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news
Texas cyclist tasered (via Twitter).PNGVideo: Texas cyclist tasered after running red light
Video has gone viral of a cyclist being tasered by police close to a university campus in Texas after the rider went through a red light – although the police department involved, described as “Campus Cowboys,” say that the widely shared footage doesn’t show the full story.
The incident, which also saw the cyclist being tackled to the ground, happened last Wednesday lunchtime on University Drive near the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, around 80 miles northwest of Houston, reports Kbtx.com.
A College Station Police Department patrol car followed the cyclist through a junction, whereupon the rider turned round and was confronted by an officer who, as he pulled him from his bike, said: “You’re under arrest.”
The officer used a taser on the cyclist, who can be heard to say “Oh f*ck.”
One Reddit user said after viewing the footage: “Campus Cowboys are the ones that couldn’t qualify for police.
“They’re just above Mall Cop in the pecking order. This is straight up police brutality and smacks of a payout and some firings.”
Video posted to Twitter suggested the rider was stopped and tasered for jaywalking, something police have denied.
Police in Texas go on a power trip and tase someone for jaywalking on a bike pic.twitter.com/ueVBG0aDRd
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) May 7, 2021
Indeed, the police department subsequently defended its officers’ reaction and claimed that the rider, a 34-year-old man, had been tasered after he resisted arrest.
“We’ve received a lot of hateful and vitriolic comments the past couple days regarding this incident,” wrote public information officer Tristen Lopez in a statement published online.
“The bicyclist was NOT randomly tackled and tasered for jaywalking, nor was he tasered multiple times.”
He continued: “Bicyclists are frequently involved in crashes along University Drive and while the cyclists are not always in the wrong, we do receive citizen’s requests to address the issue of cyclists not flowing traffic laws.”
He said that “the cyclist led our officer on about a 5-minute tour of the surrounding area before our officer finally found himself in a position to physically detain the cyclist.”
In line with standing regulations following deployment of a taser, an ambulance was called to the scene.
The cyclist, who was subsequently taken into custody, faces charges of evading detention, resisting arrest, and resisting transport.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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33 comments
Subhead is wrong: "'Campus Cowboy' police at university in Dallas say rider had disobeyed earlier instruction to stop"
This didn't happen in Dallas, but in College Station as the article later correctly states. Totally different areas of Texas.
I endured 2 confrontations with US law enforcement, and I was in the wrong both times. One was straighforward speeding on a long one-day motorbike trip from San Francisco Bay to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I was caught by an over head plane near Elko, Nevada and the pursuing policeman was very nice about it and told me to be careful because there would be other planes about on that holiday weekend. I think the universal limit then was 55 mph and I was doing 80. The other time was in Yosemite National Park where a Park Ranger, or similar, caught me sleeping in the back of a car in November up near a famous viewpoint. He was nice about it too, and told me to move to an official site. I moved instead to another car park, and hid the car behind a tree with the branches all bowed down because of the weight of snow. I didn't think he'd come back, but he returned about 10 pm- maybe he spotted tyre tracks in the snow. I can't remember if it was still snowing. He quite justifiably wasn't pleased and ordered me at gunpoint out of the car in my underwear because he suspected I was looking for a gun in my pack- probably I was looking for clothing. Hands on the snow covered bonnet (hood) and feet far apart. He radioed in my vehicle registration and driving licence, and it came back "no convictions, no arrests". I think it was only a small Federal fine of $25, and I had to drive a long distance out of the park that night.
My experience of US cops did nothing to break the stereo type. On a work trip to Houston once and decided to walk the 1/2 mile to a bar to meet some colleagues rather than Uber it and then got stopped by a cop who proceeded to scream and shout at me for about 10mins demanding to know why I was walking and what the hell was I doing there.
Honestly I've never met anyone who genuinely I thought may struggle to tie their own shoelaces and contained so much inbuilt rage. It blows my mind that they give these guys guns, I wouldn't trust them with a potato peeler.
Yeah, but I gather that "not driving" is a very suspicious activity in that there 'Merica...
It genuinely is, especially in Texas.
Oh, to live in such a crime free location that two police cars and a motorbike
can be mobilisedare available for a minor traffic infringement.Broken Windows Wyc, Broken Windows.....
Seems proportinate. It's worrying to see tasers being used so friviously
I presume going by your second sentence you meant disproportionate?
Police thugs. However, what if it transpired that backpack contained an explosive device? At some point in a situation where someone is avoiding or antagonising the police it's going to get unpleasant to watch.
wonder what the chances of that happening are. Let's compare that to the likelihood of the police behaving like thugs.
So who is the real enemy of the people?....
Muddy Ford. You do know that electric currents can set off explosives
I wasn't suggesting that the action the police took was correct. I think they were idiots to use a taser, and were probably desperate to use their weapon on someone, anyone. But the cyclists avoidance of an obvious police stop request was inevitably going to get ugly, and the backpack might have excused the foregoing of pleasantries to come quietly.
That's if there was a request. Did the rider blow the light and not realise he was being pursued?
At the point of realisation that he was being pursued, did he come to the (not unreasonable) assumption that he was in for a beating anyway, so the best course of action was to try and escape?
When the cops are unaccountable, violent, out of control, and entirely capable of killing people over small and random motivations, it's not necessarily common sense to accede to requests - the only way to realistically stand any chance of escaping a beating or worse is to distance yourself from the source of danger if at all possible.
Add in the human factor of untrained members of the public reacting unpredictably in the face of fear and danger, and it starts to become clear how the domination tactics of certain police forces are not just wrong, but amount to a serious public health and safety issue.
Particularly when you factor in that they might mistake their gun for their taser.
He should be greatful he wasn't rammed off of his bike by the car and ended up under a tyre.
Follow the law and things like this doesn't happen, break the law a little and things like this don't happen.
How does that boot taste, anyway?
Ian Tomlinson, Harry Stanley and Jean-Charles de Menezes would like a word. Or would do if......
Unpopular opinion of common sense: The video clearly shows him evading police from the first second of the video. The cyclist turned a simple traffic infraction into a felony of his own accord.
Sweeping away the entire concept of proportionate response in one comment. Bravo.
FFS, the guy was on the floor with 2 cops on top of him. And then got tazered.... How is that common sense?
Because US law enables police officers to use a force greater than the suspect, as necessary, to overcome them when they are resisting arrest. A suspect is not arrested until they are in handcuffs. A suspect face up and flailing like a fish to avoid restraint is resisting arrest under US law. Tasers are usually the first response to resiting arrest... or would you prefer the alternative of punches or a gun?
So does UK law. Of course one hopes that, in the UK at least, the police have enough "common sense" to understand that force should only be applied in proportion to risk to the public, and even then it usually isn't necessary unless the police escalate the situation.
The above failed on both those counts, and of course the principle of greater force was void as the individual did not actually resist in any way at all before he was given a good hiding.
As for the false dichotomy of punches or guns.... How about the thrid way - proportionate response?
This was a serious assault by two thugs jizzed up on their own aggression and violence. Hardly the kind of people any sane person wants in the police, and it goes a long way to illustrate and explain teh problems with the US police, and with police forces the world over
Well, at least he didn't get shot dead for his criminal behaviour.
Dropped his Harley 😁😁😁😆, hope he had lots of back up coming to help lift it back up!!!
Dropped his employer's Harley. I don't think many people would treat their own Harley like that.
Where do U.S. cops get their training from?
Watching The Dukes of Hazzard, and the Police Academy movies?
They all seem to be a bunch of fuckwits.
This is the trouble with the American Law Enforcement setup. You have town, county and state Police and like the above you also have Campus Police and in some places School Police. And that is not including Sheriff's departments where the head police officer for a town is elected like a politician. So with that many law enforcement offices, anyone sacked from one just walks to another and gets hired.
It also doesn't help that the Police training can be 10 weeks minimum and is done like an army bootcamp so new recruits are literally just taught to shout at people to get them to do something, inflict pain for trivialities and not think but do, it can be scary for all involved.
That's why the euphemism "peace officers" is used. Ain't not no peace around them mothers.
I'd love to see police trained to those high standards. Note the low body count on both of those franchises.....
Presumably you mean on-screen, rather than amongst the viewers?
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