And yet they just stand by and watch and do nothing

[seaboy4hire]

http://webcastr.com/videos/underground/Naked-Wizard-Tasered-NSFW-Coachella-music-festival.html

[+ nycman]

I'm a little confused by your title.

 

"And yet they just stand by and watch and do nothing"

 

What were they supposed to do? Interfere with police officers doing their jobs?

 

The dude is clearly breaking the law. He is politely given multiple opportunities

to get dressed. He responds by mouthing off and throwing his clothes around

like an arrogant ass. Then he starts trying to put his hands on the officers

shoulders and grabbing at them. At that point the officers appropriately move

in to restrain him. When they go to handcuff him, he resists (big surprise), and

grabs one officer by the balls. I agree the rest of the video is painful to watch

but that doesn't make their actions wrong.

 

The dude is clearly either:

a) high as a kite

b) incredibley stupid

c) an ass

or

d) all of the above (my vote).

 

If the dude had grabbed the officers gun instead of his balls and opened fire on

the crowd, I have no doubt you'd be arguing that they should have done

more to subdue him sooner. Monday morning quarterbacking is a fun, but

extremely dangerous, game to play.

 

I think the officers all deserve commendations for showing as much restraint

and professional behavior as they did.

 

Obviously, we both watched the same video and saw two very different things.

[MsGuy]

http://webcastr.com/videos/underground/Naked-Wizard-Tasered-NSFW-Coachella-music-festival.html

 

Greg, it is dangerous, exceedingly dangerous, for a crowd of bystanders to attempt to intervene in an arrest. That kind of situation can flash over into serious violence w/o it being the intention of anyone, including the cops, to harm anyone.

[josephga]

I'm a little confused by your title.

 

"And yet they just stand by and watch and do nothing"

 

What were they supposed to do? Interfere with police officers doing their jobs?

 

The dude is clearly breaking the law. He is politely given multiple opportunities

to get dressed. He responds by mouthing off and throwing his clothes around

like an arrogant ass. Then he starts trying to put his hands on the officers

shoulders and grabbing at them. At that point the officers appropriately move

in to restrain him. When they go to handcuff him, he resists (big surprise), and

grabs one officer by the balls. I agree the rest of the video is painful to watch

but that doesn't make their actions wrong.

 

The dude is clearly either:

a) high as a kite

b) incredibley stupid

c) an ass

or

d) all of the above (my vote).

 

If the dude had grabbed the officers gun instead of his balls and opened fire on

the crowd, I have no doubt you'd be arguing that they should have done

more to subdue him sooner. Monday morning quarterbacking is a fun, but

extremely dangerous, game to play.

 

I think the officers all deserve commendations for showing as much restraint

and professional behavior as they did.

 

Obviously, we both watched the same video and saw two very different things.

 

 

I agree the guy was at fault . the guy was an ass

[zeferrelli]

that guy was putting everybody at risk

[Rick Munroe]

that guy was putting everybody at risk

 

LOL At risk of what? Having to see a very small penis on a drunk guy? The cops had plenty of time and opportunity to handcuff and arrest him. Three police officers couldn't restrain an unarmed naked guy without repeatedly tasering him? Tasers kill and this looks like excessive force.

[MsGuy]

LOL At risk of what? Having to see a very small penis on a drunk guy? The cops had plenty of time and opportunity to handcuff and arrest him. Three police officers couldn't restrain an unarmed naked guy without repeatedly tasering him? Tasers kill and this looks like excessive force.

 

RICK, as the sports guys on ESPN would say, the video is what it is. What folks see in it depends on their personal experiences with cops and attitudes about police. What bothered me was Greg's response. I'd hate to see him injured, in prison or laid out on a slab.

[+ nycman]

The cops had plenty of time and opportunity to handcuff and arrest him.

 

I can see you've never had to restrain and handcuff an intoxicated (and most likely high)

naked person while having a gun strapped to your side. It's not as easy as it looks.

And despite what you seem to think, it is also an extremely dangerous situation.

 

I'm astounded how willing people are to criticize police officers. Believe me, they

would rather be enjoying the concert with the crowd, than having to deal with this

asshole. And now thanks to the actions of one small dicked jerk, they also get to fill out

hours of paper work.

 

Police officers don't restrain people for "fun". It is never fun and it's always dangerous.

 

Fortunately, no one got seriously hurt. That's not always the case.

[Guest ryan2552]

Greg you're being much too hard on the crowd. They didn't stand by and do nothing everybody pulled out their cell phone to record the event ... and one guy even brought back a 60's political chant, "the whole world is watching."

 

The video is truly disturbing. The naked man was obviously not thinking clearly. You have three armed officers asking you very nicely to put some clothes on. The real chunky officer suggested he would have a fun time if he had his clothes on. The officers were truly very kind. Even if the guy wasn't all that impressed with the bulky officers I know I would have done anything the cute fratboy asked me to do. He begged the naked man to just put on the clothes ... he wouldn't have to beg me.

 

Now the part that does seem excessive is the shock therapy. Ironically the officer who waived off his partner from usin the device ended up being the first to pull the trigger. OK so now we have a naked man on the ground with a electric wire dangling from his body. At this point even a high person might wanna just chill but the naked man decided to not listen and received a few more zaps.

 

Until the officers began the man's treatments I thought they were very kind and extremely patient. In some cities a naked man slapping a officer on the shoulder would just be shot dead.

 

Now the hardest part to understand about the incident was how come these 3 very husky officers couldn't just take down this wacked out naked man without the use of the jumper cables? The guy was not really combative had no obvious weapon ... well except for the scary looking penis. I wonder if he is more a grower than a shower I sure hope he is.

 

Well in my view big points for the officers during the first part of the video and negative points for using the jolt gun. On 1 to 5 with 5 being best I give them a 2.5 maybe a 3 since they were so damn polite.

 

[Guest]

And yet they just stand by and watch and do nothing

All right... For the record, what would you have done (since you brought it up)?

[+ azdr0710]

most upset about the crowd starting up a "gang mentality" thing against the police....the police seemed entirely professional and patient...to be honest, much of the crowd looked like they'd loved getting this on their cells (i.e. they hate police)...."oh man, this is going to be another Rodney King and I'm going to get it on film!!!!!!!".....

 

the naked guy is a jerk...."why are you bothering me?"....such an entitled attitude he projects.....

 

yeah, that "the whole world is watching" guy was oh-so-original....

[Rick Munroe]

I'm astounded how willing people are to criticize police officers.

 

I don't automatically criticize or praise police officers. I take each one case by case. (In NYC, they definitely abused their power during the Republican convention in 2004.) It sounds like you automatically take the side of the police, regardless of the situation. True?

 

Believe me, they

would rather be enjoying the concert with the crowd, than having to deal with this

asshole.

 

How do you know that? Do you know these officers personally or have you interviewed them? Maybe the concert sucked and this was a nice diversion.

[Rick Munroe]

RICK, as the sports guys on ESPN would say, the video is what it is. What folks see in it depends on their personal experiences with cops and attitudes about police.

 

Good point. Personally, I was taught by Mr. Rogers that the policeman is your friend, and I always believed that. But seeing videos, from Rodney King years ago to more recent ones like the NYC cop bodyslamming the bike rider for no reason, or the London cop attacking Ian Thomlinson at the G20 while he was just walking home with his hands in his pockets....it can tend to make one a little less starry-eyed.

[MsGuy]

Good point. Personally, I was taught by Mr. Rogers that the policeman is your friend, and I always believed that. But seeing videos, from Rodney King years ago to more recent ones like the NYC cop bodyslamming the bike rider for no reason, or the London cop attacking Ian Thomlinson at the G20 while he was just walking home with his hands in his pockets....it can tend to make one a little less starry-eyed.

Don't forget the drunk Chicago detective who got caught on security camara pounding the shit out of a female bartender just for the fun of it.

I've known cops as individuals since I was a little kid. To me a cop is just a guy wearing a blue suit. And that's why Greg's post bothered me. Some guys get scared when a hostile crowd closes in around them. Put gun in the hand of a frightened man and you are closer than I care to be to a very bad ending. There are also technical reasons having to do with police training and crowd dynamics to avoid this situation, but this is not the time or place.

[seaboy4hire]

Really the guy is freaking naked. He posed no threat to anyone, unless maybe he pissed on someone, maybe. The use of the taser was very uncalled for. Yes I will give credit to the officers at the beginning they were polite and encouraged the man to get dressed. And yes the man was either high or drunk. I've been to Coachella (really wanted to go this year!) and even though it is spring time out in Indio the year I went it was in the low 100's so who could fault the man for wanting to run around sans clothes? I know it crossed my mind a few times. I just didn't want my bum to burn and I unlike most prefer to limit my exposure to the sun.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[+ nycman]

\It sounds like you automatically take the side of the police, regardless of the situation. True?

 

No.

 

I just viewed the same video you did and had a very different opinion.

[+ glutes]

Well they did do something, they watched!

Now Greg, say you and your new tranny friend were there at the Cochella Concert. What would you two have done, and when, during this event.

(The guy was a putz and asshole...)

[Steven_Draker]

I thought that the measures taken by the three police officers were disproportionate to the harm the naked man was doing.

[+ purplekow]

While many here have cited incidents in which the police were accused of brutality, on a daily basis, the police around the US handle millions of situations politely, professionally and with a minimum of muss and fuss. They are not perfect. Their work is not perfect. Rodney King was not perfect in wrecklessly speeding away from the police prior to his infamous beating. This man was not perfect in getting naked in a public forum. Rules of law are such that his is an illegal behavior, no matter your personal views on nudity. He pushed the limits of the police officers after being given ample time to get dressed. He put his hands on them first and while you may say he presented no threat, you don't really know that, you just assume that, perhaps if it were you he was pawing, you might feel differently. So in the end, we have the unfortunate outcome and I doubt any of people involved wanted it to end this way.

[Barry]

I don't automatically criticize or praise police officers. I take each one case by case. (In NYC, they definitely abused their power during the Republican convention in 2004.)

 

Rick...If you take each case individually, why did you generalize with "they" when referring to abuse of power during the convention? Wouldn't some be more appropriate?