Two police officers who chased and Tasered a 76-year-old man driving a tractor in [Glenrock, Wyoming’s, annual Deer Creek Days parade] have been fired.
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Police say Grose, who was driving an antique tractor in the parade, disobeyed Kavenius’ traffic command. That led to a short pursuit and the Taser use.
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Grose, a retired truck driver, said he’s unlikely to participate in future parades. “I think I probably have retired from parades,” he said.
Read the whole story by Matt Joyce here. And Joyce has more details here:
The fracas at the annual Deer Creek Days arose from confusion over whether members of the tractor club could deviate from the parade route shortly before it ended.
Grose wanted to head directly to the town park for a tractor pull like in previous years. But the police department had a different plan, which apparently was not communicated to the tractor drivers.
As a result, Grose encountered a Glenrock officer attempting to direct the tractors along the regular parade route. Grose said he drove around the officer. The officer said he was struck by the tractor and injured his wrist, according to a state review of the incident.
“He, for some reason, said no, and I, for some reason, thought to myself yes,” Grose recounted.
[thanks to Sgt. T]
Maybe they should have pepper sprayed him instead. 😉
I would have shot him and been well within our department's policy. You don't strike LEOs or their patrol cars with a moving mototor vehicle. That is a big no-no where I am. He doesn't seem to realize how lucky he is.
I hope the officer's wrist heals quickly, or at least that the disability people don't put him through more hassle than this d-bag has already put him through.
He didn't even get arrested. And had you shot him, you likely would have been killed:
An angry crowd formed as police kept ordering Grose off the tractor. Police did not arrest Bud Grose because of the tension at the scene, Sweet said.
"At the time, it was very close to having a riot right there, and that probably would have created a full-scale riot," Sweet said.
Grose's son, Mike, agreed. "There was some very good people there ready to make some bad choices that would have affected them for the rest of their lives," he said. "That's the point it had gotten to."
All the more reason to defend myself more decisively had I ben the one that the d-bag was trying to run down. You try to take the kid gloves approach and civilians just don't appreciate it. This is one of those cases where command presence dictated a stronger response.
Personally, I think you're out of your mind.
Can we keep things in perspective and remember the whole thing started because a guy driving a tractor in a parade didn't follow traffic directions? They could have gone to his house and given him a traffic ticket.
I almost want to believe "anonymous" is being sarcastic.
If he isn't then the term "asshat" applies to him.
"Discretion" is a term that comes to mind when thinking about how the cops reacted to this incident.
Given the location I'm guessing that more than a few of the locals were armed. I'm also betting the police force there has more than the average percentage of goofs employed.
Tasering someone for this is insanity.
While I totally agree that tasering him was insanity and the police officers were acting completly and totally…well, wrong, I gotta admit that the sentiment "He, for some reason, said no, and I, for some reason, thought to myself yes," deserves…some sort of response. And this is coming from a civilian.