How do you say “Don’t tase me, bro” in baby?Today’s decision(pdf) by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals puts to bed–for now, anyway–Malaika Brooks’s civil suit against the city of Seattle.Brooks is the woman who back in 2004 took the bullet–or rather, the triple-dose of a 50,000 volt electrical charge–for pregnant women all over Seattle when police tasered her three times after she refused to leave her car following a traffic stop. Six months later, the Seattle Police Department revised its guidelines on the use of tasers, specifically the section covering situations where the prospective taseree is young, pregnant or otherwise infirm. That, however, didn’t stop Brooks from suing police for excessive force.A lower court ruled in her favor but that decision was overturned today, with the Appeals judges concluding that the officers’ actions did not “push the use of force into the realm of the excessive.” Given Brooks’ resistance to the officers attempts to extricate her from her car, reasonable people could disagree on what level of force is appropriate in these situations. Luckily, Judge Cynthia Holcombe Hall, author of the majority opinion, is there to provide a barometer. Citing previous cases, Hall writes that tasering someone three times is only “less-than intermediate” use of force.This would seem to suggest that Judge Hall has never ridden the lightning from a standard police issue X-26 taser. The smart money says anyone who has would never use the word “intermediate” to describe the experience.
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