[kellyhound]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. A Florida police officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation after he fired a stun gun at a 62-year-old woman's back during an arrest in a Tallahassee neighborhood.

Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo called a news conference early Wednesday morning to announce the investigation after authorities obtained a video capturing the Tuesday afternoon incident that was shot by someone on a nearby porch.

"Based on the video, I have enough concerns to call for an internal investigation," DeLeo said. "We will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident. We want to be transparent with the community by sharing what we can at this point, including the video."

"The investigation will determine if the officer's actions were legal and if those actions were consistent with the expectations I have set for our officers in terms of how we respect and treat our citizens," he added.

According to police, the officers were responding to recent complaints from citizens about drug deals in the neighborhood located just a few blocks west of the governor's mansion.

The woman, Viola Young, approached one of the police cars parked on the narrow street to inquire about one of the people — two women and a man — who had been arrested.

The officer standing outside the squad car advised the woman to stay back.

"I just want to know what is going on," she shouted. Police said that's when Officer Terry Mahan approached Young and attempted to take her into custody.

In the video, Young appears to be walking away when the officer uses his stun gun, striking her in the back. She falls face-first to the ground. Officers surrounded her and eventually helped her to her feet and walked her to a squad car, the video shows.

Police didn't release the name of the person who shot the video, but he can be heard saying on the video: "They just tased a lady for nothing. They wonder why they're hated."

Police said Young was medically cleared by paramedics and taken to the Leon County Jail.

She was charged with resisting and obstructing an officer without violence, a first degree misdemeanor.

The incident comes at a time when Tallahassee police have come under scrutiny. Last month, the city agreed to pay $475,000 to settle a case over the arrest of a woman who ended up with a broken bone in her face after an altercation with officers.

Video from last year's arrest of Christina West showed officers slamming her into a police car before throwing her to the ground. West can be heard screaming in the video.

A grand jury decided against charging the officers in that incident but ripped Tallahassee police for how they handled the arrest.

Tallahassee defense attorney Chuck Hobbs has asked Florida's State Attorney Willie Meggs to "strongly consider filing charges" if they conclude the most recent incident was "unjustified."

"Officer Mahan ran afoul of the Tallahassee Police Department guidelines with respect. What this tape shows in real time is that the suspects had already been apprehended and placed into police cruisers, and most crucially, after the verbal command was given to Young," he wrote.

[Oswald2001]

Ghetto Trash.

Ya can't win.

Send all the Trayvon and Trayvonna Martins to Syria.

Let them 'splain their Ghetto Trash ways over there.

[30564U]

Ok...this use of force might be a little problematic...not a total lost cause, but difficult. Unfortunately, the video doesn't show the entire incident from start to finish so we don't have all the information. Since the investigation and Chief and attorney's comments seem to focus only on the use of the Taser and the arrest of Viola Young let's look at that. After the arrests of the two or three other individuals and after placing those arrestees in separate patrol cars...an unidentified officer seen telling Ms. Young to get back and not approach his vehicle or she could be arrested. Pretty standard operating proceedure, no officer wants anyone walking up on their blindsided while they're conducting an investigation or talking to anyone. You can see the unidentified officer interviewing an arrestee seated in the back of the patrol car. An officer (identified at Ofcr. Mahan) can be seen walking past the unidentified officer and the patrol car gesturing for someone off camera to leave or get back. As the camera pans we can see a female (identified as Ms. Young) standing in the middle of the street yelling something and gesturing at officers. As Ofcr. Mahan calmly approaches Ms. Young we can see him talking to her and making an attempt to try and grab her arm. At this point Ms. Young intentionally jerks her arm away and turns her body to walk away. Well...that's basically the crimes of resisting/obstructing an officer...sorry, but if the officers wish to pursue the charges she's sunk. When Ms. Young failed to follow both the officers' instructions to leave or step back, she committed the crime of simple obstruction...then, when she intentionally refused to be arrested turned and began walking away, she committed the crime of simple resisting arrest.

Now here's the interesting part...since everybody has been constantly bitching and moaning for years about police brutality and excessive use of force, a clever bunch of guys invented the Taser. The Taser was issued to officers to provide a harmless, politically correct, and immediate alternative to the traditional beating the living shit out of a bad guy with a nice length of hickory or shot filled leather blackjack. So here we find Ms. Young intentionally turning away from Ofcr. Mahan and walking away...committing the crime of resisting arrest. Now Ofcr. Mahan has a choice to make...1.) he can knock her over the head with a turned piece of wood (baton), 2.) he can pepper spray the living crap out of her (probably spraying himself and others in the process), 3.) he can grab her by her cheap tacky ghetto weave and manhandle her into compliance, 4.) he can apply a bar arm choke hold (see LAPD Chief Gates' comments on why that isn't a good idea to use on Black folks), 5.) he can shoot her repeatedly with his issue firearm (really bad idea...see Ferguson MO for details), 6.) he can use his harmless, but very effective, and politically correct Taser and stun her silly ass into submission and subsequent arrest (this is the correct response...yeah!). See the Taser was the very best response for Ofcr. Mahan to use to gain Ms. Young's compliance and effect her arrest. People are gonna bitch, but she wasn't hurt and frankly it looked so much better on video that clubbing her into submission.

Notice how the guy filming the proceedings stayed calm, quite, and non-threatening. See how he turned in his video because he was concerned that Ofcr. Mahan might have committed a crime. See how that department's internal affairs unit is investigating? Wow...no riots, no Al Sharpton, no civil unrest, no media frenzy, no one getting punched and kicked, no looting, just a nice calm complaint and video...calmly turned into internal affairs. How civil. How easy. How American. When will people learn that arrests can be fixed and erased if unwarranted/unjust, cops can be disciplined, fired, or prosecuted, no one needs to start a riot and burn their neighborhood. Let the system fix the problem...if that fails then take it to the media and politicians.

[TheVrist]

Any form of apprehension can have a turn for the worst.

I personally would have tasered her ass myself. At 62 and batshit crazy, she could still do some bodily harm to officers.

[30564U]

I think the traditional application of turned wood to her cheap weave would have been so much more satisfying...although more time consuming...finely turned wood makes such a nice noise when striking idiots. Just thinking about it makes me kinda tear up a little. Ah, the good old days, a time of iron men and wooden clubs...instead of now, wooden men and iron clubs. Sad times.

[commondenom]

nice...another cop bully being made to pay.

chalk another one up for 'protect and serve'

[30564U]

Originally Posted by commondenom ↗

nice...another cop bully being made to pay.

chalk another one up for 'protect and serve'

As I said, I don't think much will happen to him. There's a lot going on that a non-police person is going to see initially. I think internal affairs will investigate and as usual find a tiny violation of department policy and the copper will get a minor administrative punishment. Nothing he did was contrary to law or a violation of civil rights. Just a question...and I mean no disrespect...but if you guys feel so strongly about the police in the US being so out of control...why aren't you getting involved in getting the laws changed and reformed? Why waste you time here on DR when you should be getting involved politically? It just seems that all the young folks here on DR bitching and moaning about the police should focus their attention on getting the laws and policies changed. Barking at the moon really does no good.

[Shakey]

Bitch just hit the Lotto.

[evilsmoker]

She was backing away if you feel she is a threat then you sir are a big pussy...

[30564U]

Originally Posted by evilsmoker ↗

She was backing away if you feel she is a threat then you sir are a big pussy...

This incident has absolutely nothing to do a threat posed to an officer...it has to do with a suspect resisting a lawful arrest.

I don't suppose you actually read the other comments or watched the whole video?