If you’re going to Barre, look out. You could get Tased for questioning an officer’s reason for arresting you — even if you just cross your arms over your chest and say, “Give me a thrill.”
That’s what happened to a 58-year-old homeless woman Wednesday in the central Vermont city that last year won the moniker “Tasertown” from its local paper for using federal stimulus funds to purchase 21 Tasers and three assault rifles.
When you have 21 Tasers in the weapons locker, it’s no doubt tempting to use them. The incident Wednesday, as reported in the Times Argus, showed Barre police are willing to pull the Tasers out and shoot them — even at homeless women within 10 years of collecting Social Security.
The ACLU, Amnesty International, and other human rights groups worry that when police buy Tasers for their arsenals, they utilize them — even when their use isn’t justified.
Police should use Tasers in situations where they would otherwise use deadly force.
It’s hard to imagine — based on the Times Argus account of the incident — that police would have fired a gun at the woman simply because she was standing in the parking lot of a convenience store.
What’s doubly sobering about the Wednesday episode is that police had to apply the Taser directly to the woman’s body and shoot — because when they tried to fire from a distance, the electronic barbs didn’t penetrate her coat.
And even when police were applying the barbs directly to her body, they needed to fire numerous shots.
There’s more. Even the multiple barbs didn’t end things.
“The officer and Osborn (the woman) ended up on the ground, and Osborn took a swing at Duhaime (the officer) and missed, leading to the citation for attempted assault,” the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus said.
The Barre police chief, Tim Bombardier, said he wanted his officers to avoid scuffles, hence the use of the Taser.
“We’re trying to avoid having our officers involved in physical alterations (c.q.) with individuals,” Bombardier told the Times Argus.
Read the Times Argus Taser story.