Hey, they are good cops and they apologized, so it’s ok.

By the way, the meme is control and compliance.

Deputy Chief Robert Lee of the Wichita Police Department says, “This one occurred on the worst of calls, that being a shooting. The first few minutes getting control of the scene are very, very important.”

Once the facts were all sorted out, officers repeatedly apologized to Williams. Police wish it never happened, but with the information they had at the time, their choices were limited.

But, again people, let’s not lose sight of it’s not the fault of good people who are forced to shoot you with Tasers. They had no choice.

“Police say the shooting call came from a cell phone but they still don’t know who made it or why.”

From the source cited by Cole:

Once the facts were all sorted out, officers repeatedly apologized to Williams.

So there’s the apology, although why you would expect cops in Witchita to behave like Brits is beyond me. For one thing, cops in Wichita are not dealing with the British people; maybe that has an effect on their suspicious attitude.

Why were the cops “worried about their own safety”? Because they were responding to a report of a shooting, and:

…because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands.

So the unfortunate Mr. Williams had one hand pointing to the side of his head, he’s shouting back at the cops while they’re screaming at him to put up his hands, and one of his hands isn’t showing. We have Mr. William’s word for where one hand was, pointing to his own head; fine, but where was the other hand? Holding the towel? Bunched up in the towel? Holding the towel to the side, maybe partially or completely obstructed by his body? We don’t know, but the police say they couldn’t clearly see both hands and Mr. William’s own words account for one hand only. If Mr. Williams had shown both hands, wouldn’t he have said so?

Here’s a health tip. If you come around a corner and see a bunch of people with guns drawn down on you, hold up both hands. Doesn’t matter if you’re going to drop your towel; doesn’t even matter whether or not they’re cops. They have guns pointed at you! What part of that is unclear?

Another instance where the use of a taser may well have saved a life by providing a safe alternative to using a gun. Good catch!

“Another instance where the use of a taser may well have saved a life by providing a safe alternative to using a gun. Good catch!”

Maybe it is another case where — cops know better than to shoot naked old man in his own bathroom with handguns, but since they had a taser, why not? It’s the why not factor. Do you honestly think before tasers existed, this man would have been shot? Shouldn’t police wait until they see a gun or believe their lives are in danger? Is a naked man holding a towel in his own house looking scared and yelling “I can’t hear” covered in police training of times to point a weapon (of any kind)?

I agree with blame the suspect. Clearly everyone should react in the exact same way when confronted with people busting down your door and pointing guns at you. It is clearly an old man’s fault for not putting both hands in the air. Clearly, it doesn’t matter that he is deaf, that was his fault. If only he read on a blog that, when confronted with men pointing a gun you should do xyz.

Another life saved! We honestly should taser all suspects on sight. Imagine the lives that would be saved! You have me convinced on this subject. How does one get this implemented in police procedure manuals? At least if people knew it was coming everyone would be more likely to go along with the new taser policy.

Intranets writes:

“Police say the shooting call came from a cell phone but they still don’t know who made it or why.”

Probably Ashley….

All kidding aside, though, as tasers gets normalized, I imagine we’ll see more “pranks” like I’m picturing/hypothesizing this is. After all, a prank call that gets the target shot is one thing; but a prank call that gets a guy tasered? Tasers are harmless! Heck, they might even have health benefits!

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

“Clearly everyone should react in the exact same way when confronted with people busting down your door and pointing guns at you. It is clearly an old man’s fault for not putting both hands in the air. Well, who else is responsible for his hands but him? Deaf isn’t blind, old isn’t stupid. Every time I’ve had a gun pointed at me I’ve raised my hands. You should do the same; adopt it as a policy if instinct and common sense aren’t enough, because stubborn can damn sure get you killed.

Here’s a set of facts you might not be aware of but every cop in America is:

Police officers killed in the line of duty surged to the highest midyear count in nearly three decades, in part due to an increase in fatal shootings, according to statistics gathered by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington, D.C. As of September 18, the NLEOMF announced that shooting deaths were up nearly 60 percent over the same time last year, from 34 in 2006 to 54 this year.

-snip-

Not only are officer shootings up, but the number of multiple deaths is also on the rise this year, noted Craig Floyd, who serves as executive director of the Memorial Fund. In the first nine months of 2007 there were six cases of more than one officer gunned down during the same shooting spree, up from just one in all of 2006.

If you’re a policeman you are acutely aware at all times that whoever you’re dealing with, however innocent or feeble they may appear, might try and kill you. Guns are the most frequently used weapons to kill police, and this was a call to a reported shooting. If Mr. Williams had shown both hands he would have been fine, if startled. When he didn’t show both hands he became a threat. This isn’t really complicated, and it doesn’t involve fault or blame or moral jujitsu; when looking down the business end of a gun barrel, keep your hands in plain sight.

Lambert: “After all, a prank call that gets the target shot is one thing; but a prank call that gets a guy tasered?” You think the “prankster” knew that Williams would only be tasered? More likely they didn’t seriously consider the consequences at all, or maybe they were looking to get the guy killed; who knows? If the grandkids are mentioned in Mr. William’s will, they’d be worth a look.

“If Mr. Williams had shown both hands he would have been fine, if startled. When he didn’t show both hands he became a threat.”

I did enjoy that. The police get an anonymous call from a cell phone (did they even give an address??) so the cops bust into a man’s home who happens to be elderly and naked and in the bathroom… And he was a threat. Oh yeah, and hard of hearing.. And HE was a threat. Oh yeah, he was standing naked in his bathroom pointing to his ear saying, “I can’t hear”… And he was a threat?

Let’s review:

In his own home

In his bathroom

Elderly

Naked

Pointing to his ear

“I cannot hear”

Only reported crime was a shooting called in from an anonymous cellphone

And we was a threat. Maybe you should review your police-state 101. Taser that un-American, too slow to raise both hands, asshole!

as if by making lists but leave it off, it will magically go away.

Where was the other hand?

The one the police couldn’t see?

The one Williams didn’t raise?

Real easy to sit at the keyboard and get all up on your high horse about how simple it is and how the cops should be prescient and everything is all going to be OK, never was a threat and with 20-20 hindsight that’s oh so clear.

Not that apparent in real life. When he didn’t show both hands he became a threat, no way around it.

But just to be sure, let’s run through it your way;

1) Police get a phone call reporting a shooting. They ignore it because the office psychic has a vision that the report is a fake and there’s nobody there but a naked guy. What’s that you say? There is no office psychic? You say that the right thing to do is follow up on the call? You don’t want the police to wait two hours and then waste more time on a sketchy traffic violation, because that would be irresponsible? Well, OK, guess to keep up to your standards they better respond and make it snappy.

2) Next step, arrive at the scene. But, you say you doubt they have an address. So what, then, they just drove around for a while and picked a house at random, because otherwise it would be a boring evening? Just to keep the story line moving, and because otherwise this whole thing makes no sense whatsoever, let’s suppose they did have an address; and the address they had was that of Donnell Williams.

3) So here they are, there’s been a shooting, they look the house over and can’t see anything, so they decide to leave. But wait, would that be the right decision? Maybe someone has been shot. Maybe they’re bleeding and every minute counts. Better knock.

4) Knock, Knock, but no answer. Have they done enough? Should they just walk away? Maybe get some coffee? No? Well, OK, then.

5) Now the police break open the door. They call out , but there’s no response. There could be a victim, slowly bleeding to death, and there could also be the shooter, lying in wait to shoot it out with the police. No way to know. Should they just pack it up, leave a nopte and go about their business? No, nothing for it but to press ahead.

6) Guns drawn, the officers advance through the small house, towards a small door leading into a lighted room. They can hear someone moving, but there is no response when they call out. Well, hell, anybody would assume that means the person is deaf, that’s what any reasonable person would think. Put up the guns, boys, it’s just a deaf man and there really is no shooter! But wait, no psychic, remember? Better keep the guns drawn just in case.

7) Suddenly, a man wrapped in a towel appears through the doorway. Commands are called out, to show his hands. He starts waving his right hand up around his head, but his left hand is behind him. He’s muttering something but it isn’t intelligible and he won’t show his other hand. Well, that’s alright, just because there’s been a shooting report and the police have been banging on the door and breaking it down and calling out with no response and now there’s this nearly naked guy mumbling and refusing to show both hands, no worry, it must all add up to no big deal, just your average deaf naked guy, see it all the time.

Do you see at all that the criminality here was by whoever made the call? Do you see that the police were doing the right thing in responding promptly and seriously, unlike Austin’s O’Conner who wasn’t in any hurry at all for a 911 call? Can you understand how, after breaking down a door and exposing themselves to possible hostile fire in a cramped little bungalow, after calling out repeatedly and getting no answer, that the sudden appearance of a nearly naked man standing in a narrow doorway, who won’t respond to commands and won’t show his left hand, could be seen as a threat? Do you really expect them to wait until a gun is pointed at them to take action, when they have a non-lethal alternative that won’t hurt the naked guy and can save their own lives?

Net net, the guy survived unharmed, refused even to go to a hospital, the police apologized, no physical harm done. One of those unfortunate things that happen in life, someone committed a crime and the outcome was untoward for Mr. Williams. Were the police unjustified in being suspicious? They’d had a report of a shooting and Wichita is a high-crime city, the Major Crimes Index in 2006 was 527 versus the US average of 306, with 26 murders; police are understaffed, at 1.8 per 1000 residents versus the US city average of 3/1000. Understaffed, overworked, stressed and tired from the overtime, more serious crime than there’s time to deal with and one damn serial killer after another. Walking into a small, cramped little house with a potential shooter maybe waiting for the chance to kill a cop, who wouldn’t be apprehensive?

You tell me, Intranets, what should the police have done differently and how, exactly? No psychic knowledge ability, no prescience, and above all no waiting until that hidden hand draws a gun. And get your facts and details straight – you’ve already made too many false assumptions, such as the repeated claim that Williams is “old” or “elderly” and therefore couldn’t appear as a threat. Are all old people incapable of shooting a gun? And how old is Donnell Williams anyway? Is he elderly or did you just assume that, like you’ve assumed that the police should somehow have known he was deaf, like you’ve assumed there was some way they could have known his refusal to show his left hand was innocent?

All of these situations look so clear afterwards. Many of them aren’t at all clear in the moment and with the level of threat these officers were experiencing, there was every justification to take measures to protect themselves including a taser. One too many false assumptions when you’re a police officer and the next event in your life will be your own funeral.

Yeah, I get the whole law and order scenario. I never said the cops should not have their guns drawn (note: why would they have tasers drawn???)

We depart paths in the scenario where facing this man with the list above, what do you do? If someone does not immediately respond in the way that YOU would, they get tasered. Heck, I would rather they shot the guy because at least that would seem like they thought he had a gun (possibly). Instead, they taser him. Not because they thought he was dangerous, but because control and compliance is the name of the game. If you don’t do xyz in some arbitrary time frame you get the taser.

This didn’t have to be a shooting, it could have been a million other scenarios, and the same thing happens. Zap.

You do not find any situation where using tasers is unacceptable that you cannot justify what the police were thinking in the heat of the moment. Since you believe they are so harmless, any situation where a command was not followed to the satisfaction of the cop, the suspect deserves tasered.

You are wrong to blame the victim here. You are wrong to say it was his money-grubbing grandkids that called in the “shooting”. You cannot see a situation where a woman with a towel in the bathroom might not want to put their hand in the air? What if they are and orthodox Jew or Muslim and might “hesitate” for that reason? Tough, the officers (in your home) supercedes any right you have to exist. Zap those who dare disobey.