A police officer in Toledo, Ohio has been placed on paid
leave after a video depicting him forcing people on the ground and brandishing
a taser at them went viral this month. Officer Eric Hart is merely being placed
on administrative leave while the Washington Township police conduct an
investigation.
Hart reportedly stopped a vehicle for having an “altered”
license registration sticker, at which point another local resident got out of
his car and told Hart, “I’m fucking sick of you cops.” That’s when it got ugly.
Officer Hart wrote in the report that he ordered Mr. [Aaron]
Tatkowski to get back; when he allegedly refused, the officer said he pointed
his stun gun at Mr. Tatkowski, who yelled for spectators to videotape the
encounter. The passenger from the first vehicle, Cassandra Meyers, got out of
the vehicle and approached the officer, who had Mr. Tatkowski handcuffed on the
ground.
The officer wrote he had his gun out and pointed through
open vehicle doors.
The viral video shows Hart handcuffing the man on the
ground.
In the video, a
nearby witness places a call to Toledo police, but Hart angrily confronts him
and tosses his phone aside, saying it won’t be necessary.
One other person piped up, “What you’re saying is you don’t
need witnesses?” Hart responded, “It’s all on camera anyway.”