Reality Talk Blog

Taser a 76 Year Old on a Tractor?

Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by Devo in Overdone

It seems daily now there are more and more incidents where a taser should not be used and repeated incidents where deaths from tasing have occurred. Now I’m not here to debate the issue of whether or not the police should use tasers, but instead the increasingly questionable use of them.

The latest and craziest so far happened in Glenrock Wyoming when a 76 year old man on a 1958 John Deere tractor accidentally bumped a police car in the annual Deer Creek Days parade on August 1. He was apparently riding on the fender controlling the speed and the clutch while a friend’s 9 year old son was at the wheel. He failed to obey police directions they say. Now that deserves a good old fashioned shocking doesn’t it?

The people of the small town of Glenrock are clearly outraged at the incident and are calling for the town to fire the two police officers involved. The response from the police department is that both officers have been put on paid leave. The chief has issued a statement saying, “I’ll be the first to admit, we probably didn’t do things the best way we could have,”

I come across many elderly people in my job that are not in the best of spirits shall I say and some with quite a temper. I have a partner with me and if the elderly person doesn’t have a weapon on them, I have never had any problem dealing with the situation. This 76 year old man was riding in a parade with a friend’s son and bumped a police car and he gets tasered multiple times.

I definitely file this one under Overdone

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Tags: police, taser