He was sane and rational...she was not...which is why she eventually got TASED
He attempted to control the situation without weapons, he was unsuccessful.
There should never have been a situation to begin with...GET IT?
Actually Chick, he was not sane and rational. He acted like a kid having a temper tantrum. You should recognize that now that you have a child. He started screaming at her as soon as they were at the end of the vehicle and never stopped, not to mention threw his ticket pad down on the ground like a spoiled brat. Yes, she was mouthing off but he never once kept his calm once she was out of the vehicle. He screamed, shoved and tazered. He never spoke nicely to her (not that she did to him, but HE is the one who is supposed to keep calm, cool and collective). And I don't blame him one bit for being angry, not at all, I would too, but again, it is HIS job to keep things together. Screaming at a 72 year old person, shoving them back and tazering them is NOT keeping things together. Things may have been different if he explained to her that it was important for them to move to the passsenger side of the vehicle so they wouldn't get hurt. He could have nicely put his arm around her and said "I know you're upset but lets move over to this side so we don't get hurt and I can explain to you what this signature means...." which is what he's SUPPOSED TO DO...keep everything/everybody calm & safe. Instead he screams back at her like a little kid, shoves her like a bully and tazers her like an asshole. The tazer is supposed to be used instead of drawing your gun when the officer feels threatened. Not to contain an elderly person who wants to get in her car. Like w8m8 said, all officers are trained to know how to use the wrist twist and subdue motion, he did not use it. He did grab her wrist once...if a grandmother can pull away from him like she did, so easily, then he obviously didn't pay attention at the academy.
w8m8, you are correct regarding the uniform giving many a sense of supreme power. I've seen it first hand several times over. I bumped into (well got pulled over by) a kid I went to school/graduated with. He was a class clown but in the geeky kind of way. The "cool" kids didn't want to have anything to do with him, teased him and whatnot. And the popular girls didn't give him the time of day. I ws also one of the "geeky-less popular" kids in school and was friends with him. Not close friends but we did talk in school a lot. Anyway, several years after graduating I was pulled over for going 30 in a 25. Steve walked over to my car like Mr. Macho Man and said "license & registration please". I knew immediately that it was him and was like "omg, Steve, how are you? I didn't know you became a cop" as I was getting my license & reg out. He then proceeded with "do you know you were going 30 in a 25 mile zone?" I said that I hadn't realized. Didn't argue because I didn't really know, just thought I was keeping up with the rest of the cars. He walked away to his car and called my plate in, came back and said "I'm giving you a warning. Please maintain the correct speed that's posted. Thank you." ...and walked away. I was like
I also noticed it with my ex-husband. He walked around like his shit didn't stink when in uniform, chewed on a tooth pick or gum with such arrogance. Even my dad acted differently when on the job. I remember him coming over to my car, squatting down to talk to me (I was in the driver's seat and my girlfriend was in the passenger seat). A car drove by, wasn't going fast or anything and he stopped talking and whipped his head around to the direction of the car and whispered the plate number, then turned back towards us and continued talking. It was a weird thing and I am sure he was trying to show off in front of my girlfriend. I grew up knowing all his friends in the department and watched them do the same kind of stupid shit. I don't even think they know they are doing it. They just put on the uniform and morph, lol.