We learned earlier about the 62-year-old woman in Tallahassee, Florida, tased by police as she calmly walked away from them. But the whole entire incident, from before the tasing, is downright appalling. Let's start, using the police's own narrative:
In Tuesday's incident, officers were patrolling the 500 block of Dunn Street off Old Bainbridge Road shortly after 5 p.m., DeLeo said in the news conference.
Several people were walking in the street but moved out of the way when another officer drove past them. They walked back into the street behind behind the officer, who then pulled over and approached them. Police reports say the people were blocking traffic.
First of all, look at the street they were walking on:
Where were they supposed to walk? As the person taking the video noted, "Look at this street! It's a mother-fucking pedestrian-ass street." And indeed, mailboxes go straight to the edge of the street, as do lawn hedges, trees, and telephone poles. There is literally no place for people to walk unless they want to hurdle hedges in people's lawns.
And then they'd be guilty of trespassing.
There's more below the fold.
The officer, according to court documents, got out of his car and approached Quontarrious Jones, 23, and ordered him to stop walking multiple times. Jones was arrested on a charge of resisting without violence.
Note that the pedestrians got out of the way of one cop car, so they were happy to let traffic pass, they just apparently didn't get out of the way of the second cop car in time. How about a honk of the horn? A quick, "heads up, passing through!" Nope, it was time to make arrests, Jones arrested not for doing anything wrong, but for "resisting (what?) without violence." In other words, arrested for not showing proper fealty to the cop.
Shortly after the arrests, Viola Young approached officers and started yelling at them as they commanded a crowd to stay back from the area. Mahan told her to stay back.
"I just want to know what is going on," she shouted at officers.
Mahan told her she was under arrest, but Young moved away from him. As she was walking away, Mahan pulled out his taser and fired it into her back.
Young was arrested for asking, "I just want to know what is going on." That's all it takes. Wanting to know what is going on.
Also check this:
That's FOUR cop cars in that picture. There is another to the left, out of this frame. So FIVE cop cars because a few people were walking in the street where there was no sidewalk, and an elderly woman wanted to know what was going on.
Apparently, Tallahassee is a crime-free burg where half the police force needs to show up and create a crime where none existed.