A 17-Year-Old Was Tased During A Traffic Stop, Then Cops Attempted To Delete Footage Of The Incident

At the moment it feels like we can’t go a day without another story about an American police officer abusing their position of authority. Today’s incident involves a 17-year-old who was tased in the back of a car, after refusing to leave his friend’s vehicle.

The incident occured on January 10, with the officer involved now on administrative duty, as is procedure following use of a taser, however police were not aware of the citizen’s footage.

It all started when 18-year-old Courtney Griffith pulled up to her house, and an officer who had been following her car put on his lights. The officer said he’d pulled her over because the light above her license plate wasn’t working. He then said he could smell marijuana and asked the occupants to step out of the vehicle; it’s here that the situation quickly escalated.

The 17-year-old in the back seat refuses to get out until his mother arrives, however officers don’t accept that and start grabbing him. When he still doesn’t get out of the car, an officer pepper sprays him and begins barking demands. The teenager is then tasered twice.

While it’s impossible to know how long the confrontation went on before the driver began recording, it sounds like it’s quite early in the conversation. I can’t believe how badly the cops deal with the situation. Is this typical in America? In England, in a similar situation where the car’s occupants aren’t being aggressive, cops are far more relaxed and will talk to you to diffuse the situation. These cops immediately escalate the situation; it’s almost like the want confrontation, they’re that deliberate in their actions.

After the teenager has been pulled from the car, an officer can be seen searching the vehicle, before stopping the recording. Griffiths alleges that officers then deleted the video; she only recovered it thanks to a ‘recently deleted’ folder on her iPhone.

Incredibly, the guy in the back seat is currently imprisoned until July on charges of assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. Perhaps resisting arrest could be argued, although the officer does tell them they’re not under arrest; the assault and battery charge seems completely fabricated. Virginia Beach Police have been investigating using footage from the officer’s taser, however they were not aware of the citizen’s footage until recently. Police did confirm that narcotics were found in the vehicle.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out; we’ll update you with more information when we get it.