In a dangerous world full of potential evildoers hidden under every blanket, police officers have a right to employ Tasers when suddenly tangled in a mess of fabric.
One courageous Eugene police officer was unafraid to protect his city from a cloth-covered hand, attached to a incompliant student who refused to explain why he was sleeping on his bedroom floor hours after procuring a new apartment. When the officer tried to pry the covers from this presumed vagrant, some force of nature tried to interfere with his peacekeeping efforts.
Officer Judd Warden — the 2008 Officer of the Year for his efforts to preserve order by firing some 50,000 volts into the back of local ne’er-do-well Ian Van Ornum — wrote in a report that he did not know whether he had “tripped on (the student’s) legs, the blankets, my own feet, or slipped. I don’t know if (the student) swept my feet with his legs. I know I was pulling (the student’s) blanket back to see his hands and the next thing I know I am on the ground on my right side.”
Any reasonable person would tase the bejesus out of a blanket-wielding floor sleeper who can magically topple an officer of the law.
Some may say the student could not answer questions because he did not speak English. A Chinese exchange student, he is enrolled in basic English courses at the University.
Maybe the University should learn to teach these students common phrases such as, “Police — drop the comforter!” or “I’m falling; I’m gonna tase you.”
Warden offers this gripping account of his struggle after he hit the sparse bedroom floor: “I was now tangled in the blanket and (the student’s) legs. While I was on the ground, (he) turned toward me. I thought (he) was coming at me to potentially hurt me and told him to get back. He continued toward me ignoring my commands to now get back. I stood quickly and deployed my Taser, striking (the student) on the right side of his chest. (He) was still sitting on the ground. (He) rolled to his stomach and was taken into custody.”
This student just wouldn’t quit. First he rented an apartment, different from the one he was supposed to occupy, and was so unremarkable in doing so that management forgot him and called police when he was found inside. Then he dared to occupy the space without a bed — a sure sign of skullduggery in the Craigslist era. Then he ignored a policeman’s call to remove his hand from under the covers.
“He was lying on the floor and would not show me his hands when ordered to. I continued to yell at him to show me his hands and got negative results,” Warden wrote. “(He) just stared at me and did not say anything to me. (He) sat up but still had his right hand hidden under the blanket. I continued to tell him to show me his hand. I attempted to push (him) over with my foot. He just leaned against the wall while now sitting and still had his hand hidden under the blanket.”
Who did this guy think he was? Casually leaning against a wall with his hand under a blanket, groggily staring at a man who entered his bedroom to yell and brandish a peace wand. One must assume he did not know where he was. He surely would have thought twice about his actions if he realized how such intransigence is handled in the city of Eugene.
7 comments
The fact that the EPD attempts to conceal and harbor these wrongful officers (as it has done in the past) and then merits the officers deeds as an attempt to save face is another of continued slaps in the face from a mean-spirited, unscrupulous a completely disordered public-appointed police force. Any attempts to police themselves have been thwarted by continued incompetence and noncooperation by the officers.
Addressing the fact that the officer continued to yell basic commands and received no response and then continued to use extreme force on a non-violent suspect is also throughly disheartening and shows the incompetence of the officer in question. Anyone who has lived in the city of Eugene for more than 3 days knows the University area is a multi-cultural center and it is extremely common to hear students from different linguistic backgrounds in the neighborhoods around campus. Not to mention, it seems like basic knowledge that officers (in this day and age), especially with the popularity of secondary languages in the United States (such as Spanish), should have no other common sense approach to dealing with a non-English speaking suspect.
Would the officer have done the same thing if the suspect was speaking Spanish? Yes.
Would the officer have done the same thing if the suspect, excuse me, student, was mute? Yes.
Was the officers actions against the student an example of his continued incompetence? Yes.
Should he be removed? Immediately.
Should the EPD have external investigations into their procedures with non-English speaking students and the role of Taser usage? Obviously.
This is boiling down to the public's trust. They are beginning to fear with more and more reason a publicly appointed "peace-keeping" force that has been abusing its own power for 15 years or more. The taster simply gives them a new tool.