After reading an article released by the Associated Press, all I can do is shake my head in shame - and I'm not sure for whom. November 13, Texans offensive lineman, Fred Weary, filed suit against the city of Houston and two police officers that pulled him over, shot him with a taser, anf arrested him after a traffic stop.
The police officers, Margaret McGiven and Joe Vasquez, pulled the 300 lb, 6 foot 4 refrigerator over after they saw him "driving suspiciously" and without "a front license plate." Weary was "shot with a Taser after he [allegedly] pushed one of the officers away and then tried to come toward them after being told to put his hands on his vehicle," to which he claimed were false allegations.
Weary is also suing for defamation of character and racial profiling. On one hand, being a woman, even with a man, if a 300 pound man, no matter the race was getting aggressive with me, I'm going to need to either run and pray he is too big to catch up or fight dirty. However, on the other hand, I would not put it past some people that if they saw a black man driving a nice car, in a neighborhood that isn't so nice, like the one around the stadium, that there might be some suspicions on their part. Is it wrong? Yes. Can it be stopped? Unfortunately not.
It is just a shame that this societal tragedy has to take place so publicly. I'm embarrassed for both parties involved. Though I do need to give props to Weary, he claims that a portion of any earnings from the suit will be donated to a police charity.
He is seeking for "the city to review its policies regarding racial profiling and the use of Tasers," which I think should be reviewed - often. Putting that amount of power into that many people hands should be micro-managed to hopefully reduce incidents such as this one.
All I can do is shake my head.
Betsy Young
SHSU Mass Communications Student
Houston Texans
4 comments:
Tasers...one step down from getting shot by a real gun.
Story after story police are using tasers on people and in some cases the people die. I'm sick of people with power using it the wrong way. People are dying and losing their lives for a minor thing.
But believe me, if a 300 lb. man came at me like he was about to push me or attack me I would definitely taser him. Only because there would be no other way to over power him except maybe hitting him where the sun don't shine.
Also, racial profiling seems like a never ending story. It happens every where, in stores, on the road, at work sadly it's a part of our society. It's one thing we wish would change but hasn't.
I really hopes he wins his case. Unfortunately for those that are not financially secure it is another story. They may never receive justice for the discrimination they have faced.
I LOVE this story! I hold a passionate disregard for most police for this exact reason. I feel that most police officers are just authority-hungry pigs that need to feel important so they pick on people.
It scares me to think that just any old cop can have a taser, or a gun for that matter, and be trusted to use it only when neccessary.
I do believe that we need police and there are those out there who aren't so bad, but most of them need to get a clue and some friends.
I also think that this Texan football player was targeted for publicity reasons, perhaps the cops have it out for the Texans.
Great Blog topic for this week Jess.
Keep it interesting :)
Let me get this straight. Weary is going to donate some of the money that he wins (assuming he does) to a police charity? That makes no sense. Like I've said before their professional athletes, not rocket scientists. He is angry at the police for the way they handled the situation so he is going to donate money to a police charity?
I don't really blame the officers for the way they handled the situation. Assaulting an officer should be worth a taser shot, especially if its an enraged 300 lb offensive lineman that is doing the pushing. I would have reacted the same way if I was one of the officers.
To me, it is just another case of professional athletes acting like they are above the law since they make millions of dollars.
I really don't know which side to believe on this story. On one hand, it sounds like a semi-celebrity exibiting an ego, thinking that he should be set apart from the rest of society. He has no right to cop an attitude with police officers that were well within their rights to pull him over. On the other hand, the officers could have been abusing their power in the situation. Who knows, but I am interested to see how this case turns out.
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