The hits, Taser hits, that is, keep on coming…
From Portland, the story of a cyclist Tasered can be read here
In an interesting twist, police in Austria arrested a CYCLIST who was ARMED WITH A RIFLE AND TASER, among other things… he was booked on charges of robbery and bike theft…
In Northern California, police Tasered a cyclist who they were trying to pull over for a crime – riding without proper lights at night. The cyclist jumped off and ran, prompting the officer to taser him.
In Pensacola, police are now banned from shooting Tasers from a moving vehicle. The reason, a kid on a bike was tasered and then run over by the police car!
In Arkansas, there is this report – a TEN YEAR OLD girl was tasered by police who were called to the house because the girl REFUSED TO TAKE A SHOWER AND KICKED THE OFFICER IN THE GROIN.
A cyclist was tasered in the Minneapolis St. Paul airport
In addition, Tony Patrick’s incident has received quite a bit of attention in
In my case, the cyclist was charged with a variety of crimes as a result of his interaction with local authorities in Lawrence County. After Tony’s criminal lawyer filed a Motion to Dismiss, the trial court held a hearing at which the deputy sheriff involved in the altercation testified. The judge, a cycilst, wrote an opinion in which he concluded that all charges filed against the cyclist had to be dismissed. He further held that:
– There was no legal reason for police to stop the cyclists
– There was no legal reason to arrest the cyclists.
– There was no need for the two cyclists, riding two abreast, to “pull over” since they were doing nothing wrong.
The court found that riding two abreast was allowed under Ohio law and found that they did not have to “give way” to cars traveling behind, although giving way was the more courteous way to ride!
The judge’s decision, issued a year ago, was recently selected by the editors for inclusion in the published cases of Ohio law. Only a very small percentage of cases are taken for publication -especially municipal court decisions. This important case outlines the rights of cyclists to use the roadway and the right of cyclists to NOT be hassled by police for simply exercising our right to ride!
If you want to read the TASER decision in State v. Tony Patrick, you can read the entire decision here.
Send me your TASER cases and I’ll try to get them online!
Steve Magas
© 2024.
