University student Tased downtown
The Ol’ Dirty has a story in today about two University students being Tased and arrested for disorderly conduct on Friday.
The police report says that Ian George Van Ornum was standing in the middle of the street on Willamette and Broadway protesting the use of pesticides on highways, and was approached by police because he was disrupting the traffic.
Van Ornum then resisted arrest and was Tased twice. University student Anthony Farley tried to prevent the arrest and was Tased and subdued.
The circumstances for the Tasing aren’t made very clear in the report, and the use of a Taser does not seem necessary. Unfortunately, there is no objective information on the incident, since the accounts given by spectators present were friends of Van Ornum. If anything, though, this is a testament to the effectiveness of Tasers in assisting police officers in arrests.
The Survival Center is organizing a rally in support of the two students that were arrested, most definitely jumping on the anti-Taser issue. This is happening on Thursday at 12 in the EMU Amphitheater. A Eugene community member Planet Glassberg (no joke) weighed in on the issue with an opinion letter in the ODE:
Police already have numerous weapons such as chemical weapons, asps, batons, guns, rubber bullets, voice control and physical restraints. Aren’t there MANY better uses for our limited tax dollars than another violent weapon to be used against citizens? Let’s support better training and oversight for police, rather than the electrocution of our citizens.
So maybe Planet would have been happier if Van Ornum was beaten instead? I suppose having a broken nose or arm is better than being shocked without bodily injury, as long as it supports a bandwagon cause. Snarky comments aside, I will say that the deployment of Tasers by police is a hard issue to support fully as a freedom-loving citizen.
Why don’t we all recall a little over a year ago when the Eugene, Lane County area was calling for the department to invest in tasers. Wondering why they didn’t have them, so that they could deal with situations without using lethal force!
Does anyone here really have access to the police report or as usual are we ripping them apart without knowing the entire story and believing the least reputable people, the ones who were there disrupting the peace that they fight for! Not the ones who’s job and personal integrity relies on their honesty.
Ospiggs aura of gee nothing ever goes wrong ethos has misguided Webfoots marching to the slaughter. Its Darwin vs. OSPIGG groupthink. Ospigg is winning. (ospigg is the governors pet wabbit)
“It did seem like overkill, but it also seemed like Ian
Its all about channeling the “inner sudsy” to build a sustainable consensus.
Regarding Judge Dredd…EPD is hardly “the Law”.
That video was a waste of 10 minutes of my life. I was hoping for a clear answer on what actually happened before the kid got arrested.
I had to chuckle a little when I saw this because of the whole “Kesey Three” label.
It did seem like overkill, but it also seemed like Ian’s asking the undercover cop if he wanted poison in his face was also a catalyst. The reaction wasn’t proportionate to the threat, but it gets back to what I was saying about protesting smarter, not harder.
There’s still some hearsay and speculation in there too, and the video is obviously not completely objective, but it does give you more of a look into the goings on.
Too many cops were called in for certain, and the police car speaker with the “disperse the area” was also very Judge Dredd-ish.
I don’t get the arrest of the older fella.
I imagine an eye witness account or two (of those given) would support the cops’ claims about trying to provoke a police call, etc. if that was what was going on. That seems too over-the-top though.
Too bad the camera missed the most crucial parts of the whole incident. Strange seeing that they caught everything else.
Cheers to you, Zack. That might be your best comment ever.
There’s a YouTube video about the incident — but somehow cameras did not capture the entire arrest/tasing. However, it does seem like a bit of an overkill with several cops standing around Ian, who’s not a very big guy. You’d think with the county budget problems, they could spare a few of the guys standing around this thing. Anyway, here’s the link. Someone posted it over at the ODE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gr4RsI2V6Y
Will more tasered duck morsels make the holy cow menu before weeks end ? looking like a big maybe.
I almost posted to you last night to say that I understand why you snipped that other discussion thread, the experience was probably a bit overwhelming for you. Also, I appreciate your thought behind the decision and am glad that you left that Monet hanging.
But you hardly know enough about me, to judge me, as you have.
Well, you’re entitled to be foolish, which is fortunate, because you certainly do enough of it.
: )
I don’t think Hiliary is a goon, either. Just a criminal.
The intersection between {MOM} and {GOON} certianly isn’t null. Look at Hillary Clinton, for instance.
Chris: I gather from the tenor of your post that you think I somehow think it
“By the way: the TV media didn
Josh, Ian has just been a particular instance for the conversation to revolve around tasing and tasers in general. Aside from some low-brow humor and sarcasm, the sentiment I get from this thread and the people you mention is that the people rushing to judgment are those who were there. Perhaps you are right, but the rest of us who were not there are awaiting the investigation and more of the story to come out. This isn’t to disparage you as a source of information, but an attempt to see if any objective take on the matter will be forthcoming. You may scoff at the idea of objectivity in this case, but for me I am withholding much of my opinion on whether or not he “should have been tased” until I get more information to add to what you and yours have provided.
Your fun little quip about “how ignorant you are” is really hilarious to me, because if one were to use a dictionary, he or she would find that I am arguing my ignorance and I am feeding more information into the ol’ brain machine so that I can form my own decision. Again, not to say your information isn’t being taken into consideration, but jumping onto your bandwagon, or that of the EPD’s would just be stupid at this point.
Thanks for clarifying your invitation too by the way. Not sure if people will take you up on it. I might, but this week is pretty insane.
By the way: the TV media didn’t see a damned thing and arrived only in time to see the cops arrest Day Owen 15 minutes after the incident after cops invited Day across the street before media were able to interview him.
Though TV talks as if they were there, they were not, which is apparent by their inaccurate reporting and total reliance on the cop’s fabricated press release.
Don’t you feel a bit foolish spouting your opinions on whether or not Ian should’ve been tased when you have hardly any information on the situation and nearly all of it from the EPD’s press release?
Y’all have the freedom of speech (to an extent in Patriot Act America), but I hope you remember that no one cares what you have to say after a while when you keep proving over and over how ignorant you are.
I’d honestly be happy to talk with any of you if you’d like to hear more about what 18 eyewitnesses said (not a threat, an invitation).
dc: I realize this. I gather from the tenor of your post that you think I somehow think it’s great that someone was tased. I haven’t lauded that anywhere, not will I. I have been discussing why one might get tased, the (apparently new) role of tasers in the EPD, and a general sentiment I have about Protesting 101 (read: protest smarter, not harder).
As for my comment that it was “an interesting first”, my point is not to insinuate that it’s the first tasing. My point was that this is, in my recollection, the first time the role of tasers and EPD’s use of them has come crashing into the public forum of debate. Before you go and say something about how EVERY time someone gets tased it should be a point of debate, I’m speaking about this instance only. I may be more willing to give EPD and other agents of civic authority some benefit of the doubt, but as I said earlier “see post made on June 2nd @ 4:53”.
One wonders why these hippies don’t volunteer to keep a section of a highway clear of weeds for a year with only their hands and manual tools and a bicycle for transportation. Preferably a section of I-5 between Eugene and Drain.
Instead of prancing around in traffic annoying adults in some masturbatory fantasy about how “important’ and “meaningful” their cause-du-jour is.
Oh, yeah, that would require manual labor, performed anonymously. The combination of which is like Kryptonite to these narcissistic Leftist wanna-bes.
Chris: I doubt EPD will be in much trouble over this, but it
Or more booze.
Or both.
This thread is kind of like a lame party. We keep having the same conversations.
We need more people here.
Chris:
dc is a Pacifica Forum goon who’s been promoting Holocaust revisionism and defending David Irving. “Disingenuous” barely even begins to describe it.
I’d also advise that dc read what people are writing and level arguments at what’s said rather than “surmising” about the nature of the writer and/or what their position vis-a-vis democracy is.
Figured I’d say so since dc quotes me most of that post up there. : )
Bringing up an argument that wasn’t made, framing it as if it were and then using that as a jumping off platform to call people shits and weasels is pretty disingenuous.
Well, I’d advise that shooting at cops is a bad idea and probably warrants like force in return. But, huzzah for good ol’ #2!
I think it’s funny that a lot of people screaming about their rights(now this may or may not be you guys) with regard to tasers, couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the 2nd Amendment…
Just an observation…
..”Not something you subscribe to, or a place to hang your hat”
may warrant the quotation marks.
nite all.