Deaf Man Tasered In Home For Not "Listening To Orders"

[Thirst_For_Knowledge]

Linky

Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

"I ain't never been so scared," says Williams.

Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn't real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf.

"I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can't hear! I can't hear!"

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. That's when they shot him with a Taser.

Even worse? It wasn't a real complaint!

 

[serephim02]

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands.

Plus

Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist

Equals epic failure on the cops part....

Yes those cops suck because they tasered a half naked deaf guy. I think they only right thing for them to do would be to let Mr. Williams use that very taser and shock them but hey that would be more amusing than not.

Waits for "dont taze me bro!" comments.

 

[Billnew]

Deaf is hard to figure out, but he said he was telling them "I'm deaf".
A man wearing a towel probably isn't carrying a gun,
but, what if he was?
We see all the facts from the story.

Lets look at what the cops got:

Police were called to the location for a shooting.
Meaning they are looking for someone that is armed.
No one answered the door(he couldn't hear it)
They are checking the house and a man walks out of a bathroom wearing a towel, ignoring all calls to come out.
And the man isn't following comands to get down.

The cops didn't know the call wasn't real. They didn't know the man was deaf.
If the man said he was deaf, it might have been during the shouting of the officiers, and no one heard it.
I think it very strange that a shooting call is made on a house with a deaf person in it.

This one isn't plain abuse. But it still could be misuse of a taser.

 

[clarksided]

Uh...it's definitely misuse of a taser.

 

[BlueAfgani]

Uh, digusting typical cops.

 

[Ave Maria]

Another misuse of the taser. How sad. I'm beginning to wonder if tasers shouldn't be banned.

 

[MichaelFJF]

Another misuse of the taser. How sad. I'm beginning to wonder if tasers shouldn't be banned.

Ok let's assume for a minute that there are lots of incompetent, stupid, itchy-fingered cops out there. Would you rather have them shoot the guy? Come on people. Tasers are an option cops didn't have ten years ago. They're probably saving lives.

 

[clarksided]

I'm not against tasers but this is an obvious case of misuse. The guy was wearing nothing but a towel, with his hands near his head. Where, exactly, was he supposed to be hiding a deadly weapon? Unless you consider the penis a deadly weapon, these cops should be disciplined.

 

[serephim02]

Ok let's assume for a minute that there are lots of incompetent, stupid, itchy-fingered cops out there. Would you rather have them shoot the guy? Come on people. Tasers are an option cops didn't have ten years ago. They're probably saving lives.

No I'd rather we didn't have these tards as cops. The less incompetent, stupid, itchy-fingered cops we have the better. Replace these cops with competant ones imo.

 

[MichaelFJF]

No I'd rather we didn't have these tards as cops. The less incompetent, stupid, itchy-fingered cops we have the better. Replace these cops with competant ones imo.

Sounds easy. Take of that for me would you? By the end of the year is fine.

 

[Morcova]

Ok let's assume for a minute that there are lots of incompetent, stupid, itchy-fingered cops out there. Would you rather have them shoot the guy? Come on people. Tasers are an option cops didn't have ten years ago. They're probably saving lives.

Except for the people who are dying because they are getting tased.

The problem is they tell these morons that "tasers are safe!!!" they aren't, people die sometimes when they get tased.

But these cops are stupid so they think it's ok to tase for anything.

 

[Steezie]

Ok let's assume for a minute that there are lots of incompetent, stupid, itchy-fingered cops out there. Would you rather have them shoot the guy? Come on people. Tasers are an option cops didn't have ten years ago. They're probably saving lives.

Oh my gods....did hell just freeze over? You actually said something I AGREE with....I feel faint...

But this is true. Tasers, for all their critics, have probably saved many lives since their introduction. The guy in the article got shot with a taser, not a 9mm, he was probably unhappy for a while but there was no perminant damage. Its MUCH better to get lit up than ventilated.

The situation with the deaf guy seems like a panic snafu. Generally the drill is, if a cop is pointing a gun at you you get on the ground with your hands away from your body. The guy should have laid face down on the ground with his legs together and his arms away from his body, letting the police know he was not a threat. Yes he did say "Im deaf, I cant hear you" but the cops had no real way of knowing if he was doing that to fake them out or if he really was deaf. They should have acted more reasonably than they did but someone got panicky and tased him.

I dont think anyone is truly at fault for the situation.

Except for the people who are dying because they are getting tased.

The problem is they tell these morons that "tasers are safe!!!" they aren't, people die sometimes when they get tased.

But these cops are stupid so they think it's ok to tase for anything.

Would you rather have itchy fingered cops with guns or tasers? Tasers present a non-lethal alternative to blowing a hole in someone. If you get someone acting crazy you've got limited options if they wont respond to verbal commands. You can take out your baton or your pepper spray but theres no guarantee that by the time you get close enough to use either that you wont get stabbed or hit. Also there are people (Especially ones on drugs or extreme ammounts of alchohol) who pepper spray doesnt bother. We had a couple of meth-heads arrested a few days ago here and two cops emptied cans of pepper spray into their faces and they didnt even twitch they were so high.

NO ONE in the world can fight a taser. If those two contacts hit your skin, you WILL go down. I took a non-lethal weapons training class and there was some dipstick who though he could fight through a taser shot. Yeah it took two seconds for him to be on the floor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhkE3VTuPhk&feature=related

Tasers provide a bridge between hitting someone with a baton and shooting them with the officer's sidearm.

 

[MichaelFJF]

Except for the people who are dying because they are getting tased.

The problem is they tell these morons that "tasers are safe!!!" they aren't, people die sometimes when they get tased.

But these cops are stupid so they think it's ok to tase for anything.

There may be an extremely small percentage of people who have some condition that leads to a death caused by a taser. Of this extremely small group, only a very small percentage of them put themselves in a position to be confrontational with police. Everyone dies from bullets. Your choice.

 

[pgp_protector]

I'm not against tasers but this is an obvious case of misuse. The guy was wearing nothing but a towel, with his hands near his head. Where, exactly, was he supposed to be hiding a deadly weapon? Unless you consider the penis a deadly weapon, these cops should be disciplined.

Ever watch Dr Who ?

 

[serephim02]

There may be an extremely small percentage of people who have some condition that leads to a death caused by a taser. Of this extremely small group, only a very small percentage of them put themselves in a position to be confrontational with police. Everyone dies from bullets. Your choice.

I'll agree with this, my thing is with the cops this story revolves around. They tasered a guy claiming he was deaf who just got outta a shower and had only a towel on, or so the story would lead you to believe. Thats what I am seeing and it paints a bad picture for these cops.

 

[ChristianCenturion]

From the linked source, KWCH:

"Once the facts were all sorted out, officers repeatedly apologized to Williams. Police wish it never happened, but with the information they had at the time, their choices were limited...

... The case is being reviewed by the department."

 

[MichaelFJF]

I'll agree with this, my thing is with the cops this story revolves around. They tasered a guy claiming he was deaf who just got outta a shower and had only a towel on, or so the story would lead you to believe. Thats what I am seeing and it paints a bad picture for these cops.

Agreed. Bad picture.....maybe bad cops......glad they had a non-lethal option.

 

[3girls2dogs]

Ok, don't laugh cuz this is a dumb question, but if he was literally just getting out of the tub, wouldn't he have been wet? Couldn't that have killed him?

 

[sethad]

Linky



Even worse? It wasn't a real complaint!

Things like this unfortunately happen all the time.

Fortunately it was tasers, and not guns. Deaf/deaf and hard of hearing people have been shot and beaten for not "listening" too, some have even died.

Makes me a bit nervous.

Cops need to be better educated.

 

[ChristianCenturion]

Ok, don't laugh cuz this is a dumb question, but if he was literally just getting out of the tub, wouldn't he have been wet? Couldn't that have killed him?

As I understand it, there are different types of tasers and more than likely the type used by the police are shot from a distance and penetrate the skin to some degree. So, I assume being wet might have made little difference. The purpose of the taser is to incapacitate - wet or dry, the results are about the same.

It wasn't a dumb question.