Great Grandmother Gets Tasered

Fox News has obtained police dashboard video of the tasering of a 72 year old great grandmother in Travis County, TX.

The police claim that after Kathryn Winkfein was stopped for driving 15 miles over the speed limit in a construction zone, she disobeyed an order to sign the speeding ticker, used profane language, and became “violent.” They say the officer who tasered her and took her to be booked for resisting arrest was completely justified.

Video footage has emerged of the moment a 72-year-old great grandmother was tasered by a policeman in the United States.

The pictures from a camera on his car dashboard show the angry exchange between Kathryn Winkfein and the arresting officer in Austin, Texas.

She had been stopped for allegedly speeding on a notoriously dangerous section of Highway 71.

After completing the paperwork, the officer, Deputy Chris Bieze, returned to Winkfein's truck - but when she refused to sign the ticket a confrontation followed.

Next to the busy road, she was seen refusing to have handcuffs put on her by him.

He then warned her she was about to be hit with a Taser before the actual stun incident took place.

The woman fell to the ground - she was not seriously injured.

The Travis County officer said he was trying to get her away from the busy highway, after repeatedly telling her to back up.

The victim, from Granite Shoals, said: "I was tased here and here" but has now been told by her lawyer not to speak any more.

Deputy Bieze's boss, Sergeant Major Gary Griffin, said he had reviewed the footage and he was standing by his colleague, who he said followed policy.

Sgt. Maj. Griffin said: "He had a decision to make. He was concerned for his own safety. It was either that, or take his chances with vehicles barrelling down the road at 60mph."

The local community in Austin is divided over whether the officer was right to stun her.

One caller told radio host Jeff Ward: "Man, I can't believe this whole story. Was she threatening him or just using foul language?"

Another caller said: "Jeff, I'm laughing hysterically," while a third said: "Age is irrelevant".

A local cop tasers a 72 great-grandmother and it's all caught on camera. How dare that nasty cop!! Which is precisely the reaction you'd get if you watched the segment on this morning's CBS's "The Early Show." The program begins the video right where the police officer tasers the woman, basically ignoring everything that transpired only moments before. "The Early Show" then shows a brief snippet of an interview with the woman:

WOMAN: I wasn't argumentative, I was not combative, OK? All of this is a lie.

All contributor Russ Mitchell noted in the cop's defense was that the cop said the woman "would not cooperate" and "swore at him." The reaction from the show's hosts is, well, not very surprising after Mitchell noted that the constable's office is standing by the officer who tasered the woman:

HOST MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: Are you kidding me?

HOST JULIE CHEN: I saw a longer piece of the tape and she said "just give me the ticket and I'll sign it." And then that happened?

It's obvious that Chen didn't view that much longer a piece of tape, else she might have come to a different conclusion. Here is a complete video of the incident via The Dallas Morning News, and it directly contradicts the 72-year old woman's claim from above that she "wasn't argumentative" and "was not combative." She at first refused to sign the speeding ticket, whereupon the officer prepared to arrest her (standard procedure) for that refusal. He asked the woman to move to the rear of her vehicle, whereupon she then agreed to sign the ticket, but with a profanity-laced response. She then attempted to push past the officer which would have put her perilously close to the highway's oncoming traffic.

The officer warned the woman that if she persisted, he would have to resort to using his taser. The woman's reply was "Go ahead -- tase me. I dare you," whereupon she said "I'm getting back into my car." She then plowed right into the officer who was in her path. It was only then that the officer resorted to his taser.

The question is: How did "The Early Show" miss all of this?

The son of a prominent KSL employee died Tuesday in Washington County after a police officer deployed a Taser when the man ran down a road in what authorities called an "agitated" state.

Brian Layton Cardall, 32, was traveling with his wife south on State Road 59 near Hurricane on Tuesday afternoon. According to KSL.com, the vehicle pulled over to the side of the road when Cardall, who recently had been struggling with mental health issues, began having an "episode."

Cardall left the car and ran down the road, and his wife called police, said Washington County Undersheriff Jake Adams. A Hurricane police officer who responded to the scene deployed a Taser on Cardall, who lost consciousness, Adams said.

Cardall was treated at the scene but he was pronounced dead after being transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St.George, Adams said.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office did not immediately release further details about the incident.

One of the defenses of the increasingly common use of tasers is that tasers are preferable to guns; after all, the argument goes, guns are more dangerous and likely to kill than tasers. Tasers are safer. Except, as Cardall's death and many other taser deaths prove, tasers are often deadly, too. As far as the 72-year-old woman is concerned, I'm sure more than a few people will be heard to say, "She can't complain. She asked for it." And she did say, "Go ahead, taser me." So she deserved what she got.

A lot of people said exactly that about the taser incident involving Andrew Meyer, which occurred while John Kerry blithely stood by and did absolutely nothing. No one else who was present did anything to stop it either. And a number of people who said Meyer got "what was coming to him" were self-identified liberals and progressives. See "Obey or Die," for the details. The final part of that essay provides several typical examples of commentary on the Meyer incident.

In an earlier essay in that "Final Descent" series, I discussed in some detail "what a taser is and what it does." By way of summary, I wrote:

In brief: tasers can kill people, or cause very serious injury; tasers are "commonly used...to gain compliance" -- from people who are usually unarmed and who pose no serious threat whatsoever; and tasers are frequently used on suspects who have already been subdued and immobilized.

Recall the police officer's complaint against the 72-year-old woman: she was "physically non-compliant." She had to be made to obey. So he tasered her -- which meant, he used torture to force her to do exactly as he demanded (if you doubt it's torture, I again direct you here), torture which easily could have seriously injured or even killed her. Thus, my title: "Obey or Die."

Let's note the broader aspects of the culture in which this common deployment of violence, torture and death occurs, all of which is utilized to ensure compliance and obedience. Bullying and violence are among the chief "virtues" embraced by the United States generally. These are among the major lessons taught to our children -- and they learn those lessons tragically well.

After itemizing some of the basic lessons imparted by our culture in "Bullied, Terrorized and Targeted for Destruction: Our Children Have Learned Well," I observed:

The greatest virtue is to feel nothing, or as close to nothing as possible. There is one exception: you can feel unreasoning, unfocused rage, and you are free to act on it. You may lash out in any direction you choose. The innocence of your victim is irrelevant.

Our government acts in this manner repeatedly. Our political leaders all applaud it, and offer a lengthy series of "justifications" for our unending national cruelty.

Our national leaders are fond of telling us that war is always "a last resort." This, of course, is a lie, one of the most terrible lies the United States regularly employs as it continues its campaigns of destruction, while it embarks on new ones. The U.S. government has repeatedly manufactured threats where none existed, often creating them out of absolutely nothing. This particular history stretches back more than a century, and it continues today with Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and whatever country next finds itself in the crosshairs of America's imperial agenda.

And most Americans don't care all that much. How often do you hear or see mention of more than a million innocent people murdered in Iraq, a genocide of historic proportions by any minimally civilized standard? With less than a handful of exceptions, all national politicians have supported and continue to support this criminal war and the occupation of Iraq. For a couple of years, the Democrats could have defunded the barbaric occupation of Iraq; they refuse to do so, for they support this program. This also means that, in the last election, tens of millions of people, all those "good" Americans who are so noble and peace-loving, voted for a war criminal. It didn't matter whether you voted for McCain or Obama: both of them were and are war criminals. But almost no one will tell you that. And it's not just me who says so, but the Nuremberg Principles, the very principles which the United States was once largely responsible for devising and which the U.S. never hesitates to apply to everyone else, but never to itself.

Many Americans, including many of those progressive organizations that once claimed to be anti-war, today enthusiastically support the Empire's wars of aggression and domination -- now that Democrats control the machinery of death. These people were never anti-war: they were against wars run by Republicans. They're murderous, lying, hypocritical bastards. And the Obama administration regularly continues to issue threats against Iran, North Korea and anyone else who refuses to do exactly what the U.S. demands.

Very few people object. As this essay and many others attest, I unequivocally condemn the growing use of tasers. What happened to the individuals in the stories noted above, and to the dog, and to all those people and animals in many similar stories, is disgusting and unforgivable. But a great many people have very little basis for objection. Far worse crimes are committed by the U.S. government every day, and the Obama administration acts to ensure that additional crimes will be committed for years to come.

Not only do most people do nothing; they support this system of violence, cruelty and death. As I often ask: why do you offer support in this way? The overwhelming majority of people wait for someone or something else to change events that they contend are out of their control, disregarding the fact that voting for a war criminal is not the act of an innocent bystander. When one is confronted by evil of the magnitude represented by the continuing actions of the U.S. government and military, to argue that fewer murders or the better camouflaged use of torture is an "improvement," or that Obama represents a "lesser" evil, is to reveal the bankruptcy of a person without a moral compass. In addition, Obama has already demonstrated that his crimes may well equal or even surpass those of the previous administration, or those that might have been committed by McCain. And if you are willing to accept and support evil on this scale, what crimes won't you accept? Where exactly will you draw the line? When torture is openly utilized within the United States itself, on a daily basis? When torture and death visit your next-door neighbor -- or you? As these taser incidents demonstrate, we've already arrived at that point. So much for the "lesser" evil.

To wait for someone else to change events and dynamics of this kind also badly misdirects the focus from the widespread nature of the problem, and from where change must always begin. As I wrote at the conclusion of "Bullied, Terrorized and Targeted for Destruction":

Our children learn all this, and many more lessons of the same kind. Of course, they are often vicious bullies. Our government is a murderous bully on a scale that beggars description; most politicians are bullies; the majority of adults are bullies to varying degrees. Why wouldn't these children be bullies? It's what they've been taught. In the most crucial ways, it's all they've been taught.

These children are the perfect embodiments of the central values of our culture. They have learned well.

But, many people will say, this is monstrous. We must teach these children that such behavior is deeply wrong, and that they must change. To all such people, I reply: Then change yourselves. Change your values, and change the way you think and act. Children will see those changes, and their own behavior will alter accordingly in time.