Deputy Tasers woman, 72, during traffic stop
June 10th, 2009 . by TexasFredDeputy Tasers woman, 72, during traffic stop
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - She dared a deputy constable to shock her with a Taser.
So, he did.
Video released by a Travis County Constable’s Office shows Deputy Chris Bieze confronting 72-year-old Kathryn Winkfein after stopping her for speeding on May 11 just outside Austin.
Video from a camera mounted in the deputy’s car shows Winkfein cursing and challenging the deputy and even daring him to use the Taser on her.
“You’re going to shove me? You’re going to shove a 72-year-old woman?” she yelled.
Winkfein told KTBC-TV in Austin that she did nothing to provoke the use of the Taser.
But Precinct 3 Sgt. Maj. Gary Griffin said Bieze used the Taser only after Winkfein became combative.
There was no immediate comment from Winkfein on Wednesday. A call to her home was answered by a fax machine.
Full Story Here:
Deputy Tasers woman, 72, during traffic stop
Folks that read here, folks that know me also know that I am as PRO police as anyone can be. My 1st reaction to this was”WTF?? He tased a 72 year old woman??”
Then I saw the dash-cam video. He should have tased the old bat 2 or 3 more times just for good measure. Make sure she was really well done. 
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Yeah…when you hear about a big bad evil law enforcement officer tazing a little old lady, automatic reaction is WHUT? But after watching the video….I’d taze the ol’ bat too, again….just for good measure! She could have gotten them both killed. He did the right thing! There may be a very few bad apples, but this officer isn’t one of them!
Oddly enough, I just happened to be watching that video on the Line of Duty website. I would summarize thusly:
1. I don’t know the official policy of that constable’s office. Policy changes with jurisdiction so I can’t comment on the parameters under which the Taser was applied. This could be a situation where, under policy, the constable was justified in its application.
2A. However, in my opinion both were stupid. On the constable’s part:
He apparently has little sense of Officer Safety. If this is a particularly egregious section of highway where there are many collisions, which is the primary reason for his stop according to the news source — apparently more dangerous for whatever reason than other nearby local roadways — then even more caution needs to be utilized by the constable for himself and the woman.
That is to say, an approach from the right side would have been recommended plus, if he’s going to extract the woman from the vehicle, insisting verbally and physically if necessary that they step to the far side of the roadway away from traffic is mandatory.
Any officer who’s seen “Your Vest Won’t Stop This Bullet” and has an inkling of officer fatalities for the past three years knows that vehicle-related deaths and injuries now exceed Deadly Force incidents, INCLUDING deaths and injuries from officers making stops on highways where officers have been struck, killed, dragged and crushed by passing motorists striking them on the stop itself.
This constable seems to be particularly oblivious to his surroundings as he makes contact for WAY too long on the traffic side of the vehicle, and he’s STANDING between the left side of her pickup and the right-side lane demarcation. There isn’t more than a foot or two between himself and traffic passing between 45 mph and 60 mph — the precise speed he stopped HER for.
Secondly, he then stands in the crush zone BETWEEN the two vehicles on this selfsame dangerous highway and decides to CONTINUE to conduct business here, STILL only a few feet to the right of passing traffic. And worse yet, he continues to stand there when he knows he’s addressing a belligerent party.
He may have been justified under policy in the application of the Taser device, but his sense of Officer Safety is pretty much non-existent. Ask any veteran officer, particularly assigned to traffic duties, where they ideally wish to conduct their business and where they wish to make their initial and continuing contacts. It AIN’T on the left side of the suspect vehicle just a foot or two directly adjacent an active traffic lane, and it AIN’T in the crush zone between officer and suspect vehicle. A suspect can just as easily push the OFFICER into traffic. This constable needs to be, at minimum, admonished by his supervisor and manager for his sloppy habits. If he’d been a trainee of mine, it would have been an Epic FAIL. That is, AFTER I got through slapping him.
2B: The woman was stupid and evidently has learned little in her 72 years, and is using her age as a crutch to be a victim. This is the FIRST thing you could readily point out in court.
FAIL on both sides. But EPIC FAIL on the officer’s part for being so thick.
BZ
BZ, procedurally, you are spot on, the Constable made several classic mistakes in this stop…
But under Texas law, he was totally justified in the use of the taser itself…
And seriously, were it NOT for the dash cam I am thinking the old bat really needed to be popped again, just to get the, ahem, shocking truth, across to her…
As I say, TF, I’m unsure of the Texas penal code and/or policies regards individual agency application of less-than-lethal force. If he was within his own agency policy that’s going to save much local heartache and perhaps a larger suit, but I’ll wager the attorneys have already circled numerous wagons around this woman.
BZ
Probably, but judges here in Texas don’t take too well to those that resist arrest and commit assault and battery on our officers…
A good judge will dismiss suits and may very well chew the Constable out for his crappy procedures, and then meet him at the beer joint and buy him a cold one!!
God I love Texas…
BZ, you have got to get OUT of that politically correct cesspool called California…
The old woman was going to get back into her car, no matter what. She was totally encroached in the Deputy’s personal safe zone, and would NOT back up as ordered by the Deputy.
She was bound and determined to get back into her car no matter what!
She was duly warned loud and clear several times, by the Deputy.
She got what she asked for, for not following his safety orders.
This video will make it’s way into the Law Enforcement training academies throughout the USA, I am sure.
Now, being tazed hurts like hell. I had not retired yet when the device made it’s way into my Agency. We all had to be tazed, in order to be trained, in how to deploy one correctly.
Also, being tazed is also used in interrogation along with water-boarding techniques by our intelligence gathering brothers.
By the way, I didn’t like being waterboarding either. And this has been around for as long as I can remember.
Yep, the old lady asked for it. The Deputy then complied with her request. Tazing is a dangerous event though. Up here in Ft. Collins, CO last year a young man was tazed several times over about 15 minutes and died from the shock to his systems. The county (Larimer) paid a big settlement to prevent a costly court battle.
As a grandmother, I would consider her descendants the products of inferior breeding. The woman is foul mouthed and a liar. I hate it when older people constantly use their age in an attempt to get away with things. If the woman would have treated the cop with respect and decency, she may have only ended up with a warning. This 72 year old woman has no respect for law enforcement.
Before the days of tazers, wouldn’t the cop have just forcefully put her down and handcuffed her? Or, maybe pepper spray to the face?
I too was thinking, WTF!!! Now that’s all uncalled for……..until I got to see the WHOLE tape. After that my conclusion was……I’d have stuck it in her friggin mouth and hit the button. She was just a downright little horses ass that thought she could buffalo the officer by yelling and threatening him. Our officers have to put up with a lot of horse shit and they don’t need some mouthy skank like her to make their job toughers. Kudos for the Officer.
Too bad there’s no law about being ignorant.
I could prove her ignorance real quick, with her own actions - before release of the tape (when she didn’t know the tape existed, even though dash cams have been used as fodder on all sorts of shows for several years now) she was claiming police brutality and what-not, after the release she hasn’t said a word. The fact she didn’t think there would be a video backing up the officer’s actions is just plain ignorant.
It’s just hard to believe that a 72 year old woman would pull a stunt like that. Live and learn I suppose.
Hey YodaDog… No, unlike you, I didn’t *touch* my mother like that, and yeah, this old bitch needed to be popped 2 or 3 more times… Best tingle that mean old bat ever got…