Don’t tase me, bro

Posted on November 14, 2011 in Our Blog,Public Safety

A Chicago man recently filed a lawsuit against the Chicago police, claiming he was wrongfully identified and tased unnecessarily. Josue Tapia was pulled over by police in May of 2010 for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, but he was allowed to go soon afterwards. He didn’t make it very far, however, before he was stopped by police again. The police claimed Tapia had violated other traffic laws then, according to Tapia, they pushed him to the ground and tased him nearly a dozen times in less than 5 minutes. Tapia claims the attack was unprovoked.

Tapia spent a week in the hospital to recover from the Taser attack. He believes the Chicago police mistook him for someone else with a similar name, someone who had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. The police claimed Tapia resisted and fought back and thus charged him with aggravated battery and resisting arrest. That case went to trial, and Tapia was found not guilty just last week. Tapia and his lawyers believe the police brought the charges against Tapia to cover up the Taser use and to create justification for the Taser attack.

For more on this story, see this article.