It's a tricky one.
They showed it on Aussie news last night. From what we saw (dash cam) the woman kept trying to use her age as justification for her really bad behaviour. A sort of "I'm 72, I'm going to keep telling you I'm 72 and it completely justifies me ignoring all your instructions."
Her resposes to the cop seemed to me to indicate she heard him; he would give her an instruction such as "Get out of the car" and she would reply with, "I'm 72, I don't want to get out." (working from memory here). I'm used to mother in law who really doesn't hear well these days (doesn't like wearing her hearing aid) and I can tell the difference between someone who really can't hear but pretends they can, and someone who CAN hear but is playing dumb.
I get really narky with people who use excuses to justify non-compliance or rude behaviour. People who play the disability card, the race card or the age card INAPPROPRIATELY really get up my nose. easy child had a problem in elementary school, she had called a classmate a b**** and suddenly found herself a target for tis girl and her cousins, they kept harassing her and accusing her of being racist. easy child hadn't realised she'd insulted an Aboriginal girl. In easy child's mind, she insulted a girl, who was being mean. But rather than accept that the girl had been mean and earned the label, they played the race card and turned it onto easy child.
We resolved it (in an unusual way) and later the girl apologised to easy child. "I WAS being a b****."
The trouble is, when people inappropriately claim thta because of their age, because they are disabled or because they are whatever colour/height/gender, that they shouldn't have the rules apply to them - I get cranky. It makes it so much harder for those of us who GENUINELY need to ask for consideration.
But did she need to be tasered?
That depends on what the regulations are. Tasers are just coming in, in Australia. We have very strict rules on their use. But we also have very strict laws on gun use, if it had been in Australia the cop would have been almost 100% certain the woman WASN'T carrying a gun. But maybe it's a misconception from a non-US person here, was it possible tat the cop had to assume thta regardless of the person's age or gender, a member of the public getting abusive, feisty and aggressive COULD be carrying a gun also?
He gave her plenty of warnings that if she didn't comply, he would have to use the taser. She kept screaming, "I'm 72, you can't do that to me."
One point in the woman's favour - at 72, she might not be capable of thinking quite so fast on her feet, may not be good about backing down or changing her attitude in a hurry. I can just picture her in a bank robbery - would she be the one laying into the bank robber with her umbrella, for failing to show proper respect to an old woman? Even with the bank robber pointing a gun at her?
Maybe the cop should have found another way to resolve this. But what if she had been carrying a gun? At least the cop only used a taser...
However, I do wonder if there could also have been a sense of satisfaction in using the taser. "I'll show you, you horrible old woman. NOW see what you have to say. We make no exceptions for anybody, if you don't follow directions."
It would be hard to call this one, but I doubt this cop will be in much trouble. He gave plenty of warnings and the woman was being difficult from the very beginning, from the first time the cop spoke to her. She knew she had just earned a ticket and was trying to bluff her way out of it. She ended up talking herself into a whole lot more trouble. Even if the ticket gets dropped, she now has her image and the tasering plastered all over the world. That's a lot of come-down.
Marg