We reported a few days back about a deaf man, tased for not coming out of a bathroom when he was ordered to do so by police in Mobile, Alabama - even though he couldn't hear them. The local newspaper is reporting this morning there will be a news conference about the incident today. The Mobile Register says police investigators found that the use of the taser (along with the pepper spray) was indeed justifed since they had no way of knowing Love's condition. However, the officer's attempt to arrest Antonio Love, after he found out he was deaf, was not justified.
Love says he stayed in the Dollar General store rest room because he was sick and panicked when he saw someone trying to force their way into the bath room. The officers should have ordered Love taken home or had his family contacted, according to the report. Instead, they tried to charge him resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and failure to obey a police officer.
The magistrate judge on duty refused to accept those charges. His family says they didn't even bother to explain to the confused and metally challenged man what had happened.
