Cops Interpret Man's Friendly Wave As Middle Finger, Threaten Him With Taser

Chris | InformationLiberation
Aug. 22, 2013

Evansville firefighter George Madison Jr. says he was just giving the police a friendly wave as he was riding his bike down the street because he thought he recognized the officers and wanted to say hello, but Evansville police officers Darin Clifton and Jason Clegg interpreted the wave as him giving them the middle finger, and responded by threatening him with a taser.

Giving cops the middle finger is protected free speech, as is cursing at officers, but these cops either do not know the law, or don't care about the law, so they decided to treat this "suspect" as a threatening criminal.

After cutting him off with their cruiser, the cops exited their vehicles to question him, asking him, "What are you doing throwing your hands up at us?"

Madison said he was too intimidated to give a coherent response and he "couldn’t get a word in edgewise" to explain himself.

Madison then attempted to use his phone to call the local police chief whom he knows well from community involvements, but the officers ordered him to put the phone down and threatened to tase him for non-compliance.

“I remember looking down the barrel of a Taser, because (the officer) was gritting his teeth and saying, ‘Don’t make me pull this trigger,’ Madison told the Courier Press.

After sufficiently prostrating himself and begging the cops "Please don’t hurt me," the public servants chose only to handcuff and interrogate him. After learning he was a firefighter and a member of the same class, the officers calmed down.

Video of the aftermath has been released, but the actual incident itself, for whatever reason, is not shown in the video. Police have said they want to have officers use lapel cams so both sides of the story can be told rather than just one person's video being used to show police in a bad light, but it appears in this case police are selectively editing the footage they take in order to make themselves appear in only the best light.

Watch the video:


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