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Ga. Cops Repeatedly Taser 57-Year-Old Teacher Who Called for Help

By Jeff Mays on Jul 13th 2010 9:42AM
Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights

Comments (195)

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A criminal investigation should be opened for two officers who Tasered and pepper-sprayed a 57-year-old Georgia woman who called police to report a prowler.

Janice Wells, a third-grade teacher, called officers in rural Georgia for help. Instead, she ended up on the ground screaming and crying, begging officers to stop shocking her with the Taser.

"All of it's just unreal to me. I was scared to death," Wells told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "He kept Tasing me and Tasing me. My fingernails are still burned. My leg, back and my butt had a long scar on it for days."

The horrible incident was captured on one of the officer's dash camera. In the video, officer Ryan Smith is shown driving to the scene. He exits the vehicle with Taser in hand and immediately begins using it on Wells, who screams in pain.

"Get in the car. Get in the car. You're going to get it again," Smith says in the video.

"I ain't do nothin'," Wells says between shocks.

The Tasering occurred after another officer, Tim Murphy of Richland Police Department, used pepper spray while trying to arrest the woman.

Both men lost their jobs as a result. Smith resigned, and Murphy was fired. Wells has retained a lawyer and should exercise her right to sue for police abuse.

However, after looking at the video, it seems that law enforcement authorities should investigate the use of excessive force.



Smith told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he did nothing wrong:

"I did what I had to do to take control of the situation," he said.

His former boss thought otherwise:

"I couldn't believe it," said Lumpkin Police Chief Steven Ogle . "You don't use it [a Taser] for punitive reasons, to prod someone. It was evident it was an improper use of force. He was an excellent officer other than that incident."

Maybe so, but if two officers can't get a nonviolent 57-year-old woman into a police car without Tasering and pepper-spraying her, then maybe they shouldn't be cops.

To make matters worse, Smith has already been hired by another Sheriff's department.

Stewart County Sheriff Larry Jones, who knows Wells, arrived at the scene a few seconds after Smith Tased Wells.

To Jones, race played a role in how Wells was treated:

"I don't think they would have done a white female like that," said Jones, who is black. "If they had, it wouldn't have been any doubt about whether they need[ed] to be terminated."

The altercation seems to have started after Wells refused to tell police the name of a man who was at her home.

Police suspected possible domestic abuse. The incident took a turn for the worse from there.

"I fell to the ground. I was balled up, and I was begging him to leave me alone," Wells said. "Then he called for help."

That makes this case even more egregious. If officers suspected that the woman had been domestically abused and she did not have a weapon or pose a threat to officers, then they should have handled the situation with a measure of compassion instead of abusing her further.

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