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Don't Take Too Long In The Bathroom. The Next Guy In Line May Be A Cop.

Jul 29, 2009
By .
Irksome

I'd intended this morning to to write about yet another cop shooting yet another family pet (hat tip: Jag), but that's old hat, and anyway it's Atlanta, where the police shoot nonagenarian ladies. So what's another dog?

I'm glad I saved my outrage, or I wouldn't have had any to spend on this:

The tasing took place on July 24 at the Dollar General Store on Azalea Road. A store manager called police and said that a man was taking too long in a restroom. Antonio Love was using the restroom, because he had stomach problems. He is deaf and mentally handicapped. Police officers tried to get Love to open the door, but his mother said he could not communicate with them. Officers pried open the door, but Love kept trying to shut it. He told his mother he thought the devil was trying to get him. Officers then used pepper spray and tased Love to get him out of the restroom.

Mobile Police Officer [name unknown, but when it is I'll see to it that Google knows it forever] tased a deaf, mentally retarded man because he was sick and couldn't leave the bathroom.  Sorry Mr. Love, it wasn't the devil.  It was just your friendly neighborhood policeman.

TASER International, and advocates for the use of its products, claim that Tasers provide a non-lethal alternative to the use of firearms for officers who feel threatened.  The nonlethality of Tasers is debatable.

But one thing is certain.  The Taser also provides an alternative to the policeman's former alternative to lethal force: Talking.  Asking a suspect, or just a troubled person who needs some peace in a rest room, what's going on, and does he need help?  Calming people down.  Defusing tensions, whether it's from violence, or from a ledge, or just getting a guy out of the bathroom.

There was a time when a policeman was expected to act as something of a psychologist, to talk troubled people through problems, because his only alternative was deadly force.  With the advent of the TASER, "shoot first and ask questions later" is no longer a black joke.

It's standard police procedure.

Last 5 posts by Patrick

10 Comments
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10 Comments

  1. David Schwartz  •  Jul 29, 2009 @8:16 pm

    The man was deaf. The officer could not communicate with him through the closed door. The officer had no idea what was going on inside the rest room and knew the person had already been in there quite some time. His only choices were to leave the person alone or force his way in.

    If the policemen left and the guy was having a psychotic break and subsequently seriously injured himself, you would be blaming the policeman. If you are unable, for some reason, to comply with simple police requests, the police wind up having no choice but to use force to subdue you.

    How can a policeman ask questions of a deaf person who thinks the policeman is the devil?

    (Though I don't think the TASER was a good choice.)

  2. Mhoram  •  Jul 30, 2009 @6:22 am

    If you are unable, for some reason, to comply with simple police requests, the police wind up having no choice but to use force to subdue you.

    Try this scenario: A profoundly deaf woman is walking down the street. A police officer makes a "simple request" of her to step aside as he walks up behind her. She, obviously, does not – since she can't hear the request from behind her. The police officer then has no option to but to pepper spray and tase her so that he can walk past her.

    Yep – it is clearly the responsibilty of all of us peons, especially the deaf, blind, mentally retarded and crippled, to bow and scrape before our police masters lest they have no choice but to use deadly or "less lethal" force to "subdue us."

  3. SG  •  Jul 30, 2009 @10:07 am

    Yeah, and how about contacting people actually trained and willing to deal with deaf and mentally confused persons, like some kind of paramedics, rather than the friggin cops ? And all that for a restroom ! Can't imagine what it would have been like if the man had seemed to pose some kind of threat. Carpet bombing, perhaps ?

    The logic behind this is barely above this other hypotetical scenario : "Hello, 911 ? My 2-year-old son won't eat his vegetables ! Could you please come over and tase him a little bit into compliance ? It's for his own good !"

  4. EdinMiami  •  Jul 30, 2009 @1:44 pm

    I smell wealth redistribution!

  5. TomH  •  Jul 30, 2009 @5:52 pm

    Right, and never get angry at a policeman and yell. You just might end up at the White House. Police have such thin skins sometimes.

    (Yeah,yeah, yeah, not counting the thousands of incidents across the country where police act reasonably. A few bad apples and all that).

  6. SG  •  Jul 30, 2009 @6:27 pm

    Well, at least the cop is suspended pending investigation, it seems.

    But he shouldn't be the only one – frankly, the man who called him in the first place is at least as responsible as him. It's not a question of good or bad apples, I think. Hell, for all we know the cop is a kinda okay guy who made a bad call, like so many are. But would cops make such bad calls if there wasn't a "market" for it ? If there wasn't people out there ready to dial 911 for a restroom problem ? And, no doubt, to weep and cry that the police ain't doing its job if the "problem" is not removed here and now.

    Also, Patrick has a very good point, methinks, regarding the taser. It's scary enough that cops have the exclusive right to use force to obtain "compliance" and that there's people intent on insisting that any kind of "troublemaker" be thusly coerced ; now the taser provides an easy, clean way of satisfying these desires ! Yay !

  7. David Schwartz  •  Jul 30, 2009 @11:15 pm

    Mhoram: Your example is not even remotely analogous. In your example, the person is on public property and the officer has no reason to think the person may be in distress. In your example, the person has not used any force to obstruct the officer. Try a more realistic example with a disturbed person who won't leave private property and who tries to close a door on a police officer who is trying to make sure he is okay.

  8. Joshua  •  Aug 2, 2009 @9:31 am

    David, you misstated the facts. The police officer here was not trying to make sure the man was ok. The officer was there to uphold the property rights of the store and evict the deaf-disabled guy. Let's not make it seem like he was being a brotherly fellow (unless you mean like when one of my brothers put the other through a plate glass window).

  9. nicolette  •  Aug 2, 2009 @12:54 pm

    I don't blame the cop too much to the point he pepper sprays and tasers a deaf retarded guy- I think they're EVIL COPS when AFTER they get him out and realize their ERROR, they don't apologize and drive him home. They proceed to arrest him!!! and charge him with resisting and disorderly conduct!! Scumbag cops. Tasering old ladies, 6 y/os and people with broken backs for not getting up. Why should anyone trust a cop anymore? I'm sure this poor fellow won't. And he'd be right.

  10. Sarie  •  Sep 21, 2009 @10:57 pm

    No kidding. Cops scare the hell outta me these days- and I'm in school for Juvenile Justice but I'd rather deal with the local gang bangers then the cops. I'm positive there are good cops out there but I've yet to meet one and after my last encounter, I go the other way when I see a cop. I know three girls who were assaulted by cops- none of them where breaking the law and it was three separate incidents. I've had my own fair share of encounters with cops myself. We don’t live in bad neighborhoods, we don’t cuss out the cops, we don’t break laws- we live in the suburbs- it’s not like we’re hiding guns under our shirts- there’s no reason for that kind of reaction out here. Whatever happened to protect and serve? As a kid, I was taught cops were the good guys and the law was to be followed- I’ve always followed the law but now I avoid cops like the plague. My kid sister is 10 now and scoffs at the idea of calling the cops for anything other than appearances- I wish I could disagree with her. It’s a shame stuff like this is so common now. It’s one thing if there’s reasonable cause but come on-I’m 20, I wear pigtails, follow the law, work as a nanny, and am 5’3”. Just how threatening can I look when at a public park with a three year old and a ten year old? I want cops who make a gal feel safe- not like she should be locking her door.