An innocent man was tased five times and was brutalized by police. The man Dan Halsted was mistaken for someone who was spraying graffiti on the back of a building by Officer Benjamin Davidson. The cops subdued Halsted and tased him five times because he was resisting arrest. Halsted put the officer on trial on the grounds of police brutality. while on trial the defendant Officer Benjamin Davidson's lawyer defended the action of Davidson by "trying to discredit Halsted, asking him about his collection of Kung Fu movies, and suggested during his closing argument that Halsted kept resisting because he was likely intoxicated. Halsted's attorney countered that there was no evidence of Halsted's intoxication, and asked Halsted if he'd ever been trained in martial arts, to which the answer was no." the jury ruled that a cop can't repeatedly Taser an Innocent man no matter how many kung-fu DVDs the victim has. Halsten recieved $250,000.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/29/dan-halsted-tased_n_1463075.html
This story honetly disgusts me. It is awful that police can act like this, without serious conseqences for their actions. An innocent man was assulted by police officers and the lead officer was not even fired. Dan Halsten wanted this to go to court in order to get a restriction on tasers, and their harmful effects. Dan just wanted justice and to protect others in the future, I know that im thankful for Dan speaking up, I do not want to be jumped walking home or anywhere for that matter, by people who are meant to protect us. again this story sickens me that this happend and is a news story.
After reading this article, I have to agree with you. The fact that police have the power to get away with this kind of stuff is downright unfair and dishonest. Sadly, police misusing their power in ways such as this is fairly common in today's world and no one seems to be doing anything about it. I know that if I were in Dan's position, I'd be getting a lot more than $250,000.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. This is completely wrong. Police shouldn't be going aroung mistaking people for others and tasing them. It reminds me a bit of the occupy oakland movement when four or five protesters where sitting and were sprayed with mace for no reason at all. Unnecessary police action these days has become all too common.
ReplyDeleteI like watching the cops on tv when they tase people, but this is police brutality for sure. The police need to watch what they do and be careful who they mess with. This is similar to what happened to Rodney King twenty years ago. There could easily be another riot where we seek justice. It's cool that Dan received that money, but that doesn't take away what happened to him.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the cop should have received a more severe penalty. although I think it is ridiculous that he is taking it to court to try to ban tasers. Tasers are the alternative of guns which are a lot more deadly. I myself would love to get all of that money even if I did get beat up.
ReplyDeleteChristian I have to disagree with you solely because due to the fact that tasers are not usually deadly I feel police officers are much more likely to use them which is as we can see through this article not always a good thing. Recently, especially through the recent occupy movement I feel there has been a lot of police brutality that has gone unpunished and I commend Dan for standing up for himself I would do the same.
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