Pahoa drone pilot tased in Volcanoes Natl Park

[Kaimana]

Completely unnecessary and excessive on the part of the park ranger.

[Lodestone]

quote:

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Originally posted by Punatic007

Electronic use is out of hand in parks and heritage sites worldwide. Taking pictures in any form is not a human entitlement either, one should ask permission first when appropriate which is more often than most realize, and of course follow the rules especially in a National Park.

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One should ask permission prior to taking pictures of lava in Volcanoes National Park? To who? Pele? It's a NATIONAL PARK. Taking pictures is what people do in National Parks.

Granted, the drone/remote-contolled flying toy thingie was against the rules. He probably didn't know. I didn't know. Most people don't know. In that case, the appropriate behavior by the park ranger is to ask him to stop, which he did. The tasing was ridiculous IMHO.

VAS EIS LOS? Vhere are your PAPERS! Actung!! HALT!!! (BZZZTT)

[kander]

What some people fail to realize is that the Government works for us. We the people. Everyone who works for a Government entity is a Public servant.
With the "patriot" act, everyone is a target as a potential terrorist and must be dealt with as such.

[bluesboy]

he was flying a drone illegally in a national park. that was the first offense. likely punishable by a verbal reprimand or a ticket.

he seemed to know it was illegal, because when the officer asked him to stop, he started to run away, saying he didn't have any id. so he likely knew he was breaking the law.

second offense was when the officer repeatedly asked him to stop and he ran away. that was why he was tazed - not because he was flying a drone.

the guy said something to the effect that he couldn't believe the cop tazed him in front of his kids. to that i say, i can't believe you ran away from a cop with your kids present. pretty irresponsible example he was setting, no?

if a cop tells you to stop, you better stop. you can say police state or patriot act or whatever else you wanna say. when was the last time a cop picked on you and told you to stop when you weren't doing anything wrong. in my case it's never. likely you all have the same answer.

for most of these police videos that have come to light recently, the person is being asked to stop by the cops, and they don't. in many of the more violent situations, the person was holding a gun and firing it.

moral of the story, if a cop orders you stop, just stop.

[dmbwest]

+1 on all counts Bluesboy !

aloha,
pog

[Lodestone]

quote:

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Originally posted by bluesboy

moral of the story, if a cop orders you stop, just stop.

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Good advice. I suppose I just never perceived a park ranger as a "cop". It would never have occurred to me that they had access to tasers. To me, park rangers lead tours, educate about wildlife, give directions, hand out maps, and pat the keikis on the head and smile. Times have changed, I guess.

[rainyjim]

Some park ranger are 'LEO's or law enforcement officers. They have all the formal training of a police officer and often times more with military background as preference 'points' are given to those with a military background when applying for federal jobs.

I disagree that the ranger "acted in the best interest of public safety"

I don't see what harm was caused by flying a 3 inch quad-copter around the national park. If it isn't allowed - fine - ask him to stop. I'm imagining that he had stopped and that he wasn't still flying his toy about while he was "fleeing" from a scary amen threatening individual.

I think that using the taser was unnecessary in this situation. If the individual was threatening the ranger or someone else or exhibiting some disorderly conduct like exposing himself in public or discharging bodily fluids I could see this action as warranted. Tasing someone in front of a group of people for "fleeing" including children sends the wrong message especially in a national park - when ultimately he was confronted for taking pictures in an inappropriate manner.

I would expect this issue to have a negative impact on the national park especially on their international visitor base who probably aren't interested in visiting a police state.

[Kaimana]

If you believe it's ok to taze someone for something as frivolous as this then we have a real problem. Dude could have died. Could have fell awkward and hit his head wrong and slipped into a coma. So many things that could have happened all because dude was flying a 3 in drone. SMH.

[bluesboy]

Park Rangers and LEO's (Law Enforcement Officers) are two separate things.

LEO aren't rangers, and Rangers aren't LEOs.

LEOs are federal police officers.

Rangers are federal employees that provide guides/services to visitors of national parks.

Rangers don't carry any weapons, LEO's do.

[bluesboy]

If he wouldn't have run, he wouldn't have gotten tazed.

running away from a cop when asked to stop = perceived threat by the cop = grounds for escalation by the cop

i've been aware of that fact since i was about 3 years old.