Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/16/georgia-police-taser-an-87-yea.html
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Who the fuck tasers an elderly woman like that? Just the thought of it enrages me.
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This right here is an illustration of some of the MANY things wrong with American policing.
--Fragile ego: if someone doesn’t immediately comply and defer, the officer feels he has license to neutralize whoever is “clearly” questioning his authority
- No de-escalation skills: So why not simply keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t go on a stabbing rampage, and continue to try to communicate? If she can barely get around, she’s probably not going to run down a kid and stab him
- Us vs them mentality: if these people could actually see the humanity of a person, they’d see an elderly grandmother like their own who was probably frightened and confused, not a knife-wielding maniac
-Tendency to treat all situations the same: Is it really hard to see that a barely-mobile grandmother holding a knife is very different from an agile person THREATENING you with a knife?
This is just sickening.
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The incident feels just like an episode of Mayberry RFD, except Sheriff Talyor would have not used a taser and would have helped Al-Bishar collect dandelions before driving her to his place for lunch with Opie and Aunt Bea.
Reminds me of this comic by Drew and Josh Friedman:
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Someone who has a taser charged and at their hip and has been repeatedly instructed that they are “non-lethal” (usually 
).
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Why are cops such chickenshits?
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an employee called police to complain that she was in the yard, “looking around for vegetation to cut down or something.”
Let’s not ignore this part of the story either.
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Fact: She didn’t English;
Fact: She had a knife;
Fact: She did not comply with police orders.
Blue Lives Matter
ETA: Seriously, I blame the Boys and Girls Club busybody who called the police in the first place.
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Wait… they tased a 87 year old who clearly cannot communicate. I mean maybe she couldn’t hear? or spoke another language? Couldn’t they have tried the word “No!” Most folks speak or at least understand a few simple words like yes, no, OK, hello, please, stop, go, toilet in their non-native tongue. Or make a brushing motion. Move on. Call in someone who is sign language capable mb before you go in guns a-blazin. Or just talk to the person who called in and say, she seems harmless, just calm down please. Or maybe tell her “go home!” and then walk her there?
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Yes. Maybe do something. Anything!
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hey…they are doing it to old white ladies now…progress?
/s
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“We ain’t no backwoods racist cops. We’ll taze all y’all the moment we’re bored or tired or don’t feel properly respected. Skin color don’t matter!”
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Maybe we should outsource our cops to China too.
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They charged her with criminal trespass and obstructing an officer. Watch video here.
FYI y’all (since I clicked), that’s video of a local news report, not footage from the incident.
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How to respond to this call - oh look, it’s just a little old lady collecting weeds. I think I’ll go tell the caller that it’s just an old lady collecting weeds and then go about my day.
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At a business I used to work for a little old lady would come around every year and cut the dandelions all around the property, presumable to make dandelion wine. How did we handle this troublesome issue? We did nothing but say “hi” to her when we passed her and went about our day.
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I am sorry, but I only have one thing I could say
WHAT THE FUCK?!
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Yep, old lady and young mother both wearing hijabs used to come onto my lawn and collect dandelions. No idea where they were from, but I’m guessing collecting them on someone else’s property probably wasn’t a big deal from wherever it was. They just went down the street peacefully with their scissors and bag. I cringed the day my neighbor saw them and yelled all kinds of threatening obscenities. Luckily, he and his Harley have since moved out.
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