By Carlos Miller
Rolando Ruiz clearly had his hands on the hood of a police car when a Minneapolis police officer walked up behind him and applied his Taser gun to his neck, forcing Ruiz to fall down in an incident caught on a dash cam.
The two men then fall out of view for several seconds but Ruiz’s screams do not stop, giving the impression that the officer is continually tasing him.
Ruiz was arrested for allegedly throwing a brick through the windshield of a cop car. He is now suing for $75,000 in damages.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Mike Martinez // Nov 4, 2009 at 2:59 PM
He should’ve thrown the brick at a cop!
It’s true. People do stupid things. This man committed a crime (no matter how much I sympathies with it). What a law enforcement officer is supposed to do is detain the suspect and take him in to custody. Then the courts are in-charge of dictating a sentence.
This cop is a criminal because he committed a crime (a heinous one). He is obviously not fit for the job of policing society. His crime was way worse than destruction of property. He assaulted a man repeatedly. He could’ve caused the kids death. For what??? A fucking windshield???
2 Simon Jester // Nov 4, 2009 at 9:45 PM
If only he wouldn’t have resisted the officer…
Uh…
3 Johnny Law // Nov 5, 2009 at 1:35 AM
I’m curious what was going on before the video tape. Was the officer telling him to get on the ground? Was he telling him to put his hands behind his back? If the “victim” was not doing what he was told, then the taser was justified. If it was just for revenge then….
4 Jon Quimbly // Nov 5, 2009 at 2:21 AM
@JL, I have worked in TV news production, and that clip looks cut for newscast – edge to edge. I tend to doubt that the lawyer would be so confident to take the case, if his client was clearly resisting on tape. And would the FBI even be bothered to investigate if the full tape wasn’t compelling.
The alleged suspect’s a dumbass if he committed vandalism against a cop’s property — but summary judgement and punishment is a whole other kind of bad.
“Pain compliance” seems to be pleasure for some cops, but probably retribution for breaking a window in this case.
I bet the cop gets off (no pun intended.)
Must be frustrating to be a cop, to see perps get away with crime, right JL? Must make you want to give them a taste, tune ‘em up before you take them down to the precinct?
5 Johnny Law // Nov 5, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Doesn’t really matter. The guy had his hand on the hood. Even as the cop approached offered no resistance. There was no reason to shock at that point. No reason to ask to get on the ground. The cop could have easily handcuffed him. Instead he decided to assault him. That cop should be fired and charged with assault, because that’s what that was.
6 Matt B // Nov 5, 2009 at 3:25 PM
@Johnny Law:
Doesn’t really matter. The guy had his hand on the hood. Even as the cop approached offered no resistance. There was no reason to shock at that point. No reason to ask to get on the ground. The cop could have easily handcuffed him. Instead he decided to assault him. That cop should be fired and charged with assault, because that’s what that was.
7 R // Dec 4, 2009 at 3:57 PM
You all crack me up….every one knows they have the answer and knows how it should have been done, but haven’t spent even a minimal 8 hours doing the job of a cop.
I agree it looks bad, and maybe the cop wasn’t justified…but I’d want to see the whole video. Doesn’t that seem like a fair request? At least I’m willing to look at evidence and THEN have an opinion. Instead, edit to suit your points and the cop is guilty no matter what. Nice….easier that way, huh?
8 Jon Quimbly // Mar 29, 2010 at 9:49 PM
Update on this story:
“Todd Lappegaard, Taser cop, to be dumped by Minneapolis attorneys”
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/03/todd_lappegaard.php
If there was betting on this case, the odds for the cop just dropped to 20:1. It’s rare when a city doesn’t support their cops in use-of-force cases.
Remains to be seen whether the city will change their policy regarding Taser use; probably not, the cop was likely acting against it.
The cop lost his job already, let’s wait-and-see if he gets it back on arbitration.
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