Pro-life video of the day: Chicago police tase pregnant woman
by LauraLoo
Tiffany Rent, who is eight months pregnant, was tased by a Chicago police officer this week after she tore up her ticket due to a parking dispute.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-f_8_ifHmU[/youtube]
First, what should the ground rules be for tasing anyone? Does a parking dispute and tearing up a ticket justify being tased? I think not.
Finally, how would anyone on the police force determine if a woman they have pulled over is pregnant or not (unless it’s just plain obvious)? After all, women come in a variety of sizes so it’s hard to know for sure (especially if a woman who is small framed is pregnant).
Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.
[HT: 89WLS Chicago]



The expression used to be “trigger-happy”. I guess now it’s “taser-happy”.
FYI, this happened back in 2006, I believe… it’s not a current event.
She wasn’t Tasered for a parking violation. She was Tasered following her blatant disregard for the lawful orders issued by a police officer in the State of Illinois and attempting to defeat an arrest by fleeing the scene. Once the offender refuses to present ID for a second citation it becomes an arrest situation and any attempt to drive away is classified as resistance to arrest. Look it up.
Aren’t tasers supposed to be a non-lethal substitution for firing a gun? That is to say, an officer should not tase someone unless he would have previously drawn his gun on that person?
What would the officer have done in this situation prior to the availability of tasers? Shot her? No. He probably would have tried to physically subdue her. Maybe she would have fought and gotten away – fine. They already had her name and car information, if he gave her a ticket. They’d have pursued the matter through other means. It sounds like she was a total jerkface, but being a jerkface is not grounds for tasering someone. Fine her, issue a warrant for her arrest and pursue it, whatever. Next I’m sure someone will whine about the cost difference between just tasering a jerk and actually going through the paperwork and man-hours of tracking down and arresting one. Whatever – that’s money well spent if it’s money that keeps people from being unnecessarily harmed. The problem with accepting violent solutions as anything but a last resort is that common-sense non-violent measures then become “too much trouble” to bother with.
He may be busy with his new website: ProlifeBook.com, Charlie. I just “chatted” with him on there a couple of days ago.
@JoAnna – this event occurred a couple days ago in Chicago. LL
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/tiffany-rent-pregnant-chi_n_1574402.html
Huh. I seem to remember a tasering of a pregnant woman last year. An Occupied or some similar protest.
I agree with Alexandra. Tasering should only be for someone violently out of control. Police officers should be able to restrain your typical knucklehead. Or jerk-face. :)
Being that I’m in EMS, I interact with cops a lot. I see events like the COPS described a lot. I know I know that we all say “you can’t comment/you don’t know what it’s like unless you’ve been in those shoes.” Well, not always, but in this case, you would be surprised how many great, law-abiding cops are out there. You would be surprised how *ouch* pain *ouch* hurt the arrested people are after they did something wrong. It is my inclination to believe the police. I don’t believe this lady. She probably thought nothing would happen to her. I once had a patient who looked 7 months pregnant & I treated her as such. She was being arrested & claimed she needed EMS/hospital. She claimed that she was accosted by the cops.
I palpated her abdomen to see if there were any abnormalities. Well, her pregnant belly felt very, very squishy. I said are you sure you’re pregnant? I asked all the preg related questions….turned out afterward….NOT preg! Her tummy looked like it, but it didn’t feel that way.
I STAND WITH THE COPS