Use of Taser on Disruptive Store Customer Questioned
DAYTONA BEACH - Can running your mouth off at a police officer during a confrontation in a crowded store get you blasted with a Taser?
It happened last month when a Daytona Beach police officer stunned a yoga instructor. The officer used her Taser when the teacher refused to pipe down inside the Best Buy store on West International Speedway Boulevard.
Some human rights and civil liberties experts say a Taser, and the 50,000 volts its twin projectile probes deliver, should never be used in a situation like that. But Daytona Beach’s police chief said the verbal lashing his officer got and the way her commands were ignored gave his officer every right to use her weapon.
The incident reflects a growing international debate over Taser use. Last month, after six people who were stunned died in the United States and Canada, a United Nations committee said the use of Tasers can be a form of torture. Law enforcement advocates counter that stun guns are safe, essential tools that save officer lives and protect the public.
It was Nov. 26 when 35-year-old Elizabeth Beeland of Ormond Beach stopped at the store to purchase a CD player for her father, she told The Daytona Beach News-Journal before refusing to speak more about the incident.
Beeland’s shopping trip ended up with a ride to the Volusia County Branch Jail, charged with two misdemeanors — one for disorderly conduct and the other for resisting a police officer without violence.
Beeland’s attorney entered a plea of not guilty in the case and now it will be up to the State Attorney’s Office to determine whether to prosecute.
In a report police are required to prepare after deploying their Tasers, Officer Claudia Wright said she used her weapon on Beeland because the woman was “verbally profane, abusive, loud and irate.” Beeland pointed her finger “towards my face” and was waving her arms, the officer wrote.
But is that against the law? And is yelling at a cop considered enough resistance to merit the use of a Taser?
According to an American Civil Liberties Union representative in Orlando, yelling at a police officer and even cussing one out is constitutionally protected speech. And both the ACLU and Amnesty International USA say this incident likely could have been handled differently, adding that Taser use has become too casual and too common among police officers.
Police Chief Mike Chitwood said if a Taser had not been available, his officer likely would have used other weapons to subdue Beeland.
“I was never raised on Tasers,” the chief said. “I used nightsticks and slapjacks.”
The chief said Wright initially approached Beeland under the assumption a credit card had been stolen. In the end, it was determined Beeland was using her own card and had committed no crime.
But according to Wright’s report — the officer declined comment for this story — Beeland yelled to the point of disrupting business at the Best Buy and she would not comply with the officer’s commands. Wright warned Beeland she could be arrested and ultimately, could be shot with the Taser, unless she calmed down, the report shows.
Wright, at the store investigating another matter, was called over by a Best Buy cashier that afternoon after Beeland — who was about to pay for her item with a credit card — suddenly left her transaction unfinished and walked outside.
The cashier apparently thought the card was stolen because of Beeland’s sudden exit, the report indicates. When Wright caught up with Beeland just outside the glass doors, Wright said, Beeland began yelling at her, even at one point using the “F” word.
The officer said she asked Beeland to calm down. She then asked Beeland to step inside the store so it could be determined whether the credit card left with the cashier was hers.
Once inside, Wright states Beeland kept yelling at her and causing a disruption. She says Beeland’s screaming drew a crowd of patrons. Wright said she told Beeland if she didn’t calm down, she would be arrested.
Finally, Wright warned Beeland if she didn’t quit the commotion, she would have to deploy her Taser.
A tape from the store’s surveillance camera shows Beeland motioning with her hands and talking to Wright. She is seen slowly backing away from Wright as the officer advances.
Then, in one fell swoop, the tape shows Wright reaching for the Taser gun and shooting Beeland in the abdomen. She crumpled to the floor.
The entire confrontation inside the store took less than a minute, the tape shows.
Police Department policy states an officer can deploy his or her Taser “for the purpose of subduing a violent, noncompliant or combative subject.”
Another section titled “Use of Force,” says the Taser may be deployed when an officer believes the person presents a threat to the officer or to others “in the event that lesser force options are ineffective.” The Taser also should be deployed to prevent the escape of a “criminal suspect,” and when a “subject actively resists arrest or detention by violence or threat of violence.”
Beeland, although not compliant, was not acting violently, according to the officer’s report. However, Chitwood said his officer had been flagged down under the assumption Beeland may have stolen a credit card.
The fact Wright said Beeland refused to comply only further fueled the situation, Chitwood said.
“The fact that she (Beeland) was resisting and not following commands being given by a uniformed officer, that means that officer eventually was going to get hurt,” Chitwood said. “Claudia Wright did not wake up that morning and say, ‘I think I want to tase someone today.’
“The woman’s actions caused this to happen,” the chief said.
A News-Journal review of all Taser incidents by Daytona Beach police in November shows officers used the weapons 10 times. Beeland’s was the only incident that did not involve violence or a fleeing criminal suspect.
Officials with the ACLU and Amnesty International USA say other tactics should have been used, especially because Beeland was not acting violently or threatening the officer in any way.
“In my view, a Taser should be used only as an alternative to a gun,” said Glenn Katon, director of the Central Region of the ACLU in Orlando. “Is yelling (at an officer) enough resistance to cause someone to be Tasered?
“People are getting killed with Tasers,” he said.
Taser use has become so commonplace, Katon said, that officers no longer employ other training tactics they’ve learned to subdue people.
“I certainly don’t want to see an officer get hurt, but a cop should have enough training to be able to use something other than a Taser to calm someone down,” Katon said.
Jason Disterhoft, a human rights campaigner with Amnesty International USA, said a Taser should be used when lethal force is the only alternative, “not just when somebody refuses to comply with an order.
“The force used should be proportionate with the threat posed,” Disterhoft said.
Chitwood said Taser critics don’t understand the types of situations police encounter.
“Everybody has their opinion, but at the end of the day none of the people who have an opinion walk in that officer’s shoes,” Chitwood said.
That afternoon when Beeland suddenly walked away from her transaction, leaving her credit card behind at the cash register, she had received an upsetting telephone call from her husband about their child, said Beeland’s attorney, William Chanfrau Jr.
Distraught, she walked outside to speak to him more privately, forgetting for that moment about her card and her purchase, he said.
“She fully intended to go back inside and finish making her purchase,” Chanfrau said.
© 2007 Daytona Beach News-Journal
“According to the report…Beeland yelled to the point of disrupting business.”..HEAVENS…we can’t have business disrupted in the good ol’ USA, at least not by ordinary citizens…But I think that’s what the president does every time he visits a city…streets are closed, barricades put up…and a great deal of business is disrupted…BEHAVE PEASANTS!
Democracy: the government is afraid of it’s citizens.
Police state: the citizens are afraid of their government.
Torture: intent to create fear.
Taser: torture.
In a nutshell: what we have become.
Lazy, donut-stuffed cops love tasers because, otherwise they’d have to assault citizens in the traditional manner, with their billy clubs and fists.
I guess this is another case where tradition must give way to progress.
Beeland, although not compliant, was not acting violently, according to the officer’s report. However, Chitwood said his officer had been flagged down under the assumption Beeland may have stolen a credit card.
The fact Wright said Beeland refused to comply only further fueled the situation, Chitwood said.
“The fact that she (Beeland) was resisting and not following commands being given by a uniformed officer, that means that officer eventually was going to get hurt,” Chitwood said. “Claudia Wright did not wake up that morning and say, ‘I think I want to tase someone today.’
“The woman’s actions caused this to happen,” the chief said.
These statements show just how far the original intent of the goverment has been perverted. We have gone from a servant government that was enacted to preserve our rights to a government that takes premptive action against other nations and now its own citizens. Let’s see: not agressive, refusal to cowtow to the government’s demands (which are being made for what reasons?), using the refusal to acquiesce to said demands to make the case for a premptive attack (”The fact that she (Beeland) was resisting and not following commands being given by a uniformed officer, that means that officer eventually was going to get hurt…). This is what it looks like when our foreign policy comes home to roost.
It would be easier if like in the movie, they would put shocking collars on us. Then they could shock us remotely when they want to, save money on cops and avoid all the hubbub.
“But Daytona Beach’s police chief said the verbal lashing his officer got and the way her commands were ignored gave his officer every right to use her weapon.”
This means we are clearly in the era of police state unrestrained violence. Police all over the USA are taking their cue…they know they can kill and injure with impunity. That’s what happens when the people at the top (Bush et al) condone torture and murder.
“This means we are clearly in the era of police state unrestrained violence. Police all over the USA are taking their cue…they know they can kill and injure with impunity.”
Then it is only a matter of time before THEY are being killed as well. “Impunity” or not.
This woman should never have been stopped in the first place since all she did was walk out of the store. A clerk thinking this suspicious is not enough reason to interfere with a customer going about their business.
‘A customer is always right’ has gone to being ‘Taser the customer first, then figure it all out later’. A sign of the sick times where we have to many cops guarding property and none of them guarding Rights.
“Beeland yelled to the point of disrupting business at the Best Buy”
Aha.. that was the real crime.
Thinkingmom we’re on the same page. For god’s sake she was a yoga teacher. If I was pissed off about a purchase for some reason I would probably cancel the transaction and walk out also– and yeah I might even use the F-word while doing it.
You live in a totalitarian state–what do you expect?
The officer had no business even BEING in the store.
Much less bothering customers.
Next time at Best Buy, be prepared for an AK-47.
When are you lemmings going to stop timing your run to the cliff?
Pertinent posts so far.
Shocking language!
A grown woman, trained to deal with criminals, armed to the teeth but cannot bear to hear certain words.
Fuck me, why not add tongue removal to courts’ sentencing options.
(Shopkeepers deal with irate customers every day. How can a policewoman be unable?)
“assumption a credit card had been stolen”, even though she stayed right outside the door on her cell phone. So much for innocent until proven guilty. She was tased because 1) the woman was “verbally profane, abusive, loud and irate 2) she would not comply with the officer’s commands 3) warned Beeland she could be arrested and ultimately, could be shot with the taser 4) Wright woke up that morning and said, ‘I think I want to tase someone today? Take your pick, none of them make sense. There is so much wrong about this. Sure wish we could see that surveillance video where “She is seen slowly backing away from Wright as the officer advances.” Can’t wait till we see Blackwater guards posted in Best Buy to protect business. That way when a customer has a dispute they can drug you, lock you in a storage container and gang rape with you with impunity. Welcome to Fascist America folks. The slippery slope seems like a distant memory.
Would that Ms. Beeland had been trying to purchase a Taser at the time. Don’t you have to receive a shock before being allowed to pack?
Seems like a real good reason to avoid BestBuy and ALL other big-box stores.
Boycott Best Buy man.
Physiological effects of electricity:
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_3/2.html
Psychological:
“You have a headache afterwards,’ he recalls. ‘It does affect your memory quite badly at the time. It’s hard to tell if it’s disorientating. If you are depressed, you’re not really noticing much that’s going on, anyway. A colleague came to see me and it became apparent that he had visited me the previous week, but I had no recollection of it.’”
http://www.ect.org/news/sundtimes.html
“…review of all Taser incidents by Daytona Beach police in November shows officers used the weapons 10 times”.
Well there ya go. If she’s going to be taken seriously by the guys on the force, she’s got to act like the rest of the boys.
This society terrifies me. I am getting totally afraid to even go out to the mall or to the grocery store for fear of being tortured by SS police just because they don’t like the way I talk to them. I totally avoid festivals and gatherings, because that’s where these SS police show up and cause trouble.
When a cop is trained who do you think the enemy is….us!
Cops are sociopaths. They do not mingles with anyone other than cops thus the cop mentality.
Police departments are military forces. They are armed to the teeth and most are dumb as dirt.
This incident is a form of legal domestic abuse.
They are score keepers and contribute little to preventing crime. The only thing they are good for is collecting money in the form of writing tickets.
They are exempt of the laws they enforce and honor fellow officer misdeeds.
They are trained to give orders and not to listen and they are arrogant fearful liars in spite of all their regalia and weapons.
Any one out there friendly with cops…I doubt it!
The officer obviously did not handle the situation properly in the first place, or there likely never would have been an angry citizen. However, once we point a ‘finger’ at another person’s face in anger and use profanity, ___ by law, that is assault. __ Some people are unaware of that law.
We should not assault anyone, and if it’s someone who is armed, or an aggressive cop, we are looking for trouble, but that cop needs a few more ‘years’ of intensive training before she is allowed to have any type of weapon. Thankfully the lady was not killed. I would love to be her attorney.___ If I was an attorney.
The really omnimous thing is, we are hearing so much of this now and indeed it seems as if we are heading towards a police state. When enough police are finally either trained by Blackwter, and they train thousands now, or are Blackwater troops, we will have lost our final freedom.
why the need for technology like a taser? A pinch behind the neck always worked for Spock. There are always less violent solutions if we look hard enough.
We have three good friends who are police officers GARBOTOO. I dare say there are far more good cops than bad cops, and of course there are some physoctic cops who managed to pass the psycological evaluation tests. We usually hear about the bad or rotton cops. Then too, every cop can have a bad day, they’re human. They shouldn’t ever take their internal anger out on any citizen however.
I also agree with you that cops stick together, so do construction workers, lawyers, firemen, writers and college professors. They talk the same work language and that’s who they know. That’s not unusual.
Anyone else here notice the name of the police chief defending the use of the Taser?
None other than Mike Chitwood formerly of the Philadelphia PD who ordered the homemade bomb be dropped from a police helicopter onto the MOVE headquarters which then killed several children…
Things never change.
Are you sure? That bomb incident happened over 30 years ago, he must be 80 years old now, besides, I do believe it was the major of Philly who ordered that incredible act.
KEM,
I may be mistaken as I cannot find any specific references to his involvement in the MOVE operation on the web. I believe he was on the police force in Philly at the time and I know that he was not the one who actually ORDERED the attack (as I carelessly posted above), but I had heard that he was involved as a young officer. After his job in Philly, he became the police chief of Portland Maine and is now the police chief of the town in Florida as the article mentions. If you search for his name, you will also see all sorts of references to 9/11 as he was involved in the Atta investigation.
Like I say, I may be wrong, but his name really jumped out at me when I read the article as one does not forget these long ago associations (even when they might be wrong!)
There is also a story in the news about protesters in New Orleans being tased. These things need to be banned NOW!! The woman in this story was upset about something happening to her child for goodness sakes. Could the store personnel not ask the lady what was wrong?? Why were the cops even called? I hope she sues the hell out of them.
That is not a very common name BYSTANDER. The only time I ever heard it before this was JOE E. Chitwood, or Joey, the famous stunt car driver of the 50s.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is, in most organizations, the employees follow the leader. Better chiefs, ___ better cops. Better presidents, better Congress.
If she had come back in with the officer it would have been sorted out in a minute and there wouldn’t have been any issue.
Here’s a news flash - Continual resistance and failure to obey a police officer’s commands will get you arrested. Resisiting arrest presents a danger to the officer and you. Only a complete idiot imagines that screaming profanity in a cops face is OK or won’t get you arrested.
Ms. Beehan behaved in a suspicious manner. When she was asked to explain what she was doing and why she left her card, she became belligerant. At that point subjected herself to arrest.
Put yourself in a cops shoes. How do you arrest a person who is failing to obey your commands, screaming profanity, acting irrationally and may become violent at any time?
People like Ms. Beehan and Mr. Massey are just simply pea-brained idiots who’s parents failed to discipline them. They are like feral cats and the only possible way to reason with them is to use a Taser.
Oh and here’s an example of cops being TOO nice and failing to use a Taser when they should have. As a result, Sheila Pierce died.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=283_1197668326
Sometimes people need to be stopped.
Only an idiot; or a person who believes they are a FREE citizen and innocent until proven guilty. When did it become against the law in this country to be angry and show it (even to a police officer?)? Machiavelli warns the Prince that the most difficult to conquer are those who have been free…you must either kill them or SLOWLY take away their freedoms…generationally…that is what is happening here…
Well in this incident the cop was more wrong than Mrs. Beeland. We don’t know what she had just heard about her daughter and was possibly already very upset. We also don’t know how the cop approached her and what the cop said first. The fact that the police report states that she wasn’t combative is quite interesting.
It is a serious mistake to get into an argument with a cop though, even if they initiate it. sSome cops are nuts and are often looking for a fight. You may be surprised of how many are fired because of that.
If that’s what gets one Taser-tortured by fellow Americans we pay to protect and serve US in Bushmerica, I’m due for my 50K shock any day now. Because when I’m disrespected, confronted by morons or imbeciles and/or incompetence, I am the first to open my “big” and, apparently, illegal, mouth.
Question: if you tell a cop to phuck off with a smile, is that Taser-torture worthy? Do cops offer a list of words We The People may not speak to them? Does context count - is “phuck you” illegal, but “I wanna phuck you officer” legal? Do cops carry around portable decibel level readers in order to gauge whether you’re too “loud”? Are there different allowable volumes for different venues - is too “loud” in Best Buy okay in Yankee Stadium? Do the cops have to follow the same “rules” or can We The People Taser-torture them for being “loud” and for using “bad” language?
Ari “Freedom Watch” Fliecher warned us: “Americans need to watch what they say, watch what they do.” Or they’ll be Taser-tortured, he forgot to add…
Most cops, especially the ones who are used on the street for population control, are chosen because they are of a certain low level of intelligence and will consistently abuse their power so as to instill fear in the populace. That is their real job and solving any incidental crimes they come across is secondary to their primary purpose. Most cops in all of the corporate governments are crooked and of a decidedly low moral character. Their behavior is structured to their environment. If they were posted in Iraq or Afghanistan their behavior would be no different than that human refuse which works for Blackwater. Anyone who knows cops knows that.
Evidently you know a lot of cops to make those comments JMACNEIL.
Your statement could be likened to one saying most of the Common Dreams bloggers are nut cases and of low intelligence, because of the fact that there are a few such who blog here.