Police State?: Man Tased repeatedly in his own home

The Story via the Examiner:

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is responding to an exclusive report by San Francisco-based television station KGO-TV about sheriff’s deputies tasing a 64-year-old man who said that he would “shoot himself in the head” after he was treated by paramedics for a slip and fall injury.

Peter McFarland told KGO-TV that the statement threatening suicide was “hyperbole” after he was tired and suffering pain from his injuries. McFarland is filing a lawsuit

Marion County Sheriff’s Dept Statement:

On Monday, August 30, 2010, a representative from a local news station left a voicemail message advising the Marin County Sheriff’s Office that Mr. Peter McFarland had filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office related to his arrest on June 30, 2009. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office has not been served with a lawsuit with respect to the arrest of Mr. Peter McFarland on June 30, 2009, nor has it yet had an opportunity to review the allegations made to the media on August 30, 2010 by Mr. McFarland’s attorney.

The decision to resort to the use of force is never taken lightly and deputy sheriffs undergo an extensive amount of on-going training to ensure those decisions are both appropriate and fall within the guidelines established by law and department policy.

Irrespective of the totality of facts that lead to a decision to apply force in an arrest situation, the actual application of that force is often a very difficult thing to watch, as evidenced by the reaction of some to seeing the effects of the TASER deployment used during Mr. McFarland’s arrest. That reaction can all too often also be influenced by using only small, selected segments of a much lengthier video that better depicts the complexity of the event in question.

Regardless, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office is committed to as transparent a process in its arrest procedures as possible, a process that requires every TASER weapon in our inventory to contain a video / audio recording device that is automatically activated each time the weapon’s safety is removed. It is that very video system that recorded the footage recently released to the news media by Mr. McFarland.

The Sheriff’s Office takes all allegations of excessive force and/or deputy misconduct seriously and will do so in this case as well. After all the facts have been made public, we are confident the actions of our deputies will be found to have been both within the law and department policy.

Contact information:

Marin County Sheriff’s Office
3501 Civic Center Drive #145
San Rafael, CA 94903
Driving Directions

Administration 415-499-7250
Sheriff Robert T. Doyle                       email
Undersheriff Timothy Little                  email
Captain Michael Ridgway                    email
Captain Dave Augustus                      email
Captain Rick Navarro                          email

Civil Division                          415-499-7282
Communications                    415-479-2311
TTY                                       415-479-1601
Crime Analysis                      415-499-7307
Investigations                        415-499-7265
Patrol                                    415-479-2311
Professional Standards         415-499-7261
Records Division                   415-499-7284
Warrants Division                  415-499-7297

Historian
Rebecca Olibas
415-499-7324
Email

Marin County Jail
13 Peter Behr Drive – Driving Directions
San Rafael, CA 94903
415-499-6655

Marin County Office of Emergency Services
3501 Civic Center Drive #266 – Driving Directions
San Rafael, CA 94903
415-499-6584

Southern Sub-Station
850 Drake Avenue – Driving Directions
Marin City, CA 94965
415-332-5422

Kentfield Sub-Station
831 College Avenue – Driving Directions
Kentfield, Ca. 94904
415-456-5131

Point Reyes Sub-Station
101 4th Street – Driving Directions
Point Reyes, Ca. 94956
415-663-1151

I report you decide.