Tased in the Chest for 23 Seconds

[Swede]

Garbage human being in uniform.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/ouooxa/tased_in_the_chest_for_23_seconds/

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Apart from the racist ones, there's a lot MORE cops that are just violent period

Sadly, you know that that the fact he's doing 4 years for this ... is because his parents had the resources to get the cop held accountable.

It's disgusting to watch.

[Celerity]

2. Here is the original story from 2016 (the tasing happened in 2014)

A SHOT TO THE HEART

Tased in the Chest for 23 Seconds, Dead for 8 Minutes, Now Facing a Lifetime of Recovery

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/07/tased-in-the-chest-for-23-seconds-dead-for-8-minutes-now-facing-a-lifetime-of-recovery/



THE SENTENCING HEARING began with a surprise. Timothy Runnels, a 32-year-old former Independence, Missouri, police officer, sat at a large, rectangular defense table inside Courtroom 8B at the Charles Evans Whittaker Federal Courthouse in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, late last month. He was waiting to learn his fate after pleading guilty to a federal crime he committed almost two years ago, on September 14, 2014. Judge Dean Whipple had not yet watched the government’s key piece of evidence — a dashboard video — because he wanted to do so with attorneys present to make arguments. Today the video, which had never been played in any public setting, would be played in open court. Even the victim, 18-year-old Bryce Masters, had seen it only once. As the video opens we see a gray Pontiac enter the frame, and Bryce’s dad, Matt, put his hand on his son’s knee. His mom, Stacy, folded her arms, clutching a tissue. Tears began to form in both his parents’ eyes, anticipating what everyone else in the room was about to see. Unfazed, Bryce leaned his 6-foot-1-inch frame forward, his eyes focused on the makeshift projector. He knew this piece of evidence absolved him of any wrongdoing.

In the video, Runnels pulls Bryce over and approaches the car. He tells Bryce to get out but doesn’t give a reason. Bryce repeatedly asks if he is under arrest. Runnels says, “You’re under arrest. Get your ass out of the car,” and attempts to pull him out by force. He then tases Bryce for 23 seconds, handcuffs him, drags the boy’s body behind the car, and deliberately drops him face first onto the asphalt road. Runnels may not have known it at the time, but Bryce was going into cardiac arrest. When the loud thud of the drop boomed throughout the courtroom, gasps echoed out. One woman looked down and covered her eyes with her hand. A man said, “Oh, my god.” A police officer with the Kansas City Police Department quickly brought his fist to his mouth, turned to the man next to him, and whispered, “Jesus.” Even those sitting behind the defendant — a few friends, his wife, his family — gasped, as if the recording revealed a truth about Runnels they had never considered.

Runnels faced a dire sentence that day — up to 10 years in federal prison. The catalyst for the crime was the 23-second Taser deployment straight into Bryce’s chest. That’s what caused him to go into cardiac arrest. Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Ketchmark argued that the length of time that Runnels held down the Taser’s trigger was an aggravating factor. One pull on the trigger sent electricity shooting out for five seconds; Runnels had held it down the equivalent of four pulls. Even so, the prosecution agreed that the initial Taser use was reasonable and within common police practice. Runnels’s crime, depriving a minor of his civil rights, occurred when he dropped the dying 17-year-old boy on his face. Matt Masters does not agree that the Taser use was reasonable, but he agrees it was common police practice. Matt is a 19-year veteran of the Kansas City Police Department with a slew of warrior-cop credentials. He has worked on SWAT teams and has been part of Kansas City’s police narcotics unit, taking point on an estimated 1,000 search warrants during one three-year span. After Bryce was tased, Matt discovered something he’d never heard in any Taser training he’d gone through, something he resisted believing, because it violated an article of faith among police officers: Tasers can kill.

More specifically, Matt learned that on October 12, 2009, Taser International, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based maker of conducted electrical weapons, released a training bulletin suggesting that officers should avoid shooting suspects in the chest whenever possible. Five years later — on September 14, 2014 — it would be difficult to argue that Runnels was unable to avoid shooting Bryce in the chest. Yet the defense’s argument for leniency was based on the claim that Runnels had acted reasonably as an officer right up until the moment he dropped Bryce on his face. But the wounds Bryce suffered from that part of the assault have largely healed. The permanent injury he struggles with every day came as a result of the Taser. Bryce’s brain was deprived of oxygen for six to eight minutes while he was in cardiac arrest. It was the Taser that almost killed Bryce.

snip

[Celerity]

4. Court Upholds $6.5M Verdict Against Ex-Independence Cop Who Tased A High School Student

After tasing Bryce Masters for about 20 seconds, Timothy Runnels dragged the unconscious teen several feet before dropping him face-down on the pavement.

https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-06-01/court-upholds-6-5m-verdict-against-ex-independence-cop-who-tased-a-high-school-student

Government officials enjoy broad protection against federal lawsuits, but a federal appeals court last week refused to extend it to an Independence police officer who was tagged with a $6.5 million jury verdict in a police brutality case. In a rare instance of a court denying qualified immunity to a government official, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the policeman, Timothy Runnels, had violated the teen victim’s right to be free from “an excessive, prolonged use” of a Taser. The victim, Bryce Masters, sued Runnels in 2016 for violating his civil rights. Two years earlier, Masters, then a 17-year-old high school senior, was driving his car when Runnels pulled him over for a traffic stop. When Masters refused to get out of his car, Runnels tried to drag him out, then drew his Taser and shot him. One barb lodged in his chest and another in his abdomen. Masters was able to crawl out of his car before falling unconscious face-down on the pavement. Runnels kept the trigger engaged for about 20 seconds, the equivalent of four cycles of the Taser, even though had Masters complied with all of his commands until he fell unconscious.

After handcuffing him, Runnels lifted the unconscious teen by his arms and dragged him several feet to a driveway before dropping him face-first onto the concrete, fracturing four teeth and causing abrasions on his face. The Taser discharge, meanwhile, caused Masters to suffer a convulsion and go into cardiac arrest. First responders revived him, but he suffered hypoxia – or oxygen deficiency to the brain. Following a five-day trial in December 2018, a jury awarded Masters $5 million in actual damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages, including $500,000 for prolonged use of the Taser and $1,000,000 for the pavement drop. Post-trial, Runnels argued that he was entitled to qualified immunity – the legal doctrine that shields government officials from liability for conduct that does not violate “clearly established” law. The doctrine has effectively shielded police from all but the most egregious conduct – and oftentimes it has shielded them from such conduct as well.

The trial judge, however, denied Runnels’ motion, and the 8th Circuit last week upheld that finding. “An officer may not continue to tase a person who is no longer resisting, threatening or fleeing,” Circuit Judge Jane L. Kelly wrote on behalf of a three-judge panel of the court. “That is so whether the tasing comes in the form of multiple, separate deployments or, as in this case, a single, continuous deployment that lasts for an extended period of time.” Kirk Presley, Masters’ attorney, hailed the court’s ruling, saying it relied on “established precedent that excessive force is always unconstitutional.” “In fact, the jury found that defendant Runnels’ continued Taser trigger pull was intentional and malicious,” Presley said in an email. “So the record clearly supported a denial of qualified immunity.” Ending qualified immunity – a doctrine established by the Supreme Court nearly 40 years ago – has become a central goal of proponents of police reform in the wake of the murder of George Floyd a year ago by a Minneapolis police officer. They argue the doctrine has been a major obstacle to police accountability.

The Supreme Court has said that the doctrine is necessary to give officers “breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments.” Without it, according to the court, the possible threat of personal liability would make them overly timid and discourage people from entering public service. In finding that Runnels was not entitled to qualified immunity, the 8th Circuit adopted a position that it has rarely taken in the past. Two years ago, for example, it upheld the denial of qualified immunity to an officer who slammed a nonthreatening, nonviolent woman to the ground, breaking her collarbone and knocking her unconscious. The court found that the law surrounding the officer’s use of force was not clearly established. The Runnels case is unusual not just because it represents the rare instance of a policeman successfully sued for damages. Runnels was also indicted on charges of depriving Masters of his civil rights under color of law and obstruction of justice. Runnels, who was fired from the Independence Police Department after his encounter with Masters, pleaded guilty in 2015 to a single deprivation of rights charge and was sentenced to four years in prison. Federal prison records show he was released on Dec. 27, 2019.

snip

[Calculating]

3. Psycho cop

4 years is too little for what this psycho did, he's a danger to the public.