Once again in America, a teenager is tasered for vaping in public. An eerily familiar story to one reported last year in Maryland.
Twitter was alive with fury after shocking footage emerged of a police officer tasing a teenage boy for vaping.
The video – which already has almost 80,000 views online – shows an unnamed female cop firing her taser at 17-year-old Terion Forston.
She then forced him to his stomach, repeatedly ordering the teen to ‘get down’ on the ground while he writhed in pain on the floor.
Police claimed that Forston was only tasered after he ‘physically resisted efforts to detain him’…but the viral footage shows he was standing still and seemingly didn’t pose an immediate threat to the officer.
One eyewitness, Brendon Aldridge, said:
“He was only vaping, she asked him for his ID and he was being calm.
“She tased him and it was crazy, while he was down on the ground shaking she was like ‘get down, get down’ like he wasn’t already.”
Brendon Aldridge
The incident happened at a city park in Atlanta, Georgia and Forston was later charged with disorderly conduct.
Police said the taser was only used after the youth refused to comply with police instructions and resisted efforts to detain him.
Charles A Gardner, chief executive of the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations tweeted:
“Why do we never learn the lessons of past prohibitions?
“Alcohol prohibition FAILED. Cannabis prohibition FAILED. The War on Nicotine is just getting started. It too will fail, but only after more harm like this poor tased teen.”
Charles A. Gardner, Chief Executive of INNCO
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump tweeted:
“WOW — An Atlanta police officer tased a 17 yo teen at a skate park over VAPING!
“This use of force against a CHILD was not at all necessary! There MUST be other ways to handle these situations! We need a full investigation into this incident!
Ben Crump
Vaper Armchair Nomad said:
“Turns out #vaping is pretty harmful after all. It causes police brutality and electrocution.”
