Cop tasers partner over soda dispute

[jsalcedo]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1388071


HAMTRAMCK, Mich. Dec 8, 2005 — A police officer has been charged with using a Taser on his partner during an argument over whether they should stop for a soft drink.

Ronald Dupuis, 32, was charged Wednesday with assault and could face up to three months in jail if convicted. The six-year veteran was fired after the Nov. 3 incident.

Dupuis and partner Prema Graham began arguing after Dupuis demanded she stop their car at a store so he could buy a soft drink, according to a police report.


The two then struggled over the steering wheel, and Dupuis hit her leg with his department-issued Taser, the report said. She was not seriously hurt.

Hamtramck police union lawyer Eugene Bolanowski said he expected Dupuis to hire a private lawyer.

Hamtramck is a city of 23,000 surrounded by Detroit.


Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

[Borachon]

Dupuis and partner Prema Graham began arguing after Dupuis demanded she stop their car at a store so he could buy a soft drink, according to a police report.The two then struggled over the steering wheel

I always miss the moral lesson on these things.

Are you saying that drinking and driving DON'T mix?

 

[GunnySkox]

I can see the "Big Gulp" defense forming in lawyer's minds already.

I mean, c'mon, sometimes you just need a Coke! Great chance for advertising tie-ins with the defense, and the prosecutors can get a deal with Pepsi for knocking off on the tasering cop's Coke addiction!

~GnSx

 

[jsalcedo]

I would think the officer would have been completely justified in this incident if he had finished his soda and had to pee.

 

[Warren]

All I wanted was a Pepsi!

 

[Beetle Bailey]

All I wanted was a Pepsi!

And she wouldn't give it to me!

 

[chopinbloc]

...and Dupuis hit her leg with his department-issued Taser...

well, it sounds like he took the cartridge off and just used it in contact with her leg. the article doesn't mention anything about how she felt about the whole thing so i'm guessing it was good natured horseplay and that some bean counter jackass noted the taser discharge the next time it was turned in. what a crock. was anybody hurt? no. anybody complain? doesn't sound like it. so get a life and leave the poor guy alone. instead, they go and fire him and threaten his freedom. big stinking pile of bovine excrement.

 

[John G]

This just in: the soda in question was Jolt.

 

[Teufelhunden]

Meanwhile, those of us who use the tool responsibly wonder how much longer we're going to be able to keep them...:banghead:

-Teuf

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

And she wouldn't give it to me!

He isn't crazy, she was the one who's crazy, for not letting him get a soda, just one soda.

 

[Matthew748]

He isn't crazy, she was the one who's crazy, for not letting him get a soda, just one soda.

If she just would have left him alone so he could figure it out everything would have been OK, but she just kept bugging him.

 

[griz]

Shocking behavior.

 

[Silver Bullet]

She should have dropped him off and then drove away without him.

 

[dracphelan]

All I wanted was a Pepsi!

If you want a Pepsi, you deserve to get tasered. (I lived in a country (2 years) that refused to allow the sale of Coca Cola products due to a deal with the royal family and the fact that Coke had opened a bottling plant in Israel. I hate Pepsi.)

 

[f4t9r]

he just wanted a soda to go with his donuts

 

[1911 guy]

Cannot believe this!

O.K., I just deleted everything I wrote because it turned into a rant. Mulligan! So the guy wants to stop for a soda. What's wrong with that? Other than the fact that he's on the job, of course, and supposed to be doing other things than buying sodas. His partner objected to making the stop. Why? Maybe because they probably are allotted a certain amount of time for breaks and this wasn't it. He tazered her. What's the big deal? Other than the assault, misuse of department property and risking who knows what kind of harm when he lit up the person supposed to be in control of a moving vehicle. Sorry, losing his job is getting off light. Ignorance can be cured by education. Stupid is a detriment to our gene pool.

 

[hammer4nc]

I can see it now...his defense will be that his partner was non-compliant to the order of a police officer (stop and let me get a soda), so he's entirely within dept. policy to escalate to physical (non-lethal) force.

Remember the video of the cop who tazed the lady for resisting his command to "get out of the car"? All our law & order members proclaimed how this was perfectly justified, how stupid the lady was to not comply. The only difference here is the occupation of the woman involved...and we all know that cops must follow the same laws as everybody else, mkay?

Worlds collide.

By the way of mental exercise, are fellow officers required to obey a command given by a police officer? If no, please cite statute that grants them an exemption. Too bad DMF doesn't post here anymore, he'd surely have this citation in his bookmarks (heh-heh).

 

[Preacherman]

Obviously, someone's gonna get canned over this...

 

[svtruth]

I guess

being surrounded by Detroit has them on edge.

 

[jsalcedo]

Well at least he didn't use his OC spray!

 

[RaggedClaws]

Obviously, someone's gonna get canned over this...

And probably institutionalized...

Seriously though, tasering the driver of a car while they are driving doesn't sound sane.

 

[TheEgg]

Only cops have the training needed to handle soda-pop.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Sounds like they were married......she should have let him have the damn soda

 

[Henry Bowman]

Hamtramck is a city of 23,000 surrounded by Detroit.

Destined for greatness.

 

[Coronach]

Thought #1. Stupidity on parade.

Thought #2. He should be fired. And charged.

However:

The only difference here is the occupation of the woman involved...and we all know that cops must follow the same laws as everybody else, mkay?

I think you're missing the little bit about 'lawful arrest' in there as well. Unless she was arrested for not pulling over to get him a soda (which I'm pretty sure she wasn't) the only things these two incidents have in common are:

1. Women

2. Tasers

3. Cars

4. A frevent desire on the part of some people to make any anti LEO argument, no matter how absurd.

I mean, really. ASSUMING that everything went down like was reported (and the fact that it was reviewed by the department and he was fired lends some credibility to that analysis), I think the cop in question exhibited enough stupidity, there's no need to go digging for more.

Mike