Cop Fired for Not Using a Taser on an Elderly Suspect

Perez argues [that] he was forced to resign ... after refusing to violate the rights of another. [He] was "punitively transferred" from a day patrol shift to a night shift because he'd refused a senior officer's order to use his electroshock Taser gun on an elderly man in questionable health who was suspected of family violence. ... [He was then] ordered ... to report to [a] psychologist ... for a meeting designed to help facilitate "better communication" between Perez and [his supervisor]. Perez said he was told the session ... would be spent practicing "word games" [but] the meeting was intended as a fit-for-duty review, the outcome of which could bolster the supervisors' desire to terminate Perez. ...

The city's chief litigator [says that] ... Perez, ... who worked as an engineer before entering the police academy at
41 years old and who was honored with the Ernie Hinckle Humanitarian Award for compassion, integrity, and leadership by his fellow cadets, ... was fired for poor performance. ... "Perez has a well-developed set of personal beliefs. ... and it is obvious that he has spent a lot of time reflecting upon and developing these views," she wrote. ... [and] as "admirable as these beliefs may be, they seem to play a role in his defensiveness in that they provide him with a rationale for explaining how his views differ with others."