Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Ala. Police: Taser Use on Disabled Man Justified
MOBILE, Ala. - Officers who used pepper spray and a Taser to remove a man from a store bathroom found out only later he was deaf and mentally disabled and didn't understand they wanted him to open the door, police said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Mobile Police Department said the officers' actions were justified because the man was armed with a potential weapon -- an umbrella.
A police officer demonstrates a taser gun in 2007. Manufacturers of the Taser stun gun on Monday unveiled a new handheld weapon on Monday which is capable of shocking three people without having to reload. (AFP/File/Carl de Souza) But relatives of Antonio Love, 37, have asked for a formal investigation and said they plan to sue both the police and the store.
"I want justice," Love's mother, Phyllis Love, said Tuesday.
The woman said her son hears only faintly, has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and didn't realize that it was the police who were trying enter the bathroom.
"He thought the devil was out there trying to get in to get him," she said.
Antonio Love, in a written statement and in a television interview given in sign language about the confrontation, said he had a badly upset stomach last Friday and went into a Dollar General store to use the restroom.
Police spokesman Christopher Levy said Tuesday store workers called officers complaining that a man had been in the bathroom for more than an hour with the door locked. Officers knocked on the door and identified themselves, but the person didn't respond.
Officers used a tire iron to open the door, but the man pushed back to keep it shut. Officers saw the umbrella and sprayed pepper spray through a crack trying to subdue the man, Levy said. They shot the man with a Taser when they finally got inside, he said.
Officers didn't realize Love was deaf or had mental problems until he showed them a card he carries in his wallet, Levy said. He was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, but officers released him and took him home after a magistrate refused to issue a warrant.
Levy said officers were justified in using force against Love since he had an umbrella.
"The officers really worked within the limits of our level-of-force policy," he said. "We had no information about who this guy was."
Phyllis Love said her son, who has worked in the garden department at a Lowe's store for several years, was scared when he realized someone was trying to get into the bathroom with him. He put water on his face and on the floor after being hit with pepper spray, she said.
"He didn't know it was a policeman until they busted the door in on him," she said. "He had a knot on his head from where it hit him."
Levy said police wish the confrontation had never occurred. The internal investigation will include a review of Love's complaints that officers laughed at him after realizing he was deaf, he said.
"We'll make whatever efforts we can to resolve this situation, hopefully so this man will be able to trust police in the future so we can help him. Obviously, it's going to be a rough road," he said.
- Posted in
49 Comments so far
Show All"We'll make whatever efforts we can to resolve this situation, hopefully so this man will be able to trust police in the future so we can help him. Obviously, it's going to be a rough road," he said.
Trust the police? To do what? Not be belligerent? weaponed? homophobic? corrupt? brainwashed? Rough road, indeed...
Trust: the result of keeping promises over a prolonged period of time...which would imply a first time, and an unbroken thread of repeat performances...
If the police were to begin handling situations like this without breaking down the door or pepper spraying or tasering, then that might count as a first time...then, they would have to repeat, without fail, for a prolonged period...
Trust the police? To do what? Not be belligerent? weaponed? homophobic? corrupt? brainwashed?
...and violent, racist, reactionary-fascist, corporotocracy-serving...
Scared, hulking, steroid pumped, neanderthal thugs. Being "Uncooperative" is now a major crime/insult to our local, armed nitwits. I rejoice when any one of them take that final step and "cross over" under any circumstances.
I have to agree. Can't stand the mentality of "law enforcement"; yet another Orwellian term, as it turns out.
"We'll make whatever efforts we can to resolve this situation, hopefully so this man will be able to trust police in the future so we can help him. Obviously, it's going to be a rough road," he said.
Can you say "brainwash" boys and girls? That's right. See, I knew you could. I hear tell that if they 'waterboard' him, he'll say just about anything they want him to say.
Tasers don't kill people...
It's idiots who misuse technology that kill people.
Any Taser use should have the same post-incident review procedure as a firearm discharge. There was no need to use a Taser in this case. But the low threshold for Taser use will just get lower and lower. All of our kindergarten teachers will soon be issued Tasers to keep those little hoodlums in line. The sooner they learn their place, the better.
Now umbrellas, they DO kill people. I just hope he had a permit for that umbrella.
Permits for umbrellas? Where's my second amendment?
"A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to raise umbrellas, is the best and most natural defense from rain and sun."
I'd better go down and register my cane.
When they outlaw umbrellas only the outlaws will have them.
It would appear as if the police forces from the same state that produced the infamous March 7, 1965 "Bloody Sunday" police riot on the Edmund Pettus Bridge have not learned all that much since then. It should also be written that my large local police department, the infamous LAPD, are in that company as well.
Whoah, NateW,
RAMPART drug smuggling department made "The Shield" look like nothing. Ask old Rod King. If they don't know who you are like a deaf disabled guy, they crash your bathroom stall and torture you with a taser.
If they DO know who you are, "Guy has priors" (littering, wreckless driving) then they twist your arms, stick boots and kneecaps in between your shoulder blades and rub your corneas in the gravel. Ever see "Cops"? It is not fiction.
I would never live in such an uncivilized society that does that. I am dreading my next trip back there.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
...and your point was what? I am all too aware of the myriad thuggery of the LAPD (a prime reason why I refuse to reside in Los Angeles proper). I was merely pointing an all too depressing commonality that bedevils police departments across America.
My point is I agree with you. Good post! (I guess Whoah, was the wrong on-line noise. I Should've said: Hear, Hear!)
TJ
Attack first and ask questions later if at all.
Since this is the much same principle that has come to guide US foreign policy, here's a question: Is it the the Gestapo tactics of our local police that trickle-up to our foreign policy? -- or our Attack First foreign policy that trickles down to our local police?
I want to avoid asking either/or questions that provoke one-dimensional answers, so let me start out by first answering my own question: I think it is, at minimum both trickle factors, but much more than both, too.
jj
I suspect that it is the feds, dictating to the lower echelon. This country has created a multi-level federalized enforcement system. I attended a local town bazaar this past weekend where the county police had their 'communications' van set up. Handouts on what to do in an emergency were basically saying that martial law would be declared and that police would have complete control and authority. Of course each person was suppose to provide for themselves food and water for three days... BUT NO WEAPONS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES WITH.
The old 'civil defense' network of the 60's stressed local citizens banded together for local support.....The modern system rejects all local input except for the police and fire depts which have all been "educated" to believe that the state and federal authorities can provide better guidance, and that their loyalties belong to the federal government of the day. (IMHO).
I've asked many a local politician why medium sized police departments require fully automatic weapons.... these are only useful in mob situations, and one would hope that local police would recognize that any "mob" is actually local "citizens" with mutual grievances.
The number of cases where police shoot first is mounting. It is obvious that the federal, state, county and local authorities do not believe that the "people" have any rights or authority, only the uniformed agencies of the government. We have pretty much become a nation of "subject" not "citizens.
Use to Be: PROTECT & SERVE
Now it is: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Reminds me of a guy named Jesus, who didn't give an answer back to the authorities, and the gov't treated him the same way too, even worse.
I guess in this world if you don't speak up for your self some one else will, and it might not be what you wanted them to say.
Dont go to Alabama on a rainy day. Your parasal will be considered a deadly weapon by the local gestapo idiots. You can and will be tasered or probably shot with a 9m. three or four times.
Hey, the cops gave Love a free ride home in a police car. Aren't they wonderful?
its beginning to look like this all over america.this isn't
just a alabama problem but a us ofa epidemic.the police depts
have morphed into paramilitary orgs. with all kinds of hi tech
devices and tanks etc. this is not your mom and dads p.o.!
my neighbor is retired from the nyfd and has friends in the pd.
he was a capt. and those friends held similar jobs in the fd.
their major complaint! the fd. had the brightest best
recruits leaving the pd no choice but to except the left
overs. whats the real motto of your local pd! its not to
protect and serve but rather "we may be dumb but we are
mean"! the criminal at the door may be the pd.
When I go out the door, I first check for terrorists in blue.
Police need special training on how to discern between citizens who can't respond and people who won't respond in a way the police expect them to. People who live with a mental disability and also have a hearing impairment are doubly challenged. I remember reading about a school in America where troubled children were receiving little shocks when they misbehaved. At first this was considered a success because the children responded by being good but it was later discovered that it was counterproductive and in the long run it did not help the children to act the way they were expected and was cruel. I am often shocked by the acts of people with authority. I hope the day will come when all people will know sign language. People who are deaf have a lot to offer.
It took me forever to figure out how to log in here, and probably just as well. Because I was absolutely furious after I read this piece.
I am guardian for my adult brother who has mental retardation. This could have been him, and not in AL. He'd have been absolutely terrified at the pounding and door wrecking and probably rendered motionless and speechless. And in his terrified state, he'd have had almost no chance of being able to unlock the door.
I am trying my best to see this from both sides. I can almost, ALMOST, justify knocking hard, harder, hardest and, getting no response, attempting to open the door. Why? Because someone may have been in trouble. Sick. Passed out. Dying. Dead.
Why is it that officers seem to be trained to assume the worst at all times, ergo, guilty until proven innocent? Rhetorical, I guess. It's for their own safety.
There's a fine line here, and clearly these officers stomped the daylights out of it. The training that needs to happen on the heels of this is for the officers, not for restoring this young man's faith in them.
I cannot imagine the physical and emotional trauma he endured.
Okay, I'm mad again. So I'll stop here. But I'm not done with this. Not by a long shot with my deadly umbrella.
"Scottsdale-based TASER International kicked off its annual Conference and Master Instructor Training event yesterday by announcing the X3, a new ECD capable of firing up to three sets of probes without being reloaded."
[Google TASER X3]
Isn't progress wonderful?
Now they can "tase" the whole damn family without reloading! And they will.
· Yr Obd't Servant
"We had no information about who this guy was."
Right, so shoot first and ask questions later you FUCKING COWARDS.
"Levy said police wish the confrontation had never occurred."
I'll bet. Now you've exposed yourselves to a massive, I hope, lawsuit. PIGS!
So glad to see that someone else had exactly the same reaction to that comment: Shoot first and ask questions later.
I can understand the fear of umbrellas, though. They obviously thought Oswald C. Cobblepot was hatching a plot in the Dollar General toilet and wanted to help Commissioner Gordon make a bust.
Every day this country looks more and more like Stalin's Russia. Federal, state and local goons do what ever they like and none are held responsible. This goes right to the top. For example, we are still waiting for the Attorney General to finish thinking about the criminal activities of the previous administration and do something about them. Electronic snooping by the government is rampant and uncontrolled. Vast data bases have been constructed and filled with huge amounts of information about the citizens. These can be mined by the snoops without constraint. The Watch List of the Department of Homeland Security is an example of how we can be abused. It is badly flawed and little if any effort is made to correct it. The government makes the rules to protect us. Of course, there are always new enemies to be protected from and therefor more rules. The cages of the new gulags have already been constructed, the guards trained and they will be packed to capacity when necessary. It's not a pretty pictureof life in the Home of the Free. It's going to get worse.
What sort of monsters would use the deaf and mentally challenged for target practice? I'll never visit Alabama.
Young Antonio Love was not far wrong: There were devils trying to break down the door. I don't understand the bone-headed feeding frenzy kind of behavior that takes over policemen's minds when they get in situations like this. Recently in my area, the local cops broke into a house in which a man was stabbing his pregnant girlfriend. The cops pulled out their weapons and the typical hail of bullets ensued. When the smoke cleared, the assailant was still standing, the victim had a 40 caliber bullet in her head and was pronounced dead. Now cops aren't the sharpest tools in the shed to begin with, but for some reason, when things get exciting, their IQ's drop at least 20 points.
interesting point...when those charged with protecting citizens become the citizens' worst enemies, on a daily basis, I mean, when do you dissolve the body?
I rarely feel concern when encountering the average unknown citizen, yet I feel a great deal of concern when a policeman is simply around...why? because, with little or no provocation required, simply engaging in conversation with one of these non-thinkers can quickly dissolve into confrontational rhetoric, and the use of force, not to mention the 48-hour holding time without charge...not by me, of course, which is the whole point...if I'm not doing anything to anyone, for example, I've been in the bathroom longer than normal, I suddenly am a legitimate target for chemical dousing and electronic shock? Why couldn't the store janitor simply unlock the door and somebody check on the guy? If even an elevated tone becomes 'aggression', where does this simply become sadistic control and entertainment? Do these guys take pride in what they're doing? I would be riddled with shame...I don't want my tax dollars paying sadists with cattle prods to abuse myself or my family or friends...I'd rather take my chances with the citizens than with the police...it's time to get rid of police departments...citizens must take on the patrolling of their own neighborhoods...I don't know how it will work logistically, but hired goons trained to look at, and impact, every situation from the worst possible angle are obviously not working out...I know there are some bad guys in the world, but I'm coming to the realization that many of them have joined the ranks of professional power...rather than remove them, they are them...
I have a friend who, sadly, suffered brain damage in an automobile accident some years back. He is intelligent, lucid, and articulate. However, he has lots of trouble with body movement, and it is difficult for him to speak clearly. To the average, unaquainited bystander, or cop full of assumptions, he may appear to be drunk. Recently, in a parking lot, he was accosted by a cop. He had diffiulty walking and talking as usual. Apparently the cop felt threatened and TASED him FIVE TIMES. After the first shock, he did become verbally belligerent. Wouldn't you, having done absolutely NOTHING illegal, except appear in public in his sadly handicapped condition? He is literally INCAPABLE of physically fighting back. But because he became loud and defensive verbally, and even though lying on the ground, the cop tased him four more times. There is way too much of this kind of action by out of control police. The cop was really very lucky I was not on the scene or there might have been a dead cop, and I might have been writing this from prison. How long before the public fights back?
First we have the pig arresting and cuffing a Harvard Professor in his own home after the prof. showed him identification of both a driver license and university ID. Obama called the police "stupid" after the incident (the one thing Obama has said that I believe and agree with), and police all over the nation come unglued.
Now we have this deaf, menatlly disabled person pepper sprayed and Tased after being in a restroom sick.
These bastards expect us to trust them? After this in one week of time? I think not. Not now, not ever!
Brutalizing the disabled.
Isn't that the kind of crap that happened in Nazi Germany?
Double Post, Sorry.
Police in this country are drunk with power. The chemical weapons and tasers have emboldened police considerably. Often enough they are acting like gangs of thugs, protecting each other no matter what, unable to admit mistakes (Crowley/Gates for example, and this story) and brutalizing first before asking questions, if they ask at all.
First we have a harvard professor trying to break into his private domain and now we have the gestapo trying to slither home [ the shit pools at the local waste treatment plant] via a public toilette. As to the exuberance of the pigs? Well, the carpenter desires timber the physician disease and the police,confrontation. I guess we will now have to broaden the definition of retarded, to include the "serve and protect" crowd.
TASERS ARE TORTURE DEVICES......... PERIOD!! Law enforcement agents are far too willing to use these devices because they "do not kill" and leave virtually no marks. They use them liberally at the slightest whim, and often use them for "punishment". The mission of law enforcement does not include summary punishment. Invariably the use of these devices is found to be "appropriate" in all cases. They close ranks and protect "their own" increasing the divide between the forces of law enforcement and those they supposedly protect. There IS NO JUSTICE for victims of law enforcement abuse weather it be being tazed, beaten, or outright murdered. It is time that law enforcement reconnected with the ordinary citizen, and their mission to "serve and protect". "Small" men with weapons and torture devices do not belong in law enforcement, and whatever their victims...... un-satisfied by justice... resort to is justified! There needs to be some fear of the consequences of abuse of power!
Trust the cops? Not on your life!! Welcome to AmeriKKKa!!!
O man, umbrella's are extremely deadly! I see local police in my gym all the time, always acting like tough guys. But when it comes to the real world, rather than subdue someone physically these narcissistic pricks take the cowardly path and taser at will. Then again, what else would to expect from someone who enlists to be a tool of oppression...just another tool.
It's great to read these comments. My last week has been spent trying to introduce truth and reason on the std MSN blog site "newsvine", and it has been extremely burdensome. I would invite some of you to hold your noses and plunge in once in awhile, just to keep the fresh air flowing. Think of it as public service to those who are victims of rush/
orielly/dobbs. It will be neither pleasant nor pretty, but avalable service opportunity disconsonant with those who standby and do nothing.
I love this blog
Well geez Bubba, ya gotta think about this.
A guy locks hisself in a restroom for an hour, what's he up to?
Could be he's stealing the plumbing.
He could be doing soma' that terr'ist stuff.
Or...he could be sick?
Anyways, the big threat here is, he's messin' with the operation of a Dollar Store (one of the few remaining cornerstones of the failing economy of the Greatest Nation on Earth.)
See, ya gotta git all the facts 'for you can figger out who's the sum'bitch.
Oh, dear. It's been a bad day in Mobile.
An unmanned Air Force drone crashed into a local cemetery last night. Police report that so far they've recovered 327 bodies and expect the count to go higher.
When an off-duty Coast Guardsman tried to point out the possible error here, local police told him he was out of his jurisdiction.
The Air Force had no comment pending completion of their continuing search for the crash site.
Disarm the State, not the people!
After reading David Lindorff's response to the Gates-Crowley incident in CounterPunch, in which he described these sorts of actions as "police state" tactics, I thought to myself, "that's not true, we don't live in a police state, police states have SECRET police who come and attack you in the dead of night."
Then I realized this is even more fucked up than than a state with secret police, because in the US this sort of stuff doesn't have to happen in secret. It happens right out in the open and gets televised coast to coast. We've all been conditioned to rationalize the cops' behaviors and to look the other way.
So Lindorff was only half right. We in the US don't live in a police state; we live in a police state of consciousness.
Tasercorp just unveiled it's latest street treat - the X-3!
Now the Taser can fire three death darts individually before reloading, or in unison, delivering a massive triple hit of lethal voltage.
Taser - the best just keep getting better.
Walk in peace.
Legalized killers -- Killing machine strapped on and licensed to murder
Law enforcement are all of the intelligent middleclass, and they spend 95% of their time policing laboring men. For we laboring men never quite finish high school and have not the smarts to fight our way out of a paper bag.
Result being, 95% of all prisoners in jails, prisons and insane asylums are young laboring men age 14 to 40.
And so when I campaigned for Sheriff in Selma, on the platform of requiring deputies to keep their killing machines locked in the trunk until needed, how many traffic tickets do you think that cost me?
Last spring a Birmingham Alabama news paper had a video on the Internet that showed four white cops trying to murder a young black man. His van hit a cop's leg by accident, so first they tried to kill him in a high speed chase by smashing his van toward a deep ditch. And there he was thrown from his van unconscious, looking all bloody and dead for sure. Then all four cops started kicking him full blast in the head and neck. The driver recovered and is suing the police department, but last I heard none of the cops were charged.
It all depends on stress, and if the sight of a legalized killer gives you stress.
Now it your of college level intelligence, then you feel comfort at the sight of killing machines strapped to the bodies of men licensed to kill. For you need protection from men impoverished who are not to happy about your having excessive wealth.
Whereas if your a laboring men then you know that legalized killers are hired to kill you.
Comes now Professor Gates to be treated like a “lower class” laboring man, and all of the stuck-up intelligent middleclass to be absolutely incensed and outraged.
yes, the cops were out of line, but where was mom? would you leave your 10yr old (functioning) deaf son in public for and hour.
what was up with the store owner? where has our communities gone?
46 posts on cop bashing (not unjustified), but no balance on the bigger problems.
have any of you been in a cops shoes?
lets not blame, lets fix!
Yeah guy a big scary 10 year old, lets tazz him cause he sooo dangerous at 10 years old and wielding a big lethal umbrella too.
If someone is using the restroom leave them the f**k alone. They are probably taking a shit.....DUH!!!!!
And if the guy was finalizing a bomb to kill people and distroy business you'd say "Where the hell were the police? The guy was in there for over an hour!" The piece said that the man had the "MIND" of a ten year old, he may have had the body of Hulk Hogan for all we know. He was hard of hearing.... probably should have had somebody watching over him.
I believe the police over-reacted, but I can see where the post from the above person comes from. The police were/are in no-win situations every day, take the blame when the respond, take the blame when they do not. I HATE the surveillance society we've created, it is NOT the America I grew up in... but I understand where it came from and how we got here. People, CITIZENS, have stopped being responsible for themselves and believe that society owes them something....