GREAT GRANNY ZAPPED

Surely, most of you have seen the video of a cop shoving and tasering that 72-year-old great grandmother. And I’m sure you have formed an opinion about the officer’s conduct. Earlier this week, on NBC’s Today Show, Matt Lauer and Erin Burnett, his co-anchor, offered their opinions on the officer’s action. Lauer thought the officer did nothing improper while Burnett thought he went a little too far.

The police car’s dashboard camera showed what happened. A Travis County (Austin, Texas) deputy constable stopped the 4-foot-11 woman for speeding. When she refused to sign the ticket the officer had the profanity spouting great granny get out of her pickup truck. When she refused to move, he shoved her aside off the roadway to keep both of them from getting hit by ongoing traffic.

Then the angry woman, standing only inches from the officer, shouted "You’re gonna shove a 72-year-old woman." The officer then warned her, "If you don’t step back, you’re going to get tased." Great granny replied, "Go ahead, tase me! I dare you!" The officer warned her again before zapping her once, and then again while she lay screaming on the ground. She was then jailed for resisting arrest.

The deputy constable’s supervisors defended him while Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton condemned him. Hamilton said: "I do not personally agree with the actions of the deputy constable as they are shown on the video. When I look at the video, I am in awe of what happened."

Come on there Sheriff, get real! It’s easy to blast an officer from another agency while you’re sitting in your office on your big fat ass. Would you rather have watched a video of a burly cop wrestling a 4-foot-11 little old lady to the ground? Or, should the officer have ignored the uncooperative cursing woman altogether? Instead of shoving her out of harms way, should he have left her in the roadway to get run over by a passing car?

In my opinion, the officer did nothing improper. True, he could have let great granny go and with the information obtained from the truck license plate, have her served later with an arrest warrant. And maybe he shouldn’t have zapped her a second time, but then we don’t really know the degree of her combativeness by just watching the video.

In shoving and tasering the old woman, the officer made some split second judgement calls. Could he have handled things differently? Sure. But not using one’s best judgement does not constitute improper conduct.

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg announced that her office is investigating this case to see if criminal charges should be brought against the officer. She said her office reviews all use-of-force cases by officers in the county. WHAT A CROCK! Her office couldn’t possibly do that! Every day arrests are made that require the use of force. If her office investigated everyone of these cases, there would be no time left to do anything else.

Overlooked in all the hullabaloo is the fact that it was the misconduct of an angry old woman that precipitated the officer's reaction in this case. That notwithstanding, you can bet the great granny will end up filing a big fat juicy lawsuit against the deputy constable, the Constable and Travis county for the "pain and suffering" she experienced from getting zapped.