87 YO woman tased while cutting dandelions.

[Prepper]

Every so often, I see someone harvesting some kind of weed or wild flowers along the side of the road. Every single time, I'm like "hey look, she's harvesting weeds. Good for her." Never once did I come close to getting confused about what was happening, or thought that her cutting device was intended to be used against me.

Earlier today I was in plain view in my front yard slicing up cardboard boxes to bring to the recycle section of the dump. I use one of those 4+ inch locking knives with gravity assist. Some of these boxes are tough and require lots of hacking to collapse them, especially the Arm & Hammer litter boxes. I'd hate to think what I look like to someone passing by and have them call the cops on me.

 

[MisterHappy]

I disagree. I think the cops were well-advised to do that.

I mean, I don't know all that much about the South, but I did see a documentary once, and there was an old lady, Granny Claggit (I think, it's been a while), and she was an azz kicker.

Cops can't be too safe.

 

[snax]

Believe it or not, tough call. No idea if she's crazy or not. 87 or not, if you know your Tueller Drill stuff, you realize a person with a knife is NOT something to mess with.

Maybe if she spoke English. Maybe if she realized walking towards the officers with a knife.

Not a fan of officers getting overly attacky, but not sure what could be done safely. Personally, if I'm a local copy and it's me or her going home happy at the end of the day, I'm picking me.

At least he didn't go all Murtaugh on her and shoot her in the leg before Riggs blows her away while she falls into the pool.

She could have used diplomatic immunity

 

[mibro]

Wonder what would've happen had the elderly woman had a heart attack because of being tazed.

Well, I would think it's obvious. The officers involved would get professional counseling and a month or so paid time off to get over the emotional trauma.

Don't forget, she already had a knife, she could easily have been concealing a firearm. This was a really close call for these sheepdogs.

/SARC

 

[Bonesinium]

If you think your only option when you see an old lady cutting flowers with a knife is to taze her, you are either an absolute moron, a malicious scumbag, or both. God forbid you just let her slowly walk home.

Oh, she doesn't speak English! If only there were some way to like, translate, someone should figure that out somehow. Oh wait! They have. And if you have a smart phone, which everyone does, it'll do that for you. But that is probably too difficult and much thinking for these brainless douchebags.

That police chief is a real piece of work. He thinks that their only choice was to tase her, get physical with her, or shoot her.

"But then again what do we do? Do we try to go hands-on? She could have been hurt just as easily, or even fell on the knife itself," he said. "Lord help us if she had tried to stop the officer and held the knife in an aggressive manner, and then deadly force would have been used."

Because letting her just walk home, trying to figure out what she is saying, or doing literally nothing at all, isn't a consideration because she might actually be a ninja assassin or something.

 

[Prepper]

If you think your only option when you see an old lady cutting flowers with a knife is to taze her, you are either an absolute moron, a malicious scumbag, or both. God forbid you just let her slowly walk home.

Oh, she doesn't speak English! If only there were some way to like, translate, someone should figure that out somehow. Oh wait! They have. And if you have a smart phone, which everyone does, it'll do that for you. But that is probably too difficult and much thinking for these brainless douchebags.

That police chief is a real piece of work. He thinks that their only choice was to tase her, get physical with her, or shoot her.

"But then again what do we do? Do we try to go hands-on? She could have been hurt just as easily, or even fell on the knife itself," he said. "Lord help us if she had tried to stop the officer and held the knife in an aggressive manner, and then deadly force would have been used."

Because letting her just walk home, trying to figure out what she is saying, or doing literally nothing at all, isn't a consideration because she might actually be a ninja assassin or something.

Yup. Most people probably know about the google translate feature on their web site, where you type in text and it translates. But, the phone app does way more than that. It will support voice conversation. Speak in English, and it will speak in any other language the translation. Here, I'll do it right now. I ran the Google Translate app, clicked Conversation, and said:

hey old lady put down the knife you can't be here

and it puts out both text and audio:

Oye, anciana, baja el cuchillo, no puedes estar aqui

There, that was easy.

 

[MagGus1820]

Boy they are really making some headway on turning that bad public opinion of them around!

 

[Prepper]

Boy they are really making some headway on turning that bad public opinion of them around!

The beatings will continue until morale improves, or something like that...

 

[Reptile]

#DLM

The old lady had it coming.

 

[mac1911]

both sides have to lawyer up

leo already for that im sure and not a dime out of the officers pocket.

 

[mac1911]

Wonder what would've happen had the elderly woman had a heart attack because of being tazed.

Not much

 

[Christian]

Wonder what would've happen had the elderly woman had a heart attack because of being tazed.

Half the force would have shown up and mag dumped into her(to be read as in her general direction with zero regard for what's behind the target, immunity and all) because she didn't comply or the ever so convenient furtive movement.

 

[Jonesjoys]

Not much

Not true, death is possible if she does have a Heart or cardio condition, then there will be no side to her story.

 

[Blackmore]

Thank God she didn't have a dog with her.

If BATFe had confronted her as a potential dandelion wine moonshiner, they would have shot her and found a dog to kill too.

 

[Spanz]

i am not sure if this is:
1) out of control police making an obvious mistake
or
2) police on a hair trigger due to all the violence, and public figures advocating violence, against police

 

[Ink]

Yup. Most people probably know about the google translate feature on their web site, where you type in text and it translates. But, the phone app does way more than that. It will support voice conversation. Speak in English, and it will speak in any other language the translation. Here, I'll do it right now. I ran the Google Translate app, clicked Conversation, and said:

hey old lady put down the knife you can't be here

and it puts out both text and audio:

Oye, anciana, baja el cuchillo, no puedes estar aqui

There, that was easy.

unless you don't know which language your English needed to be translated into.

 

[Toast]

i am not sure if this is:
1) out of control police making an obvious mistake
or
2) police on a hair trigger due to all the violence, and public figures advocating violence, against police

Why must you make a choice? Why can't it be both?

 

[Bonesinium]

unless you don't know which language your English needed to be translated into.

They didn’t care. After they assaulted and kidnapped her they refused to let her family translate anyways. They had no interest in anything besides having absolute control.

 

[Prepper]

unless you don't know which language your English needed to be translated into.

It has an auto detect feature. Just get a sentence or two from the old lady and it should tell you what language you are dealing with. Hold on lemme try this with my wife....

Edit: Oops, doesn't work! That only works if someone types their text into the phone. If it is audio, you have to know what language it is. Although, how hard can that be... most people in the country who refuse to ever learn English are speaking Spanish, and a cop should know what Spanish sounds like.

 

[namedpipes]

... and they actually charged her!

87-year-old woman Tased by police while cutting dandelions, family says

Tased? Charged?

Was that intentional?

 

[Uzi2]

Clear case of "training tunnel vision" where the actual situational facts disappeared in the haze of fear and authoritarianism.

These idiots became complete reactionary automatons, blinded by irrationality and fear.

 

[Bonesinium]

Although, how hard can that be... most people in the country who refuse to ever learn English are speaking Spanish, and a cop should know what Spanish sounds like.

Except she was speaking Arabic.

 

[jkelly1229]

Except she was speaking Arabic.

I'll still say hand signals are pretty universal. I'm pretty positive I could sign out put down the knife in any language.

 

[namedpipes]

I'll still say hand signals are pretty universal. I'm pretty positive I could sign out put down the knife in any language.

The woman in question was 87. The town this happened in is 100 miles away from ANYPLACE that could be considered civilization.

Chatsworth, GA Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

There were literally FIVE crimes committed there last year.

I think possibly the cop overreacted.

I don't think he even needed to sign it. Just take it out of her hand...

 

[Chris M.]

If they can tase an 87 year old woman in rural Georgia cutting dandelions, they could tase or even shoot me during some random traffic stop.

#Don'tRollYourWindowDown It might save your life

 

[StevieP]

I disagree. I think the cops were well-advised to do that.

I mean, I don't know all that much about the South, but I did see a documentary once, and there was an old lady, Granny Claggit (I think, it's been a while), and she was an azz kicker.

Cops can't be too safe.

Clampett. And she used a double-barrel shotgun to keep her dear family safe.

 

[namedpipes]

Clampett. And she used a double-barrel shotgun to keep her dear family safe.

 

[Bonesinium]

I don't think he even needed to sign it. Just take it out of her hand...

Didn’t even need to do that. She was using it to cut flowers not cops. Cops need not seize people’s property because of their own insecurities not rooted in any logic or reason.

 

[mibro]

i am not sure if this is:
1) out of control police making an obvious mistake
or
2) police on a hair trigger due to all the violence, and public figures advocating violence, against police

3) Somebody had a brand new tazer and an itch to use it.

 

[glockstar]

It's obvious most of you guys believe it was an overreaction on the cops part, and that may be true. That said, you have an elderly woman who has a knife, doing whatever in a place she shouldn't be. For whatever reason she is not dropping the knife even after another officer illustrated what they wanted. I'm not saying it was the right response or the wrong response because I wasn't there but the bottom line is it is a potential safety issue for sure. Old people can still do crazy shit when armed. Glad she didn't have a heart attack! Bodycam footage would be a nice thing in this instance.