January 2, 2011

Taser Death: Rodney Brown (Cleveland, OH)

Rodney Brown, a 40-year old man was stopped by police officers on New Year's Eve in Cleveland OH. For some reason the routine traffic stop turned into an effort by the police to arrest the man. Brown resisted arrest. The unidentified police officers pumped Brown with 50,000 volts of electricity from their tasers. He went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at nearby University Hospital.

His mother, Shirley Brown, indicates that her youngest son was a mild-mannered guy who rarely left the house.  She indicates that he suffered in 2005 when he was diagnosed as bi-polar and schizophrenic.   The diagnosis came after two of his older brothers died just months apart, one in a motorcycle accident and the other from a ruptured aorta.

There is obviously much more information to come on this taser-related death. My point of view is clear ... the death penalty is inappropriate for a charge of resisting arrest. Something is clearly wrong when a 40-year old man is killed by the police for simply being disrespectful.

 

7 comments:

Unknown said...

It is just so difficult to tell young adults to have respect for authorities when stuff like this happen.

Unknown said...

Dee Dee - Understood. However, I think that we need to teach our young boys that they need to understand that the police have the guns and the press on their side. We need to (a) not put ourselves in a position where we come into contact with the police or (b) when we do ... we need to be very calm and respectful. The alternative is too often fatal...

citychic said...

I've commented on here before about the tasering of several citizens. I agree with DeeDee how do we teach our kids the right way to deal with police when people are getting tasered for no other reasaon than resisting arrest. I also agree with you villager that we shouldn't put ourselves in those situations. but what if you get a situation where the person may have just said something that the officer didn't like. Not really being uncooperative, but the officer took it that way. You shouldn't have to kiss any one's behind.

Unknown said...

CityChic - I don't know that it is about kissing someone's behind as much as it is about assessing risk. The police kill someone weekly with a taser gun. Most of the time it is being used in some bogus situation. Best not to give them the excuse to use it. Get the officer's badge number and go after him AFTER the physical confrontation situation is over. Just a thought...

citychic said...

I know Villager, I agree with you but I have a friend who's 17 yr old son was pulled over for a busted tailight. The young man told his mom after it happened that the officer seemed to have a attitude form the jump. He made the young man get out of the car the boy said he was very aggressive, searching his car (no propable cause) and forcefully searching him and his girlfriend (also 17) he was slammed up against the car while being searched. Luckily, he managed to control his temper(as he was being manhandled). This is the type of thing I was speaking of in my last comment. How does his mom tell him to respect he police he didn't put hisself in any situation he had a busted tailight.

Unknown said...

CityChic - The story that you shared is all-too-common. I'm glad that he and his girlfriend held their anger in check. There is no upside to adding fuel to the fire when a police officer is acting like a fool. I guess that we need to get used to reporting these instances of police brutality or police rudeness to the police commission or other responsible offices.

Unknown said...

All The two police officers involved in the taser-related killing of Rodney Brown have been cleared. Read more...