Comprehensive reporting and stunning detail of this story that led to a sentence of FOUR YEARS against an Independence officer. Checkit: Tased in the Chest for 23 Seconds, Dead for 8 Minutes, Now Facing a Lifetime of Recovery
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Sure, what the officer did was wrong and he's doing the time, but the parents are to blame for this. Instead of punishing him for being a criminal, they kept telling him his civil rights were violated and encouraged him to be uncooperative with police. Daddy works for KCPD where officers are lazy and not proactive. The good citizens of Independence want the police to aggressively patrol and deter crime. KCPD goes to their 911 calls and that's it. It's sad this kid is suffering. Maybe someday he will understand his parents role in this.
ReplyDeleteYou are so clueless and uninformed it's pathetic. What do YOU do for your community? I'm guessing sit in your mommy's basement and play D & D - your contribution to society.
DeleteTimmy Runnels mommy dead yet? Timmy can think about hurting others.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a real genius to rationalize this criminal cop's behaviour given the evidence. When a cop or police department can not separate themselves from thugs like Runnels it's a real good sign of how rotten the whole barrel might be. This is not what officers are trained to do and there is no legal justification for what was done PERIOD. If anything is wrong here it is that Runnels isn't doing life. I guess we will have to see if his attitude has changed any when he gets paroled.
ReplyDeleteYup, for god sakes don't tell your kids they have any civil rights. Not in America where we are busy protecting everyone from terrorists by stealing those rights every day.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are a cop and you tell your kid not to cooperate with cops, only bad things will happen.
ReplyDeleteThe dashcam evidence provides lessons for the price of mistakes. A main point is that at least one IPD professional failed in a big way versus the hesitant teen. Tazing (definitely not 23 seconds to the chest) may have been justified to affect custody, but rough dragging and forcefully dropping the teen's obviously limp body was ALL THE WAY FUBAR!
ReplyDeleteRunnels went too far too fast, accusing the teen of physical resistance when Masters was in distress following tazing and didn't, or couldn't, put his hands behind his back while lying prone in the street. Moaning and some gurgling sounds are heard between Runnels statements just before and during Masters' handcuffed body is dragged and his head banged to the pavement.
It's the tragedy felt by a LEO family that likely urged a crossing of the 'thin blue line' by Bryce's dad. Matt Masters exposes the corruption of "CYA" that sometimes gets strategically written into an officer's reports. He questions the true degrees of harm Tazers can pose and those risks that are officially reported on by more than just the maker of the devices.
Officer Masters' honesty and a path to making things right is ethical. Advocating for thorough tazer training and full products liabilities disclosure may be some good coming from this. It should help build back some public trust.
Also there is no one size fits all when it comes to dealing with the public, especially over a situation where there was no offense. Tazering someone in the chest, older, with health issues are all risks that can kill even a minor offender. In this case the kid had no legal obligation to "cooperate" whatsoever. He was innocent and the officer was breaking the law. Had there been a trial Runnels would have been charged with four offenses instead of pleading a deal to one. It is easy to say a cop does not have time to sit around and figure out if someone might get hurt miore than someone else and that is all the more reasons police agencies need to have a little more to work with than Taser or other companies claiming their products are safe and non lethal when statistics are showing the taser is not either in a myriad of circumstances. Although I am convinced Runnels is where he needs to be, officers deserve better than to be put on the street with just enough knowledge and training to land them in prison.
ReplyDeleteI must of somehow missed this in the news. Which part of Independence did they burn down?
ReplyDeleteDon't tase me bro. How did that work ouf for you. Maybe you should have complied with the officer's request.
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:19 probably the best take on this deal I've personally read. Props for seeing it as it truly is. One thing to consider that has not been told about this story is the basis for the stop to begin with. Runnels PC or even RS was not there. The "warrant" was for a female that ended up being a clerical error out of county near Rolla, MO. It did not respond to the kids car, him, or anyone else associated with the car. Runnels then ran the kid through on a full computer check before he ever initiated a stop. That's a huge piece of very damming police practices that was left out of all of this. The kid was not spoiled or some rotten kid. His dad taught him to respect the police but to also not put up with bullshit and to be informed. I don't normally get on these things and rant because it never really makes a difference. Anon 11:36 and 2:43 you guys are idiots. Social media and technology is a bitch and some cops (ones like Runnels) haven't learned that you can't continue to violate people's rights and not pay the price.
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