woman tased after calling for police about prowler

A woman is considering legal action after cops tased her multiple times. The woman, Janice Wells, called police in the western Georgia town of Richland because she thought there was a prowler outside her house. Mrs. Wells had called family friend John Robinson to stay with her until the cops arrived. When policeman Tim Murphy arrived, he spoke to Robinson and found out where he lived, how long he had known Mrs. Wells, and the nature of their relationship. In his incident report, Officer Murphy wrote that he let Mr. Robinson go because it's best to ensure participants in domestic violence remain apart. Mrs. Wells said that there was no domestic violence and had been no indication of any. So when Officer Murphy asked Mrs. Wells Mr. Robinson's name, she wouldn't tell him. This escalated the situation and Mrs. Wells, a 57 year-old-lady, was ultimately tased multiple times by Officer Murphy and an officer who arrived shortly after.

The officers are no longer employed by the police department, but this sort of thing should not be happening. The county sheriff, Larry Jones, suggests that race may be a factor in the case. Mrs. Wells is black and the two arresting officers are white. I would endorse Jones' suggestion. This would not have happened had the lady calling the police been white. Cops using tasers so recklessly only uphold the suspicions of people of color and poor people about the interests of police departments. It would be hard to counteract those arguments, given the horrific nature of videos such as that showing Mrs. Wells being tased.