Cops zap pastor protesting traffic stop at church

[Demosthenes11]

you got some talent if you can detect lying through second hand accounts of the story written down and not directly from the person telling the story.

bias ->

[EternityEnd]

Uh, his congregants already labeled him a martyr in the article. I'm totally biased.

[Senoska]

Cliffnotes of article:

Guy thinks he can stop a police stop because hes a pastor and it backfired. He runs in the church like a pussy and tries to get his friends to stop the cop, which also backfires. Guy gets tazed for being a fuckwit and QQs to the news who try to spin it like CHRISTUNZ BEIN' PERSECUTED N SHIT

[Meian]

While the pushing was uncalled for, I doubt the cop's actions were justified especially with the others caught in it.

But hey, it is about a religious guy so he deserves whatever he gets eh?

[Senoska]

If a guy is in, lets say, Detroit and his home dawg is flagged down by a cop and the guy tries to stop his homie from getting a ticket which doesnt work and then reappears 5 minutes later with a flash mob, would you support the cop?

Oh wait, this IS about a religious guy so he can do what ever the fuck he wants and we'll let it slide.

[archibaldcrane]

If the pastor pushed the cop, and the cop responded by dropping him with a taser, I'd say "HAHAHA You got fucking tased you dumbass pastor, way to push a cop"

There seems to be -at least- a few minutes between the supposed push and the tase. Without knowing the exact circumstances surrounding the cop's decision to tase at the moment he did, it's impossible to determine whether appropriate force was used.

This case is remotely interesting, but the recent Texas raid of a gay bar, resulting in 7 arrests and one guy with potentially fatal bleeding in his brain from getting his head smashed into a wall seems like much more interesting discussion material (although no tasers or religion involved) Texas officials want investigation of gay bar raid - Yahoo! News

[EternityEnd]

Obviously homophobic cops making obviously biased raid on gay bar and injuring several people-- and almost, if not killing one, who didn't resist-- and then lying about it is a crime and worth making a thread about. Oh, on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riot, no less.

If that was some devious attempt at getting us to backpedal, the two cases aren't even slightly comparable, Archi. I hope that wasn't your tactic.

Pastor interfering in an arrest, attempting to talk a cop down from arresting a member of his church, then pushing said cop before fleeing into church and gathering a riot clearly deserves a taze. He's way the fuck out of line. It doesn't nearly equate to a bunch of cops raiding a gay bar on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riot, severely injuring and almost killing people in said bar, then lying.

Taze and Pepper spray =/= Bleeding brain. One is a non-life-threatening attempt to gain order, one is a crime-- likely a hate crime.

[Ezek]

While the pushing was uncalled for, I doubt the cop's actions were justified especially with the others caught in it.

But hey, it is about a religious guy so he deserves whatever he gets eh?

Bullshit. It was 100% justified, I sure as hell would have done the same thing in his shoes while radioing for help. The officer attempted to calm the pastor down then that faggot went on a religious power trip, initiated physical contact with the cop, and then fled the scene into the church. He then attempts to incite a small riot and comes out with 40 people.

So yes, he deserves it in full. It doesn't matter whether he's a pastor or not, listen to the officer; don't be a dipshit and attempt to resist arrest, we have enough garbage to deal with on a daily basis as it is.

And good luck with the court case. If a cop takes you to court in regards to your arrest you may as well bend over, the justice system doesn't look too kindly on resisting arrest, no matter what level it's on.

edit: lololol, my bad I read that wrong - the Pastor is taking the OFFICER into court, good luck with that.

[Demosthenes11]

you guys are so quick to judge lol

30 people say there was no contact before the tazing, the cop says there was a few minutes before.

So either:
a) the congregation is lying to safe face for the pastor
b) the cop is lying to safe his job

How is one more likely than the other again? Is there a video here that I'm not seeing? It's so funny that libs are so quick to paint the cops as the bad guys in all situations (plenty of threads on here where everyone assumes the cop is lying and not the perp) yet when it's a complaint from the religious everyone just decided they hate religion more than the man so let's jump to that conclusion!

Bias is stapled to some of your heads

[archibaldcrane]

Obviously homophobic cops making obviously biased raid on gay bar and injuring several people-- and almost, if not killing one, who didn't resist-- and then lying about it is a crime and worth making a thread about. Oh, on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riot, no less.

If that was some devious attempt at getting us to backpedal, the two cases aren't even slightly comparable, Archi. I hope that wasn't your tactic.

You completely misconstrued my intent. I don't find this church story particularly interesting because there isn't enough information to have a knowledgeable argument, in my opinion.

(also, I hate it when people talk about whether someone "deserves a tase" - cops aren't supposed to punish people, or give them what they deserve)

I just think the gay bar raid is considerably more interesting than taser application story #274382.

If you want to do the taser argument though - if the pastor pushed the cop, retreated into the church, came out minutes later and got tased while not at the moment being threatening, that's bullshit. Tasers should be used to subdue someone who poses a current physical threat to themselves or others. If they don't at the moment pose a physical threat to themselves or others, then tasers should not be used.

That's my taser stance. This article doesn't detail the moment of tasing at all really. Hard to argue when we don't know exactly why he was tased.

[Kuya]

It makes sense to tase someone who is threatening with violence, specifically if you use your taser to threaten the person to comply (does it seem like cops are quick to use the taser rather than use the threat of taser use to obtain compliance?) and then the person does not comply.

Then you have tasing someone after they've pushed you, which then just starts to look like you tased them to get back at them for pushing you. But like archi said, no details on what happened exactly when the taser was used.

[EternityEnd]

To me, it implies that he was tazed after he fled into the church-- and, if what the idiot witnesses are saying is true, locked the door and forced the officer to kick it in-- and returned with 40 congregation members. As Ezek said, if he got together a small riot thinking he was above the law, he deserved to get tazed, as the officer may have felt threatened. (I sure as hell would with 40 people on my ass.)

I doubt he could have fled into the church after being tazed and apprehended, but that's just me. It also explains why pepper spray was required.

[Kuya]

I see that this thread is going for to the deserved thing again.

Oh well.

[EternityEnd]

Would it be better if I sugarcoated it for you and said something along the lines of: "The situation warranted reasonable force to ensure compliance."?

[Kuya]

Yes, because then i can tell you you'd be factually wrong without the details.

[archibaldcrane]

I dislike using occasionally lethal weapons to encourage "compliance". Put down a physical threat? Sure.

Using tasers to make someone "compliant" is lazy policing.

[EternityEnd]

He went in the church and assembled 40 fucking people.

Sorry, but that's a physical threat. How is the officer lazy in that situation? A mob threatens him, he's supposed to disperse them with sticks and harsh language?

[archibaldcrane]

He went in the church and assembled 40 fucking people.

Sorry, but that's a physical threat. How is the officer lazy in that situation? A mob threatens him, he's supposed to disperse them with sticks and harsh language?

I didn't see that in the article. WE DON'T KNOW. We can guess, we can hypothesize until we're blue in the face - we don't know.

[Beckwin]

we do need more information to make any sort of judgment.

and believe me, I want to, because I dislike taser happy douchebag cops AND religious wackos with entitlement issues.

[guartz]

I don't know what you guys are upset about, in my book, this is a win/win scenario.