Tasers are the most wonderful tool imaginable for law enforcement. Have a mentally ill man in custody who wants to catch his breath because he’s tired? We can’t have that! Taser him a couple of times and after that I’m sure he’ll straighten up and fly right.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Broward County deputies shocked a mentally ill inmate with Tasers in court after the man asked deputies for a few minutes to catch his breath before he was led from the courtroom.
Assistant Public Defender Anne LeMaster said deputies told 22-year-old inmate David Jones it was time to go Friday. When he resisted, they shocked him twice. Jones had just been found mentally incapable to stand trial and was ordered transferred to a state mental hospital.
The public defender’s office says the deputies used excessive force and filed a complaint with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Jones was handcuffed and shackled.
So, a handcuffed and shackled individual, tired, confused, perhaps disoriented, and found unfit to stand trial got a little unscheduled electroshock treatment from two Broward County Deputy Sheriffs? Are we surprised? Of course not. Are we concerned? Only if we care about human rights. Otherwise, we’re conservatives and confederate heritage supporters who think the bastard got what was coming to him (from the comments to the article):
I say the crminal probably got what he had coming. If he was “mentally incapable to stand trial” as this limp-wristed judge decided, then he probably did something really bad and got out of it by being sent to a hospital instead of a cell where he belonged. I’m tired of criminals getting out of their punishments by being labeled as mentally incapable–whatever the hell that means. They always seem to have the sense to do the crime but get out of it by not allegedly being culpable. Well maybe that little bit of shock therapy will help him along. I hope he hit his head on something on the way to the floor.
America. Love it or get tasered. Multiple times.