Man, this bigot is busy. Besides being a racist (x2), homophobe and defender of intelligent design, Utah State Senator Chris Buttars has a solution for the plethora of incidents of taxpaying citizens tased for sh*ts and giggles by law enforcement officers who seem to have forgotten tactics to engage the public that fall somewhere between a civil conversation and unloading their weapon into them. (KUTV):
A new bill proposed at the legislature would allow for police to withhold misconduct reports from the public. Supporters of the bill believe that police misconduct should be kept secret from the public so to not discredit police testimony. Others say that a forthright police unit is essential to the community.Meanwhile, over in the U.K., police have been given the thumbs-up to tase children.In September, Jared Massey was zapped with a taser by Trooper John Gardner. A video of the incident was recorded from Gardner’s patrol car. Gardner can be seen shocking Massey until he hits the ground while Massey’s wife screams from the side of their SUV.
More than a million people watched the video on “YouTube.” Massey was shocked to see his new found fame. The footage may have never been seen had Massey not made a records request to obtain the tape.
Currently, misconduct reports are available in Utah with an official records request. Under the bill SB260, sponsored by Senator Chris Buttars, the video and investigation report from Massey’s tazering might have been kept secret from the public and journalists.
Police have been given the go-ahead to use Taser stun guns against children.Here’s a great read — a Salt Lake Trib column by Rebecca Walsh that sheds more light on Buttars and people who don’t seem to remember voting for him, Buttars is craggy face of homophobia, racism.The relaxing of restrictions on the use of the weapons comes despite warnings that they could trigger a heart attack in youngsters. Until now, Tasers - which emit a 50,000-volt electric shock - have been used only by specialist officers as a “non lethal” alternative to firearms.
…Amnesty International claims Tasers have been responsible for 220 deaths in America since 2001. Many cities and police forces there have banned their use against minors.
Two years ago in Chicago a 14-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after being shot with one. Medics had to use a defibrillator four times to resuscitate him.
Taser International, the American firm that makes the device, said tests on pigs suggested the weapons were safe.
The Association of Chief Police Officers, which issues guidance to forces on the use of weapons, said Tasers would be made “readily available” for “conflict management” at incidents of “violence and threats of violence of such severity that they will need force”.
Related:
* Pam’s House Blend Taser files
* Taser of the Day blog
* Tasered While Black blog
43 Responses to “Utah’s Chris Buttars sponsors bill to hide police misconduct”
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It scares me that there isn’t a recall movement (is there?) against Buttars. Reacting to the revelation of police brutality by trying to allow the police to keep it secret is pure fascism. I prefer mold-cookie talk about “what will you believe, the police or your own lying eyes” to those who would blind our eyes– and I think they will agree on this one, given that even cookie didn’t want disabled suspects abused.
At the same time they give law enforcement and intelligence agencies more power, they want less scrutiny? Not good.
Here’s an idea for how to keep police testimony from being discredited: Don’t fucking tase people in the first place!
Dubya lurves this guy’s thinking- it matches the repugs’ view on FISA!
Next time these clowns decide to stomp out in protest, someone should close the door and change the locks…
“Taser International, the American firm that makes the device, said tests on pigs suggested the weapons were safe.”
Heh.
Watched the video. Jared is a cocky asshole. He was looking for trouble, he found it. Notice how much more polite he becomes once Tased. As far as the officer. He’s got a minor traffice stop that is either going to be a paid fine or thrown out by the judge. No biggie. Jared acts oddly, won’t follow lawful direction, and then heads back to the vehicle. What is Jared hiding? Why is he so determined to get to the vehicle? He chose to act in a manner that poses a direct threat to the officer. One officer, alone. He’s fortunate that there was a Taser.
As a former enforcement person, I welcomed the oversight of the public and assumed everything I did was going to be available to anyone. If you can’t justify your conduct, it’s time to change it.
Mold, your last line doesn’t negate the first several. Take your authoritarian shit and get the fuck out.
Why is there no recall for Buttars? Because he represents the views of his constituents. There are a lot of crazy authoritarian people in this country. I mean, look at Mold here.
Interesting on a feminist blog there is so much vitriol over a device that is an alternative to LETHAL force when suspects aren’t being cooperative. If you take this vital tool away from law enforcement how would you expect a shorter female (or male, but females are usually shorter) officer to engage a much larger suspect who isn’t cooperating and needs to be arrested? Without the taser officers must use hand-to-hand techniques that increase the risk to their safety (or the suspect if using the baton) and female officers especially benefit from being able to use the taser on bigger, stronger individuals when working alone and would otherwise have to get physical.
The cop didn’t like the guy, so he tortured him and imprisoned him. About as straightforward a case of abuse as you can get. Not wanting to sign a ticket isn’t combative or threatening, and in no way justifies the use of lethal force. And no, tasers are not non-lethal, just because they don’t always kill.
If you take a look at the data that supposedly show tasers to be nonlethal, it’s all of the sort that says “if you want to do a good job of stopping someone’s heart, this amount of current/voltage isn’t enough.” So it’s sorta like claiming that since throwing someone out a second-story window isn’t a reliable way of killing them, that someone who throws people out second-story windows isn’t responsible for any deaths that might occur.
I don’t think that Buttars is really representing his most authoritarian constitutent, though. If the videos aren’t available through public records requests, how will they put together their own personal disks of “Utah’s most arousing police beatings”?
Watch the video. Guy starts off with a stock ticket dodge. When that doesn’t work, he throws a hissy fit. “How dare you lesser serf/public servant/clerk/officer speak to your social better this way”. Not the best manners under any circumstance. He gets a ticket. No big. Pay the fine or fight it in court. Instead, Mr Entitled refuses to sign for the ticket. He is then placed under arrest for his behavior. Oh, you didn’t see it? Anyhow, once he headed back to the vehicle, which may have weapons, he was going to get Tased. If you have doubts, read up on response to lethal situations.
“You’re from Utah? I’m sorry.”
Why is signing the ticket so important? I get, back in the old days, you didn’t want cops cooping and filling in fake tickets. But now, they enter info on computers, with cameras that have a date/time stamp. I think the cop can fairly prove he actually pulled a guy over.
I just don’t really see why tasing is justified when the guy just wants to drive off.
Mold, in your first statement, you claim the guy is acting suspicious, in your next you claim he’s Mr. Entitled, so I wonder which viewpoint the officer reacted from.
Entitled is just general assholery. Every officer deals with it on a daily basis. As do clerks, cashiers, teachers, etc. I emphasize it because it’s an odd attitude to take after the fake submission of his first statement.
The vid shows a “prick” which in itself is normal for many men (according to this blog) and the officer only reacts when doofus starts doing things that cold lead to problems. He walks far too fast to the pursuit vehicle, he heads directly to his personal vehicle, and his demeanor is inconsistent.
The signing is proof that you received the ticket. For out-of-jursidiction, that is tres’ important. More than one ne’er do well tried to game the system by claiming they never were informed of their noncompliance with the law. Why did you think Mr Entitled was refusing it? Once out of jursidiction, he can’t be touched, easily.
Speaking of police misconduct, the deputy in Tampa caught on tape dumping a disabled man out of his wheelchair has been arrested, posted $3500 and released today.
If you take this vital tool away from law enforcement
Nobody wants to take it away, Cop. When Tasers are used correctly they’re an appropriate tool for law enforcement.
But “appropriate use” means using Tasers as an alternative to more lethal measures of force, not as a way to use force when no force is necessary.
That’s how they’re being used, now. And the reason for that is a conscious institutional bias to hire, promote, shield, and protect bullies with badges instead of police officers who will carry out their charge to protect civilian society. And to the extent that you enable abuse, you’re a part of the problem, Cop.
You know one of these days, thisstuff is going to end with a cop getting shot, right Mold, seriously, lets say the wife pulls a gun because she hears her husband screaming, then they’ll show the video to a jury and the woman will get off. Casual taser use is going to result in an escalation of force one of these days and the pain from the tasering is going to get the person who shoots the cop off.
Mold and Some Sockpuppet: Kindly get bent. Thank you.
Oh, and “Some Cop”? How about “Some Internet Tough Guy”? That’s a far more accurate name.
Please to be going and fucking thyselves, authoritarian Fathersuckers. That is all.
Alternative to the tazer Mold:
Point to the car cam, and suggest that if they don’t sign the ticket, they’ll be in court dealing with both the speeding fine + whatever the “cocky twerp” fine is, along with video evidence to the contrary.
You know, instead of torturing him for being rude.
Fuck off pig.
What Mold and the other police apologists here are claiming is the right for police officers to arrest and torture anyone who refuses to sign a piece of paper when ordered to do so by a cop, regardless of whether or not they understand the piece of paper or have read it.
Not once in the video did the officer attempt to politely explain what it was that he wanted the man to sign. Not once did ask the man to take a minute to read it. He just ordered the man to sign.I was taught growing up that you never sign anything ever without reading and understanding it first. I sure as hell wouldn’t sign something from a cop just because he told me to. That is how you end up in a cell for something you didn’t do.
>>>He chose to act in a manner that poses a direct threat to the officer.
Really? Which one of the two men were armed in that situation? The cop or Jared Massey?
The cop overreacted badly. He should be suspended and/or fired.
Meh, I guess I’m going to end up being labeled one of those authoritarian ‘trolls’, but while he may have gone to the taser too fast, it’s insane to say the cop should be suspended or fired, or that he ‘tortured’ the guy. For god’s sake, 15 seconds after this ‘torture’ the guy is back to whining about where the 40MPH sign was placed. Seems he was doing just fine.
The cop didn’t have a lot of time to engage this guy in conversation — the guy was refusing to put his hands on the hood of the car, and then started walking back to HIS car. What was the cop supposed to do here? Just let him? Maybe there’s a weapon there. Tackle him on the side of the road? That seems pretty iffy.
Really, maybe there were another two or three seconds there where he could have waited, but . . . I dunno.
For what it’s worth, I generally can’t stand cops, and my general feeling is that most are, well, like most posters here think of them — generally undereducated wingnuts who think that because they wear a badge they’re all special. Guys like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgWrV8TcUc
But geez, the guy in this video was an ass, and was definitely sending out non-safe signals.
What was the cop supposed to do here? Just let him? Maybe there’s a weapon there.
If the cop saw a weapon, he’d be entitled to use his Taser, I think.
Did the cop see a weapon?
By the time the officer sees the weapon the situation is pretty nigh f**ked. You really don’t have a lot of time to decide and failure to choose can be fatal.
If you-all like videos, watch the reality ones on cable. You know, the ones where officers are shot and left for dead. The shows run the tapes in slo-mo so you can see what happens.
If the wife had pulled, she’d be dead.
I left a note that said: If it’s him or me, it’ll be him.
I’m going home after my shift ends. This is constant copthought. So keep this in mind when you want to pull s**t on officers. It isn’t worth the grief. If you need to fight, use a lawyer. That’s how our system works.
Yeah, many officers are on power trips with the badge and authority. Get used to it and deal with it like an adult. Pick a rational battle to fight and perhaps win..courtroom…
Agree totally with Forrester.
Agree tottally with Forrester that the cop did nothing really wrong. That’s not to say that Buttars is not a complete and total fuckwit.
You had me up until this bit of snark, where you yourself admitted there was a large problem with the overzealous use of authority. That is exactly what this post and others are trying to address.
Should people be assholes to cops? No, I don’t see where anything is gained. But then again, I’ve never understood why people can be assholes in the first place. Simplisitic overgeneralization, I know.
But because someone IS an asshole to a police officer, is whipping out a Taser the answer? The dashboard cam has already recorded enough evidence on how the person has conducted themselves and that they refused to give a signature- the cop has already gotten all of the pertinent information- why NOT let the clown go and submit the tape to the supervisors for followup review, including possible additional charges if warranted? Why not let the camera help the officer in this instance?
In my mind, teaching the officers how to conduct themselves professionally in adverse situations (which I believe them do anyways) and relying on their technology in THAT manner rather than getting gung-ho and whipping out a Taser in a nonviolent confrontation would be a far better choice.
“The dashboard cam has already recorded enough evidence on how the person has conducted themselves and that they refused to give a signature- the cop has already gotten all of the pertinent information- why NOT let the clown go and submit the tape to the supervisors for followup review, including possible additional charges if warranted? Why not let the camera help the officer in this instance?”
Exactly. If the driver dug his hole deeper, let him suffer the LEGAL consequences.
If the reason for stopping him in the first place would have lead to an arrest, then arrest him. If the charge was not sufficient to justify arrest, let him act like a dick and earn additional charges.
As long as he’s not endangering the officer or the public, let him be. The ticket will still be valid, he’ll still have to answer for his behavior before and after the stop, end of subject.
If he IS endangering the officer or the public, then it’s no longer a traffic stop. The man will be arrested and taken to jail. If the taser is necessary to subdue him for arrest, use it.
JUSTICE does not flow from the end of a taser. Pain DOES, and sometimes its use is justified, but not as part of a common traffic citation…
First, I am on crappy dial up, so I am commenting based on the descriptions.
I have to say that I can understand a cop reaching for the taser when someone is almost at the car, because yes, that is when a lot of shootings happen. At that point, the officer doesn’t know– do they have contraband? A body in the trunk? People do kill officers at routine traffic stops because there was something they didn’t want him to find out. My guess would be that the police should give a specific warning before using the taser, provided there is time.
BUT no matter what, the information needs to be available to the public. How else can there be accountability?
Just wanted to say that yes, Buttars = fuckwit, and agree with Samantha that of COURSE records like this should be available upon request.
I’m not as blase as Mold is about cop power trips, but I don’t think that’s what was going on here, and sadly, I think he’s right about them — unfortunately, not much you can do except go along with the bullshit and maybe sue later.
But I don’t see that Massey has a case.
By the time the officer sees the weapon the situation is pretty nigh f**ked.
So, cops should simply be using force on everybody, based on nothing more than the possibility that they might have a weapon sometime in the future?
I’m sorry but I don’t agree with the attitude where we’re all presumed to be armed and dangerous by the police, even when there’s absolutely no indication that’s the case. Police are granted amazing latitude and privilege to do their jobs, but the flip side of that is that they need to accept the risks of doing police work. Ameliorating that risk by restricting the rights and freedoms of private citizens, or using more force than is necessary, is simply unacceptable. I mean, sure, we could probably protect the lives of a lot more cops if we let them Taser whoever they liked, for no reason, based on any unreasonable suspicions.
But their lives simply aren’t worth that danger to society. The right of private citizens not to be unreasonably injured, restrained, and tortured by police is well worth the lives of a number of police officers. That’s the risk they signed up for when they took the job. If anything I think being a police officer should be more risky than it currently is, if only to dissuade cowardly bullies like yourself from joining the force.
If it’s him or me, it’ll be him.
Bullshit, Mold. Your job is to make sure it’s him - the private citizen.
Sorry, but that’s the job. We hired you to put your life on the line to protect us. Putting citizens in danger to protect your own life is absolutely a perversion of everything the police are supposed to do.
You don’t like the risk? Quit. We don’t need you in the force.
Yeah, many officers are on power trips with the badge and authority. Get used to it and deal with it like an adult. Pick a rational battle to fight and perhaps win..courtroom…
Riiiight. Because cops never fucking lie, especially in a court of law.
Tests on PIGS?
Oh, sometimes this stuff just writes itself.
Cops aren’t robots, and who knows what this cop’s day was like before this encounter.
I’m just happy most of the commenters here aren’t cops, since they certainly can’t even hold their tempers in a text based environment. Damien.
I’ve seen officers rush into burning vehicles, give CPR to crack hos, hold the hands of those given triage, and cry when they find dead kids. Yeah, there’s risk. But I am not going to take stupid ones.
I’ve been trying for several minutes to come up with some pithy, snarky remark to illustrate and utter and complete intellectual and (yes) moral bankruptcy of the idea that we have to hide misconduct reports because if people find out that cops are sometimes untrustworthy they might not trust them.
And I can’t do it.
Here, let me try to come up with something on the journalistic bankruptcy of
In related news, some argue in favor of popular elections and majority rule.
I’ve seen officers rush into burning vehicles, give CPR to crack hos, hold the hands of those given triage, and cry when they find dead kids.
I’ve seen cops dump the handicapped from wheelchairs and taser men for no reason in front of their families.
I’ve seen a cop make absolutely plain his belief that even his impression that he’s about to be in imminent danger gives him the right to execute an unarmed private citizen.
So excuse me if the courage you’ve observed in others doesn’t convince me you’re anything but a coward, Mold.
But I am not going to take stupid ones.
Then quit. Who the fuck needs you?
John Gardner is a bully with poor judgement and Jared Massey is a whiney asshole. The beauty of the situation is that it is possible to make this video public so that Gardner gets a reprimand and Massey has to STFU about not doing anything wrong to warrent being pulled over.
Neither has clean hands here - isn’t it nice that we can see that?
Paris,
Gardner may have just pulled a double shift and might be a bit cranky. He is also dealing with a boob trying to weasel out of a ticket. The arrest might be the policy of his dept. Or, he just had it with the putz. Anyhow, I agree that the video serves a public good.
You see, Paris, the guy with the badge is always in need of understanding and sympathy. The guy w/o the badge is a “perp”.
Just clarifying the roles so you will understand better.