[. . .]
The officer in question is Ryan Smith of the Lumpkin Police Department. Smith was called to back up an officer from the Richland Police Department because the sheriff’s office in the county, Stewart, had no deputies to send.
So people who call the police explicitly so that they might be helped in exactly the way police are designed to help should be afraid? Great. Now I can be tased by the police at my own home because I wouldn’t tell them the name of a friend who was in my house.
For those who might say we “needn’t” guns for our own protection because we have teh police to save the day, here’s a great big “fuck you, asshole(s)!”. Not only are there times when officers cannot respond, but you run the risk of being victimized by the police. In some ways, dealing with the criminal might be a better option; at least he might go to fucking jail, a place I’m sure neither of these two cops will ever see because of this.
Smith resigned as a result of the incident. The other officer involved, Tim Murphy of Richland PD, was fired for using pepper spray while trying to arrest Wells.
[. . .]
Smith resigned just as Ogle started the process to fire him, the chief said. Smith now works for the Chattahoochee County Sheriff’s office.
Some justice. A cop who clearly did harm to a citizen, unjustly, while on duty, quits before he can be fired, then is hired by another police department. It must be nice to have that kind of immunity from the law. I might argue that not even the president has that kind of authority or job security.
Smith said he probably discharged the Taser three or four times for a total of six seconds. One of those times, he shocked himself.
I’d wager to say the president can’t be that stupid either.
2010-07-21 » madlibertarianguy