Fairfax County police officer charged after assault yesterday

[Anonymous]

Score my brother died, he had an acute manic episode that caused my mother to call 911 because she feared for him... he was ranting, paranoid, and in a frenzy. Ambulance and cops arrived. It took them an hour to de-escalate the situation and get him into the ambulance and to the ER.

That’s their job. To protect and serve. He wasn’t a danger to anyone else in that moment so they focused on getting him safe.

If he were black, I don’t know if he would be alive today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was no way that man was coherent enough to get in the car and go peacefully. It will be interesting to see what his background is

Drugs I bet

[Anonymous]

That guy was either floridly psychotic or very very high in drugs. He looked like very strong guy who needed to go to the hospital and I don’t know how they were going to get him there. Danger to self and others. But watching that was tough.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what would happen if he did get into the ambulance. He seemed totally out of it. Very disturbing situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look up FCPD’s use of force laws, the officer is justified in how he handled it. Obviously the chief is throwing him under the bus as a sacrificial lamb for PR. Ultimately the officer will be cleared based on their own orders.

.

Please cite the section of the rules you think justify this. Seriously, I want to understand. Because if you watch the video you see the unarmed man is actually turning AWAY from the officer just before being tasered, not approaching the officer; the officer does not give any verbal warning to the man prior to tasering him (not that I could hear on the video) and the officer deploys the taser a second time almost immediately after the first hit--no time in between to see how the man reacts.

How is that all permissible under use of force rules?

Oh, and the man had just responded "yeah" twice to being asked if he'd get in the ambulance, a split second before he was tasered without warning. The EMTs were opening the back doors of the ambulance as it happened. The guy wasn't walking to the ambulance yet and was starting one of the circles in which he'd been walking all along but he was not rushing and certainly wasn't rushing the cop who tasered him. That cop had just driven up and gotten out and appeared to taser the man with no obvious attempts to assess the situation. It's seconds between the cop's feet hitting the ground as he exits his cruiser and the sound of the first taser hit. The cop didn't even break stride--he just walks up and fires the taser.

Please give us the context of this relative to the use of force rules, PP.

[Anonymous]

Which they just shot him,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look up FCPD’s use of force laws, the officer is justified in how he handled it. Obviously the chief is throwing him under the bus as a sacrificial lamb for PR. Ultimately the officer will be cleared based on their own orders.

.

Please cite the section of the rules you think justify this. Seriously, I want to understand. Because if you watch the video you see the unarmed man is actually turning AWAY from the officer just before being tasered, not approaching the officer; the officer does not give any verbal warning to the man prior to tasering him (not that I could hear on the video) and the officer deploys the taser a second time almost immediately after the first hit--no time in between to see how the man reacts.

How is that all permissible under use of force rules?

Oh, and the man had just responded "yeah" twice to being asked if he'd get in the ambulance, a split second before he was tasered without warning. The EMTs were opening the back doors of the ambulance as it happened. The guy wasn't walking to the ambulance yet and was starting one of the circles in which he'd been walking all along but he was not rushing and certainly wasn't rushing the cop who tasered him. That cop had just driven up and gotten out and appeared to taser the man with no obvious attempts to assess the situation. It's seconds between the cop's feet hitting the ground as he exits his cruiser and the sound of the first taser hit. The cop didn't even break stride--he just walks up and fires the taser.

Please give us the context of this relative to the use of force rules, PP.

Correct. And once the one bad cop escalates the situation, then the other reasonable cops feel forced to join in. So one bad apples spoils the bunch.

On a side note, I did find it interesting that the guy starts yelling, “I can’t breath” after being tazed and cuffed. So despite being wacked out on something he remembers what he’s been hearing on tv lately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look up FCPD’s use of force laws, the officer is justified in how he handled it. Obviously the chief is throwing him under the bus as a sacrificial lamb for PR. Ultimately the officer will be cleared based on their own orders.

.

Please cite the section of the rules you think justify this. Seriously, I want to understand. Because if you watch the video you see the unarmed man is actually turning AWAY from the officer just before being tasered, not approaching the officer; the officer does not give any verbal warning to the man prior to tasering him (not that I could hear on the video) and the officer deploys the taser a second time almost immediately after the first hit--no time in between to see how the man reacts.

How is that all permissible under use of force rules?

Oh, and the man had just responded "yeah" twice to being asked if he'd get in the ambulance, a split second before he was tasered without warning. The EMTs were opening the back doors of the ambulance as it happened. The guy wasn't walking to the ambulance yet and was starting one of the circles in which he'd been walking all along but he was not rushing and certainly wasn't rushing the cop who tasered him. That cop had just driven up and gotten out and appeared to taser the man with no obvious attempts to assess the situation. It's seconds between the cop's feet hitting the ground as he exits his cruiser and the sound of the first taser hit. The cop didn't even break stride--he just walks up and fires the taser.

Please give us the context of this relative to the use of force rules, PP.

Correct. And once the one bad cop escalates the situation, then the other reasonable cops feel forced to join in. So one bad apples spoils the bunch.

On a side note, I did find it interesting that the guy starts yelling, “I can’t breath” after being tazed and cuffed. So despite being wacked out on something he remembers what he’s been hearing on tv lately.

Or he honestly couldn’t breathe. My neighbor’s son was tazed as a joke in college and and experienced respiratory distress. He had to go to the ER in an ambulance.

[Anonymous]

They said they got a call about someone needing oxygen or something like that. They knew his name. Was he coherent on the phone or is there someone else who called 911?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was no way that man was coherent enough to get in the car and go peacefully. It will be interesting to see what his background is

Drugs I bet

Duh...he was rambling about needing detox.
Doesn't take a genius to figure out that he was in the midst of some drug induced psychosis, but that doesn't warrant walking up and tasing him without provocation.
If he was white you know damn well that cop would have made at least some effort to talk to guy and calm him down and work with the EMT's to get him some help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was no way that man was coherent enough to get in the car and go peacefully. It will be interesting to see what his background is

Drugs I bet

Duh...he was rambling about needing detox.
Doesn't take a genius to figure out that he was in the midst of some drug induced psychosis, but that doesn't warrant walking up and tasing him without provocation.
If he was white you know damn well that cop would have made at least some effort to talk to guy and calm him down and work with the EMT's to get him some help.

White or black, I'd taze or shoot if he came up to me like that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure if the guy was high, mentally ill, or had a medical emergency. I doubt talking to him further would get him in the ambulance. I’m not sure what else the cop is supposed to do. It may look scary to a regular person, but I don’t think tasing him was unreasonable. I’m surprised he was charged and would be interested to know what his superior thought he should do with an uncooperative patient.

So your uneducated opinion is why we need more training. I don’t expect you to understand because you are clearly not educated on how to respond to a medical emergency.

If this were an autistic man would you think it was a normal use of force.
If this were somebody with a diabetic reaction?


EMT have calls like this every hour. They don’t need a taser to get people in the midst of a medical emergency in an ambulance.

It’s pathetic you think it’s okay.

My brother is a very large autistic man and this is one of our fears. And we're white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was no way that man was coherent enough to get in the car and go peacefully. It will be interesting to see what his background is

Drugs I bet

Duh...he was rambling about needing detox.
Doesn't take a genius to figure out that he was in the midst of some drug induced psychosis, but that doesn't warrant walking up and tasing him without provocation.
If he was white you know damn well that cop would have made at least some effort to talk to guy and calm him down and work with the EMT's to get him some help.

No, I don't think so. White or not, he was determined to get an outcome in a timely manner. Other officers had already been trying to reason the suspect into the ambulance. How long do you want to tie up the police and paramedics with a situation like this? Hours?

[Anonymous]

What he needed was a sedative but the police aren’t medical personnel. He needed to go to a hospital but he was way out of it.

[Anonymous]

Even after being tased he put up quite a struggle. Maybe because of it. I bet he woke up in the hospital today and doesn’t remember anything but bits and pieces.