Tuesday, March 11, 2008

You damn well better submit to our tender mercies...

March 11, 2008 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Waukesha Edition
Man shocked after confrontation


A Waukesha man who was shocked with a Taser gun after police went to his home to check on his welfare late Sunday was charged Monday with obstructing an officer. Randall L. Spenner, 44, was charged with the misdemeanor after a friend in Arkansas called police just before midnight Sunday after she had been unable to reach him on the phone. The woman, who met Spenner when they both worked for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, was concerned about his serious diabetic condition.

Police went to the 2600 block of Pebble Valley Road, but he wouldn't answer the door. The apartment building manager opened the door for police. Officers entered the dark apartment announcing repeatedly that police were there. When they opened Spenner's bedroom door, he was in the bed and pointing a handgun at the officers, the complaint says.

The officers exited the apartment and returned with shields, demanding that Spenner come out of the apartment.

The police demanded five or six times that he come out and show his hands. Spenner came out, but was yelling profanities. He refused to go to the ground and when he quickly approached one of the officers, he was struck with a Taser, the complaint says.

Spenner was taken into custody and later told investigators that he took an Ambien to help him sleep and never heard the police announcing themselves. An unloaded Smith & Wesson Magnum revolver was found underneath Spenner's pillow. Ammunition was found in a nearby closet, the complaint says.


I don't know Mr. Spenner, but--if he approves, and if the Waukesha Police persist in pushing this charge--I will work to have a few, or perhaps a dozen, maybe a score of citizens to provide moral, financial, and political support/pressure on the Police Chief, The Mayor, The City Council and the Fire and Police Commission to end this kind of out-of-control police behavior.

I'm not going to encourage this victim of police over-reach and excess to "Sue them". But that's only because I and my neighbors are the "them," who will pay the financial damages. But I promise to certainly push to have the whole use of and supervision of the use of Tasers made much more accountable.

Overload the police with victimless crimes and other minutiae and eventually only creeps and bullies remain cops. -- Rick Gaber



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did those clowns have a search warrant to enable them to go looking under his pillow and in his closet for ammunition?

Anonymous said...

I have dealt with a number of Waukesha cops. Some--particularly Sgt. Oremus--fit the description of "creeps," others strike me as ok, basically decent.

The basic thing is to have a leadership that weeds out the worst and promotes the best.

Sharrock (the Chief) is a guy trying to slide into retirement--the classic man-with-no-ideas.

His deputy, Wayne Dussault, is the premier practitioner of the "Sit-Down-and-Shut-up" School of Management.

Anonymous said...

“This is a real rip off!” “What a scam!” You may repeat these statements every time when you are not pleased with the quality of goods or the customer service of this or that company. But do not shout into the open air. Do something that really works. Submit complaints. On the web site www.pissedconsumer.com, you can post all the problems and misunderstandings that happened to you in any company of the world. Sharing your bitter experience will help others to avoid misunderstandings.

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Of the biblical allotment of three score and ten I have lived only three of them more than a bicycle ride from one of the Great Lakes. I grew up ten blocks from Lake Erie in the (once Irish/Italian ghetto, now newly-hip) "Near West Side" of Cleveland. I can still cycle to the Milwaukee lakefront in an hour and a half; but, a round-trip has always been more than I would (noror ever did) attempt. -0- I'm a "...somewhat combative pacifist and fairly cooperative anarchist," after the example of Grace Paley (1922-2007). -0- I'm always cheerful when I pay my taxes (having refused--when necessary--to pay that portion of them dedicated to war). -0- And I always, always vote.