By Carlos Miller
Cops have a funny way of defining resisting arrest. Sometimes all you have to do is mentally oppose the arrest for a cop to interpret that you are resisting violently, which prompts him to pull out his Taser on you.
In my arrest, I was trying to explain to them that they didn’t have to kick my feet from under me and bash my head into the ground. I was trying to tell them to handcuff me without going through the whole charade of beating me up because I was not resisting.
But one cop stated that I was resisting and said that if I didn’t shut up, I would get Tased. So I shut my mouth. But I still got charged with resisting arrest as well as eight other charges.
In this video, an Ohio college student who was partying a little too loudly in his apartment drew the attention of police who banged on the door. It took them a while to open the door because you can imagine what college students were doing at 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
As soon as a female student opened the door, they grabbed her by her wrists and dragged her outside and straddled her. Then they made their way inside the apartment – probably without a warrant – and proceeded to Tase a student in an incident caught on a cell phone camera.
“Stop resisting!” the cop yells as he Tases the man.
“I’m not resisting!” the student yells, only to get Tased a few more times.
In the mind of a cop, the act of someone saying that they are not resisting means he is probably resisting.
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13 responses so far ↓
1 Marc Cizravi // Sep 2, 2009 at 5:12 AM
oh what’s that? cops only need a highschool education to enroll at the academy? you don’t say…
2 J Beck // Sep 2, 2009 at 9:35 AM
The original rationale for equipping police with tasers was to give them a substitute for deadly force when the officer’s safety is threatened.
Here once again is a taser being used as punishment.
3 Lorraine Sumrall // Sep 2, 2009 at 10:20 AM
This is crazy as hell. I won’t even let my daughter apply to LSU for college because it now has a SWAT team. I told her: no colleges with SWAT teams. Can’t you just see that college parties/dorms are the next bastion for tasering?
4 chris // Sep 2, 2009 at 12:30 PM
are police allowed to enter a residence w/out a warrant for a noise violation?
if its on campus, maybe for a campus copy, but def not off campus, no?
5 Michaelk42 // Sep 2, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Campus police in my experience don’t pay attention to pesky things like needing a warrant to enter a premises, if they think they can score an easy minor consumption. As far as they’re concerned, opening the door is their cue to burst right in. And if no one opens the door, there will be punishment.
I’d really like to know why these guys thought they could simply reach in and yank the person out, though.
6 Anonymous // Sep 2, 2009 at 2:58 PM
“Cops have a funny way of defining resisting arrest. Sometimes all you have to do is mentally oppose the arrest for a cop to interpret that you are resisting ”
LOL. Whatever happened to them following the laws themselves?
7 Jon Quimbly // Sep 2, 2009 at 5:57 PM
In my day, such encounters went like this-
LEO: Knock-knock
Student: “Turn down the music! Put that stinky stuff away!”
Student: answers door
LEO: “Hi, we had a noise complaint. Are you guys having a party or something?”
Student: “Yeah, sorry officer. The music is off, and we’ll be quieter.”
LEO: “Okay. Don’t make me come back here again, otherwise I’ll have to cite you for excessive noise.”
Student: “Okay, thanks very much for the warning.”
Two things: if you believe you’ll ever be in a similar situation, watch the Flex Your Rights ‘BUSTED’ video to learn how to deal with cops in similar circumstances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA
Really a must-watch, for general learning about your rights when dealing with cops – parties, being pulled over in traffic, and terry stops.
Second, I see the handling of this particular situation as an ugly outgrowth of the creeping militarization of police departments. PD policies appear to support officers using force far more often than they once did, and to deny excessive force complaints (also due to municipal corporate liability avoidance.)
Confrontations are more likely today to get quickly escalated to use-of-force.
For a massive infusion of data and stories about this trend, read or skim the Cato Institute report ‘Overkill’ on the militarization of PDs-
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476
Salient info: 84% of cities with a population of 50K or more now have SWAT teams. SWAT teams are no longer reserved for just hostage situations. They’re used for everything from serving white collar crime arrest warrants, to “resolving” domestic abuse situations.
Gone is the day of the truly professional Mr. Friendly Cop, who first uses words to attempt conflict resolution. Weapons and pain-compliance techniques are so much funner.
While I’ve no doubt that there are many cool cops out there (and some of them are in my town-NYC), but the rate of misconduct and use-of-force in the LEO population appears to be peaking since 9/11.
8 Jon Quimbly // Sep 2, 2009 at 6:50 PM
To contrast my post-college experiences with the Ohio students – in the few situations I’ve had of noisy/late-partying neighbors in NYC, when calling the local precinct, they have ALWAYS asked if I tried to contact the noisemakers and ask them to be quieter. Probably just to reduce workload, but read on-
When the officers arrived, they brought both the complaining party and noisy neighbors out into the hallway, first for separate cop-on-citizen chats, followed by a neighbor face-to-face talk arbitrated by one of the officers. Usually followed by a warning from the police to the noisy folks.
That stepped approach works well, and in all cases changed my relations with the neighbors in a somewhat positive way (they became more respectful of the noise level.)
Such incidents must occur hundreds of times per night in NYC. They’ve gotten very skilled at handling these situations. It’s small when compared with bank robbers and such, but really kinda cool that they’ve got a system that works.
Obviously not the case in Kent City, OH.
9 Michaelk42 // Sep 2, 2009 at 7:11 PM
@Jon
Yeah, but the campus police aren’t there for resolving disputes peaceably. They’re there for revenue enhancement.
10 Jon Quimbly // Sep 2, 2009 at 10:12 PM
@Michaelk42,
Not sure what you mean… ticketing for infractions, parking violations and the like?
Don’t think we even had a campus PD at my schools – this was the ’80s. Security guards I remember, and when something major happened the city PD came to campus. Much different times I guess…
11 Michaelk42 // Sep 2, 2009 at 11:13 PM
@Jon
My campus had/has its own independent police force from the city. Stuff like minor possession and consumption were tickets for $$$.
12 steveo // Sep 3, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Geez, doesn’t anyone know the 4th amendment? Do not open your door to Leo. Talk through the door or a window if you have one close by. Noise complaint? They need decibel readings and no judge is ever going to give a warrant unless the people refuse to turn down the noise and the Leos have verifiable decibel readings.
13 steveo // Sep 3, 2009 at 2:50 PM
for a misdemeanor, or municipal ordinance, no Leo in his or her right mind is going to bust down a door over a noise complaint. Raiding a home, apartment, any abode without a warrant takes escalated approval. the supervisor Leo has to give permission and they aren’t going to do that unless there is a pressing safety issue.
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