The Victoria, Texas police department on Monday fired the officer who used a Taser on a 76-year-old man when attempting to arrest him for driving with an expired inspection sticker, the Victoria Advocate reported.
Officer Nathaniel Robinson in December confronted Victoria resident Pete Vasquez over his inspection sticker.
According to dashcam footage of the incident, Vasquez pulled away from Robinson when he tried to make the arrest. Robinson then slammed Vasquez onto the police car, wrestled him to the ground, and used a Taser twice on Vasquez.
Vasquez was driving a car owned by the dealership for which he worked, which exempted the car from the state’s inspection requirement.
After an investigation into Robinson’s conduct, the Victoria police department concluded that he violated three department policies on use of force, conduct, and arrests without a warrant, according to the Victoria Advocate.
“This is a very unfortunate incident for everyone involved,” Department Chief J.J. Craig said in a statement. “The Victoria Police Department places a high value on public trust. The men and women of the Victoria Police Department work hard each and every day to provide professional service with pride and respect to the community.”
Thankfully, a Grand Jury wasn’t empaneled…
… and now he’s Missouri bound. To a land where they use not the taser… for it is “uncomfortable”
It’s ironic that cops only started abusing people and using excessive force after dashcams and video devices became common. Before this, every claim of abusive cops was obviously a lie by criminals trying to smear honest cops. But now that there’s video of everything, cops just decided to get all violent. How weird…
Now on to the civil suit?
Well if they want to “earn the public trust” they might try hiring folks that value it. Avoid “bad asses” with ‘high and tite’ hair cuts and pegged shirt sleeves. It just took a few seconds look at the cop in this incident to know he was all wrong…and psychologically unfit for his job. He should not have been hired and firing him does not fix the systemic ill that allowed him to get the job in the first place. The town deserves a punishing law suit and I’m sure it will get one.