Student Tased at Bicycle Rally
By: Mitch Carr
Updated: September 29, 2009
What began as a Lubbock food drive over the weekend ended with an arrest in Tech Terrace.
The latest Tour de Tech Terrace was held Saturday. A couple of times a year, college kids bike through the neighborhood collecting canned goods for the food bank. The problem is 1,100 people showed up, and police say the event got out of hand with alcohol.
Traffic was backed up, and officers say they were forced to control one student with a taser. Jan-Tosh Gerling, the man who shot the video of the student getting tased, says the event was a bit out of control, but he believes police didn't need to use that kind of force.
"In my opinion, from what I saw, I was standing eight feet away, I would definitely say it was excessive force. Only because, this guy was completely immobile. He was pinned to the ground. The officer had a knee on his neck. I really don't think the taser was going to make him any more immobile," Gerling said.
Police say tasers are alternatives to techniques that can cause long term damage.
"If an officer were to put you in an arm bar or something like that to get the hand cuffs on you, you might be sore or have even torn a ligament or something like that. But with the taser, while it's on, you definitely know it's on, but as soon as it's turned off, the experience goes away," said Lt. Neal Barron of the LPD.
The good news is that 800 lbs. of canned goods were dontated to the South Plains Food Bank. But organizers aren't sure they'll be able to continue the event.
