We’ve all seen those funny videos on YouTube of people getting tased by cops and usually they deserve it. Rowdy behavior, instigating, touching an officer or making threats in their presence, are all grounds to get a nasty electric shock streaming through  your body. But when is using this method of restraint too much? When does it become excessive?

According to Black Media Scoop, police in Springfield, Illinois tased an eight months pregnant woman, Lucinda White, 29 and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Frederic Thomas in a Best Buy parking lot after White reported that someone had hit her car.

“I was face down in the pavement after being tasered– that’s when I seen my daughter’s mother–knees in her back, stomach all in the concrete–face down,” Thomas said.

BMS reported that the incident went down after the man White accused of hitting her car denied ever doing it, so the police were called. White and her boyfriend both denied resisting arrest or being difficult but the police said other wise.

“She was– her and her boyfriend were both actively fighting with an officer and they used the force that was necessary to affect the arrest,” Deputy Chief Cliff Buscher with the Springfield Police Department said.

BMS also reported that officers try to avoid using tasers if possible, because of potential injury by falling and that the pain should only affect the area the taser was directed, which was the thigh for White.

To be honest, I think a few officers would have been more than capable of restraining an eight month pregnant woman without the use of a taser. Especially since a whiteness claims he believes the woman was trying to comply but was worried about her baby.If the woman had fallen the wrong way, she and her baby could have been seriously injured or worse and if no physical damage occurred, White could be traumatized by the incident (PTSD) after considering the potential outcomes of her situation.

Was there corruption among the police department? Did they use excessive force against the woman? If evidence proves this was excessive force, how do you think this will affect the couple’s attitude about law enforcement? They were attempting to report a crime and ended up being treated like the criminals. Nothing was ever said about the person who allegedly hit the car. Why didn’t the police get involved with him?

What do you think about this?

Dr. O

Picture source: http://www.martyduren.com/2012/06/04/u-s-supreme-court-allows-tasering-of-pregnant-women/