Watch: Mom tased during routine traffic stop; cop abandons her kids
Published: August 14, 2009
Updated 6 months ago
A police officer in the Syracuse, New York, area Tasered a 37-year-old mom repeatedly in front of her children during a routine traffic stop—and then arrested the mom, leaving the children alone in their family minivan for 40 minutes in freezing weather.
The incident took place in Onondaga County, New York, on January 31, but dashcam video of the incident only recently came to light.
According to a report at syracuse.com, what started out as a routine traffic stop “escalated quickly” when 37-year-old Audra Harmon challenged officer Sean Andrews’ assertion that she had been talking on her cell phone when he pulled her over. Harmon disputed that fact, as well as the officer’s claim that she had been speeding—doing 50 mph in a 45 zone.
An article at MSNBC.com describes the situation:
Harmon had been driving home with her 15-year-old son, whom she had just picked up from wrestling practice, and 5-year-old daughter. She said she was resting her right hand on her cheek as she pulled behind a sheriff’s deputy to make a right turn onto the road where she lived. After she made the turn, the deputy pulled off the road to let her pass, then pulled out behind her with his lights flashing and siren blaring.
When Harmon got out of her minivan to show Officer Andrews that she wasn’t in possession of a cell phone, and to ask to see video footage of her allegedly talking on the cell phone she didn’t possess, the officer ordered her to get back in her car.
“And then he pulled out his taser and said I’m under arrest,” Harmon said. “I got back in the car and he said he wanted me back out of the car now. And I said ‘Why am I under arrest?’ … He then yanked me out of the car … pulled his taser out and the first shot jolted me…”
According to Syracuse.com, “Harmon was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and going 50 in a 45 mph zone. The district attorney’s office dismissed the charges a month later—after watching the videotape, said her lawyer, Terrance Hoffmann.”
Amazingly, the officer had justified Harmon’s arrest by saying she had obstructed traffic by getting out of her minivan.
As MSNBC points out, when Harmon was arrested, her children, aged five and 15, were left by the side of the road for forty minutes.
Harmon is suing the Onondaga County sheriff’s office. Officer Andrews has been taken off street patrol and “reassigned” until an internal affairs investigation is completed, the sheriff’s office said.
This video is from Syracuse.com, posted to the Web Aug. 13, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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It seems a day doesn’t go by anymore without reading about another thug with a badge, another jack-booted punk asshole cop lying through his (or her) teeth. I wasn’t there, but the fact that the DA threw it out after watching the video tells you all you need to know.
Cops are quickly becoming among the most dangerous bunch of loose cannons in the country. Those who continue to give these authoritarian-minded punks any kind of pass are living in another day and time. What few decent law enforcement personnel remain are on the verge of extinction. It seems only thugs and sociopaths are attracted to the job anymore.
HINT: It ain’t the cops. The cops are the bootlicking footsoldiers of the GUVMINT’.
HINT: 2 things Hitler wanted control of when he rose to power.
1) The Foreign Policy
2) The Police
HINT: Rudy Giuliani’s indicted THUG Bernard Kerik is an owner of the “TAZER” Corporation.
HINT: Dick Cheney has over $20 million invested in the Vanguard Group which invests in “private prisons”
Don’t resist the retarded police officers, resist your WILLING, COMPLICIT, PREMEDITATED, Evil Federal Government.
Dollars to donuts every tazer on the street was given to them by a “Federal Law Enforcement Grant”… no local control = TYRANNY
Alex Jones/William Cooper may not be your friends but they tell more truth than anyone else.
this is pretty good too. I think he is a cop…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOBqo68IpE
“It seems only thugs and sociopaths are attracted to the job anymore.”
Again, I have to ask: is this cop a former US military cop? Did this cop serve in Iraq or Afghanistan?
This is probably a good thing. At least these kids won’t be growing up under the illusion that pigs are out there to help people. They’ll know them for the dangerous animals that they are right out of the gate. Many young people have their lives ruined by the Blue Oinkers before they learn this lesson. They aren’t all bad though, it’s just the 99% that make the rest look bad.
This is OK! The TASER corporation and your local bureaucrats who buy tasers and get kickbacks are making a lot of money!!!
How the f*** is this not assault with a deadly weapon?
Many people have now died from Tasering. We need to start throwing these Gestapo cops into prison so the word gets around that CITIZENS PAY YOUR GODDAM SALARY so treat us with respect.
UNBELIEVABLE! i was born and raised in syracuse and this is just ridiculous behavior for the scumbag syracuse cops to be demonstrating! they don’t get enough action outside of the square on weekend nights, so they gotta go and abuse the use of a tazer on this lady who was asking the officer to produce some sort of evidence that she committed a wrong-doing. bullshit! cops are digging their own graves with this tazer issue. i guess its better to be tazed then wrongfully shot, which i am sure still happens often…with a mysterious disappearance or malfunction of the dash cam. fuckin cops…
Hey, they didn’t kill her, so Tazer International, Inc. got some headlines out of that.
There is a self-selection process where only losers and authoritarian types apply to be cops. This tendency seems to be accelerating in recent times, possibly because the more negative publicity from these jerks, the fewer decent people apply. Another possible reason is that we have the jetsam and flotsam that couldn’t get into Blackwater going into the constabulary.
The thought occurred to me that if this kind of thing happens too much more, then self-defense will be acceptable in a court of law for physically assaulting a cop.
I applied to be a cop.. I was told “no” because a “private company” that does the psych profiles said “no”, and their results are not reviewable, nor is the test, and the department just does what they say. The private company said “no” without review or oversight, and that was that.
I’m pretty sure they said “no” because I’m honest and not the corruptible type, but I also use my brain. That means I’d likely turn in fellow bad cops if I found them on the take, but I also don’t just “do what I’m told” when fact shows something different going on than what I’m being “told”.
In short, I think their profile came back saying I was too smart and too honest to be a cop.
We’ve gone through all this before, savanster: of course you were “too smart”, and also mentally unfit: you won’t take blanket orders unthinkingly, nor treat your fellow citizens like you were some Boot Camp Sargent drilling obedience into the recruits.
We’ve gone through the links before of the applicants turned down because they scored too high on the exam.
The very idea of training lower IQ, former high school drop outs and unemployed teenagers to become military cops, then offering them WAY overpaid jobs and giving them GUNS and turning them loose on the citizen populace is frankly insane: see video at 6:00.
@ 25% of ‘the force’ ‘juices.’ (trust me)
Star Wars:
“The Force is more powerful than you can possibly comprehend.”
“If you strike me down you will make me more powerful than you ever imagined.”
hmm, right?
This happened back in January, and we’re just hearing about this? Has the officer been reprimanded for his unjust actions? Probably not. And, if he were punished, I’m betting that he was told to take a paid-leave. This is disgusting, and I hope this woman sues the city big-time for the actions of this officer. He disgraces the uniform he wears.
Reprimanded? You must be kidding. When was the last time that any real investigation of law enforcement brutality or criminality resulted in anything but a finding of it being “justified” or that the “officer followed protocols” or that the cop “had a justified fear of injury” or some such whitewashing?
Cops are no longer to be trusted by the general public. Carry a video camera with you if possible. More than likely, at some point you’ll be glad you did.
A lot of cellphones have video capability now. That’s why a lot more cops are being caught for stuff they used to get away with.
Also, on an unrelated note, the Pentagon banned cell phones and cameras among its soldiers after Abu Ghraib leaked out.
They are also banned now from social sites like Facebook where they might talk about what’s going on. In the 140 countries in which they operate.
These idiots are creating paranoia! I’m terrified of getting pulled over by a traffic cop because of this type of nonsense. I refuse to get out of the car for any reason because of bad cops and nut jobs posing as cops. But of course, we all know refusing to comply with an officer is not the best idea either. Fire these freaks and send the public a message that cops can be trusted.
Blackwater trains police.
“You VILL obey my orderz or get Zee shock!”
No one who Wants to be a cop should be allowed to be one.
Police should be drafted from the general populace. Then they might think twice about how they treat people, cuz this week’s “perp” might be next year’s “cop.”
Again, I have to ask: is this cop former military police?
If so, again I say: US military should be banned from serving as civilian police.
Yet one MORE example of how the Taser has become the lazy cop’s tool of coercion.
I would think they’re more a tool of suppression and oppression–if you don’t unquestioningly submit and obey, we will hurt you.
B-I-N-G-O, yvonne
DING DING DING DING DING: we have the winning entry……..
Tasers without a doubt have created a shoot first ask questions later mentality among law enforcement. Which is nuts and has got to stop! There is no way this woman presented a physical threat! Give a cop with borderline personality disorder a taser and watch out!
Welcome, welcome one and all to the real america. This used to be done only on minorities, the poor and the disenfranchised. Now it’s being done to the people that supported cops, how does it feel. A black scholar said it best, first they try it out on the blacks and other minorities before they do it to the majority.
I am pretty sure they try everything in jolly ol england first. Since their blood is lacking the revolutionary evolutionary fervor such as ours. Even if you are not a son or daughter of the American Revolution your being here is an example of evolution. Congrats! (tim leary “evolutionary agents”—good read btw.)
Did anyone catch the in home CCTV monitoring of problem families in England? A direct video feed to Social Workers.
1984 was not a warning it was a declaration.
Too rich in Irony: “How does it feel” on the day Bob Dylan is picked up by two moderate IQ 20 year old cops in New jersey for “wandering” around looking at houses before his performance…..hahahaha they didn’t know who he was…..
“How Does It Feel?”, America, to be the ENEMY in your own country????
buckqjohnson is giving you the straight skinny here.
It is all a TEST: will you submit to invasive, unnecessary “security” measures to board a plane? Will you willingly pass through a machine that undresses you so some stranger can have a peep?
Will you submit to having your toothpaste confiscated because of some NON-EXISTENT “THREAT” of some ability to make a bomb out of it? (Can’t be done, period, end of story, it’s all an illusion, you need to have the ingredients ON ICE, with a LABORATORY set up on board and 5-6 hours of chemistry work to even come CLOSE to it being reality).
Mind having the “TSA” rifle through your luggage AFTER it’s past through 50 feet of sensing machines? ( I just had a nice note from those friendly idiots at TSA left in my luggage, telling me exactly that, and guess what? A pair of new zories, “flip-flops” to some, and three new pair of Joe Boxer boxers are missing. Fun to arrive with no clean undies in Thailand, I’ll tell ya) Makes ya wonder what the damn machines are for….
You Are Being Tested. Quit being SILENT, quit being COMPLIANT.
If this sort of event outrages you, and you want to keep abreast of the many times this sort of behavior occurs, there is a gentleman named Will Grigg who runs a blog that covers this on a regular basis. He is definitely worth bookmarking, and even if you don’t agree with everything he says, he does a fine job of taking these power-abusing criminals to task for their cowardly indiscretions. Take a look, you won’t be disappointed. http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2009/08/plague-of-punitive-populism.html
@TEXASAGGIE
http://www.constitution.org/uslaw/defunlaw.htm
“Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer’s life if necessary.” Plummer v. State, 136 Ind. 306. This premise was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case: John Bad Elk v. U.S., 177 U.S. 529. The Court stated: “Where the officer is killed in the course of the disorder which naturally accompanies an attempted arrest that is resisted, the law looks with very different eyes upon the transaction, when the officer had the right to make the arrest, from what it does if the officer had no right. What may be murder in the first case might be nothing more than manslaughter in the other, or the facts might show that no offense had been committed.”
The deadly myth of the alleged non-lethal weapon.
Cops have been given a new toy in the past few years, the Taser, which they have been told is non-lethal (an outright lie) and they have been either been physically unable or unwilling to used any traditional methods of restraint other than this lazy man’s toy. The fact that the Taser is NOT non-lethal should make every cop stop and think before he uses this short cut to laziness if the suspect will shortly be dead because of lethal possibility associated with this weapon.
Because the number of deaths (over 400) resulting from tasers is publicly available knowledge, both the manufacturer of tasers and any law enforcement agency that causes a death from use of this lethal weapon should be held culpable for those deaths and should be prosecuted.
Congress needs to get off of their collective asses and investigate the false claims relating to this weapon as they did with false claims which resulted in the many deaths that were caused by the tobacco, pharmaceutical and auto industries.
These pigs aren’t going to stop this shit until citizens start tasing pigs and taking away their guns. I hate to say it, but that’s the way it’s going to be.
“To protect and to serve”
Problem is, these jackbooted pigs don’t protect and don’t serve.
I thought it was interesting how while facing towards the woman and the vehicle the cop grabs her and throws her to the ground in the middle of the street towards the center lines on the road. Just lucky for the woman a car was not coming up the road from behind them.
I am to the point where I have no respect for anyone who serves in the police departments in the USA today. I would imagine that only 2 or 3 out of a thousand applicants today are even remotely qualified to serve the public as police officers. No thanks, I will take our Gendarmes over your police any day, every day. It looks to me that the United States has fallen to the point of no recovery possible. Most of your young are not only ignorant, greedy and lazy, but they are stupid also. You have become a nation of whiners, greedy little kids with no idea of much of anything and the effing world owes you a living…… No thanks, I became French back in the mid 80’s and haven’t ever regretted it. I am treated with respect by our police, never have been tazered, thrown to the ground or had any threats ever issued by any member of the French government. I don’t have any idea of where your descent started, but to me it looks very much like it is too late to recover from that catastrophe, Too many idiots in high places controlling too much, too many religious nuts there also and the general malaise over learning is, to me, a hurdle that will bury you. You still have a small percentage of the population who are intellectually qualified to lead, but the masses are not qualified to do too much of anything.
I am only speaking for myself, I and my family will never be americans, or not americans in todays america….
Just this old chief’s 2 cents
I don’t imagine he would have felt as free to menace and harm this woman if she were a big burly man or a criminal lawyer.
I hope she takes him to the cleaners.
Recommended reading for anyone finding police behavior troubling (everyone?)http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/20090728_america_the_great_police_state/
I support Gore Vidal’s call for a nationwide investigation on police conduct.
There is all together too much of this sort of thing going down.
Police are often aggrieved little people who are attracted to “law enforceement” because they like to push people around.
They are rarely, if ever punished or convicted for their crimes and excesses. Now more than ever, we foolishly allow them to be armed to the teeth. They need to be disarmed and their conduct restrained.
Cops have proven that far too large a percentage of them cannot use these weapons judiciously.
Tasers are instruments of torture.
TAKE TASERS OFF THE STREETS AND OUT OF THE HANDS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT…NOW!!!!!
He just got mad because his normally small penis, was even a lot smaller on this cold day. Fuckin’ pigs.
Cops have a paranoid personality, low IQ’s, and delusions of grandeur.
Imagine how much worse it is for people like Iraqi citizens after these future cops join up with the Army and bring their mental problems to a lawless, almost untouchable kick-ass situation.
That’s why people all over the world hate Americans - our soldiers make our cops look like wise diplomats.
Cops like this eat-a-bowl-of-hot-stupid for breakfast Taser wielding monkey. He should be working in the food preparation or housekeeping industries.
yet another asshole cop with a power complex about to lose his job but also his future to a massive civil law suit.
another pig gone wild. How many will it take? The pig strangles the guy, the granny gets tased, over and over, and never a prosecution, never one cop. It is out of control