Sovereign Independent UK – by Sir Robin Malarky CBE PIE
Today we learn that following an incident involving a presumably partially sighted Lancashire copper tazering a 64 year old blind man after supposedly confusing his thin white cane with a curved samurai sword. The unlikely tale that we are supposed to believe is that the copper responsible for this atrocity thought at the time that a blind man walking away from him posed a threat to the public.
If and it is a big if, he managed to confuse a samurai sword with a thin white cane carried by a blind old man the clearly his judgement is called into question as is his resort to potentially lethal force in short order. Minor by comparison but equally as abhorrent is handcuffing the gentleman for a period afterwards when it must clearly have become blindingly obvious that the chap did not have a large sword about his person.
To quote the Assistant Chief Constable excuse maker Tim Jacques.
“The officer made a dreadful mistake when he discharged his Taser, but was acting on a reasonable and honestly held belief that his actions were necessary to protect the public. The officer did not perform his duties to a satisfactory standard but we did not feel that this amounted to gross incompetence.
“In addition to the findings relating to the individual officer this investigation has raised a number of issues for the Constabulary to consider including the training given to officers carrying Taser.”
“In addition to the findings relating to the individual officer this investigation has raised a number of issues for the Constabulary to consider including the training given to officers carrying Taser.”
The officer will be issued with a Written Improvement Notice and be required to demonstrate specific performance improvements over a set timescale. Additionally the officer has expressed considerable regret over this incident and arrangements will be made for him to offer a personal apology to Mr Farmer.
Whilst it is always good to see wrongdoers apologise the response of the force which is investigating itself in this matter is just not good enough, it is unlikely that this will make any difference in respect of future transgressions, thus the public are not assured.