Naked Wizard Tased By Reality

[barracuda]

Don't taze me, bro.

[Cosmic Cowbell]

Don't taze me, bro.

Keep your cock to yourself and you'll have nothing to worry about from me. Expose it to my kids and you'll wish you got tazed.

[barracuda]

I'm wishin' I got got tazed right now, and I ain't shown nothin' to nobody.

[marmot]

i'm all up for nudity zones (even in the public sphere) - naked forests for camping and beaches for absorbing the sun. something like that.

however, i don't feel the wizard had the right ('the freedom of speech' as one spectator yelled it) to get naked in public as he was. i'm a real libertarian in the sense that we should be as free as we should be as long as we don't infringe upon the rights of others. the wizard-clown was infringing.

imho, it was unacceptable behavior!

was it all so worthy of a tasering? that's another issue. if you want a clear-cut Yes or No from me - i'd say No.



we should have NO TASING zones too!

[barracuda]

[Cosmic Cowbell]

i'm all up for nudity zones (even in the public sphere) - naked forests for camping and beaches for absorbing the sun. something like that.

As am I. Having lived in Denmark, let's just say I spent plenty of time at the beach.

however, i don't feel the wizard had the right ('the freedom of speech' as one spectator yelled it) to get naked in public as he was. i'm a real libertarian in the sense that we should be as free as we should be as long as we don't infringe upon the rights of others. the wizard-clown was infringing.

imho, it was unacceptable behavior!

Agreed (obviously)

was it all so worthy of a tasering? that's another issue. if you want a clear-cut Yes or No from me - i'd say No.

Again, agreed as to the nudity aspect of the case. But it should be clear to all that public nudity is absolutely NOT the reason he got tased. Only after he became violent (resisting arrest) did he get the jolt.

[barracuda]

Resisting, failure to comply, that's always where the force comes in. Check out the traffic citation video Starman posted. Failure to comply. The Pastor Anderson incident. Failure to comply. The University of Florida student.Failure to comply.

Obey. Do what I say, now, or get shocked with 50,000 volts.

I suppose it is better than getting all Rodney King'ed or being anally raped with a nightstick. Cheers.

[Cosmic Cowbell]

Having had my own experiences with failure to comply, I have to laugh when people claim that cops can't do this, that or the other (whether they should have or not is always determined on a case by case basis).

Cops can do whatever the fuck they want. Understand this. It's up to the Judge, many miles down the road, to determine whether they -should have-. Or not.

This is the way it's always been and is NOT a recent development of the "Police State". This will never change.

Barracuda, you can bring all the examples you want to try to strengthen your position on this. My response will always be, no they shouldn't have gotten the tase unless there is a clear threat to public safety. This includes the safety of both the suspect and the officer involved.

[barracuda]

You're attitude seems rather subservient, which is a little sad. It's not generally the role of a good citizen, however realistic.

[Cosmic Cowbell]

You're attitude seems rather subservient, which is a little sad. It's not generally the role of a good citizen, however realistic.

Sorry it seems so to you. If I lived simply for myself and was a bit younger without much responsibility, I'd probably be right there with you sayin "fuck You Mr. Policeman" all the while trying to adjust the cuffs in the backseat of the cruiser. Those who've been there know of what I speak. Fortunately however I don't...the fatherhood thing again. And when the time comes, I'll teach my own the reality of law enforcement and if they grow up to make personal choices that seem at odds with that, how to avoid a record. This in turn will keep them employable. And whether or not that goes against my role as a "good citizen", I know I'll sleep easier.

Reality check.

[nathan28]

About two hours ago on the subway and walking to work, I saw one girl who apparently didn't realize she hadn't shaved far enough down to wear the pants she had on, another with her ass partly visible, and a girl sitting on the sidewalk likewise whose pants had also crept down to below what would be considered her waist even by Brazilian standards.

Two night ago I could see not one, but three, different apartments with people who hadn't drawn the blinds in various states of undress.

No tazers involved.

Now, mind you, I'm a red-blooded American male but when some girl at work wears a seemingly business friendly low-cut blouse, or not even low cut but with just visible decolage, I get a little offended. If I have to pretend to be an upstanding citizen, keep my shirts pressed and shoes signed, seeing half of someone's tits isn't really acceptable.

But no tazers are involved there, either.

Oh yeah, and Mickey Rourke's ass shows up a couple time in the Wrestler, too. I thought I could make it through life without having to see post-boxing career collapse-cheekbones Mickey Rourke's steroid-abcess-scarred ass, but, there it was. And that was the most critically acclaimed movie of the year.

[brainpanhandler]

I would have hoped someone in the crowd would have had the wherewithal to throw a few heavy objects at the cops heads.

And so the point is proven. With attitudes like this, the longer the attempt to take someone into custody, say with a choke hold or joints locks or whatever else that may involve potential physical damage to -both- officer and perp, the likelihood that a large heavy object comes crashing into their skulls increases. Is that enough harms way for you BPH?

C'mon, those three were not in any danger whatsoever from our nude and stewed wizard. None. The best evidence for this is their demeanor. To me they appear relaxed and maybe even a little bemused. They do not appear to me like they feel threatened or frightened at all.

Frankly, I think it is not a stretch to conjecture that these three showed as much restraint as they did because there were so many witnesses and cameras recording. They were well aware of the fact that there were a lot of cameras and camera phones going. I think I count at least three in the video not including the one recording the video.

I've never seen a taser used as it was in the video by directly applying the gun to the "target". I was curious so I looked up taser on wiki.

From the Wiki article on Taser:


[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser]Drive Stun


Some Taser models, particularly those used by police departments, also have a "Drive Stun" capability, where the Taser is held against the target without firing the projectiles, and is intended to cause pain without incapacitating the target. Taser defines "Drive Stun" as "the process of using the EMD weapon [Taser] as a pain compliance technique. This is done by activating the EMD and placing it against an individual’s body. This can be done without an air cartridge in place or after an air cartridge has been deployed."
A Las Vegas police document says "The Drive Stun causes significant localized pain in the area touched by the Taser, but does not have a significant effect on the central nervous system. The Drive Stun does not incapacitate a subject but may assist in taking a subject into custody."[18] "Drive Stun" was used in the UCLA Taser incident and the University of Florida Taser incident. It is also known as "dry tasing", "contact tasing", or "drive tasing". [/url]

The officer in the video tasing the wizard actually applies the gun directly to his head. It's brutal, sadistic and utterly unjustifiable.

[chiggerbit]

Several observations:

~These three clowns need to be sent back to cop school due to their incompetence in not having the guy on the ground, cuffed and on his way to the cop car (whether under his own steam or not) within the first sixty seconds of laying hands on the dude. Competent cops wouldn't have needed tasers in that situation.

~Having their hands filled with tasers meant the cops' hands were unavailable for the uses to which those hands should have been put, which only increased the clowns' incompetence.

~The cops were obviously punishing the guy for not cooperating. Punishment is not their job. That duty belongs the judge, and I've yet to see a judge sentence a convicted criminal to tasering.

~Tasering is best used to stop a person from doing something, not to make a person do something. The clowns were trying to make the idiot do something--to get dressed.

Edit to add that anyone who approves of this behavior would seem to approve of the cops being cop, jury, judge and punisher. That's not the way our system works.

.

[crikkett]

The officer in the video tasing the wizard actually applies the gun directly to his head. It's brutal, sadistic and utterly unjustifiable.

I think it's time to find a state legislator who will sponsor a bill to define strict rules for using a taser and to disarm any officer who uses it outside this definition.

The officer in this story needs to be tried for assault with a deadly weapon.

Were I a witness or even in the same county as this person (I won't watch the video, thanks) I would be actively advocating for this.

Were I in the crowd, I would be hollering -- but I would not get near those things. They kill people. I'm sorry but I want to live.

And now for my frustration with the wizard who put all those people around him in the position of feeling guilty for not helping out: People, if you want to get stoned in public you need to be sure that you have a minder. (I'm sure you all know that).

[Avalon]

My initial impressions of this incident were the same ones I'd had after watching the video of the guy being tased in the university library last year:

Where was the adult supervision?

As you may recall from the library tasing, there seemed to be no-one on the library staff informed, let alone there when this was going down.

Why was there no-one there from the festival management? The cops had headset access to someone not in the immediate area -- why wasn't there someone to represent the festival's best interests, and to make sure that what is being done in their name is appropriate? Why has there been no comment from the festival management in the coverage of the event 48 hours after this PR disaaster goes viral on the web?

What are the festival guidelines for handling patrons who are drunk or high, let alone dehydrated and having sunstroke, being autistic, or having a psychotic epidode? Do they recognize that there are different strategies for handling each of the above conditions?

The cops started out trying to jolly him along, but it became pretty obvious that Johnathan was not in his right mind for whatever reason, and not amenable to jollying, or direct requests. At that point it is as much a medical issue as a law issue, and he should have been put into a squad car and taken to the festival medical tent.

The extraordinarily stupid thing the cops tried to do was to try to force him to get dressed. What could they have been thinking? They gave him his clothes and he tossed them away. Asking him to get dressed was clearly not going to happen. It's like dealing with a two year old having a tantrum in public. You don't try dealing with it in a head-on confrontation, and you move them out of the situation where they are standing their ground and grandstanding to their audience.

I'd really appreciate it if 48 hours after the video is released, that anyone compelled to offer their "informed" opinion at least care enough to find out the Naked Wizard's name. It's really too soon after our having to explain what "tea-bagging" is to clueless conservatives to want to have to explain what the wizard's surname means, but I'm sure those of you who don't know can find your way to the Urban Dictionary and figure out why Johnathan Frederick Felch has more than just a small penis to deal with.

Oh, and about penises... There are a lot of reasons some people have short penises. Some are naturally short, but lengthen considerably when erect, Some just are short all the time. Some may be affected by drugs or alcohol. Some people are intersex, some people have accidents, some are at some stage of hormonally or surgically transitioning to a gender change.

Big Fucking Deal.

Tracy Anderson, who shot the footage, turns out to be a guy who writes about snowboarding for ESPN.

The cop who used the taser was from Banning, the other two were from Indio. I remember passing through there about 25 years ago. Indio was the first place I'd ever seen that didn't seem to have a single independent store or restaurant visible while driving through, they were all national chains. We ended up at a motel in Banning, with no other lodging available at that point, and the worst moldy motel room (there are some reasons the oversight of a national chain can be useful) I've ever encountered.