Video given to WCCO-TV late Monday night shows a man with his hands on a squad car when an officer uses a Taser on his neck.
Attorney Albert Goins is suing the City of Minneapolis on behalf of his client, Rolando Ruiz. They’re asking for $75,000 and that the officer involved be reprimanded.
The video given to WCCO starts only seconds before the Taser is used on Ruiz, not what led up to the incident. But in that time, no struggle can be seen before the officer used his Taser on Ruiz. What is seen is Ruiz with his hands on the hood of the officer’s car. The dash camera of the squad car was rolling when the officer approached Ruiz with Taser in hand.
“Takes that Taser, puts it to the back of his neck and shocks him until he is incapacitated on the ground, slumped before the squad car,” said Albert Goins.
Just wanted to see if you guys are paying attention. We haven’t done one of these in a while.
While it sure looks like the cop went overboard, it would be useful to see the footage prior to the zapping.
If you are stopped by the police – then you are more or less guilty of something. That’s why you got stopped. If you don’t want to get tasered; don’t get stopped by the police: i.e, Dont be a crook!
Really? You’ve never been stopped by a cop for no reason? Several years ago I was in a car with 2 friends and we saw an unmarked cop car go by and then do a U-turn and zoom up behind us with his lights on. He pulled us over because he just got a report of 3 guys in a white car of a totally different model was doing something illegal. So because we were in a car the same color as a crook then we were crooks?
Another time a group of us were driving hom from the bar with a designated driver and the cop pulled us over claiming we were “left of center” even though we were in the right hand lane of a four lane street. He interrogated our sober driver for 20 minutes and then let us go with a warning. How were we crooks then?
The cop probably just waxed his car.
The truly shocking (no pun intended) thing about this is the guy is only asking for $75 grand! For some reason, I imagine the lawyer as advertising on bus benches.
A light bulb in the dude’s mouth, and you could use him as a strobe light fixture.
It’s time to treat Taser misuse as a violent crime.
There is just too much of this Taser crap going on.
Fucking Pigs. I mean Cops.
@#29 That’s what I meant.
Fight this with who you elect (actually vote!), write your city councilman, governor, and congressmen, fight things out in court, and fight things with mindshare! No more giving cops carte blanch. No more supporting disastrous wars on drugs. No more supporting onerous laws and ridiculous minimum sentences.
you’re all actually idiots…I’m sure he was just driving a few miles over the speed limit and calmly pulled over, exited the car and then the asshole cop just nailed him for fun…
ride one night with a cop…. the easiest way to avoid is stop when they say stop….
Everyone here want to be a “tough guy” ….you watch too much tv.
Leave your bedroom in your moms basement already.
That was so disturbing.
Where is my torch and pitchfork ? has anyone seen it ?
on second thought he should ask the court as a punishment for the cop to be able to tase the cop back see how he or she likes it than put the video on youtube…..
The reality is that cops are human beings with lethal weapons weather they are protecting society and the persons within it or not. These videos and others like it are evidence of that. The best advice is to know your rights in dealing with the police. You don’t have to tell them anything you don’t want to You don’t have to let them search you, your car, or your house without probable cause or a warrant. Just say ‘no’ even if they make threats to inconvenience you. If they search anyway just be calm and fight it legally after the fact. Do not engage in violence or resistance against an officer unless they threaten your life or you have another VERY GOOD reason as this is a personal decision made at your own grave risk. (Unfortunately the risk doesn’t go both ways very well) Tazers are a gray area in ‘Life Threatening’ as people have been killed by them. Don’t give them an excuse to use a Tazer and if they do, fight it legally. Other than that, be calm and courteous. Most officers are nice people or at least fair people. Just be aware that some are not, especially in the heat of the moment.
#43 omniman – Sounds strikingly similar to how you are supposed to act when being robbed at gun point. Just give them what they want and let the law handle it.
#21- as several others have pointed out, just being pulled over makes you guilty of nothing, and does not make you ‘more or less a crook.’
It will be interesting to see what led up to this- what’s been released so far is pretty damning.
1st: #8 Cornholer is racist as well as obviously (from other posts as well) one of the stupidest, low-life scumbags that reads this blog.
2nd: Cops are pure scum.
3rd: See number 1
Most if not all of these posters wouldn’t think of going into an inner city community at night. There are some bad assed dudes out there that don’t play by your rules. This was the safest way to get the suspect cuffed and into the cruiser. The danger is in close proximity. A sudden move might have resulted in a sidearm draw and a shooting. There are a lot of dead cops shot with their own weapon. These whole damn country has turned into knee jerk reactionist to snippets of video and sound bites. Get the facts first. I have a feeling you may not want this suspect over for dinner.
Most if not all of these posters wouldn’t think of going into an inner city community at night.
and that is relevant because? Is there any indication where in Minneapolis this was? Why do you assume it was in the inner city?
This was the safest way to get the suspect cuffed and into the cruiser. The danger is in close proximity. A sudden move might have resulted in a sidearm draw and a shooting. There are a lot of dead cops shot with their own weapon.
So you are saying that any time a police officer is going to handcuff someone they should use a tazer on them first just in case?
These whole damn country has turned into knee jerk reactionist to snippets of video and sound bites. Get the facts first. I have a feeling you may not want this suspect over for dinner.
If you don’t need facts to make up your mind why should we need facts to make up ours?
It amazes me how some people will defend people just because they have a uniform. You could find a video of a police officer saying to the camera, “I’m going to use the tazer on the next person that walks by” and then proceeds to taze a random stranger and someone would post, “that person had it coming.”
My best friend from high school is a city cop and I have ridden along with him and he says tazers are stupid because they make police use that rather than other methods that they have used for years and years before they had tazers.
Yep, white car..totally different model is the problem. Happened to me at 4 in the afternoon when I was driving my daughter to a girl scout meeting. Me with a gun to my head and my daughter scared to death with both of ours on the hot hood…should they have tasered her?
#49 – Sounds like an educational experience to me.
#44 – they do have guns, they can legally rob you (asset forfeiture).
# 47 RTaylor:
“This was the safest way to get the suspect cuffed and into the cruiser.”
No, this was torture! That guy was flat on the ground screaming (I counted sixteen full-throated screams without a pause before the video cut off, and that cop wasn’t near done yet), and the cop was leaning on him with the taser, pulling the trigger again and again and again and again and again and again and again. You can hear the little “tickticktickticktick” of the two thousand to twenty thousand volt shocks, about five per second for fully fourteen seconds while the guy screams.
He must have said or done something to really, really, REALLY piss off that cop. That cop was so totally casual and cold-blooded about it.