Student Tasered in Front of John Kerry

[kola]

funny mvpel!


ok to sing this little ditty one must grow one of those cheesey mustaches and lace up your jackboots.

sung to peter paul and mary "if I had a hammer":

If i had a taser..i'd taser in the morning

taser in the evenin..all over this land

i'd taser out whiteys, I'd taser out the blacks too

i'd taser out everyone who does not comply with me

all alll over this land

[kola]

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGAMR510302006

The above link has some good info. In looking at many of the deaths it appears most of these folks die after being subjected to multiple taser pulses. It also appears that the taser has little (if any effect) on meth/coke users. Since the taser has little effect on these folks, the cop makes the decision to keep administering the taser.

I would rather be handcuffed and roughed up (which I have experienced) or clubbed in the legs (I also have experienced) than be tasered. I would never want to experience multiple tasers. I have felt 50,000 volts a few times after being zapped by the older 80's electronic ignition systems from automobiles. It was only for a few seconds because I could pull away but it is quite a shock and both times my heart raced for hours afterwards. It is easy to assume how a longer pulse from a taser could cause cardiac arrest not to mention any other type of neurological damage which is currently unknown. 

This damn electrocution device (Taser) should be outlawed.

Kola

[mvpel]

Outlawed, so that in the thousands of cases where the Taser was, in fact, effective in quickly bringing a violent situation to a close without significant injury to the suspect, the cops will instead have to use their batons, pepper spray (with its own track record of fatalities), or their firearms?

The Taser in drive-stun mode is a "pain compliance" device - if someone is "feeling no pain," it won't be effective in gaining compliance, any more than a wrist lock, pressure points, baton, or other methods of inflicting pain in order to gain compliance from a resisting person would be.

Cops need to be trained properly in any use of force, and what to do if a given method is not proving effective.  The Las Vegas Police manual says:

Multiple "Drive Stuns" are discouraged and must be justified and articulated on the Use of Force form.

The example I posted from San Jose went to this point - the crazed boyfriend shook off the Taser, so the officer drew his baton instead of standing there slack-jawed pushing the Taser button again and again.  The officer was then relieved of his baton by the crazed boyfriend, and so he drew his firearm and killed the crazed boyfriend.

[kola]

3.3.1 Case example Antonio Wheeler
Antonio Wheeler was tasered by an Orlando Police Department officer while restrained and handcuffed to a hospital bed for refusing to give a urine sample. Mr Wheeler had been arrested on 4 March 2005 on drug charges and was being treated in the emergency room at the Florida Hospital in Orlando as he had told officers that he had ingested cocaine. He was told that he was required to give a urine sample, and that if he refused the medical staff at the hospital would insert a catheter to extract the sample. According to the police incident report, when Mr. Wheeler refused to provide a urine sample in the allotted time, the medical staff lay an open catheter kit on the table, and at this point he got off the gurney, although his left hand remained handcuffed to the pop-up rail, and threw the catheter kit to the floor. Officer Linnenkamp of the Orlando Police Department then threatened to use his taser on Mr Wheeler unless he remounted the gurney.

Once back on the gurney, medical staff then proceeded to put Mr Wheeler in leather restraints, while officer Linnenkamp was kneeling on his chest. Once restrained Mr Wheeler began thrashing around and tried to prevent medical staff from inserting the catheter. At this point officer Linnenkamp warned Mr Wheeler that he would use his taser if he continued to resist. He then applied the taser in drive stun mode to Mr. Wheeler's forearm. When the medical staff once more tried to insert the catheter, Mr Wheeler again resisted and the taser was used on him a second time, the police report reads that the "taser application was repeated as before with the same effect" of gaining Wheeler's compliance, and that "after the second shock [Wheeler] stated that he would urinate".

Amnesty International wrote to the Orlando Police Department in March 2005 expressing concern that Antonio Wheeler was repeatedly tasered despite the fact that, according to the police report, he was "resisting without violence" and that he was posing no threat to himself, medical personnel or the police officers present. The use of the taser also appeared to violate the Orlando Police Department's own policies on the use of force and tasers, which state that tasers may be used "to control a dangerous or violent suspect" whose actions are intended to facilitate an escape or prevent an arrest. Amnesty International asked for full public disclosure of an investigation of the incident by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and to be informed of whether the use of the electro-shock weapon violated departmental policy. No reply was received.

[srqrebel]

He then applied the taser in drive stun mode to Mr. Wheeler's forearm. When the medical staff once more tried to insert the catheter, Mr Wheeler again resisted and the taser was used on him a second time, the police report reads that the "taser application was repeated as before with the same effect" of gaining Wheeler's compliance, and that "after the second shock [Wheeler] stated that he would urinate".

A perfect example of police using the Taser to torture a citizen into compliance.

No method of pain or torture should ever be used to force compliance.  These are strictly police state tactics.  Any weapons that the police carry should be strictly for protection.

When police can torture a "subject" into submission, there is not even an illusion of freedom left anymore.

[mvpel]

All criminal charges against Antonio Wheeler were dropped, and Officer Peter Linnenkamp was placed on restricted duty and indicted for two counts of battery.

The officer was tried twice, although both juries deadlocked on the charge involving the use of the Taser.

Prior to the incident, in 2004, Orlando rewrote its policy such that had one of the strictest Taser policies in the country in 2005, requiring that a subject be actively resisting arrest before a Taser can be used.  Las Vegas Taser policy forbids use on handcuffed or restrained subjects.

Criminal cops will abuse the public and violate rights no matter what tools they have at their disposal.

Focus on the crime, not the tool.  We say that to the gun-grabbers, why shouldn't the same principle apply here?

[kola]

He then applied the taser in drive stun mode to Mr. Wheeler's forearm. When the medical staff once more tried to insert the catheter, Mr Wheeler again resisted and the taser was used on him a second time, the police report reads that the "taser application was repeated as before with the same effect" of gaining Wheeler's compliance, and that "after the second shock [Wheeler] stated that he would urinate".

A perfect example of police using the Taser to torture a citizen into compliance.

No method of pain or torture should ever be used to force compliance.  These are strictly police state tactics.  Any weapons that the police carry should be strictly for protection.

When police can torture a "subject" into submission, there is not even an illusion of freedom left anymore.

..and if this man died?
This could easily have been "Man murdered by police for refusing to provide urine sample"

It is a fact, the taser kills people, coroners admit to that. Yet the Goon Patrols continue their denial. 

enuf sed,
Kola

[Dan]

Focus on the crime, not the tool.  We say that to the gun-grabbers, why shouldn't the same principle apply here?

Great point.  But you also have to focus on the lenient sentences of Criminal cops.

[mvpel]

Great point.  But you also have to focus on the lenient sentences of Criminal cops.

Indeed, that's 100% true - for example, the officer in the case mentioned above was charged only with misdemeanor battery under Florida law, as opposed to an 18 USC 242 federal deprivation of civil rights under color of law prosecution or some sort of torture charge.

[alohamonkey]

Let's see . . . .

Illegal if a citizen tasers an opossum

http://www.wftv.com/news/14308152/detail.html

Legal if the cops taser us

http://www.wftv.com/news/14413428/detail.html

[kola]

how does one apply for "opossum status".

Kola

[KBCraig]

how does one apply for "opossum status".

http://newhampshireunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=4028.msg71958#msg71958