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Must see video: Black Man Tased and Dragged Off BART Train for 'Doing Nothing'
MUST SEE!!! BART Police repeatedly tase nonviolent African American man for no reason. We CAN NOT TOLERATE BART COPS ACTING LIKE THIS. This is the force that killed Oscar Grant! Note that passengers repeatedly try to tell the cop the man didn't do anything. At no point did the victim make any violent move to any officer. Tasers can be lethal. There needs to be an immediate investigation and prosecution of this racist brutality.
- Jonathan Nack
- Jonathan Nack
Video: Black Man Tased and Dragged Off BART Train for 'Doing Nothing'
by H. H. Bhojani Alternet
February 10, 2014 |
Watch this disturbing video: A black man on BART is tasered by a cop after ignoring the cop's repeated request to get off the train.
Around 10pm on January 29, Vidya Kaipa was on a train car heading toward Millbrae BART station, when a “large drunk, black man” got on around Glen Park, sat down next to her and started to talk to her. Although she felt a little uncomfortable, Kaipa said she “didn’t at all feel threatened by him.”
“He was a pretty nice guy, and was making harmless conversation,” she told me.
Twenty minutes later, a police officer got onto the car at the San Bruno station. He approached the black man, whose name Kaipa believed to be Robert, and politely asked him to get off the train so he could ask him a few questions.
“Someone must have tipped him off since he was waiting at the station,” Kaipa said. She thinks someone might have called the cop because they believed she—a small Indian woman—was being harassed by the man.
The police officer repeatedly asked the man to get off the train. "Get off the train, sir. Sir, get off the train," he kept repeating. Robert refused to obey the cop’s orders, instead asking why he was being taken off the train.
Kaipa chimed in, saying, "It’s fine. He’s not bothering me. It’s okay.”
“It went from being about me to being about the police officer,” Kaipa adds.
The cop repeated that he just wanted to ask Robert a few questions, and that Robert would be free to get onto the next train. Despite the police officer’s politeness, Robert refused to get off of the train. He kept demanding to know why.
By this point, the train had been stopped for five minutes. Then the officer pulled Robert up from his seat and he stood up.
That’s when the video starts. The police officer asks Robert to get off the train at least 15 more times. After a brief back and forth, the police officer tases him. Robert collapses onto the floor, howling and crying. The cop drags his limp body out of the way.
Kapia repeatedly says, “He wasn’t doing anything.” Other passengers on the train also pointed out the same thing. (You can read Vidya Kaipa’s full account here [3].)
Robert echoes many times,” I didn’t do nothing, you tased me for no reason.”
Other policemen file into the car. While Robert is on the floor, restrained and posing no real threat, he is again tased. Police officers later carry Robert out of the BART car.
BART’s taser policy states [4] that “an officer can use a Taser if the suspect poses an immediate threat of bodily harm to either the officer's life or another person's life.”
Robert was arrested on charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest.
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/bart-officer-repeatedly-tases-black-man-bart-without-clear-and-present-danger-life
by H. H. Bhojani Alternet
February 10, 2014 |
Watch this disturbing video: A black man on BART is tasered by a cop after ignoring the cop's repeated request to get off the train.
Around 10pm on January 29, Vidya Kaipa was on a train car heading toward Millbrae BART station, when a “large drunk, black man” got on around Glen Park, sat down next to her and started to talk to her. Although she felt a little uncomfortable, Kaipa said she “didn’t at all feel threatened by him.”
“He was a pretty nice guy, and was making harmless conversation,” she told me.
Twenty minutes later, a police officer got onto the car at the San Bruno station. He approached the black man, whose name Kaipa believed to be Robert, and politely asked him to get off the train so he could ask him a few questions.
“Someone must have tipped him off since he was waiting at the station,” Kaipa said. She thinks someone might have called the cop because they believed she—a small Indian woman—was being harassed by the man.
The police officer repeatedly asked the man to get off the train. "Get off the train, sir. Sir, get off the train," he kept repeating. Robert refused to obey the cop’s orders, instead asking why he was being taken off the train.
Kaipa chimed in, saying, "It’s fine. He’s not bothering me. It’s okay.”
“It went from being about me to being about the police officer,” Kaipa adds.
The cop repeated that he just wanted to ask Robert a few questions, and that Robert would be free to get onto the next train. Despite the police officer’s politeness, Robert refused to get off of the train. He kept demanding to know why.
By this point, the train had been stopped for five minutes. Then the officer pulled Robert up from his seat and he stood up.
That’s when the video starts. The police officer asks Robert to get off the train at least 15 more times. After a brief back and forth, the police officer tases him. Robert collapses onto the floor, howling and crying. The cop drags his limp body out of the way.
Kapia repeatedly says, “He wasn’t doing anything.” Other passengers on the train also pointed out the same thing. (You can read Vidya Kaipa’s full account here [3].)
Robert echoes many times,” I didn’t do nothing, you tased me for no reason.”
Other policemen file into the car. While Robert is on the floor, restrained and posing no real threat, he is again tased. Police officers later carry Robert out of the BART car.
BART’s taser policy states [4] that “an officer can use a Taser if the suspect poses an immediate threat of bodily harm to either the officer's life or another person's life.”
Robert was arrested on charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest.
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/bart-officer-repeatedly-tases-black-man-bart-without-clear-and-present-danger-life
For more information:
http://www.alternet.org/print/civil-libert...
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Tasers were promoted as a less lethal option to using firearms, but cops think they can pull them out and zap anyone who refused to head their orders.
This guy wasn't threatening anyone, there was no urgent need to subdue him. He just wasn't listening to an officer who was commanding him but not explaining why. And he's African American, a crime in and of itself to BART police.
Fucking pigs!
This guy wasn't threatening anyone, there was no urgent need to subdue him. He just wasn't listening to an officer who was commanding him but not explaining why. And he's African American, a crime in and of itself to BART police.
Fucking pigs!
from the SFGate:
According to BART police policy, “It is essential that officers exercise sound discretion and consider the totality of the circumstances surrounding any incident where the Taser may be activated. Objective facts must indicate the suspect poses an immediate threat to the officer or a member of the public.”
BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey told reporters Thursday that he wasn’t going to “prejudge” his officers’ actions pending the investigation.
But Rainey said, “I can certainly sympathize and empathize with what the public is saying. We are called to contact people at their worst, and a lot of times it is not pretty. Our first resort is to get voluntary compliance and, as you can see. that officer was extremely patient. The idea the officer has to wait to be struck or kicked or something else done to him before the officer has to wait to take defensive action, is just wrong. Once the first Taser came, we want to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, with the least amount of injury or force to the suspect, and we don’t want the officer to get injured.”
http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/02/13/video-shows-bart-officer-tasing-rider/
Uh, yeah, to take "defensive" action, someone else has to be taking "offensive" or aggressive action against you first, and this guy wasn't doing that. As the other commenter said, the taser was used to gain compliance, not in any way in defense, especially not when three or more huge BART thugs were there.
This crap must be in the police chiefs' handbook, because they always do this. "Everyone needs to calm down and trust us to do an investigation, but in the meantime let me tell you why the violence the cop used against an unarmed person was the right thing to do."
According to BART police policy, “It is essential that officers exercise sound discretion and consider the totality of the circumstances surrounding any incident where the Taser may be activated. Objective facts must indicate the suspect poses an immediate threat to the officer or a member of the public.”
BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey told reporters Thursday that he wasn’t going to “prejudge” his officers’ actions pending the investigation.
But Rainey said, “I can certainly sympathize and empathize with what the public is saying. We are called to contact people at their worst, and a lot of times it is not pretty. Our first resort is to get voluntary compliance and, as you can see. that officer was extremely patient. The idea the officer has to wait to be struck or kicked or something else done to him before the officer has to wait to take defensive action, is just wrong. Once the first Taser came, we want to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, with the least amount of injury or force to the suspect, and we don’t want the officer to get injured.”
http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/02/13/video-shows-bart-officer-tasing-rider/
Uh, yeah, to take "defensive" action, someone else has to be taking "offensive" or aggressive action against you first, and this guy wasn't doing that. As the other commenter said, the taser was used to gain compliance, not in any way in defense, especially not when three or more huge BART thugs were there.
This crap must be in the police chiefs' handbook, because they always do this. "Everyone needs to calm down and trust us to do an investigation, but in the meantime let me tell you why the violence the cop used against an unarmed person was the right thing to do."
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