She was definitely wrong, but I'm not sure the cop used good judgement in tasering her. What if she had a pacemaker or a heart condition? Or what if she had some other condition that the taser made worse?

I don't think she deserved $40,000, but the cop never should have tasered her like that.

Both parties were wrong, IMO.

She gets no sympathy from me. She was the one playing the ''I'm just an old lady'' card.  She even said ''You'd do that to a 72 year old lady?  I dare ya!'' Using the F word while challenging him

I think maybe because he was alone and she was behaving unpredictably at the dangerous edge of a highway he decided taze rather than physically try to control her. He was so much bigger than her she would have claimed a manhandling charge for sure. 

The whole thing could have been avoided if she had just stayed in the car and signed the ticket.

Oh yeah, she's all sweet and calm now. Now that her bad behavior got her a big hunk of money.

What a mess! Maybe its time she had her license taken away since she's so ""old'' and hot headed behind the wheel.

I have no policeman in my family but they have my sympathy.  I saw one guy on a motorcycle zoom through a red light yesterday and two cars go through today.  Both days the lights had been red for seconds. 

I don't have any sympathy for this woman....HOWEVER, the cop was the one in charge of the situation; he was the one who was trained; he could have just put the ticket under the windshield wiper of her car and walked away and drove off.  If she didn't pay the ticket she would have been in even more trouble. 

I understand that being tasered is very painful and I copied this info off an internet article: 

''From time to time, individuals die after being shot with a Taser, raising important questions about the safety of these devices. They are certainly not non-lethal weapons: although more research is urgently needed, certain groups appear to be at greater risk of suffering serious harm, including death:

• people with pacemakers
• people with heart conditions
• drug abusers
• those who fall as a result of the loss of muscle control''

As to why it's even mentioned that she is a grandma, FGS, it means she is old; she probably thought if she got down on the ground like he told her to, she might not be able to get up.  Age is a factor in the way people are treated; if he had flung her on the ground and she broke bones because she had osteoporosis, she could have sued for even more money. 

I am not defending her; I am trying to be logical here.  By the way, this happened two miles from my house.  I assure you that I am on my best behaviour when I drive through that area!  I am a grandma also and I sure don't want to be forced to get down on the ground (or tasered for that matter). 

As far as the $40,000 goes, I am not happy about that; I guess it comes out of my taxes.  I am disgusted with BOTH of them.  But again, the cop was supposed to be the one in charge of the situation and didn't have to go berserk and bellow like he thought he was being filmed for the TV show COPS. 

What was really aggravating to me was that they had to pay her $40,000 because it was cheaper than defending themselves.  So if we could come up with some way our city has ''mistreated'' us, we might file a nuisance law suit and get a nice chunk of change.  I am really sick of the fact that any time anything, however insignificant happens, the first thing so many people think of is ''who can I sue?''

And why they felt the need to include the fact that she was a grandmother is beyond me.  So what?

Replies: (list all replies)

I agree there was no need to tase her because she posed no physical threat, but there was no reason why she got so upset and became so defiant. I'll never understand why people get defiant with cops because it always ends up being a painful mistake. (Edward)

believe me, my brother is a police officer, and he can tell some stories....... i agree

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Posted by: ingyandbert
Date posted: Wed Oct 14 12:36:27 2009
Message:
I saw that lady being interviewed a few months ago.  She tried to act all coy and innocent and kept saying, ''I don't know why the officer would be so mean to me, I'm just a grandma!''  Then they showed the clip and it was like a whole different person.  True colors.  I admit both she and the officer needed to keep their heads.

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Posted by: faysie
Date posted: Wed Oct 14 12:30:01 2009
Message:
I just read the entire article. I'm of two minds about this....  I do think that the woman should have used better restraint in this situation, and not 'lost her temper' as she admits to doing. She was speeding, and the cop had every right to stop her and give her a ticket. However, it also sounds like he lost his cool too. At one point prior to the actual tasering, she did back down somewhat and offered to sign the ticket. It sounds like the cop was so irate at that point that he ignored that opportunity to end their confrontation semi-amicably. IMO he should have 'kept cool' and let her sign the ticket.  Unfortunately it seems like they both reacted like a couple of hot heads. Which is never a healthy situation.

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