Lester Brown, clearly and in no uncertain terms attempts to pose zero threat to incompetent police officer

Lester Brown, clearly and in no uncertain terms attempts to pose zero threat to incompetent police officer

This week, Zephyrhills officials fired Claussen. An internal investigation determined "the deployment of the Taser was unjustified," said city attorney Joseph Poblick at a news conference Friday.

Claussen, 36, is white and Brown, 42, is black. Police officials, however, said race was not a factor in the incident. "We didn't see any evidence that it was racially motivated in any way," Capt. Derek Brewer said.

"I requested Mr. Brown exit the residence several times to conduct my investigation and he refused. "Mr. Brown also refused to show his hands so I pulled the door to the residence open. "I continued to give Mr. Brown verbal commands to exit the residence as he stood just inside the front door, with negative results. "I pointed my Taser X26 at Mr. Brown, gave him several more verbal commands to exit the residence, with negative results, so I deployed my Taser probes which struck Mr. Brown in the abdomen."

Afterward, Claussen's report said he and his partner found the stolen items in Brown's home and car — except for the shoes, which Brown was wearing. The report said the woman who was with Brown at the store told officers he stole the items. Brown was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of retail theft. But at the urging of Zephyrhills police, that charged was later dropped by the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, records show.

Officer Tim Claussen is no longer a Zephyrhills, Florida police officer any more. The reason is because the video, attached to a camera at the end of his taser, was recording former-officer Claussen when he decided to repeatedly taser an unarmed and not-doing-anything-dangerous-or-threatening Lester Brown. In the video, you watch as Claussen tells Brown to show his hands (which Brown does), while Claussen threatens to taser Brown. Claussen is aggressive and pretty terrifying the entire time and once he begins tasering Brown, Claussen shrieks like someone who should not be allowed to drive a car let alone own a gun or a taser.In the cop's defense, Claussen never drops racial slurs so, by their definition, there's nothing racially motivated. Brown was a robbery suspect on a shoplifting call from a nearby department store. Here's Claussen's description of events:Brown was arrested for the crime of shoplifting, those charges were later dropped—but not because of innocence:[Emphasis mine.]

That sounds like one of two things: an attempt to keep Brown quiet about the incident initially, and/or a deal to not go forward with a civil suit against the department. Lord knows they've got to be running out of hush money.

You can watch the entire video on how not to be a good police officer below the fold.