Another example of how things can change quick...

From the Conroe TX Police Department, January 2016. Watch how fast this happens:

CONROE, Texas (KTRK) --
Authorities want you to see body camera video showing the moment a Conroe police officer narrowly escaped death.

"I don't know. I don't know how he missed me...by the Grace of God," said officer Greg Vradenburg.

He turned his body camera on moments before the shooting in January 2016 as he chased a suspect who fled during a traffic stop.

When Christopher Hatton fell, Vradenburg attempted to subdue him, he said. On the video, you can see Hatton's hands were underneath him and not visible to Vradenburg. Hatton pulled a handgun and opened fire over his shoulder, attempting to hit Vradenburg less than three feet away.

"I don't know how he missed me. I don't know if it went between my legs. Over my shoulder, I have no idea where it went," said Vradenburg.

Vradenburg had his taser drawn and hit Hatton with a charge, but it had no effect. Hatton ran again but was caught...

And people wonder why we are so nervous about people's hands.

Be safe out there friends.

Thanks Josh P for the link.

Cigarette box TASER

Got this off of Kennesaw GA Facebook page. Scary to say the least.

This item was found in a vehicle during a traffic stop. While the officer was speaking to the driver outside of the car, the driver repeatedly asked to have a smoke which was located inside the vehicle. The answer was no. In the end, the only “smokes” found was the item in the video. You would be surprised at the type of weapons that have been made to look like “normal items”.

So, forgive us when we seem to act “too rigid” and “mean” when we say no to your request to “smoke” or “make a phone call” with your phone, etc... We’re just trying to make it home at the end of our shifts like everyone else out here.

Stay safe, everyone- its another beautiful day in Kennesaw!

Talk about a lucky fool...

Caught on video: Chase suspect gets Tased on busy highway

GARLAND, Texas - A man has been arrested after he led police on a chase that ended with an officer deploying a Taser on him in the middle of a busy highway in Garland, police say.

Several agencies in North Texas were involved in the chase after police said the suspect started driving the wrong way the President George Bush Tollway.

According to KXAS, Rowlett and Garland officers were the first agencies on the chase, but they backed off when it became too dangerous.

Helicopter video showed the driver of the truck pulled over and got out, ran onto Interstate 30 westbound, dodging traffic. An officer used a Taser on him after the driver jumped the median.

Police stopped traffic and arrested the man. There is no word on why the driver was running from police.

Talk about an idiot!

It's been a long day...

As I was walking out of the office after a 14 hour day (extra job this morning) I saw a quote about police that the night shift roll call sergeant put up in his office. Says a lot about the job.

“There is no "nice" way to arrest a potentially dangerous, combative suspect. The police are our bodyguards, our hired fists, batons and guns. We pay them to do the dirty work of protecting us, the work we're too afraid, too unskilled or too civilized to do ourselves. We expect them to keep the bad guys out of our businesses, cars and houses, out of our faces. We want them to "take care of the problem." We just don't want to see how it's done.

Charles Webb, Ph.D.”

At the end of watch I got called to a Taser shooting (naked women off her phych meds) and they had to take care of business. And we know we were being video taped. And she was screaming, “I”m gonna sue you…” and a few other choice words. Gotta love it. Can't really go much past that. I'm wasted and I really need to get some sleep.

The Houston area is boring two cops this week. Stay safe out there.

HIZONORDAMAER of Maui

I would say this moron will next be elected, but in an era when you have Marion Barry still serving on the D.C. City Council, Charlie Rangle is still in the House, Harry Reid is still in the Senate, nothing is impossible.

One thing I would like to point out. At the 13 second mark, this sack of s%^& punches the cop in the face. But that fact seems to have escaped the idiot making a comment at the end, "he was only walking in across the street..."

Video: Hawaii mayoral candidate wants TASERs outlawed after fleeing arrest 

WAILUKU, Hawaii — Maui mayoral candidate Beau Hawkes is vowing to outlaw the use of Tasers by police if he wins election this fall. The reason: A police officer used a stun gun on Hawkes on Wednesday. 

"It was brutal," he said. A stunned Hawkes executed a face plant in the street Wednesday morning while attempting to elude an officer in an episode that was recorded on cellphone video that went viral on YouTube and Facebook. 

Hawkes, 34, was arrested, released on $300 bail and given an Aug. 21 court date following the confrontation on Wells Street in Wai­luku. 

He is the second challenger to incumbent Mayor Alan Ara­kawa to have experienced a run-in with the law. Nelson Wai­kiki Jr. was jailed following his July 15 arrest after a mayoral debate in Maka­wao. Wai­kiki was arrested on a $100,000 cash-only warrant alleging he violated conditions of his release in a criminal case. 

Another candidate, Neldon Mamuad, was disqualified because of problems with the way he filed financial disclosure statements. 

Hawkes, owner of a small business called Maui Wowie, the maker of bamboo bongs, said Friday he hopes his confrontation serves as a wake-up call to a corrupt government system and a catalyst for change... 

...The drama started earlier in the morning when an officer stopped Hawkes' truck on Hale­akala Highway. He was cited for talking on his cellphone while driving as well as having no driver's license, no license plates, no registration and no safety inspection sticker. 

Hawkes explained that as a private individual and devotee of the Declaration of Independence, he doesn't believe in those types of rules.

True, you are a private individual Mr. Hawkes. But if you want to drive on the public street, your vehicle must be licensed, insured, inspected and you must have a state issued driver's license. If you don't want to, fine. Don't drive not the public streets.

In any case, he was running late for a Maui County Council hearing on a proposed moratorium on genetically modified organisms, so he decided to ignore an order to turn off his engine and continue on his way. 

Hawkes said he noticed in his rearview mirror that the policeman followed him for about a half-mile in morning rush-hour traffic before pulling off the road. In Wailuku he parked his car and then signed up to give testimony. With more than 60 names ahead of him, he knew he had some time, so he decided to run some errands and headed out to his truck. 

That's when the confrontation occurred. On video a barefoot Hawkes is seen holding his hands aloft as an officer repeatedly orders him, "Put your hands behind your back. You're under arrest." 

That's when Hawkes bolts down the street, yelling, "Come on, cop. You can't do this," with the officer in hot pursuit. Hawkes then reverses course and curls around to the other side of the street, while the policeman grabs his Taser gun and yells twice, "You're gonna get tased." 

After the officer shoots Taser prongs into Hawkes' back, he falls facedown, and another officer arrives to help handcuff Hawkes. Following a visit to the emergency room, police booking and three hours of jail, Hawkes was bailed out....

Good work officer, hopefully he is not your next mayor.

I don't know, Starbucks ran out of coffee and it got bad....

Caught On Video: Man Hit With Taser After Threatening Police With Large Umbrella

SANTA MONICA (CBSLA.com) — Police used a Taser on a man earlier this week after he threatened them with a large umbrella on a Santa Monica street corner.

The incident occurred around 8 p.m. Monday outside a Starbucks at 7th Street and Montana Avenue in Santa Monica.

Officers responded to the scene after receiving a call about a man swinging an umbrella. Once they arrived, the suspect started jabbing the object at officers and he was hit with a Taser, officials said.

The man was arrested and may have been placed on a mental health hold.

Come on guys, just give him a little less espresso in the Frappuccino and he'll be fine! :<)

You hear that Elizabeth!...I'm coming to join you!...with two wires in my chest!

Tasers are an intermediate weapon and they can cause serious injury or death. So can a baton. Or Mace. Get over it doctor. Nothing is perfect and it's not a catch all but it gives a cop an option for an intermediate use of force.

Now why do I think this will be used in a law suit against Taser?

Tasers can be tied to cardiac arrest and death, new study finds | The Republic

CINCINNATI — Tasers are touted by law enforcement as a non-lethal way to control unruly subjects, but a new study finds the use of Tasers can be tied to cardiac arrest and death.

A study published this week in the journal Circulation represents the first peer-reviewed evidence that Tasers can bear a lethal risk.

Dr. Douglas Zipes, an electrophysiologist at Indiana University, wrote that a review of "animal and clinical data" showed that Taser strikes to the chest can "cause cardiac electrical capture," which can trigger a heart attack.

Sounds good to me. Of course the usual suspects have problems with it.

But since 2001, more than 500 people have died following Taser stuns, according to Amnesty International, which said in February that stricter guidelines for its use were "imperative."

OK. That's not exactly an objective source of information. But good to know it's balanced.

In only a few dozen of those cases have medical examiners ruled the Taser contributed to the death.

In other words the medical doctors who examine the bodies say it wasn't the Taser that killed the turd but something else. Then the question is obvious, why even mention their propaganda?

TASER International, which manufactures the device, did not immediately comment on the particulars of the Circulation article...

Not surprised there. My agency first got Tasers in 2006. After two years a survey looked at the use of them (averaging a little over one time a day) and in over 100 instances where the Taser was used deadly force was justified. I'll translate that. The cops could have shot the idiot. Now I ask what would Dr Zipes and Amnesty Inc would rather have, would they rather shoot them with a .40 cal or two electrified darts?

Taser use in Canada

I caught the link to this article from PoliceOne.com and it covers TASER use in Canada.

Tasers a ‘new urban terrorism’ against ‘downtrodden’: Canadian study

A new study is calling for a moratorium on Taser use in Canada. By Douglas Quan

The use of Tasers by Canada’s police forces represents a “teething new urban terrorism” that targets society’s “downtrodden,” says a study published this month that looked at more than two dozen deaths involving the stun guns.

Those most likely to get “tased” include the poor, mentally ill and chronic drug users, according to the study, led by Temitope Oriola, who received a Governor General’s Gold Medal for academic excellence upon the completion of his doctoral studies at the University of Alberta last year.

Mr Oriola, you say "the poor, mentally ill and chronicle drug users" as if they are three different income levels. They are the people that cops deal with every day and more to the point they are all in the same. If you are mentally ill (and unable to control them with treatment from that great Canadian medical system) you generally don't hold a job and you are poor. Yes, the overwhelming majority of homeless people are mentally ill and they don't have much money. And they steal and harass other law abiding citizens. Those people the call the cops for protection. And this leads to conflict with the police.

“It is beneath the integrity of the RCMP — a well-respected organization by international standards — and other police establishments in Canada to continue to use the Taser without conclusive independent scientific evidence succinctly demonstrating its effects or consequences on the human body,” the study, published in the journal Social Identities, concludes...

...In a statement, RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Julie Gagnon said the force has revised its use-of-force training and policies since 2007 to focus on “de-escalation and communication.”

The latest revision to the RCMP’s Taser-use policy in April 2010 states that Tasers can only be used when someone is causing bodily harm or when an officer believes that a person will imminently cause bodily harm, she said....

...The study reviewed 26 fatalities across the country in which a Taser was involved, including the high-profile death of Robert Dziekanski, a distraught Polish immigrant, following an encounter with police at Vancouver International Airport.

Relying on news accounts of those incidents, the study’s authors conclude that Tasers tend to be used on the most “hapless” members of society.

Many were poor or had chronic drug problems, some were ethnic minorities, and a few were certified as mentally ill, they said.

“Taser use on the downtrodden has led to a very unhealthy mistrust, dread and fear of the police akin to the way members of the public are terrified by terrorist attacks,” the authors wrote...

Again Mr Oriola you seem clueless. You must be a PhD. :...very unhealthy mistrust, dread and fear of the police...", Mr Oriola, that mistrust, dread and fear of the cops was there long time before the TASER was invented and will still be there after the TASER is replaced by the next non-lethals pistol. It was not caused by the TASER but by the fact the cops are there to control the criminal element.

...In an interview, Oriola said he understands the dangers and risks that police face, but he insisted that there should be a moratorium on Taser use in Canada.

The days when academics sit on the sidelines and do “objective analysis” are becoming a “thing of the past,” Oriola said. Scholars need to take a stance on issues, especially those that involve society’s most vulnerable, he said.

Lack of objectivity from an academic, I don't believe it! I have no doubt there is federal funding waiting for you.

Yes Mr Oriola, why are you not coming into your true calling. You needed to get to the RCMP and let them know how to their job. To paraphrase a great bumper sticker, "Hire your college student while they still know everything." Or ever better, come with an officer on patrol and tell the cops he's screwing up.