This Could Be You

















On June 29, 2009 McFarland and his wife Pearl were returning home from a charity fundraiser just before midnight. McFarland injured himself as he stumbled and fell down the long steps to his front door.



"Mainly it was to my knee and the front of my leg, my shin," McFarland said.



His wife called paramedics, who helped him into the house and treated him. As the paramedics were leaving, two sheriff's deputies arrived.



"All of a sudden, they just showed up, they came in here like there was a fire going on, like a gunfight was going on," McFarland said.



What happened in the following minutes was captured on a camera mounted on the deputy's Taser.



The deputy tells McFarland he is going to take him to the hospital because he may be suicidal.



"We want to take you to the hospital for an evaluation, you said if you had a gun, you'd shoot yourself in the head," the deputy can be heard saying.



McFarland says it was just hyperbole. He was tired and in pain.



The deputy orders him numerous times to get up or else.



"Stand up, put your hands behind your back or you're going to be Tased," the deputy says.



McFarland keeps refusing.



The exchange goes on for about five minutes; his wife keeps pleading with the deputies not to Tase him, saying he has a heart condition.



Then, McFarland tells the deputies in no uncertain terms to leave.



As he gets up to go to bed, McFarland is Tased. Not once, but three times.



[...]



McFarland says he never had any suicidal thoughts. In fact, he considers himself lucky to be alive.



"I'm a survivor of pancreatic cancer; one of 4 percent in this country," McFarland said.



Scott says his client was arrested, jailed and charged with resisting arrest. A judge later dismissed the charge.



Peter McFarland should be thanking the sheriffs not suing them. They thought he was a danger to himself and they were going to get him help despite himself. The fact that they held off from using any type of force for as long as they did amazed me. McFarland had ended the dialog with officers the second he became belligerent They showed restraint by patiently waiting and giving him repeated chances to comply. Officers need to be encouraged to ignore the excuses such as "it was just hyperbole".