Slashdot Mirror
New Hampshire Cops Use Taser On Woman Buying Too Many iPhones
turbosaab writes "A woman who said she was asked to leave New Hampshire's Pheasant Lane Mall because she wanted to buy too many iPhones was pinned down by Nashua police and zapped by a Taser (video) as she shrieked in front of crowds of shoppers Tuesday. The Chinese woman from Newton, Mass blamed a language barrier for the confrontation outside the Apple Store in the Pheasant Lane Mall Tuesday afternoon. Police say Li knew exactly what they were telling her and simply refused to comply. Police said Li had $16,000 in cash in her purse at the time of her arrest and may have been purchasing the phones for unauthorized export resale."
You mean selling her own property for a profit? God forbid.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Police are now so badly trained and so out of shape they can't even handle a 44 year-old, 80 pound Chinese woman, they have to resort to high tech weaponry.
No sig today...
These sorts of events are similar to what I would have expected in countries like China, not the United States. LEOs do not need to taser most people, especially a female who appears much less powerful than the officers holding her down in the video. The tool is used as a second-to-last resort, not as as way to make an arrest easier on the officers.
Sheesh.
There are times to use painful, potentially fatal, means of coercion. This isn't one of them.
Unfortunately, we're going to get a lot of people posting here claiming that simply because the police demanded she do something, and she didn't, that they were justified. The simple truth is, no, they weren't. You don't get to do anything you like to someone simply because you have a badge and they didn't do what you told them to.
We do not live in a police state.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
It seems the concept that violence is a last resort has disappeared from policing.. Increasingly, even quiet, cooperative people are pinned down, handcuffed and manhandled as a matter of course. Violence has become one of the "perks" of policework, and the evil cycle of abuse and intimidation means fewer and fewer people object. Can anyone see any reason whatsoever for the violent treatment of this woman, who at worst is guilty of conspiracy to illegally export some telephones?
She clearly resisted arrest for several minutes,
So a small, middle aged woman managed to resist arrest for several minutes? Wow. Those cops should be ashamed of themselves. Really, how did cops survive 10 years ago? Did they all get sound ass kickings from tiny middle aged women?
Seriously, if you can't arrest someone like that without a taser, then you're so badly trained that you should not be allowed out on the street.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Disagree.
The article describes how, in effect, if there were less people around they would have pepper sprayed her. Police are increasingly using violence as "compliance tools". It is the equivalent of beating someone with a club, but because it is less visual, people don't catch on to how brutal it is.
I don't care if she was surly or not. It's trespassing at best, some federal offense that local townie cops have no business enforcing at worst. When did we go from being a country that asked "who the F are you to tell me to do X" of cops, to kowtowing to their every demand.
The store is private property. You're not entitled to stand in there and disrupt their business in such a manner, any more than if someone stood by you at your workplace and shouted at you, or went to your house and shouted at you in your living room.
You've set up a straw man, because it's reasonable to deduce from the evidence that the Apple store called police to get her to leave, not to "enforce" an "arbitrary sale limit rule". You don't know whether it's arbitrary, for one. I can think of several specific reasons for such a rule: scalping, hoarding, and the aforementioned export regulations. If someone doesn't want to do business with you-- save for obvious violations of the Civil Rights Act-- they don't have to. And you don't have to shop there. And you can picket the store while standing on public property, but not while on private property.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
For the record: Yes, failing to follow the orders of police in the US is a good way to come in close contact with a taser or baton, fact of life.
So you have these rulers who wander around giving out arbitrary commands to the proles. The rulers pretend to be following some 'law' but really they are above most laws and only have to follow their own loose interpretation of some written law. They meet any perceived challenge to their authority with mild to extreme violence often involving electrical torture devices.
Is that the kind of society you want to live in?
You might call me old fashioned or sexist here, but where I'm from we get taught not to use violence against women.
Ok, you are old fashioned and sexist. How about not using violence against anyone? You're basically implying that it is acceptable to use violence against men but not women. Gender should play NO role in this discussion whatsoever. Men are no more deserving of violence than women.