$12,500 in Seattle Taser Settlement

A homeless felon in Seattle gets $12,500 for being tased twice simultaneously by two officers. That’s just what I don’t like my tax dollars going to. I’m not saying the cops didn’t follow procedure and their training. I am saying that procedure and training are wrong.

[A] judge ruled that the two officers … were too quick to use their Tasers after confronting Releford outside a Tukwila convenience store to arrest him on outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
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Both officers ordered him to turn around. When he hesitated at the conflicting commands, the officers fired their stun guns simultaneously, knocking him to the ground with a combined 100,000 volts, the documents say.
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She said the officers didn’t adequately consider their other options before resorting to the use of Tasers.
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“He didn’t resist,” she said. “They just didn’t give him time to comply.”
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Releford — despite his size and a long history of run-ins with the law — had never been violent toward officers. In fact, she said, records showed that Vivet had arrested Releford six times in the eight months before the incident, all without incident.

The story by Mike Carter in the Seattle Times.