Comments on: Police: Taser use on disabled man justified because he had umbrella

By: ME

ME — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:31:12 +0000

I know this man personally. He is not threatening. Actually, his smile is the only thing that is BIG about him! He does not carry himself as a thug.
I understand the police needed to be called. They acted out of ingnorance. They have a hard job and I don't want it. Most the time, it is NOT a sweet, Deaf man in the bathroom.
Please know that the local Deaf community has TRIED to educate the local police about working with the Deaf. I hope the police will be more open to it now that this terrible thing has happened.

By: Ricko

Ricko — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:39:51 +0000

A*C*A*B

Go to hell, cops.

By: leelo72

leelo72 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:38:21 +0000

having served myself it breaks my heart to see this on the hole most of us in uniform know the sleepless nights the argument with yourself at 3am we are human too some of us dont want to be here but when you have to feed your kids what can you do ?????????? so a big understanding hello to all the chaps at melksham nick bloody awesome curry and thanks for the sweatshirt your a credit to the uniform

By: Anonymous Attorney

Anonymous Attorney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:06:01 +0000

Protect your family, friends and yourself by knowing your rights and knowing how the police operate. See: http://www.myspace.com/anonymousattorney

By: Obama speaks "Stupidly" - Page 95 - Political Forum

Obama speaks "Stupidly" - Page 95 - Political Forum — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:06:27 +0000

[...] liberal jurisdiction and it DIDN'T happen in the south! Yeah....their "busts" are ALWAYS clean!!! [...]

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:55:02 +0000

This is appalling. I can't believe this poor guy got this treatment. Those dirty, stupid bastards! I hope a lawyer comes and helps this guy sue those f**kheads for millions, he deserves it.

By: Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:37:07 +0000

I will preface this entire post with this: The actions of the police once finding out that Love was deaf were despicable. The situation should never have escalated that far once the facts were known.

However, we live in a culture where a couple dozen stories that hit the press, among the thousands of police in the nation that do their job well, brings criticism on police in general. We find it comforting, not to mention infuriating, to look at the totality of the situation as known after the fact, and blame the police.

Im going to ignore the fact that Love is black. I see nothing in the story as presented here that would make me think it actually was a factor.

However, looking at what is presented in this article, and without more facts, I don't necessarily think the police over-reacted UP TO the point of finding out about Love's disability. Think about it without the benefit of hindsight.

They, for whatever reason, needed to talk to the man. They called him - he ignored them. They announced they were the police - he didn't seem to care. They broke in and he fought back. Now, we could say he was in his right to do that, but as far as the police knew, he knew they were police and was fighting them.

According to any police policy in this country, if the suspect knew they were police and fought back, they are allowed to use force to subdue him. Remember, at this point, they did not know of his disability. The harder he fought, quite possibly swinging his umbrella is he was truly scared, then - as much as is might think it barbaric, and once again they didnt know his disability - then yes, they might have tasered him.

I merely offer up a supposition based on the facts as listed in this article. More facts may come out later that invalidate this scenario; then again, they may not. Please try to keep all points of view in mind before grabbing upon a small sample of the most outstanding facts and drawing a hatred based conclusion from them.