A US traffic policeman shot a 72-year-old speeder with his electric stun gun after she dared him to.
Kathryn Winkfein was stopped for driving at 60mph in a 45mph zone near Austin, Texas.
A dashboard camera in the police car taped the 4ft 11in Winkfein refusing to sign her speeding ticket, getting out of her white pick-up truck and swearing at deputy constable Chris Bieze. He then pushed her to get her away from traffic.
"You're gonna shove a 72-year-old woman?" Mrs Winkfein said angrily, standing inches from the deputy.
"If you don't step back, you're going to get Tased," the officer said.
"Go ahead, Tase me," she said. "I dare you."
The video showed Deputy Bieze using the Taser and Mrs Winkfein hitting the ground and moaning in pain.
"Put your hands behind your back or you're going to be Tased again," he yelled, and then hit her with another jolt.
Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton said: "I do not personally agree with the actions of the deputy constable as they are shown in the video. When I look at the video I am in awe of what happened."
Mrs Winkfein was eventually charged with resisting arrest. Senior officers have defended Deputy Bieze's actions and said that Mrs Winkfein was belligerent and difficult to handle.
Unfortunately, the Media will run with it and make the little Old Lady the victim once again, putting another nail in the tazer coffin.
Don't people understand that tazers are used on violent, ignorant, sometimes dangerous people. I'm not friendly with the police by any means but let's cut them some slack and let them do their job.
66 F100 300 4 speed! Power steering!
78 Kawasaki KZ650
75 Yamaha XS 650 x 3.
82 Suzuki GS850G.
Cops killed some one here today with a tazer!, I might add he was not an innocent bystander, he was armed with a knife and was self harming himself, they just did a better job than he did!
Honey, If I say I`ll fix something I will, there`s no need to remind me every 6 months!!
66 f100 tabletop swb 351 Clevo C6 "Beryl"
Yea, I was thinking the same thing. If that cop could not control a 72 yr old women half his size without a tazer he will be in deep trouble if he ever runs into a real criminal. There was a deal on one of the Morning news Shows the other Day about this and the Hosts were really trashing the cop for what he did.............Kid
What people don't understand is that the taser is used to compell compliance, and does a very good job at that. There are other ways to do this, but they have other and longer lasting problems. OC usually works well, but the clean up may take 30 to 45 minutes. The baton works sometimes (not well on druggies, or Rodney King) and the after effects may last months (broken bones, bruises, etc). Even empty hand controls (pain compliance) have problems. Don't work on some (druggies again) and can still lead to broken bones and dislocations. Then there is always the old fasion bullet, but that also leaves a mark.
The problem is that every time you use something and it doesn't work, you have to up the level of force. Each time you do this it becomes more and more possible to injure either the subject or the officer (think the old knock down drag out).
I have taught, used, and been subjected to empty hand controls, baton (regular straight baton, expandable baton, and PR24), OC spray, stun gun, and taser. Of all of those, what worked the best to stop the action, but was the fastest to "recover" from were the "electronic restraining devices" (the stun gun and the taser). The problem with the stun gun is that you have to be "up close and personal" (hands on), and there is a chance of the officer (or the subjest)getting injured. With the taser, the officer is able to stay back at a safe distance and if it doesn't work, can go to a plan B.
Most of these deaths from the taser (and OC), are the result of the arrestee being highly intoxicated on some drug, and either dying from the effects of that or positional asphixia.
Have officers used the taser too quickly, probably but that would be a personnel problem not an indictment of the taser. In this case, officer presense and verbal commands didn't work. The taser probably did less damage to her than "manhandling" her would have.
And all she had to do was sign the ticket. Reminds me of someone I used to know. Made a mountain out of a mole hill. I commend his action. Other parts of the country, she could have been shot.
She said go ahead and tase me which she means to me she understood what would happen if she did not comply with the oficers directions. She asked for it. Perhaps the officer could have handled it better but she was combative and not following instructions. She will probably get some big settlement out of it but I don't think she is deserves it. She made a mountain out of a molehill. Just because she is a 72 year old woman doesn't mean she can't do something dangerous. You never know who has a gun and will do something stupid. An 88 year old guy killed the guard at the holocaust.
always
"i believe i've achieved satisfaction".-bubbles
"should i be gettin" baked for this boys?"-bubbles
i could no longer keep "r.i.p.ing" all of our fallen brothers and sisters, so i say here, slick loads of love and much respect to all you beautiful people.
Or, he could have handed the unsigned ticket to her and drove away. She would still have had to go to court. But, then he wouldn't have gotten to use one of his "toys"
But then, he could have used his pistol and shot her... That would have subdued her forever... but she still wouldn't have signed the ticket.
Or it may be his department's policy to have the ticket signed, or an arrest will be made. If was the policy, he followed it. If department policy is that he could have written "refused" on the citation and given it to her, he took it to far.
How sad that this country and many people in it view this kind of behavior as OK. that's on both sides of the situation. I allways treat officers with respect, whether they deserve it or not, as I have no idea which way it falls. The officer in the video is one hell of a nice guy, adn good at his job. He also deserves to be commended for his restraint. But back to tazing a 72 year old small woman, there is something wrong with this cop. Either he looses control to easily or he's a problem waiting to happen. On the other hand, there are so many laws going into affect that people don't know about and new fee's being extracted from the average person, you never know when you are completely in the right. As to our rights, we seem to have lost nearly all of these. All they have to say is it's a matter of national security and they can do whatever they want to. Not all of the officers out there are good people. If you resist in any way then you are in the wrong, at least this is what the laws are set up to do. Money is at the root of a lot of this. Ticket quota's, new fee's etc. We have to many people working for the government, and not enough workers, nor enough production, to support the overhead. With the bank , insurance and other wasted money, our leaders have thown us into the pit of despair. The only way back to freedom is to lesson the load, incourage manufactoring, and get rid of the overhead. This will not happen from politicians. We are moving into a police state and it is being orchestrated by those in power, to protect their own interests. Sorry about the soapbox. I love my country, but truly fear our government.
May God bless America, and help protect our freedom.
Rich
Casey65, you would probably be surprised by many department policies. Many are made by Chiefs who have not been on the streets for many years, and with no common sense.
Our Chief had a policy that all traffic crashes will result in a citation to the person most at fault. Although that sounds reasonable, sometimes there are just "accidents". When my daughter was involved in a crash exiting a shopping mall (she was waived clear by another driver), I had to order one of my officers (who my daughter had babysat for his kids) to issue her a citation. Later that day, the Chief came into my office and asked why I had ordered the officer to issue a citation to my daughter. I told him "that's your policy, and if he hadn't written a citation you would have been all over me because my officer hadn't written a citation for a crash. wouldn't you". He just looked at then left my office.
Another was when he issued an order that anytime a person is transported, that they will be handcuffed. When I asked if that applied to crash or crime victims transported to the station for a ride, he said "you know what I mean". Broad stated orders can be misinterpreted, or taken too far.
