Active Now

Element 99
Discussion » Questions » Current Events and News » How does a police officer mistake a taser for a pistol?
SpunkySenior

How does a police officer mistake a taser for a pistol?

Report is that the officer in the most recent killing of Daunte Wright, 20, in Minnesota thought she pulled her taser, but it was her gun.  

Tasers


Pistols:  Sig Sauer, Glock 19 and Glock Gen 4

Posted - April 12, 2021
Tags : None

Responses


  • 11087
    Nor have you received hours of training in how to retrieve your tools automatically.
      April 13, 2021 7:11 AM MDT
    2

  • 44649
    I can't show my ID unless I unlock my seat belt and dig my wallet out of my pocket...both of which require me to put my hand in the car and lower it. But I am white, so I would be OK. Also, I always wear my 'Navy Retired' cap so they would know I'm a veteran.
      April 13, 2021 9:51 AM MDT
    2

  • 34432
    I do not do that until I ask the officer for permission. I have also instructed my kids to do the same thing. 
      April 13, 2021 10:47 AM MDT
    1

  • 53524

      There are some things in life that are hard and cold facts. Color of skin and how it’s perceived by others is one of those things. No matter how much cum-by-ya feel-good yammering is blithered, having dark skin does mean that in many, many situations, and in many, many places, a person is going to be dealt with less fairly than a person who has light skin, or lighter skin. Just as in the same way that gender makes a difference in how people interact with each other, and age makes a difference, and many other factors make a difference.  These are everyday occurrences, and unless you’ve loved lived them personally, not only can you not grasp that, it’s not impossible for others to see why you don’t understand it.

      There are many aspects of life that I will never know on a firsthand basis because I cannot experience them in the exact same way that other people of different demographics can experience them. As such, being a Caucasian grandmother in modern-day America gives you the ability to put on rose-tinted glasses and pontificate as to how easy it is to maneuver through life just by playing by all the rules. Oh, if only it were that easy, oh, if only it were that true. Your continued protestations are based on illusions, and you are incorrect. 
    ~ This post was edited by Randy D at April 13, 2021 9:00 PM MDT
      April 13, 2021 3:35 PM MDT
    7

  • 34432
    I am not claiming there are not bad cops.  In fact, I have said the opposite.  And have said these police should go to prison. 

    I am saying the common denominator in all these cases is someone was fighting the police.  This does not end well for the suspect regardless of their color. 
      April 13, 2021 7:22 PM MDT
    1

  • 53524

     

      Merely repeating your incorrect positions does not magically make them correct. 

      April 14, 2021 7:28 AM MDT
    3

  • 34432
    What case did not involve a suspect resisting arrest? 
      April 14, 2021 8:36 AM MDT
    0

  • 5451
    You’re getting pushback on here because you’re just repeating the TV and radio pundits’ position, which is always oversimplified.  Randy’s telling you what black people experience, and there’s no reason to not believe him.

    If it’s you or me, then the correct answer is to just comply with the police and do what they say.  We’ll just fight the ticket in court later.

    It’s not that easy for black people.  They’re trying to tell us that.  They’re saying that interactions with the police are much worse for them under the same circumstances as other peoples’ interactions with the police.  That’s what needs to be addressed with the police.

    Black people have said over and over again that they’re treated unfairly by the police.  For any group that’s treated unfairly, telling them to just follow the rules that work for you is nothing more than meme advice.

    The problem needs to be solved in a different way than what we’re doing now.



    This post was edited by Livvie at April 15, 2021 7:43 AM MDT
      April 14, 2021 9:49 AM MDT
    4

  • 34432
    I am not saying that all cops are good or even right.  I fact I have said repeatedly these cops were wrong and should go to prison.

    All I am saying is DO NOT resist arrest.  Especially if the cop is a bad cop. If you fight a bad cop, you have just given he/she cover for their bad behavior.

    In an arrest situation, the cop has all the power and if you fight...you will loose. 

    How do we solve it? Just let the criminal walk away.  They did not want to be arrested. 
    How much abuse is the officer required to take before they defend themselves? 
    Should the officer just hit them in the head and then throw them in the car. (As suggested by someone else) 
    We have to decide who is in charge, the police or the suspect. Who decides if they get arrested that day?

    I still say if you do not fight the arrest, you will get arrested but you will survive. And you can fight in court. I know it works, we have done it. One officer was fired for his actions. 
      April 14, 2021 10:52 AM MDT
    0

  • 5451
    I still disagree with your premise.  Randy already explained why it’s wrong six posts up.  The reason why I’m disagreeing with you and siding with Randy is because of appeal to authority.  Randy and Zack are the authorities on this issue on Answermug.  If black people say that a black person will be dealt with unfairly in many situations, I believe them.  I’m not going to argue with them because they, like everybody else, know their situation better than anybody else.
      April 14, 2021 3:56 PM MDT
    2

  • 34432
    How does fighting and resisting help the situation, ever? I guess maybe if they get away from the police completely. But otherwise, it does not help, at minimum they will have more charges and at worst they are not longer alive. 
      April 16, 2021 7:28 PM MDT
    0

  • 53524

     

    You asked, “What case did not involve a suspect resisting arrest?” Well, here is at least one. There are more, but we’ll start with this one. It’s possible you have some apologist perspective that puts the shooting victim in the wrong and gloriously paints the police officer who shot him  as a shining example of serving and protecting: https://answermug.com/forums/topic/126438/i-have-been-asked-for-even-1-incident-of-a-black-man-who-was-not/view/post_id/886850

    ~

      April 15, 2021 5:17 AM MDT
    1

  • 16826
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/04/13/caron-nazario-black-veterans/

    You're a WHITE veteran. American cops have been known to draw their guns at routine traffic stops of unarmed black veterans IN UNIFORM.
    British cops don't carry guns, the UK is more law-abiding than the US on average. Police have got to retrain - all of them - on when NOT to draw your sidearm. Or disarm them, the Bobbies get along okay with nothing else but truncheons.
      April 13, 2021 4:31 PM MDT
    4

  • 19937
    If you are white, I would be willing to bet that the police officer(s) comes upon you with a completely different attitude than if you're Black.  I would bet that if you're white, the officer comes up to you car, maybe with his hand on his pistol grip, just in case, asks you to get out of the car and then gives you whatever other commands he deems necessary.  Every video that I've see of late in the instances where the driver is Black, shows the officer coming up to the car screaming for the driver to get out.  Perhaps, if the officer gave the Black driver the same courtesy he would give the white driver, there might not be a problem.
      April 13, 2021 3:21 PM MDT
    6

  • 492
    https://newrepublic.com/article/158400/cops-white-supremacy-black-lives-matter
      April 13, 2021 4:52 PM MDT
    1

  • 19937
    The Timpa case goes back to 2016.  "As Timpa told the dispatcher, he had recently stopped taking his medication for schizophrenia and depression, had consumed drugs, and was afraid for his safety. Officers arrived on the scene outside a Dallas porn shop, where a private security guard had already handcuffed Timpa. While Timpa never threatened officers on the scene or resisted arrest, he acted erratically. It wasn’t long before an officer pinned him under his knee."  Timpa acted erratically.  The police already knew that he was schizophrenic which, as many of us know, means that he could erupt at any time.  Was the officer right in kneeing his neck?  Absolutely not.  This was not the case with Duante Wright.  

    I didn't say this doesn't happen to white people.  How many Black people have been killed by the police since 2016?  
      April 13, 2021 6:38 PM MDT
    2

  • 492
    Look at the statistics.
    https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/
      April 14, 2021 4:35 AM MDT
    1

  • 11087
    Tell that to George Floyd.
      April 13, 2021 9:06 PM MDT
    2

  • 492
    Tell George Floyd, if you have a drug addiction and you're high on fentanyl, don't resist  an arrest. You might get arrested by a racist pig.
      April 14, 2021 4:23 AM MDT
    0

  • 11087
    George Floyd didn't resist arrest. He showed his hands, complied with officers, allowed himself to be handcuffed and walked to the squad car. When he was being put in the back seat he became panicked because of his claustrophobia. This is a sign of a person in crisis (as is being high on drugs or mentally ill) and officers receive crisis intervention training but didn't use it. When they removed Floyd from the car he, he thanked them. Then the officers tortured him to death - his only struggles were attempts to get enough breath to survive. 


      April 14, 2021 7:04 AM MDT
    2

  • 34432
    The drug kicked and he refused to get in the car....that is resisting arrest. Even if claustrophobic....it is still resisting arrest. 
      April 14, 2021 7:31 AM MDT
    0

  • 53524

     

      You keep defending the killing of people who don’t deserve to be killed.

      At what point was George Floyd NO LONGER RESISTING? The nine minutes he spent getting killed are on video. Even if he had been resisting at some point, how do you claim he was resisting while he was on the ground handcuffed behind his back and a knee to his neck? You advocate executing people who at any time in their lives have ever previously resisted, even if and when they are no longer resisting. 

      April 14, 2021 7:42 AM MDT
    1

  • 34432
    We know that even while on the ground he was still fighting. An eye witness testified that he told Floyd to stop fighting and let them put him in the vehicle. I do not know when he quit resisting. 

    I am not defending the officer.  I am condemning the law that allowed that neck hold to be used. I am condemning that the hold went on so long. Which is why I would convict of murder.
    I am also condemning the actions of suspects who resist arrest. As that is the one thread in any of these incidents that does not seem to change. 
      April 14, 2021 8:24 AM MDT
    0

  • 11087
    Even if I agreed with you that he resisted arrest, which I do not (I know firsthand what a panic attack can do to a person), I cannot understand how anyone with an ounce of humanity can think torturing a man, to death is a justifiable response when so many other options exist. 
      April 14, 2021 8:03 AM MDT
    2

  • 34432
    I have said more than once I would convict on murder.  (I do not believe the laws there will support murder...he will get manslaughter but there is a slight chance he could get off)

    I am simply pointing out that the common thread to all of these deaths....is resisting arrest. 

    Do we just not arrest someone who claims claustrophobia?
      April 14, 2021 10:32 AM MDT
    0