"Come on he was naked and holding a fluorescent light at us!"
For cops who have never heard of a ladder or applying effort in their jobs this article should come as a relief! When in doubt and feeling lazy or fed up, just tase!
Police fired a Taser at a naked Brooklyn man armed with only a fluorescent light tube yesterday, sending him falling to his death from a second-floor ledge after he went on a 40-minute rant.
Iman Morales' mom begged cops not to hurt her son, telling them he's sick - then watched in horror as he plunged from the top of the roll-down gate on which he'd been perched.
An Emergency Services officer, acting on the orders of his boss, fired at the 35-year-old man at around 2 p.m., as he waved the 8-foot fluorescent light tube, police sources said.
"His body froze up and he fell face-first," said Sean Johnson, who witnessed the drama at 489 Tompkins Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Morales, who crashed 10 feet to the pavement, died a few hours later at Kings County Hospital.
Asked if police followed the proper protocol for using a Taser, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, "That's being reviewed."
Kudos Cops! You totally just caused that man's death!
You know, before tasers were invented and permitted to be in the hands of any or every ESO or Cop, the police team on the spot would have had to try to get that man safely down from where he was standing. Sure, he would have been detained for a while but afterward he would have been returned to his mother and the day would carry on. Killing him wouldn't have been an option nor an accident.
What a shame.
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4 Comments
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Right, scare stories represent a valid example upon which to conclude that tasers are the root of all evil.
With that aside, one problem with taser use by police is that quite a portion of them don't go under this practice where each police member himself is subjected to a shock, so that he's aware of what he's applying. It also has to do with the piss poor standards for policemen this country has. Just look at the demographic that makes up policemen. If this country actually provided the pay and benefits European nations provided their policemen, we wouldn't see such a force so monopolized by bottom of the barrel individuals.
Lucrece | September 25, 2008 5:58 PM
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In my experience, many officers forget that sometimes along with the nasty underbelly of society which they often must deal with, they are also dealing with good and decent people.
I know that police work is not all sunshine, lollypops and rainbows, but these men and women know what they're getting into at the onset of their training. My firm suspicion is that most cops take the path of least resistance and paperwork in resolving any issue.
"Power corrupts; Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
~John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton
Steveck | September 25, 2008 9:05 PM
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That should be a mandatory part of carrying the weapon.
Bil Browning | September 26, 2008 9:45 AM
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I don't know if shocking themselves would help too much. They do that in the Army, and my brother sees 18-yr-old kids tasing each other on base all the time. They think it's a joke.
Alex Blaze | September 27, 2008 7:00 AM
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