72 Year Old Woman Tasered (Great-Grandmother Was Being Aggressive, Cop Says)

TRAVIS COUNTY, TX (WRCB) -- A traffic stop in Texas ended with a 72-year-old woman getting tasered. The incident was captured on the officer's dashboard camera.

Now, some are asking if the officer went too far.

The video shows the officer, Christopher Bieze pulling Kathryn Winkfein over for speeding on May 11th. Winkfein can be heard arguing with the officer and refusing to sign the citation.

A police report says that's when the officer told her to step out of her vehicle and ordered off the roadway. The report says Winkfein then began using profanity and refusing to cooperate, endangering both herself and the officer. He pulled his taser and ordered her to obey his commands.

http://www.witn.com/watercooler/headlines/47514257.html

THERE IS VIDEO OF THE INCIDENT.

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Okay. . .belligerent or not, you tasered a great-grandmother? Because of her language and her refusal to sign a ticket???

Another badge wearing cowboy with a compensation problem.

He felt endangered? By a 72 year old woman??? Give me a break! He could have put her in handcuffs to scare her into submission. Or, he could have let her blow off steam like anyone would do.

Tasers need to be outlawed. They are police use torture. Someone doesn't do what you want, zap them. They didn't do it fast enough, zap them again! They are still showing resistance (breathing). . .zap them again. Keep TORTURING them with electricity until the body stops.

ticket and I'll sign it" he should have done so. He just couldn't let his authoritarian pride accept that somebody wasn't speaking to him with the respect he believes necessary. And when he shoved her--that was no soft shove--he claims it was to keep her from going into traffic. No it was uncalled for and I can't believe that many people who saw the video are siding with him.

have been potentially hurt worse if he had wrestled her physically. What would you have the officer do? Her first actions in refusing to sign the ticket was also a clear signal that something wasn't right with her. She could have been irrational enough to walk into traffic(she almost did, twice), endangering herself and motorists. I don't generally side with the police on things like this, but I don't see any reason to question this officer's actions.

my local paper presented this story today as written by ap or whoever. i will be writing them a letter and asking them to look at the video before posting this bs. take a look at the video and tell me this little grnadma, who was almost half the size of the officer and who had no weapon, could not have been handled with less force.

ellen fl

he saved her life. point is: based on the tape, the statements from the police and the lies from the defendant, I see absolutely no reason to second guess the officer on the scene. This is not one of those cases.

This officer would have been more effective if he had spoken calmly to her in stead of bellowing. Also, when you work in any field that involves contact with angry, aggressive people you learn how to handle them physically without hurting them. This officer clearly needs more training. But then he does work in Texas and his type of actions meets with Texan approval. Just read the comments after the article. This is another reason to stay out of Texas.

a completely assinine thing, then verbally confronted and insulted him, then got out of the car and acted beligerent one moment, and pleading the grace of being old the next. Given her actions, the danger she presented to herself, the officer, and the motorists, he acted properly. there was no time to be overly nice, she was walking into traffic. twice. btw, the officer is an instructor, so I don't think he is lacking training.

So she refused to sign. He had her license number so he could send her the ticket. He also could have cuffed her and if he had decent training he could have done that without injury. I don't think making her get down on the ground and tasing her was a better option. Now that cops have tasers they only rely on that.

So I refrain from making too many assumptions based on age. We had an 89 year old terrorize a public institution, murdering one guard and thankfully being stopped before more carnage could occur.

Excessive force on the part of police is common, and this may well have been an instance of that--but I no longer make assumptions based on age.

for self defense... not just people being mouthy. I mean, if he didn't have a taser, would he have shot her??? I think about what if she had a pacemaker or a heart condition. That could have killed her!! There was no excuse to do that to her. He should have just arrested her then, but i never heard him say to put her hands on the car so he could arrest her.

Originally, the taser was supposed to be used in place of a firearm when the suspect was threatening with a knife or similar. Now, however, they are used to exact cruel and unusual punishment absent any judge or jury. This blatant TORTURE is like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel and the courts are saying it is OK. If the lady had come at the officer with a blunt instrument, that would have been one thing; but being a 'rude jerk' is no excuse to torture someone.

the use of the taser.

But I'd like to see how aggressive the woman got and what her stature/condition was.

if he was going to arrest her. He tried for several minutes to talk her into being handcuffed after refusing to sign the ticket (Which iirc is required by TX law) and she kept trying to run around him into the road to get to her car. In the end, she probably was less injured by being tasered than manhandled as she resisted arrest.

Tasers are good police tools, but like all tools can be used inproperly.

Generally, I'm opposed to the use of the taser except in extreme circumstances. They aren't non-lethal, as hundreds of people that are no longer with us can attest to. So if they aren't going to be banned, then there needs to be stricter guidelines for their use.

That being said, this woman was being a total bitch. Unnecessarily rude, aggressive, and hostile. Yeah, guess what? Cops don't like that. I know this, because I've learned the hard way. LOL. All she had to do was sign the damn ticket, instead she just went on a tirade that she didn't deserve one because she's old. Laws apply to old people too lady.

Did she deserve a taser? I doubt it. Cops seem to use the taser as an instrument of compliance too much these days, when it's really supposed to be a weapon for self defense. But I don't feel nearly as sorry for this woman as I do for the many other true victims of police brutality.

Got a call from a woman in her early 80's who said she had no heat in her home. I asked her to see what the temp setting on the t-stat was and to turn it up a few degrees. She said she was cold and i needed to come out right away (this was a Sunday afternoon). I drove out to her place, knocked on the door and she let me in while chewing me out for taking so long. I went into her living room to check her thermostat and it was set at 70 degrees and the room temp was reading the same. I turned up the t-stat to 72 degrees and her furnace came on. I told her that there was no problem and that all she needed to do was what I asked her to do over the phone. She replied that she shouldn't have to pay me anything as all I did was turn up her thermostat. I wasn't going to charge her anything anyways, which I often don't in such situations, but her attitude really pissed me off. i said goodbye and left. A few weeks later she called again about another problem and I told her to go fuck herself and never call me again.

Sign ze papers old woman!! :grr: