NSFW Article on Recent Wake Forest F*#k Tasing and Video Review

Warning: There is no way I can tell this story without using the critical curse words, and maybe some gratuitous ones as well. This article is probably not suitable for work (NSFW) but we should have a discussion about it.

This week an event in Wake Forest occurred with a taser, a resident, and a whole lot of fuck. I covered the official press release, here.

This event, and events like them are total no-win situations for anyone involved. It is almost a given that no matter what anyone says about the situation, people are going to have their own interpretation and impression about what actually went on.

Humans are interesting creatures. You can take ten people and have them witness the same event and wind up with eight different versions of what they just saw.

In this event, Theron Gill, who was eventually tased and arrested, felt he was watching something where it was required to keep using the word fuck over and over and over. I completely believe Gill felt a personal outrage over some event, felt it was not necessary to obey the police officers directions, and really loved using the word fuck.

One version of events is the Wake Forest Police rolled up on a bunch of people standing innocently on a corner, heard someone say the word fuck and then tased him.

According to the Wake Forest Police Department, “Mr. Gill was warned several times to stop using foul language on a public street,” said Police Chief Jeff Leonard. “After ignoring repeated warnings he was arrested for disorderly conduct. He was then instructed to put his hands behind his back. Again, he refused to comply and when he continued to resist, he was tased. He wasn’t tased for cursing. He was tased for resisting arrest.”

But what the Wake Forest press release doesn’t do is put more of this into context.

After the event, a video surfaced on YouTube which only showed part of the action and it’s been watched by a whole lot of people. But I have some real issues with the video that I’d like to discuss as a photojournalist.

Please feel free to enjoy the now classic video below titled, “My brother is being tazed by the wake forest police 3 times for saying “fuck.”

If you are going to shoot video with your smartphone, please don’t hold it vertically. Hold it horizontally so we can get the full scene and not the “peek through the door shot.” – Source

The videographer does a good job of getting some facts in the video but says he got the whole event recorded. Unless Mr. Gill was initially found laying topless in the street, I think the video misses a lot of the what happened and more importantly, context.

Towards the end of the video we get the sun in the camera angle. If you are in this situation as a videographer please run around to get the sun at your back so your subject is best lit.

It would be nice to pan around and show the overall scene. All we have is a sliver of the actual scene and event and can’t tell a whole lot about what really did happen.

I do have some favorite parts of the video. At the top of my list is when Mr. Gill, who is allegedly being arrested for continuing to curse says, “Chris, Chris, Chris, get this motherfucker right here man.” Of course Gill probably doesn’t help his case any as he is being put in the police car and says, “For no fucking reason.” Hey, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Of course that happened right after I think he said, “They tased my tits.” Now that’s a statement you don’t hear everyday.

The videographer also does a nice job of following the police officers directions when he’s asked to back up. Bonus points.

Look, I’ve been in situations as a journalist where police officers have said stuff to me that didn’t seem to make sense at the moment. But when a police officer says to me I need to back up, my general response, like Chris the videographer, is to back up.

What good is going to come from me arguing with a police officer at that moment? None. I have no expectation the police officer is going to say, “You know what, you’ve made a valid loud argument and you are absolutely correct, I was completely fucking wrong. Please accept my most humble apology and step forward to wherever you want.”

So notice the videographer doesn’t start a scene, he backs up. His camera is not taken from him and in fact Officer Wallace helps the videographer identify who the officers involved are. He even repeats the officers names louder for the video.

If the issue is someone was arrested for swearing then the videographer would have been arrested for, “I’m recording all this shit,” and the seven extra “fucks.” But if anyone believes this all about an errant fuck, it sure doesn’t look that way to me based on the other fucks flying and no action taken against Chris, the videographer.

Another favorite moment can only be appreciated by those of us who are parents. Gill’s father walks up as Gill is lying tit tased on the ground. His father says, “What did he do?”

Sergeant Minor says, “Right now he’s under arrest for disorderly conduct,” and “He was cursing in the street and I gave him numerous opportunities to go away.”

And then as only a good protective father can do, he says, “He didn’t do that.” Well the video shows that happening right after Chris records the video showing Gill saying, “Chris, Chris, Chris, get this motherfucker right here man.”

After watching the video you just get the feeling at least one of the Wake Forest police officers really wanted to tell the guy to “just shut the fuck up.” They could have swapped fucks and maybe bonded over that. Yea, probably not.

But let’s put this all into context. The Wake Forest Police received a call of shots fired in the area. They responded and tried to figure out what was going on, if there was an active shooting incident, if the potential shooter was nearby, or maybe even in the growing crowd.

The police officers were on a heightened alert and looking for someone with an alleged gun. Now add to that an enthusiastic bystander with a lot of fuck to yell and share and what we have my friends is a big fucking mess.

I’m sure Theron Gill is a nice guy. In fact one comment on the other article was from a department manager at Lowe’s Home Improvement where he allegedly works. Sophine said, “This is my coworker and a college student. He is a very respectful young man…”

Theron is probably a really nice guy at work. He’s probably very helpful and courteous. But I wonder what the Lowe’s Home Improvement response would be to yelling fuck over and over again in the store and then saying to Theron at work, “Where’s the fucking latex purple paint,” and “Chris, Chris, Chris, get this motherfucker right here man.” I’m thinking Lowe’s would probably frown on all of that and call the Wake Forest police to remove someone from the store that kept doing that.

I understand the whole freedom of speech argument and if you want to stand up proudly in your house and yell fuck, fuck, fuck, nobody is going to give a fuck. But if your actions may be escalating an already tense situation, you refuse to obey the police officers, and then do this stuff “(1) intentionally causes a public disturbance (2) by making or using any utterance, gesture, display, or abusive language (3) that is intended to and is plainly likely to provoke violent retaliation and thereby cause a breach of the peace.” That’s not a violation of anyones freedom of speech, that’s a violation of North Carolina General Statute 14-288.4.

There is no sense wasting a perfectly good mistake so maybe the lesson to be learned from this I guess is not to keep swearing in a public place when the police officer asks you to stop. Outside of that I think we can assume getting tit tased isn’t a whole lot of fun.