Police Taser Teen Philly Fan

Turtle · May 4, 2010

A 17 year old leapt onto the baseball field at the top of the eighth inning during Monday night's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals. He ran around in circles in the outfield, waving a white towel, for about 30 seconds and dodged two security officers and several grounds crew before a Philadelphia Police officer subdued him with a taser gun.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey reviewed video of the arrest and felt the officer acted within department guidelines, which allow officers to use Tasers to arrest fleeing suspects, said the spokesman, Lt. Frank Vanore.

"It appears that the officer was within the policy,'' said Vanore. "[The officer] was attempting to make an arrest and the male was attempting to flee.''

Fleeing suspects? Are you kidding me? OK, sure, he was a Phillies fan, and that alone could justify getting tased, but c'mon. He was enclosed in a Major League Baseball stadium. Where was he going to flee to, shortstop?

panthercub · May 4, 2010

I hope this makes sense:
I don't think the tasing was necessary, but I don't think it was wrong, either. The kid was eluding security, and at some point, you have to stop him. No one knows the real reason he has gone onto the field.
BTW, other articles indicate that he called his father first, and asked if he could go on the field. His dad said no. Oh well. Better to ask for bail than for permission?

Turtle · May 4, 2010

The kid was eluding security. What a shocker. Of course he was eluding security. That's the whole point. That's what you do when you run out onto a baseball field, you elude security. No one runs out onto a baseball field and makes a beeline to security.

As for not knowing the reason why he went out there, that's still no reason to tase him. That's literally shooting first and asking questions later. He jumped out there and immediately started running in wide circles, not going after anybody. If he was a suicide bomber, even an extremely stupid one, he probably stay up in the stands where there are lots of people, rather than go to the least populated spot in the building, center field, to set it off.

Yeah, true enough, at some point you have to stop him. Or you could just let him run around like a fool and run out of steam on his own. If he tried to make it back to the stands for a quick getaway, you can forget that - these are Phillies fans, who after beating him to a pulp would just throw his aѕѕ right back onto the field.

Funny thing was his dad said, "I don't think you should do that." When what he should have said was, "No you moron, and if you do it, good luck in finding someone to bail you out."