NYPD Taser Death: Worse than Bell and Diallo
A few posts ago, I wrote about the way big news events can push other important stories off the front page and the top of newscasts, and out of the minds of viewers and readers. I didn’t know when I wrote that that such a stark and tragic example of this would be just days away, right here in New York City. Read more after the jump.
With the bailout talks in Washington sucking up all the news oxygen, there’s been only modest attention paid to a local story that would otherwise be an emotional citywide scandal: the death of a disturbed man who fell to a Brooklyn sidewalk after being needlessly tasered by an NYPD cop. Inman Morales of Bedford-Stuyvesant, who by all accounts was a good person who had never caused any trouble, was having some sort of episode Wednesday, becoming extremely distraught, stripping naked, and climbing onto a first floor ledge of his apartment building. There he stood, shouting and waving an eight-foot florescent light, as a crowd gathered and watched. His mother had called 911, but when police arrived, they refused to let her talk to her son to try and calm him down, their first of several decisions that defied any kind of common sense.
A call went out for an inflatable cushion to be placed on the sidewalk, but it had not yet been brought to the scene. Nevertheless, a police lieutenant ordered an officer to zap Morales with a stun gun. When the electricity hit him, Morales, as anyone would have predicted, fell to the concrete below and died, right in front of his mother and the stunned onlookers.
You can say what you want about whether the police shooting deaths of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo were justified. But the fact is, the cops thought—wrongly, as it turned out in both cases (and many others over the years)—that the “subjects” had a gun. It at least leads to the hypothetical argument about what YOU would do if you were in the same situation. It’s easy to criticize the cops for overreacting, many people would say, until you’re in their position, thinking they were about to be fired upon.
But there’s no such argument in the Morales case. It goes without saying, since he was naked, that he was clearly not carrying a firearm, and you’ll have to excuse my laymen’s belief that a florescent light bulb did not constitute a clear and present danger to the armed officers. Anybody could also figure out that the debilitating effects of a taser strike would clearly be sufficient to topple Morales to the street. As the NYPD said yesterday, there had been no effort or planning for how to break Morales’s entirely predictable fall. An order to taser him was equal to an order to kill him. I wonder why they just didn’t shoot him down.
To its credit, the NYPD has quickly responded, saying the use of the stun gun was inappropriate in that situation (department guidelines prohibit its use when the subject is in an elevated position). The lieutenant who ordered the tasing was stripped of his gun and badge, and the officer who fired the shock has been reassigned to desk duty. The investigation is continuing, and under “normal” news circumstances, that investigation and the incident itself would be leading the newscasts every night for a week, just as they did in the Bell and Diallo cases. Awareness of what happened would be raised, marches and protests might be planned, and the NYPD would be facing a great deal more anger and concern about the use of deadly force; or, in this case, the use of force that would clearly be deadly in the end.
But the bailout negotiations and the presidential campaign are getting all the attention. I looked at some local news websites today; I couldn’t find a mention of the Morales case. But this is a story that should not be buried; not the matter of how tasers are increasingly being used by cops, not the matter of the cops’ willingness to carry out this action in front of dozens of witnesses, not the solely departmental punishment the two cops involved are facing so far. It sounds like a criminal case to me, and although the economic panic hitting the country is bound to grab the headlines for now, more attention must be paid to the cruel and inexplicable actions taken by police on the scene that day.
Comments: 6
I don't know what may have gone through the minds of those officers that day... but I definitely agree, this was just a horrible decision overall on their behalf.
Why couldn't they just have waited until they brought the inflatable mattress? Why? What would another 10, 20, 30 minutes have done asides from the police being potentially poked by a florescent tube?
I don't know what may have gone through the minds of those officers that day... but I definitely agree, this was just a horrible decision overall on their behalf.
Why couldn't they just have waited until they brought the inflatable mattress? Why? What would another 10, 20, 30 minutes have done asides from the police being potentially poked by a florescent tube?
Jim, I hope your happy, as of this morning a co-worker and friend killed himself because of the pressure you and your media friends placed upon him. Lt. Piggot was a great man and leader of an elite unit. You obviously are very misinformed as are most of the public in the dealings with an emotionally disturbed person. Coments such as why they would not let his mother talk to him are a perfect example. If you bothered to investigate and talk to a seasoned hostage negotiator when dealing with this type of person you never bring in family for many reasons which i wont bother to list here. Secondly your comment on how a light tube could be a present danger to "armed" officers, you dont even realize what you said. Your inference is that they should not have been in danger because they had guns, that is exactly what they were trying to avoid!!! Had they shot him when he swung the light at them what would you have said then. And if you think for a minute that those light tubes are not a danger, volunteer to stand there while i swing one at your neck and you tell me. I hope your happy that you and those like you are directly responsible for the death of a good man.. Good job Jim.. now go home to your family while the elite walk the streets of this city ready to do what no one else wants to do but expects to be done.
TO ROBERT BRAGER:
bob- please spare us your allegiance to a comrade garbage and get over it. it's life, it's not a cakewalk & you and your colleague CHOSE this line of work. just like an airline pilot or a crab fisherman, you understood a lot of what could be in store for you. raw deal or not, what pigott did was wrong, so wrong, you can see how the world reacted. so pigott wasn't so strong, maybe as ill as morales - neither deserved it, but maybe the only irony here is that pigott's weakness showed up too late to help Iman Morales. & in the end, morales & pigott & all those mentally ill should get a hell of a lot more sympathy & treatment from the rest of us. but don't confuse duty for distress, then you're as wrong as pigott was.
New York City
I hate that stigma to the mentally ill is still at such a high leval.
There are so many deaths needlessly to the mentally ill because no one helps them, or helps them in a completely wrong way. Two years ago, there was a young man who had a psychotic episode one Sunday night at my college. A freshman, with good intentions, tried to excorsize "the demon" out of him.
Makeing poor decisions with the excuse to do good does not make the decision any less of a wrong.
I would just like to start by saying to "The CoolOne " that yes it is true that Robert Brager and his fellow co-workers "chose" their line of work but if it wasn't for them and their decision where would we be? I am tired of always hearing on the news how they make "mistakes" or all the "bad" things they do but you never once hear of cops that put themselves in dangerous situations everyday or when they risk their lives to save others without a second thought or regret. News reporters need to be more careful of the words they choose and the sources they believe. You always need to hear all sides of any story because what one side doesn't know or chose to tell can mislead the public, never jump to conclusions because now we have a wife and three kids that have to go on with no husband or father because of pressures of the media and the blame put against him. Don't get me wrong, I do think that things should have been handled differently and I do sympathize for the Morales family but I think its wrong that the Piggot family does not get the same sympathy or respect.