Texas cop tasers gobby granny

[colmquinn]

Don't know if this has been posted before but thought it would be kinda shocking (no pun intended)

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.
Officer Chris Bieze collared Kathryn Winkfein en route to Austin doing 60mph in a 45mph zone. The Travis County "dashcam" vid - shot in May but released this week - shows her rather testily getting out of her vehicle to confront Bieze after refusing to sign the speeding ticket.

She requests: "Give me the fucking ticket now."

Bieze responds by shoving the fuming septuagenarian "to keep her out of traffic whizzing by", as he later explained.

Winkfein protests: "You're gonna shove me?! You're gonna shove a 72-year-old woman?"

Bieze replies: "If you don't stand back, I'm gonna tase you."

Winkfein suggests: "Go ahead, taser me."*

After issuing a few more warnings, Bieze walks it likes he talks it, and takes granny down (see pic). She's seen screaming on the floor as Bieze inists: "Put your hands behind your back or you're going to be tased again."

Winkfein suffered no serious harm during her encounter with electric justice, and was cuffed and charged** with resisting arrest. She later protested: "I was not argumentative. I was not combative. All of this is a lie. Every bit of this is a lie."

Bieze's boss insisted his 'leccy-happy subordinate had done everything "by the book"

And of course there is video of the incident

[Teaos]

Personally I dont mind that too much, the woman was warned several times, and she doesnt exactly seem "frail". While its not great its not as shocking as some people make it out to be.

But I got this beat.

TALLAHASSEE - A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous "Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day" events gone wrong at three state prisons, according to new information provided Friday by the Florida Department of Corrections.

Also, a group of kids was exposed to tear gas during a demonstration at another lockup.

[Tsukiyumi]

If that shock had killed her, I imagine there'd be a problem.

[Tyyr]

She was repeatedly told to back off or she'd get tased. She chose to keep pushing it and therefore chose to get tased. If she'd kicked the bucket then it would have been her own fault. It's not quite up to "Don't tase me bro!" levels of hilarious, but its up there.

[Sionnach Glic]

Meh, I'm registering a big 0.2 on the sympathy scale. She acted like a jackass and was warned several times. If the OP's account of what happened is true, I've no sympathy.

[Tyyr]

And if you can't laugh at dumbasses getting tased then who the hell can you laugh at?

Have to share my own personal idiot tasing story.

Ok, I have to share this story. One of the jobs I worked during college was night security at an apartment complex run by the university. Simple job. There was a party going on in one building on the second floor. No big deal, it was Friday night, and so long as they don't get too wild our official position is, "meh." Of course it got out of hand. We went and told them to quiet down twice. Per the regs the third time we called the cops who worked the complex and they came with us, this time to break up the party. Well things get going, I read the riot act to the people who rent the apartment, the cops start hauling people out, etc. They had a keg, most of the partiers were underage but the cops weren't really interested in hauling 30 people off to jail so they just took names (from driver's licenses) and started calling parents to come pick up their inebriated children. Well one of the guys who lived in the apartment is more than a bit drunk and starts to flip out. Now remember, at this point the cops aren't actually going to arrest anyone and press charges even though they could quite happily arrest all four people who lived in the apartment and consequently have them thrown out of the university. The cops were letting them off with a warning and dumping of the keg. Well the one guy freaks out, starts tussling with the cops, trying to get them to stop calling numbers, dumping the keg, etc. They finally have enough and break out the cuffs. They've given this guy every chance possible to sit down, shut up, and thank the almighty he's not going to jail and out of college for this. The guy sees them whip out the cuffs and bolts, gets to the balcony of the apartment and jumps down to the ground. Barefoot, no shirt, just his jeans and he starts running. Where or why I don't know, they know where he lives, who he is, etc. The cops follow after him. Now as I watch I see one cop pull his taser and keep jogging behind the guy. The cop waited, waited until the idiot got off the grass of the courtyard and onto the concrete of the parking lot. This is one of the older, cheap parking lots. The kind where a lot of the asphalt has worn away and it's mostly jagged aggregate sticking up. Yeah, the cop waits till this guy's foot touches concrete, then he fires the taser.

The guy dropped like a sack of potatoes... and skidded a good two feet. I had to sit in the office with the cops with this guy cuffed in the seat across the desk. He was scrapped all to hell, bleeding in a couple of spots, and still had pebbles and crap dug into his chest and face and insult to injury he couldn't sit back because the taser barbs were still in his back.

Meanwhile I'm doing all I can not to bust out laughing. Oh yeah, he was also thrown out of the college and the apartment complex for that.

[Lighthawk]

Heh, always good to see belligerent stupidity properly rewarded, on both counts.

[Mikey]

I worked with a former municipal police officer who participated in a typical macho PD ritual of "let's tase ourselves." He actually remained conscious and standing thorugh it.

Of course, I later found out he was a former member of the 82nd Airborne, an irremediable drunk, and a practitioner of muay thai who used to spar with guys who would later be seen on televised MMA competitions.

[Monroe]

Am I the only one who took the granny's side? o.O
She's a little old lady the cop could have restrained her without using a taser. Over use of force.

[Tyyr]

"I'm going to tase you if you don't back down."
"I'm going to tase you if you don't back down."
"I'm going to tase you if you don't back down."

*TASED*

No, not really feeling a whole lot of sympathy for her.

[Monroe]

"I'm going to tase you if you don't back down."
"I'm going to tase you if you don't back down."
"I'm going to tase you if you don't back down."

*TASED*

No, not really feeling a whole lot of sympathy for her.

Why would he have to tase her? He could have just pushed her aside. Hell if he was smart he would have walked over to the far side of the highway with her towards the highway then back up. Because she was in his face she would have followed him away from the highway. Cops over use tasing.

[Tyyr]

Why couldn't she have listened to the cop? I'm sorry, when someone says, "I'm going to tase you if you don't stop X" and they've got a taser on them and you just keep doing X it probably shouldn't shock you when you get your dumbass tased. You're not sympathetic, you're an idiot.

Cops prefer not to engage belligerent suspects physically if they don't have to. Since she wasn't complying to verbal orders the next step was to physically make her do what he was telling her and that means taser.

[Reliant121]

"Cops over use tasing"? personally I dont think there is a limit. No Autopsy, No foul. The Police officer's job is to 1) maintain the law 2) protect the public 3) protect HIMSELF. The taser is the single, most effective and immediate method of protecting himself from unnecessary danger and aggrevation.

[Tyyr]

We could always go back to the old style of enforcing physical compliance, a nightstick to the skull. That's safer.

[Monroe]

Why couldn't she have listened to the cop? I'm sorry, when someone says, "I'm going to tase you if you don't stop X" and they've got a taser on them and you just keep doing X it probably shouldn't shock you when you get your dumbass tased. You're not sympathetic, you're an idiot.

Cops prefer not to engage belligerent suspects physically if they don't have to. Since she wasn't complying to verbal orders the next step was to physically make her do what he was telling her and that means taser.

I just don't like how freely cops use tasers. Sure she was asking for it when he warned her multiple times but why would he have to warn her. I pointed out a way he could have defused the situation without physical. If he had to get physical he could have simply pushed her aside. Or he could have warned her about the incoming traffic. He skipped that little side step move, he skipped physical after one push, he skipped calmly telling her that traffic might hit her-- which she wasn't that close anyway. He jumped to taser. There were much better ways to defuse the situation.

She's an old lady Reliant, what threat is she? And besides his testimony didn't make it sound like he was threatened. Just that she wouldn't move from traffic. So without a death its okay? A small child running across the street jaywalking should be tased? There are certain methods of protection cops should do at certain times. Tasing the woman instead of using his brain was over use of force.

And stop posting while I'm typing this up A nightstick pulled out would have been better. You can control the force of a night stick. He could have pushed her with it and the message would have been clear. He could have tripped her.