News and Politics | July 11, 2008 | 43 comments

Update: Taser arrest witnesses in Eugene, Oregon want police prosecuted

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jubal
Three witnesses to the controversial stun-gun arrest of anti-pesticide protester Ian Van Ornum say a pair of Eugene police officers should face assault charges for roughing up the University of Oregon student after breaking up a downtown rally.

Eugene residents Josh Schlossberg, Samantha Chirillo and Amy Pincus Merwin announced Wednesday that they had filed a formal criminal complaint alleging that police Sgt. Bill Solesbee and officer Jud Warden assaulted Van Ornum on May 30 near Kesey Square.

Brian Michaels, a Eugene attorney representing the three residents, said he hopes the complaint spurs investigators toscrutinize the actions of Solesbee and Warden.

“These police officers need to be held accountable,” Michaels said during a news conference held at City Hall to announce the complaint’s filing. “We’re hoping this keeps the light shining on these officers … for assaulting and nearly killing” Van Ornum.

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This started out as a peaceful protest in a free speech square. Its called Kesey square.
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43 comments // Update: Taser arrest witnesses in Eugene, Oregon want police prosecuted

  • dognose
    • 0
      dognose  
    • What sucks is that if he had sprayed someone and they had kicked his ass they would have been arrested for assault. I'd like to tase the next fucker that blows smoke at me. Or coughs on me without covering their mouth. People that think they have a "right" or "entitlement" to invade someones space and expose them to any substance without consent should get a beating every time and then be charged with assault.

    • 2 years ago
  • TeamBoo
    • 0
      TeamBoo  
    • Uhhh... I'm in Eugene, and wasnt that guy spraying random people with a spray bottle filled with water, saying it was poison? That seems really dicky. Plus everyone in town knows the Eugene police don't F around. Plus the police staition is what like 6 blocks away? If they hear some protester is spraying people with something, no crap they are going to haul balls over and put a quick stop to it. There is/was video of this guy asking a complete stranger not involved with the protest, if they wanted to be sprayed with poison and then spaying them. When a cop tells you to get down and stay down, you are just being stupid if you dont do what they tell you.

    • 3 years ago
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  
    • TeamBoo:

      Teamboo where is the video you are talking about. You should link to it.

      The guy did ask the cop if he would be happy if someone sprayed poison on him, but to my understanding he was not spraying anybody.

    • 3 years ago
  • TeamBoo
  • owner1
    • 0
      owner1  
    • This is just another example of the stinking police abusing their power over the little guy. I'm glad it was caught on tape. I hope the asshole officers do get prosecuted. The people were having a peaceful rally and the officers totally screwed it up for everyone. A couple of questions were all the cops needed to ask and they didn't have the time for some common courtesy before they took things way too far!!!!

    • 3 years ago
  • HuantedWorld
    • 0
      HuantedWorld  
    • This is just more reason to belive that freedom of speech is bullshit in the eyes of the law.But the lady in the you tube video is right if thay tased him for what he said to the under cover cop.Then why didn't the under cover take sooner action to see that there was only water in the sprayer?

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • bishopobispo
  • Ricky84
    • 0
      Ricky84  
    • Wow this is a crazy story. Apparently the courts did drop the charges against the three activists arrested. Hopefully Mr. Omum has realized it’s not smart to taunt the guy with a taser.

      Americans really need to do something about this pain compliance policy. If you’re not resisting and a cop tasers you that sounds like assault. With any luck the police officers involved will be charged in the investigating this altercation.

      Ultimately I think its about time we outfit police officers with portable cameras and microphones.

    • 3 years ago
  • mrburns
    • 0
      mrburns  
    • Speak english jahbini? what were you trying to say?

      "However, you can best bring forward your ideas and share your beliefs with us with some facts, persuasion and maybe a little hope."

      Here is the big difference from you and me.
      Hope, hope, hope,

      You can hope, and I will work for results. When your hope fails in the end, you can always rationailze, use excuses, and say "it was a good idea". I keep working and not whining

      God bless america
      God bless big oil

      What is the deal with my screen name? It's just a fricking screen name onechance

    • 3 years ago
  • onechance
    • 0
      onechance  
    • "Let's just arm police officers with pez dispensers so when they repond to calls they can give an illegal with a gun a sugar high."

      mrburns: Your racist rants are disgusting, and your talking points are all straight off of Fox "news".

    • 3 years ago
  • mrburns
  • onechance
    • 0
      onechance  
    • onechance:

      I pay taxes (reluctantly I even pay the ILLEGALLY charged income tax).

      Are you really as old and shrivelled up as your lame comments and your profile name lead me to belive you are?

    • 3 years ago
  • jahbini
    • 0
      jahbini  
    • onechance:

      Mr Burns (although from your profile you also claim to be Mr. Waylon Smithers ):

      Your attitude of support for the oil industry is pretty admirable. Oil is the heartbeat of our economy, and our economy has been pretty damn good. Sticking by your guns is a good thing.

      However, you can best bring forward your ideas and share your beliefs with us with some facts, persuasion and maybe a little hope.

      Bludgeoning your verbal opponents with names, unfounded allegations, inuendo or, well, kindergarten playground language just won't work in favor of your point of view.

      I know that you are really passionate about big oil and it's right to exist and provide us all with "the good life," it's just that you may be working against your best interests with your comments.

      You too, onechance.

    • 3 years ago
  • mrburns
    • 0
      mrburns  
    • Let's just arm police officers with pez dispensers so when they repond to calls they can give an illegal with a gun a sugar high.

      On another topic, and in another lifetime, I once went to a prison confrence in Eugene. One of the state officials was trying to recruit my black co-workers. He said Or. has a high incarceration rate of black's and they do not respond to whites.

      Mariylnn,

      I suggest you apply as a counselor and move to Or.
      Go do some good, since you accuse me of not.

    • 3 years ago
  • clayjj05
  • Denica_Cassandra
    • 0
      Denica_Cassandra  
    • Since police are allowed to wield/use any weapon openly on citizens, they must change the education requirements and testing of the individuals that are allowed to be "peace officers." Police job requirements are a joke and it shows in the forces we have.

    • 3 years ago
  • jahbini
    • 0
      jahbini  
    • Here are a random grab of quotes from a google search on "taser death:"

      "july 30, 2005 - A Chicago medical examiner has ruled that shocks from a Taser were responsible for the death of a man in February..."

      "Nov 25, 2006 ... The county coroner found no evidence of alcohol or drugs in his system and ruled that Ryan's death could be attributed to the Taser shock,..."

      "Jun 26, 2008 ... After Gray’s death, the department reviewed its policies and Taser use was deemed for use only in situations of active resistance."

      OK: So the internet has spoken. Tasers CAN cause death. They are not fun toys to give the police to play with. We give our police guns as weapons of deadly force; force to be used only when necessary. Tasers deserve the same respect.

      A verbal assault to an officer will never be met with a gun shot. This needs to be the same rule for tasers. Period.

      Shooting a man on the ground is a crime. Tasing a man on the ground or in handcuffs should also be a crime.

    • 3 years ago
  • Marilynn_Murray
  • J_Jammer
  • onechance
    • 0
      onechance  
    • Down with the man. This terrible abuse of "power" is insane. I'm so fed up with it. Pricks got picked on in school so they're overcompensating by being bullies later in life. Buttholes.

      For every one non-corrupt cop, there are 500 dickhead powermongers... Just like old Georgie wants it.

    • 3 years ago
  • jubal
  • inapickle
    • 0
      inapickle  
    • Yes, there is always more than one side to a story..But I think tasers are used too much.Personally, I HATE being shocked.I don't care how much a body can stand.That doesn't mean it's ok..More cops are now carrying tasers w/ them.You might feel differently if you or someone you know had a taser used on them.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • Almost died?

      Sure.

      Overly dramatic?

      Yes he is. He should just be a girl from Mean Girls. Like omg I almost died...

      People whine that police shoot instead of detain in a manner that doesn't kill.

      Now that they do...omg I've got discomfort let me cry.

      The human body can withstand tasers. It's the amount of times that matters. Last year a man was hit (supposedly) 13 times with a taser and died.

      I couldn't find how many times they used it on him...what twice? Not even a lot. The human body can withstand it and therefore I don't make much of him being shocked.

      However, if he was truly slammed into the ground without provocation then I understand the complaint.

      If he was being difficult during the arrest and causing problems then this was brought upon himself.

      I am not up for automatically believing that a man was assaulted by the police just because an article uses words that try to imply such.

      This idea that people are randomly picked to beat up is also whacked.

      Something more happened and I don't believe his side of the story. I don't believe that they acted totally right. But if he provoked them in any way he paid the price and if I were on the jury he'd get no empathy from me.

    • 3 years ago
  • jubal
  • onechance
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • J_Jammer:

      man, i agree not all cops are bad, but once i was in portland, oregon, and i had been talking to a man at a coffee shop about pot laws (he showed me his medical card) and when the man got up to leave, he crossed the street in the crosswalk, and a cop screeched to a halt, grabbed this dude, screamed that he crossed the street illegally, slammed him against the hood of the cop car, searched him, found a joint. the man said he had a legal medical card and i WATCHED the cop tear up the card, throw the pieces in the street, and arrest the dude for the joint. (it was a possession charge.)

      it blew my mind because i was a paramedic for over 5 years -- i worked OFTEN with cops, and i had never seen anything like it before. perhaps the cop knew this guy, but the guy didn't put up any kind of fight at all ... the cop was VERY aggressive from the start.

      this is the reason people are fearful and don't trust cops. if the cops would treat people with respect (until or unless they have to get aggressive) people would trust more in them.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • J_Jammer:

      People should treat cops with respect as well. It is the people that state respect is a two way street....maybe they should give what they want to receive.

      At the same time I rather be shocked than shot.

      And I'm not trusting eyewitness accounts that seem to favor the person on the ground far more than necessary. I find it hard to believe he didn't do anything or was complying and he was then treated this way.

      I also don't think bonking him on the head while on the ground is necessary.

      But I don't trust protesters to tell me what a cop did during their protest. Fibs are sure to happen.

    • 3 years ago
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • J_Jammer:

      yeah, about the story, i wasn't there to see whether the protester was respectful or not, and i seriously doubt it. but i did see with my own eyes what happened in portland. it scared me, especially since oregon is supposedly so progressive with their pot laws and tolerance and such.

      you just never know unless you were there, i guess, but we can't blindly put cops on a pedestal until they learn that respect is earned, and demanding respect only places people on the defensive.

    • 3 years ago
  • ILiveonaClock
  • J_Jammer
  • SilenceNoMore
  • jubal
  • petarro
  • clayjj05
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • petarro:

      petarro and clayjj, this man has every right to voice his opinion, just as you do. civil disobedience is a right granted to us in the constitution by our founding fathers, which conservatives claim to support. i'm not saying he absolutely didn't break the law, but know that protesters being illegally persecuted isn't anything new and is the most classic form of oppression.

    • 3 years ago
  • HuantedWorld
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Tasers should be reclassified as lethal weapons, and the police should be psychologically screened before being issued with a Taser, as there is far too much abuse of that weapon.

    • 3 years ago
  • Marilynn_Murray
  • jubal
  • Hawkmang
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