Police use Taser on deaf crime victim

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This story was posted at Crooks and Liars. I'm not familiar with all of the fair use rules and I don't want to violate any copyright laws so I'm just posting a link to the original investigative piece. At a minimum this is an example of remarkably incompetent police.

KIRO TV’s investigative unit has discovered Tacoma police used force to arrest and handcuff an innocent deaf woman after she called 911 for their help.

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The great danger of idealizing police and military

geomoo's picture

Just one aspect to this disturbing story, the problem of pretending that all soldiers and all cops are wonderful people deserving of our adoration.

Of course, as with war crimes, this will be treated as an aberration that will be quickly fixed and then we will "look forward not back" with our notion of perfect cops unchallenged. I would suggest that the accurate way of viewing this is as a predictable development on the basis of current attitudes and current technology. Not to say it is typical, just that it shows a direction we are moving in. There will be more examples to report. Tasers are evil.

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Such a dangerous time

geomoo's picture

I was reading yesterday a neo-con fantasizing in 2000 about exterminating all radicalism in the Middle East (Sadly, it looks as though "we" are still plodding down the psychotic path he envisioned.) How can we make everything all shiny and wonderful like DisneyLand if we keep looking back at actual human behavior? So very dangerous.

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I don't have a great deal of respect or love for cops as it is

Big Al's picture

but when they fuck with the handicapped, it's downright low. My 23 yr old son is deaf and uses sign language only. I've worried many times about what could happen and have warned him to only call the cops if there is no other option. We live in Vancouver, WA, home of the Washington School for the Deaf and a very large deaf community. So the cops here have a better perspective than most and easier access to interpreters. But in the end we're dealing with individuals and these two from Tacoma appear to need some "how to not be a chickenshit" training.. I don't know the color of the officers but these could be as much a racial profiling situation as anything. Tacoma has a large black community so the cops were probably trigger happy before they even got there. I think it's time for me to contact the Vancouver PD to inquire about their training in dealing with the deaf.

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I sat through a baseball game next to a retired cop

geomoo's picture

He was quite conservative, but thoughtful. I asked him about guns. His notion is that young cops are taught to protect themselves at all costs and to go for the guns too early, which is why they consider tasers to be so good by comparison. He gave an example of someone coming at him in a domestic situation. He used a table to fend them off and subdue them. He felt that today such a situation would likely result in harm to the civilian.

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Big Al, I read your comment earlier and have been

Glinda's picture

thinking about it quite a few times today.

I think it's a great idea to call and inquire.

I would also suggest that you write a letter to the chief of police, if you'd be willing to do so, and explain your son's circumstances, and include in the letter that you're officially notifying them of same and he/she should be mindful if they or their subordinates encounter your son or anyone like him.

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Thanks for the post, sartoris7

priceman's picture

The deaf, 12 year old girls, old ladies, it's all the same and a threat to the authoritarian in it for the small man he truly thinks of himself as. The problem is we don't fire cops easy. You get to use a gun, a knight stick to hit people, and a taser to electrocute people and shoot people if you are a cop. That';s a lot of trust and if it is broken and in such a disgusting fashion, that should be the end of it. No suspensions, firings. We coulnd't get away with that shit at our jobs, those of us who still have them.

This kind of behavior endangers cops and breeds resentment and fear in the community they are supposed to be protecting who are supposed to help them out, but they rightfully fear the police in these situations. We also see nothing but ass kissing from the ass kissing mayor of LA who said he was more proud than ever of LAPD who tortured Occupy LA protesters, some who now have permanent nerve damage. It's disgusting.

As far as fair use, the rule is just not to use the majority. My rule is i count the number of paragraphs and make sure I use less than half of the piece. 3 paragraphs is usually OK, unless a piece is 3 paragraphs long which is why I looked deeper into this rule and less than half is a good rubric.

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Terrific post, priceman

geomoo's picture

I want to add a warning re fair use--it is a vague, not to say contentious issue. I think the only strict rule is, be careful. That one-half rule is good information. I had read 3 paragraphs, too, but that obviously can't be strictly true because it is a matter of percentage. I have read vague implications that would make me nervous to include as much as half, but I think I'll be willing to use a little more than I have on the basis of that 1/2 rule. I trust that you read that in a reliable place. I also consider the source--how likely are they to have incentive to sue. I don't expect any posting here is likely to be sued by Truthout. Also, it seems it is also surprisingly easy to obtain written permission from the author if it's not owned by Big Media. That's my impression, but I've only tried once.

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You're welcome, geomoo

priceman's picture

Legal Guide for Bloggers

There are no hard and fast rules for fair use (and anyone who tells you that a set number of words or percentage of a work is "fair" is talking about guidelines, not the law). The Copyright Act sets out four factors for courts to look at (17 U.S.C. § 107):

  • The purpose and character of the use. Transformative uses are favored over mere copying. Non-commercial uses are also more likely fair.



  • The nature of the copyrighted work. Is the original factual in nature or fiction? Published or unpublished? Creative and unpublished works get more protection under copyright, while using factual material is more often fair use.



  • The amount and substantiality of the portion used. Copying nearly all of a work, or copying its "heart" is less likely to be fair.



  • The effect on the market or potential market. This factor is often held to be the most important in the analysis, and it applies even if the original is given away for free. If you use the copied work in a way that substitutes for the original in the market, it's unlikely to be a fair use; uses that serve a different audience or purpose are more likely fair. Linking to the original may also help to diminish the substitution effect. Note that criticism or parody that has the side effect of reducing a market may be fair because of its transformative character. In other words, if your criticism of a product is so powerful that people stop buying the product, that doesn't count as having an "effect on the market for the work" under copyright law.
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Copying nearly all of a work is the context that defines heart

priceman's picture

though I understand that can be taken in different ways, such as this is the heart of the matter when we are discussing fair use. If you are copying more than half, you are copying most of the work, but I wouldn't even copy half the work to be safe, so I think my under half rubric would stand well with this context.

I have never been warned about my usage on kos. Some friends with misconceptions on the 3 paragraph rule have warned me sometimes, but as you can see that rule is not there.

There are no hard and fast rules for fair use (and anyone who tells you that a set number of words or percentage of a work is "fair" is talking about guidelines, not the law).

So I sticking with my interpretation of the law this way which I think is a decent one.

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too many cops think they are on that show Cops

sartoris's picture

Maybe it has always been this way. Maybe we just have more access to news from arond the country than we did, in say, 1980. However, it seems to me that the police are more and more aggressive. Their job is not as dangerous as a commercial fisherman's but they all act as if they patrol the worst neighborhood in Chicago on the overnight shift. Even small town cops that have never had a cop killed treat every encounter with every citizen (whether it is a 12 year old or a 90 year old) as if they are single handedly trying to arrest a Medellin Drug Cartel. In my own hometown I personally know of a young man who was tasered because he was choking on pizza. He was tasered 12 times. He was stumbling around his front yard trying to breath and they tasered him 12 times because he would not respond to their commands. Paramedics were on the site about one minute later and able to dislodge the food that was stuck but the cops tasered him over and over because he would not respond to their commands. This country wrongfully deifies the police and the military, neither of which deserves our affection and rarely our respect.

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What's worse, and extremely dangerous

geomoo's picture

at least wrt the military--members of the military believe (and are encouraged to believe) that they have higher values, better ethics, than the general population. The proper attitude of the military is as representative of the population--just another citizen. I expect you could find a similar attitude among cops. This is a very very dangerous state of affairs.

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No problem, Glinda

priceman's picture

Less than half is a good rubric. I posted the law above, but I have never been reprimanded or even warned on kos either. Don't copy three paragraphs if a piece is 3 paragraphs long, because that is not fair use. I would only copy one in that scenario.

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Thanks

sartoris's picture

Thanks. I spent the evening installing a dishwasher that the better half surprised me with (but it was on c l e a r a n c e!) and getting sicker and sicker from some bug I caught from my daughter. I agree that it is unlikely someone from truthout would go after the site but I just did not want to cause any trouble. I will adopt the 3 paragraph guideline. I should have written a summary instead of saying, follow this link, and next post I promise to expand on the subject of the article and not just post a link. I will try to follow up on this story as information is available. Again, thank you for the information.

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