Police taser innocent blind man

The guy didn't stop walking when they told him to stop. If their view of his cane was blocked, it could look like he was trying to move away whilst concealing it.

Not all visually impaired people wave their cane around in the manner most people would assume, some who are less impaired will only use it to judge the height of a step / pavement. If he's carrying it down by his side then it could be mistaken for something else.

It's unfortunate, but we all know what has happened in the past when a person refuses to stop for an armed officer.
 
int said:
The guy didn't stop walking when they told him to stop.
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Maybe because he was deaf?

int said:
It's unfortunate, but we all know what has happened in the past when a person refuses to stop for an armed officer.
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He didn't 'refuse' to stop, he was incapable of knowing he was even being asked to.

I refuse to believe that Police Officers are given some basic training to determine if someone has a disability or not. If we're saying it's unfortunate but 'just one of those things' that police will use violence on anyone who don't follow their every word at the first time of asking you are basically saying anyone who is blind, deaf or has a severe mental health issue just has to accept that they'll be martyrs and they'l just have to put up with it.
 
opstrat said:
do they not need authentication from commanders before using tasers?

by the time he gets the go to use the taser i would have thought the police would noticed it was a cane and not a sword.
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I think the word you were thinking of was authority rather than authentication.

On that subject, no Taser or Firearms Officers do not have to get authority to draw their Taser or Firearm in certain circumstances - normally when faced with an unforseen life threatening incident, such as they're on patrol and come across a man with a bladed weapon or firearm.

In fact Taser deployment may be less restrictive than a Firearm, since it is not lethal force and other than a couple of small cuts left by the barbs leaves little injury.

If they had to get authority, by the time it came back people could be seriously hurt or dead.

Pre-planned firearms operations are different.

That is a simplistic answer but I think it is about right.

As for the incident - fairly sure it will be investigated properly. It is noticeable that the full circs aren't raised in the report i.e. what time of day (lighting conditions play a part), what did the 'stick' look like, how did the gentleman react when challenged?

It in no way diminishes the trauma that this man went through - and clearly he wasn't the man they were after - but the answers to the above questions may explain why the Officer fired a Taser at him.

To simply sit behind a keyboard and say "sack him" "he's incompetent" etc., is really too simplistic. You only have to look at the incidents over the years when Police Officers and Army Personnel in Northern Ireland have opened fire on people believing that they were armed (in all honesty) and the target subsequently being proven not to have been armed. It isn't quite as clear cut when you're not in that situation having to make a split second decision.
 
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Andy90 said:
I think the word you were thinking of was authority rather than authentication.

On that subject, no Taser or Firearms Officers do not have to get authority to draw their Taser or Firearm in certain circumstances - normally when faced with an unforseen life threatening incident, such as they're on patrol and come across a man with a bladed weapon or firearm.

In fact Taser deployment may be less restrictive than a Firearm, since it is not lethal force and other than a couple of small cuts left by the barbs leaves little injury.

If they had to get authority, by the time it came back people could be seriously hurt or dead.

Pre-planned firearms operations are different.

That is a simplistic answer but I think it is about right.

As for the incident - fairly sure it will be investigated properly. It is noticeable that the full circs aren't raised in the report i.e. what time of day (lighting conditions play a part), what did the 'stick' look like, how did the gentleman react when challenged?

It in no way diminishes the trauma that this man went through - and clearly he wasn't the man they were after - but the answers to the above questions may explain why the Officer fired a Taser at him.

To simply sit behind a keyboard and say "sack him" "he's incompetent" etc., is really too simplistic. You only have to look at the incidents over the years when Police Officers and Army Personnel in Northern Ireland have opened fire on people believing that they were armed (in all honesty) and the target subsequently being proven not to have been armed. It isn't quite as clear cut when you're not in that situation having to make a split second decision.
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I Agree it's difficult to pass judgement without further info on the circumstances. he could have been approaching a school for example.

Imagine the headlines had it been reversed, they guy really did have a sword and the police had held back because they couldn't tell from that angle if he was in fact partial sighted and partial deaf or in fact a psycho, and in that hesitation the guy swiftly decapitated some random person.

I feel for the guy but the police cant and wont muck about when weapons are suspected to be involved, and that underground shooting deal was the extreme example of this.
 
estebanrey said:
glenn-hoddle-004.jpg
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do you need smilies?
 
wazza300 said:
poor bloke,they only need to tazer a deaf and dumb bloke now and they have a pinball wizard
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didnt Surrey police do that to some guy at the olympic cycling because he didnt look "happy" enough, missing the fact he was disabled. Just add this to the list of idiotic things the police do, why couldnt the officer move towards him first to get a better look, its not like a white stick looks even remotely like a sword
 
estebanrey said:
Maybe because he was deaf?



He didn't 'refuse' to stop, he was incapable of knowing he was even being asked to.

I refuse to believe that Police Officers are given some basic training to determine if someone has a disability or not. If we're saying it's unfortunate but 'just one of those things' that police will use violence on anyone who don't follow their every word at the first time of asking you are basically saying anyone who is blind, deaf or has a severe mental health issue just has to accept that they'll be martyrs and they'l just have to put up with it.
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Think about all of the times a police officer has told someone to stop and that person hasn't stopped. What are the odds that they were all deaf?

If someone doesn't stop when a police officer tells them to, their first reaction isn't going to wonder whether they're deaf.
 
int said:
Think about all of the times a police officer has told someone to stop and that person hasn't stopped. What are the odds that they were all deaf?

If someone doesn't stop when a police officer tells them to, their first reaction isn't going to wonder whether they're deaf.
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How is a blind guy to know they were speaking to him, and if he wasn't doing anything wrong then why would the blind guy automatically think its him they were talking to?
 
int said:
Think about all of the times a police officer has told someone to stop and that person hasn't stopped. What are the odds that they were all deaf?

If someone doesn't stop when a police officer tells them to, their first reaction isn't going to wonder whether they're deaf.
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They usually shout stop to someone who is running away, not someone who they could overtake by hopping on one foot.

:rolleyes:
 
I'm slightly confused as to how a blind man poking the street can look intimidating? I mean even if it had been a guy who could see, with a sword. It's not like he was wielding it aggressively. He'd have been poking the floor!? Thats taser worthy?
 
Not the first time I might add. My brother was pounced upon a few years back because some dimwitted fool reported an armed gunman walking through the streets when he was carrying a hiking pole. On that occasion it was an armed response team.
 
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