"Jesus Saves. TASERS Kill."
When I first heard of the police of Jerseyville having killed a disturbed teen named Roger Holyfield with a TASER stun gun earlier this week, my thoughts went to the McHenry death of a man after local police used a "non-lethal" method to subdue him.
Saturday, the Chicago Tribune ran a front page story on the “5 foot-7, 130-pound” youth whose main office seems to have been carrying a Bible and a cell phone, screaming, “I want Jesus,” and not following police instructions after a person called the Jerseyville, Illinois, police. State Police soon arrived.
The teen was handcuffed and shocked twice with the TASER.
Holyfield was scheduled to be baptized the next day.
The Tribune writes “one of his friends at the funeral wrote in orange on a black Dodge truck,”
Jesus saves.The original story in the Belleville News-Democrat said,
Tasers kill.
Police officers responded around 8:56 p.m. Saturday to the 600 block of South State Street to find a man holding a Bible and a cordless phone yelling, "I want Jesus!" The subject was later identified as Holyfield.The Belleville paper cites an Associated Press story that says
Officers attempted to speak to Holyfield, but he became combative toward officers and would not respond to verbal commands, police said.
Holyfield was warned several times to stop being combative or risk being Tasered, police said. Even after the device was initially used, Holyfield continued to be combative and rolled around, dislodging the Taser probes. Holyfield continued to resist officers and the Taser was deployed a second time. Holyfield then physically pulled the probes out, police said.
Tasers have been either cited as a contributing factor or the cause of death in more than 180 people since 1986.You can find out what the Democrats are doing locally on McHenry County Blog.
4 comments:
these tasers are tragically out of control. i wish law enforcement was equiped with better non-lethal equipment. i have saw on tech shows that a lot of other types of solutions are available, but i guess they havent gotten popular yet.
Quit being a monday morning quarterback! The officers had to make a split second decision and made a choice to use a less than lethal device rather than a gun. It's unfortunate that he or for that matter anyone dies as a result in it's use. The officers can't say "Hey, before I take action let me get your medical history." Get real!
Who gets TASERed? Not someone with a gun, they will be shot. Not someone with a knife, they will be shot.
Mostly street people, who may or may not be mentally ill, people involved with domestic disturbances, people who are acting oddly. But, who defines oddly?
I live in jerseyville Illinois and this isn't the first person to loose their life because of the stupidity of the jerseyville police, This small town police department has the blood of 3 others on their hands,Tom Wallace,Stanton Smith and Barb Fessler. Tom wallce last his life after a high speed chase through the streets of Jerseyville. Stanton and Barb were killed by a drunk driver that had only minutes before had been allowed to continue on his way after being stopped by the Jerseyville police. Winesses testified that the drunk driver was to drunk to stand by himself when he was asked to leave a bar just minutes before the accident. And the Jerseyville cop that let the drunk go,he was allowed to take early retirment with full pension by the city of Jerseyville,. There is no justice in jerseyville.,The cops that killed Roger will probably get a pay raise and a promotion for the dirty deed.
Post a Comment