The taser comes to the area

[Kat Kanning]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/223578_taser10.html

Pregnant woman 'Tasered' by police is convicted

By HECTOR CASTRO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

She was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn't think she deserved.

So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts.

"Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during her criminal trial last week on charges of refusing to obey an officer and resisting arrest.

She was found guilty of the first charge because she never signed the ticket, but the Seattle Municipal Court jury could not decide whether she resisted arrest, the reason the Taser was applied.

To her attorneys and critics of police use of Tasers, Brooks' case is an example of police overreaction.

"It's pretty extraordinary that they should have used a Taser in this case," said Lisa Daugaard, a public defender familiar with the case.

Law enforcement officers have said they see Tasers as a tool that can benefit the public by reducing injuries to police and the citizens they arrest.

Seattle police officials declined to comment on this case, citing concerns that Brooks might file a civil lawsuit.

But King County sheriff's Sgt. Donald Davis, who works on the county's Taser policy, said the use of force is a balancing act for law enforcement.

"It just doesn't look good to the public," he said.

Brooks' run-in with police Nov. 23 came six months before Seattle adopted a new policy on Taser use that guides officers on how to deal with pregnant women, the very young, the very old and the infirm. When used on such subjects, the policy states, "the need to stop the behavior should clearly justify the potential for additional risks."

"Obviously, (law enforcement agencies) don't want to use a Taser on young children, pregnant woman or elderly people," Davis said. "But if in your policy you deliberately exclude a segment of the population, then you have potentially closed off a tool that could have ended a confrontation."

Brooks was stopped in the 8300 block of Beacon Avenue South, just outside the African American Academy, while dropping her son off for school.

In a two-day trial that ended Friday, the officer involved, Officer Juan Ornelas, testified he clocked Brooks' Dodge Intrepid doing 32 mph in a 20-mph school zone.

He motioned her over and tried to write her a ticket, but she wouldn't sign it, even when he explained that signing it didn't mean she was admitting guilt.

Brooks, in her testimony, said she believed she could accept a ticket without signing for it, which she had done once before.

"I said, 'Well, I'll take the ticket, but I won't sign it,' " Brooks testified.

Officer Donald Jones joined Ornelas in trying to persuade Brooks to sign the ticket. They then called on their supervisor, Sgt. Steve Daman.

He authorized them to arrest her when she continued to refuse.

The officers testified they struggled to get Brooks out of her car but could not because she kept a grip on her steering wheel.

And that's when Jones brought out the Taser.

Brooks testified she didn't even know what it was when Jones showed it to her and pulled the trigger, allowing her to hear the crackle of 50,000 volts of electricity.

The officers testified that was meant as a final warning, as a way to demonstrate the device was painful and that Brooks should comply with their orders.

When she still did not exit her car, Jones applied the Taser.

In his testimony, the Taser officer said he pressed the prongs of the muzzle against Brooks' thigh to no effect. So he applied it twice to her exposed neck.

Afterward, he and the others testified, Ornelas pushed Brooks out of the car while Jones pulled.

She was taken to the ground, handcuffed and placed in a patrol car, the officers testified.

She told jurors the officer also used the device on her arm, and showed them a dark, brown burn to her thigh, a large, red welt on her arm and a lump on her neck, all marks she said came from the Taser application.

At the South Precinct, Seattle fire medics examined Brooks, confirmed she was pregnant and recommended she be evaluated at Harborview Medical Center.

Brooks said she was worried about the effect the trauma and the Taser might have on her baby, but she delivered a healthy girl Jan. 31.

Still, she said, she remains shocked that a simple traffic stop could result in her arrest.

"As police officers, they could have hurt me seriously. They could have hurt my unborn fetus," she said.

"All because of a traffic ticket. Is this what it's come down to?"

Davis said Tasers remain a valuable tool, and that situations like Brooks' are avoidable.

"I know the Taser is controversial in all these situations where it seems so egregious," he said. "Why use a Taser in a simple traffic stop? Well, the citizen has made it more of a problem. It's no longer a traffic stop. This is now a confrontation."
P-I reporter Hector Castro can be reached at 206-903-5396 or hectorcastro@seattlepi.com

[Russell Kanning]

But King County sheriff's Sgt. Donald Davis, who works on the county's Taser policy, said the use of force is a balancing act for law enforcement.

"It just doesn't look good to the public," he said.


Really...do you think ???

Why would they ever need to use this on the young, old, infirm, pregnant? This lady was not beating them or anything....she just refused to comply.Did the cops think they were in danger? Was it absolutely necessary to subdue her and get her out of the car?

Maybe we could all expect to be tasered if we show any resistance to the police whatsoever.

....and some people don't think we live in a police state.

[mvpel]

Because using a baton to subdue a combative pregnant, old, or infirm person poses a much higher risk of serious injury than the Taser.

[Kat Kanning]

Maybe they should leave the infirm, pregnant, old people THE HELL ALONE!!!!

[mvpel]

The Virgin Islands have applied that idea to vehicular assault on a police officer, apparently:


Very Pregnant' Woman Not Arrested After Trying to Run Over Motorcycle Officer in U.S. Virgin Islands, Police Say

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) - Police did not arrest a woman accused of trying to run down an officer with her car because she was expected to give birth within 24 hours, an official said Thursday.

The woman allegedly aimed her car at a uniformed officer on a police motorcycle Wednesday morning and tried to run him off busy Main Street in downtown Charlotte Amalie, Police Chief Novelle Francis said.

The officer evaded the car without injury and stopped the woman, who is in her mid-30s, police said.

It was not clear why she tried to run the officer over, telling police she thought the officer was "a friend," Francis said.

Police plan to charge the woman with attempted vehicular assault, but declined to arrest her right away because she was expecting to give birth so soon.

"She's probably giving birth right now," Francis said Thursday morning. "She was very pregnant."

Charlotte Amalie is the capital of the U.S. Caribbean territory of 110,000.
=====

If she tries to run down her friends, I wonder what she does to her enemies?   

[Russell Kanning]

That looks like good police work....I wonder if our cops could avoid an oncoming vehicle.

[Kat Kanning]

On that same news show with the iris scanners at airports:

http://www.local6.com/news/4496638/detail.html

http://www.local6.com/news/4546053/detail.html

Iris scanners, tasering kids...at least it's a high tech police state, eh?

[Kat Kanning]

Yes, the taser is so humane.

Watch this:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/video/taser_video3a.html

[KBCraig]

Yes, the taser is so humane.

Watch this:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/video/taser_video3a.html

Well, to be honest...

Anyone who was able to carry on like she did was not harmed. And for the whole story, you need to back up and see why she was being arrested:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/video/taser_video2a.html

She was screaming that the police were racist from the moment he walked up to the window.

Kevin

[mvpel]

He was acting like a bit of a jerk and being rather abrubt and short with her, but I'm sure dealing with people like that all day long would grind down anyone's patience.

Kind of odd that someone with a suspended license would be driving around without a seatbelt and getting in an officer's face about his legal authority.  Guess if she had any common sense in the first place she wouldn't have been speeding.

[davemincin]

No, I'm serious.

This stuff's scary. This sort of thing shouldn't be going on here. In New Hampshire of all places!

Where did the police station get the money to buy the tasers? They're still quite expensive. Around $10,000 a pop. You guys fund your police stations that much?

Tracy

Law enforcement officers have long been able to arrest you for resisting arrest, even if they are not arresting you for anything.? Like the time, way back when I was a pup......Hmm,? thinking it better to save that one for around the campfire.

[Russell Kanning]

Kind of odd that someone with a suspended license would be driving around without a seatbelt and getting in an officer's face about his legal authority.? Guess if she had any common sense in the first place she wouldn't have been speeding.

That almost perfectly describes me.

Why do they taser someone that isn't going to hurt them?.....why don't they just send her a bill in the mail?

I think I like the idea of citizens being able to call officers racist....shows us we live in a free country.....oh yea we can't do that

[KBCraig]

Kind of odd that someone with a suspended license would be driving around without a seatbelt and getting in an officer's face about his legal authority.  Guess if she had any common sense in the first place she wouldn't have been speeding.

That almost perfectly describes me.

The difference is.......you are white 

I hope you're not implying that the shade of his skin keeps him from driving 16mph over the limit in a residential area, copping an instant attitude, and taking a swing at an officer who's trying to effect an arrest.

Do you think that being white makes Russell polite, affable, and cooperative (except for the civil disobedience stand he's taking)?

Naw. I didn't think so. Because if you believe skin color was the only difference in how that driver was treated, maybe that's all you expect from "those people".

Kevin

[Russell Kanning]

Why does the president think I am white?

[Kat Kanning]

There's only been a million Russell photos on here.

Since when is "having an attitude" against the law?