Ask the pregnant woman who refused to sign a traffic ticket. She'll confirm: it's more convenient for police to discharge a Taser than to negotiate verbally or use other problem-solving strategies when dealing with the public. A 58-year-old homeless woman with a mental illness in Vermont will tell a similar story. Her crime was refusing to move from where she was standing outside a local convenience store.
Abuse of electroshock weapons is commonplace when individuals are slow to follow orders or "cop an attitude." The teenage baseball fan in Philadelphia learned this the painful way. Each time police discharge Tasers when no threat to human life exists, they breach norms for the use of force. Force should be used only where "strictly necessary" and in proportion to the threat posted, according to the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. The Police Executive Research Forum advises that stun guns should only be directed at persons actively exhibiting aggression. And the UN Committee Against Torture has called use of the Taser X26 a form of torture because of the degree of pain the weapon inflicts.
In addition to being the state where the baseball fan was shocked, Pennsylvania hosted the debut of military sonic weapons against civilian protesters at the 2009 G-20 Summit. Known as Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), these weapons have been used to disperse crowds in Iraq and repel pirates in the Gulf of Aden. They are more insidious than other so called less-lethal munitions because they leave no visible marks and can cause permanent hearing loss. While LRADs are relatively new in the United States, Tasers, rubber bullets and other potentially lethal weapons are altogether too readily used by law enforcement on civilians.
Statistics detailing the harm that Tasers cause might help curb their use. But accurate statistics do not exist. That is in part because medical examiners across the country are afraid of retribution by Taser International, the leading manufacturer of Tasers. The corporation has sued several medical examiners for listing their products as either contributing to or as being the official cause of death.
Coroners may, however, log deaths from Taser-related incidents in the National Association of Medical Examiners' "Death Registry" database in order to assist the National Institute of Justice identify deaths in which electric stun guns were used. This is just a start. The public should express outrage at the increasing use of electro-muscular disruption technology by law enforcement against civilians in any situation other than life-threatening ones.
the rcmp officers who tasered him five times lied about their actions, were not charged and still work though this might, mercifully, change soon. the provincial attorney-general has appointed a special prosecutor; perhaps he will have the guts to lay the criminal charges that are appropriate here. in this instance the official excuse was that mr dziekanski was in the non-existent "excited delirium".
no.
mr. dziekanski was tired, disoriented, hungry, probably dehydrated, upset and angry at having failed to connect with his mother, and spoke no english. at one point he picked up a truly lethal weapon: a stapler.
in an egregious move the rcmp tried to cover up the incident. thank heaven there was a bystander with a cellphone who captured the entire sorry episode, or we would never have known how absolutely power corrupts people, even if it is the power of the stun gun, adapted for human killing.
Also, what if US fans rushed the field in defense of teenage Phillies fan? Fans rushed the field for this guy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfl7OhTTnHY
Nice work Heidi!
This allows the officer to have some fun with this toy, they shot anyone they want because it is harmless really. Of course we know that's not true.
So what's the solution to over use of the taser?
According to Ms. Boghosian's report, "the Police Executive Research Forum advises that stun guns should only be directed at persons ACTIVELY EXHIBITING AGGRESSION."
After several high-profile taser abuse incidents in Canada that generated intense public concern, and a new awareness of a phenomenon we refer to as "usage creep", our national police force - the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) - was finally forced to admit in 2009 that there are risks associated with the deployment of tasers and they emphasized that those risks include the risk of death. The Canadian Medical Association, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP and the Braidwood Inquiry in British Columbia all reached the same conclusion.
Last week, the RCMP significantly narrowed the rules and announced that from now on they will, among other changes, use tasers only if a person is “causing bodily harm” or if there are “reasonable grounds” to fear that he or she “will imminently” cause harm. It is anticipated that this policy will have a trickle-down effect and before long all Canadian police - national, provincial and muncipal - will be forced to follow
I wonder how many more needless deaths we will see in this country before we implement similar common-sense reforms.
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/RCMP+improves+Taser+policy/2992658/story.html#ixzz0npsmZOzO