Officials in Texas Grapple With Police Decision to Use Taser on City Council Member

By Katie Rogers, the New York Times

Officials in a small Texas town are questioning a decision by the police to use a Taser on a member of the City Council before charging him with resisting arrest.

            The arrest of City Council member Jonathan L. Miller on October 8.

The City Council in Prairie View, Tex., will hold a special session on Thursday, asking for an update from the police about why Jonathan L. Miller, a 26-year-old councilman, was Tasered last Thursday after he approached officers who had detained three of Mr. Miller’s friends outside his home.

In a police video of the encounter, a female officer can be heard saying to Mr. Miller as he approached, “There’s been drug activity — little girls and little guys in the car doing whatever.”…

In a confrontation that intensifies over about three minutes, Mr. Miller is told to back away from the officers repeatedly but refuses.

“You’re always starting problems, so go back over there,” another officer tells him. When Mr. Miller refuses to move, that officer is at first told by the female officer not to use the Taser.

“He’s going to have to tase you,” the female officer says, though Mr. Miller was not combative. “You’re not doing like you’re supposed to do.”

“I told you to back off,” the male officer says. “You did not listen.”

“I live here,” Mr. Miller repeatedly says. “What’s the issue? What did I do?”

…In a video posted shortly after his release from custody, Mr. Miller said that he was charged with interfering with public duties and for resisting arrest. Mr. Miller was the only person taken into custody during the encounter, the police said Tuesday.

Tasers are frequently used by police officers to disarm their targets, but activists worry about the weapon’s prevalence. Taser International, the manufacturer of the electrical weapons, said in May that more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies had purchased the devices, which are used about 900 times a day…

Prairie View, a small college town where more than 80 percent of residents are black, has been under heightened scrutiny since this summer, when Sandra Bland, a black woman, was found dead in her jail cell days after she was arrested during a traffic stop in the town. Dashboard camera video taken from that episode showed the white state trooper who arrested her threatening her with a Taser…

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