taser abuse
UPDATED MARCH 2009 - Robert Dziekanski investigation Since they became available to police forces in 2003, tasers have killed at least 20 Canadians. Although designed to be "non-lethal", the fact that it exposes the body to a sudden burst of high electricity can have undetermined effects on someone suffering from a heart or respiratory condition, as well as someone under the influence of hard chemical drugs such as meth and cocaine. In these cases, the deaths are usually found under "natural cases". Technically it is natural to die after being electrocuted several times. Tasers send 50,000 volts of electricity into your nervous system, which temporarily disables your motor skills.
This causes most people (under 230lbs-ish) to collapse immediately. Split second blackouts, when one doesn't remember the actual tasering but can recall immediately before it and come to just after hitting the ground, is quite common. Lancet Medical Journal reports that a 3-5 burst can immobilize someone for up to 15 minutes. There is the story of Robert Dziekanski. He flew to Vancouver from Poland to visit his friend and mother, though was not where he told them he would be after his flight landed when he deplaned. Airport workers say they had no idea where he was, or even if he boarded the plane, no one onboard fit the description they gave, but they would keep looking. After ten hours, they left and assumed he had missed his flight. But that was not the case at all. Once he deplaned, he expected to meet his mother. She wasn't there, so he waited. Speaking no English and badly craving a cigarette, he was becoming increasingly aggitated. Staff tried communicating with him with a computer-terminal, but nothing was getting through. He became visibly upset, so security was called. Dziekanski backed himself into a corner, and the security personell called the police. That is when the video starts.
The police outnumbered Dziekanski four-to-one, plus whatever security guards were around. He had a small table in his hand at one point, at another a stapler. Either way, he was tased twice within the one minute mark on the video, and died as a result. The person who shot the video was convinced to surrender the memory card, and was promised it back the next day. When he picked it up, he was shocked to find a new, and empty memory card in its' place. He was told he would get the original card back at a later date. He immediately contacted a lawyer. The card was eventually returned, but appears to be somewhat doctored in some places. Additionally, it is important to note that the original airport security footage was destroyed. The fact they can be used by police with more freedom than a gun and immediately disables the victim are also cause for concern. It is not uncommon for someone to be tased, handcuffed, then tased again. Police supposedly tase people so they can detain, arrest and process them, so tasings after the suspect has been captured and secured should not be tolerated at all. That is the very definition of police brutality. Evidence also exists that the procedure is "tase first, ask questions later". There are stories based in the US where perfectly innocent drivers are pulled over by a clearly agitated officer and tased for taking too long to produced credentials, or simply "looked suspicious". The viral video, "Don't tase me, bro!" is a good example of this. Constabularies walked into an auditorium where former President hopeful John Kerry was speaking. A student asked Kerry about the 2004 election and a certain club he belonged to in Yale, The Skull and Bones Society, also known as The Order of Death.The video shows the student surrounded before he is even finished speaking, and is tased as Kerry makes his reply. Kerry later claimed he had no idea what was going on, though you can hear him trying to talk over, practically shouting, over the commotion in front of him. Reports later said he may have been attempting to make a scene earlier, but that hardly justifies the tasing.
[flash http://navonod.net/trooth/wp-content/viddy/kerry.flv]
November 2006 at UCLA, a student refused to show identification in the library as he was leaving and was tased repeatedly. As one can see in the video, they almost mockingly order him to stand immediately after being tased. When he tries and cannot, they tase him again. His screams of "Patriot Act this" and "abuse of power that" most likely did not at all help his situation. Witnesses who asked for officers' name and badge number were also threatened with tasing. An interesting fact is one of the officers, Terrence Duren, is a former marine and was fired from the Long Beach Police department.
[flash http://navonod.net/trooth/wp-content/viddy/UCLA.flv]
Tasers have also been used to subdue children as young as eight years old. One incident at a school, where an officer claimed he felt threatened enough to legitimize using it. Another story describes how in July 2008, 16 year old Mace Hutchinson fell from an overpass, breaking his back and ankle. The first two officers on the scene ordered him to stand. When he "refused to obey", he was tasered a total of nineteen times. The next day The officer's captain said "He refused to comply with the officers and so the two officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him." Had to deploy tasers to subdue a sixteen year old with a broken back who is obviously delerious from a fall? They make no appologies, so they clearly see nothing wrong with this. An investigation later cleared the officers of any wrongdoings because the teen was apparently high on LSD at the time. A friend of Hutchison said they were both at a party where drugs and alcohol were consumed en masse, and Hutchison jumped from a moving car and ran into the woods. They then said he came back and jumped off the overpass, and that's when the two police showed up and the tasings happened. No one will touch this story, however. Hutchison and a friend have been recently arrested for firing a gun into a house and car, and if the taser incident is brought up it now as a nice standard discrediting reply. RELATED TROOTH POSTS
Mountie who stunned Dziekanski denies panicking or covering up
Stapler could be a weapon, RCMP officer tells Taser inquiry
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Last Updated ( 11 March 2010 )