He’s right, the rule is arbitrary and taking to that level for wearing a hat is ludicrous, but he’s also a nut for getting bent out of shape over a hat.
Man who was TASERed at council meeting speaks
The man who was TASERed at last week’s Saginaw City Council meeting says he never attacked anyone.
Charles Littleton says he was only standing up for his rights — rights he says society continues to lose every day.
That is what got 22-year-old Littleton in trouble. He didn’t obey a rule inside Saginaw City Council chambers. That rule is that all men must remove their hats.
“It means more than just a hat,” Littleton said. “It’s like my crown. It’s like asking a king to remove his crown.”
UPDATE 1: In one of the comments, BryanP pointed to a fascinating article by a Texas cop who has a unique perspective on tasering.
UPDATE 2: Just ran across this even more egregious example of tasering which was apparently the result of lack of training by the police.
Arrested (and Tasered) while Seizing
The most recent report involves a Michigan man with epilepsy, who, when experiencing a seizure, apparently was unjustifiably tasered, clubbed, arrested, jailed and committed to a psychiatric facility for violent offenders — all based on non-threatening behaviors caused by a seizure.
BTW, it seems the last post on the guy in the UCLA library who got tasered has scrolled off the front page. Since it garnered an astounding number of comments, here’s the link to it to keep this all available.
Yeah, he’s a bit nutty about his hat. But tazering him? Yeah, he may have caused disruption during the meeting….but tazering him? Did they really need to tazer him? He stood by his conviction that he wanted to wear his hat…nutty for sure. But the council also stood by their conviction for the idiotic rule about removing your hat. Wow, they showed that guy. Who cares if you remove your hat or not. Don’t tell me about this “it’s a sign of respect”. So much so to where you get tazered for it?
How about this, ignore the fricken hat and get on with the meeting. Did the guy stand up in the audience (he was only there for extra credit for an urban sociology class) and say “I’m not gonna remove my hat”. No, he didn’t. I hate this idiotic forced respect crap. Sorry, you have to earn my respect just like I have to earn your respect. You don’t get a special pass because of age or rank or office you hold with me. To me, everyone is equally worthless.
But I guess they forced this guy to respect them. Tazer them into submission! Now, on with the meeting….
Whats with the Taser mad culture?
Authority types are zapping people left and right like a cowboy with a cattle prod getting his stock thru a gate.
I think the cops etc, need to understand the difference between Cows and People.
It’s just pent up frustration for not being able to shoot someone at will. Any reasonable person would allow police to shoot that hat off his head and get it out of their system.
Rules? Why should I follow any steenkin’ rules?
Free hat!
If they start tazering people for being nutty about something, everybody’s on the hit list.
I would have tasered him just for: “It’s like my crown. It’s like asking a king to remove his crown.”
RBG
I think we should remember that these people are being tasered instead of being clubbed, punched, pepper sprayed or shot.
Being tasered may be unpleasant but it’s better than the alternatives.
I couldn’t agree with #8 more.
Ok, I get that they had this idiot rule about not wearing a hat at the council and this ass-clown broke this idiotic rule by wearing his idiotic hat. But not removing it warrants a tazering?
What’s next? Tazering for jaywalking? Speeding over 5 miles over the speed limit? Both of these examples are technically illegal, but do they warrant being tazered?
This is crazy! I live near all of this madness and the first I hear of it is from dvorak.org? Crazy.
if its a crown, why does it have LA on it? thats the dogers? i dunno, its not like he had a Burger King crown on or anything.
This/these remind me of the regular rading I get on my handheld from the Cato Institute (Libertarian). They have several commentaries about how often SWAT teams are used for entry to homes that are NOT immediate threats.
A police state is great, if you’re the police.
J/P=?
I have never met a cop that wasn’t a bully. This stuff saddens me but doesn’t surprise me.
#8. I’m with RBG!
#10. “What’s next? Tazering for jaywalking?…”
Shhh! Don’t give them any ideas!
#12. I think I’d have more respect for his “crown” opinion if it was a BK crown.
Fear of a Blue Hat.
When you put your hands on an unrestrained suspect bad things can happen. We should really watch these liberal knee jerk reactions. They cloud real issues. We don’t have stun phasers, and taser is the best non-lethal alternative. I’ve been pepper sprayed and I guarantee you don’t want that. You would never believe a human being could manufacture that many tears and snot in such a short period. Also the damn mess gets everywhere. Beside this shouldn’t bother such a bad ass dud as this.
#16… Around here (Flint Michigan – near Saginaw) a blue cap can mean that you are a member of the crypts. A red cap means you are a member of the bloods. Crazy…
Flint, MI has Bloods and Crips? I thought they were just an East LA thing. Looking it up, apparently they’re in most states. Man, can you tell I’m a white guy from the suburbs?
Are following the rules too much to ask? Cmon… Its like a dude refusing to leave the ladies room because he says its his right. This guy doesn’t have a crown, and certainly is no King! He deserved what he got. If he abided by chamber rules as everyone else did there wouldn’t be any problems. Don’t just make up new rules and cry your rights were violated because you think you are better than everyone else (i.e. King!)
Cant we just all get along?
#20 Is a taser not a weapon? He got what he deserved? Can’t they just remove him from the premises? Not use a weapon on him.
if this keeps up people are going to start carrying around tasers to defend themselves against tazers, this one end well either way.
I was listening to Drudge one night and he had the funniest clip I’ve ever heard.
It was a police man who pulled over some lady in Florida who was driving what I assume was her boyfriends car.
Well instead of addressing the officer she decides to get on her cell phone and call her boyfriend (Which is how the recording got made on his voicemail)
Well the cop asks her for about 5 minutes to get out of the car and simply acknowledge him and she keeps saying she has to talk to her bf (You could tell this girl had to have been imported or something)
So long story short He tasers her twice.
And quite honestly she deserved the first one for being stupid. Not sure about the second one though. He did it cause she wasn’t getting out of the car but she was frozen in fear so I think the second one was too much.
Was funny sounded as hell though.
Editor’s update: The video of that incident can be found here.
The guy is right. It starts with the hats. If they can kill you for a hat, there are no limits to authority. The cops become prison guards for everyone alive. And let’s not forget that most cops are private — there’s ARMIES of men out there with batons and stunguns, using them at will.
20: Yes, it is too much to ask, if you get Tasered. The point ISN’T ABOUT THE HAT. The hat would be a “metaphor”, a thing that represents another thing, which in this case would be the freedom not to have some f-wit slam 150K volts of high-frequency agony and mess up your brainstem because he doesn’t like your tone of disobedience.
I see the classic authoritarian mindset in a lot of posts. “Is it too much to ask to follow the rules?”
I blame the last 20 years of turning elementary and high schools into f-ing military prisons. A whole generation LIKES arbitrary authority and cruelty. They think it’s cool to punch out the nonconformists. They watched their authority figures do it all the time. It’s all they have known.
Littleton says he believes the rule discriminates.
“A Jewish man — would you ask me to remove my yarmulke? A kofee? A turban? Anything like that?” Littleton said.
The usual course would be to ask the kid to leave and if he didn’t then arrest him for trespassing. Instead, the cop tried to remove the kid’s hat. As soon as the cop grabbed the kid’s hat, that became an assault. From that point on it became self defense for the kid.
The rule is discriminatory and quite probably illegal.
There was a story on here a week or so ago where a judge basically ruled against a lady who wears the veil per her religion because she wouldn’t remove it so that he could judge the truthfulness of her eyes.
I think that went way too far. I don’t agree with the whole “You have to be dressed exactly like this” type religions but if the lady was into it taking that hat off is basically the equivilent of being immoral and depending on her faith could really fuck up her psyche.
Not to mention that judging truthfulness from eyes isn’t nearly as effective as people make it out.
I would like to tazer all the neo-con evil ass holes in this forum for defending this obscene use of force. Why not, it’s using their own insane sense of justice; Government for the Governed and not for the people. It’s this same logic that got us into IRAQ, we are right and you are wrong.
24.
The guy is right. It starts with the hats. Then it’s, what? no shirt. No pants. Then hordes of nudists – all with their disgusting naughty bits dangling about. But that’s not the end, no. Then they’ll all want to take baths at council meetings. And have sex with little farm animals. Little farm animals, for Godsake. Get in here, Noname. And that will lead to communism, mark my words. Communism and fornication by evil Clinton clones. And then catastrophic global Internet wars. Ah, but the strawberries! That’s… that’s where I had them. They laughed and made jokes, but I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, and with geometric logic, that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox did exist.
RBG
Apologies to The Caine Mutiny.
#23. This is the video you’re talking about.