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Op-Ed Contributor
Preacher Tasered By Guards Sues Hospital
By Robert Paul Reyes
"A grandfather and pastor is suing a Toledo, Ohio hospital after being tasered and beaten by security guards at the facility.
Al Poisson, 67, says he was visiting a friend in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center a year ago and was in a very good mood when he came upon a glum-looking guard and joked with him.
'I said (to the guard), 'Are you happy today?' Poisson told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Friday. 'He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Well, you oughta tell your face!'
The guards wound up taking Poisson outside the building, where they used a taser and/or stun gun on him, dropping him to his knees and, he says, beat, kicked and 'manhandled' him when he was down."
Quotation from CBSNews.Com
CBS is sympathetic to the plight of Poisson, why else mention the fact that he's a grandfather in the opening sentence? What does his status as a grandfather have to do with the price of tea in China?
If a strangers asks, "Are you happy", he's probably a Moonie, Scientologist or a fundamentalist Christian. It's impossible for an individual with a modicum of intelligence to be happy, the best we can hope for in this screwed-up world is a small measure of contentment.
The punchline, "Well, you oughta tell your face", is a provocation and a good way to end up with a bloody nose. I hope that Poisson is a better preacher than he is a comic.
"St. Vincent's issued a statement saying, 'According to our policy regarding physical aggression, the use of a taser is warranted if someone attempts to physically attack a staff member, patient or visitor. We conducted an internal review of this incident that determined the response to the aggression was appropriate.'"
Quotation from CBSNews.Com
Hell yes, the use of the taser was appropriate, nobody likes a bad comic. The guards claim that he elbowed one of them.
It would have been real funny if the minister had yelled: Don't taze me bro! Now that's comedy.
Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
Tags: taser, robert paul reyes,St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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