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The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend:
"a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."

He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior." (CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)


Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).

"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008



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A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist."
(Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)

"A nutty lesbian blogger."
(MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)


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--Impeach Bush


who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
--"Joe"

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17-year-old killed by Taser over shoplifted Hot Pockets

by: Pam Spaulding

Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM EDT


More Taser insanity. The mounting incidents of violence being perpetrated by the inappropriate use of Tasers is unnerving. The stories from readers keep flooding into my inbox.

Here's one from my state that will turn your stomach (h/t n8nyc and Virginia F.). Darryl Wayne Turner was a cashier and bagged groceries at a local Food Lion. He lifted a couple of Hot Pocket lunches and his mother told him to do the right thing -- go back to the store and fess up. Then something went horribly wrong.

A 17-year-old died at Carolinas Medical Center Thursday after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shocked him with a Taser during a confrontation at a grocery store in northeast Charlotte.

...Around lunchtime, Turner had come home to eat and told his mom that he had stolen a couple of Hot Pockets from the store. A supervisor planned to get a district manager involved and he feared disciplinary action, she said.

She said she told him to go back to the store and face up to what happened.

It wasn't long after lunch she got a call from one of her son's co-workers, who told her about the incident, she said.

After Turner was hit, police called the Charlotte Fire Department and paramedics, department policy anytime an officer uses a Taser gun, the release said.

Homicide detectives are investigating Turner's death and will present their findings to the district attorney, the news release said.

Turner had no criminal record and no health problems.

Not to be topped, read what happened in the case of a Matteson, IL man, who was on the wrong end of a Taser -- he has been acquitted of assaulting an officer.

Read that, and see a video about the use of Tasers in Eugene, Oregon, after the jump.

Pam Spaulding :: 17-year-old killed by Taser over shoplifted Hot Pockets
(Southtown Star):
A Matteson man cleared by a jury Wednesday of assaulting a police officer plans to sue Posen police for what he alleges was a case of racially-motivated police brutality, his attorney said.

Julius Little, 44, was pepper-sprayed, bitten repeatedly by a police dog and shot with a Taser by police outside his mother's home near the intersection of 145th Street and Richmond Ave. on June 22, 2006.

A Markham courthouse jury took little more than an hour to clear him of aggressively approaching Cpl. Bill Alexander, clenching his fists and threatening to punch him.

"The police were just trying to cover up for what they did to him," juror Maud Powell told the SouthtownStar after the verdict was announced, "It was obvious from what the officers said in court that they were lying."

During the two-day trial, Little testified that he was taking out the trash at his mother's home when he saw police questioning his son.

When he asked the officers what was going on, he was told, "get your black ass out of here," and then attacked by three white cops and a K-9 officer, he alleged.

...Several eyewitnesses corroborated Little's account, contradicting the officers' claims that Little was the aggressor, and the officers' claims not to have used racially-charged language.

Take a look at this short doc, Tazing Eugene,  about the adoption of Tasers by police officers in  Eugene, Oregon. Nezua of The Unapologetic Mexican has the reaction on the street.

***

As I was writing this, n8nyc sent over another item about a fatality, this time in the Sunshine State:

A Deerfield Beach man, whom Broward sheriff's deputies said was naked and belligerent, was Tasered when he resisted arrest, and died in BSO custody early Friday. When they arrived, they found Garland strolling naked past the Ocean Boulevard Condominium at 191 SE 20 Ave.

...Deputies tried to detain him, but he became angry, and refused to comply. Deputies hit him with a stun gun, and were able to take Garland, who became violent, into custody.

Now perhaps there may have been a good reason to tase this man, if he was that out of control (and given paramedics confirmed Garland's behavior). With some of the prior incidents, witnesses have come forward and contradicted police reports about the violent behavior of the individual.

The problem is that the Taser when employed is effective in subduing people, but the number of incidents where 1) the situation isn't violent and the person has no weapon and 2) someone dies are mounting in published reports from around the globe,  and there are no mandatory training standards in place in response to the disturbing incidents.

The Blend Taser files.

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Oh, they love them some TASER
 This is absolutely disgusting. And since cops get a paid vacation whenever they use deadly force, then they even have a motive for using it. For the inevitable people who think that TASER is not deadly, I invite you to consider that the human brain and heart are electro chemical in nature and anything that interferes with that electrical field could send the heart into arrythmia or send the brain into seizure. Cetainly there are times when use of TASER or even deadly force is not only warranted but necessary. Theft of food is almost never one of those cases and theft of hot pockets is never worth dying or killing for.

Enough!
There has to be an end to this.
The police are using this in lieu of the nightstick, an instrument which made it easy to condemn brutality when it occurred; somehow the Taser is seen as less brutal to the public....

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

good lord!
yea, they don't think a tazer will kill, looks to be the big problem... I'll just taze em' Handy lil' tool... if it didn't kill.
human brain and heart are electro chemical in nature
Very good point.

http://EQFL.org

The dangers of electrocution.
Those who advocate the use of these devices seem to have no clue of the multitude of dangers involved in electric shock. Convulsions, falling etc alone can cause death or serious injury.

Haven't seen
that video.  I really look forward to watching it when I have a few minutes.

I agree with you Pam on that last case. It may have been a case where using a taser would have been appropriate if tasers always worked, and were as safe, as advertised. But as we've been seeing, the devices aren't less-than-lethal, and aren't being used as firearm replacements or solely with severely out of control people.  Their being used instead of talking when the police consider someone disrespectful.  This story on taser use in upstate NY contains a stunning bit from the police:

Glens Falls Police use the policy recommended by stun gun maker Taser International to guide when and how the Tasers are used. Bethel would not release that policy, saying City Lawyer Ronald Newell's opinion was that the policy should not be released, for safety reasons.

Bethel said Newell came to that opinion when a lawyer filed a Freedom of Information request for the policy recently.

In the Police Department's "use of force continuum," the Taser is the first option to control someone who is fighting with police, along with chemical spray, but before using a baton and the last option, firearms, Bethel said.

First, they use a policy direct from the manufacturer????

Second, they won't release that policy in full????

Third, the taser is the first option in the use of force continuum???

That's just stunning.  But it's not surprising that a policy recommended by Taser International advocates tase-first-ask-questions-later (if they're alive) use.

I'm sure that's not uncommon either. Just look at the stories about taser abuse coming out. Also, places like San Jose have refused to release their full taser use statistics, offering unanalyzable summary reports instead.  Police departments are going to fight any reviews of their taser use statistics or policies at every turn. Legislators have to get their hands in this.  

I'm not hopeful for that though, can anyone think of a politician who would be willing to go against the police on this?

Electricity's for light bulbs!


does anyone know?
 Alright, I really hate for details to be unavailable to assess a situation.
 I have to tell you I don't want to be too harsh in this incident, but look at it this way.

What size was this kid? Yes, size and the length of fuse in this young man matter.
Why steal? Why steal at all ESPECIALLY if you're a young black man. It's hard to NOT be suspect, just because you're a young black man, but it sure doesn't help to give ANY oxygen to the suspicion.
Sure, this lunch item is minor. But maybe this kid is made to think such a small thing won't matter if he steals it.
Wrong mindset in that regard.

    Nightsticks, dogs, guns...the chain of force is GOING to get employed if VERBAL doesn't work.
Lesson one of encounters with cops IS take the verbal command, to make them say it twice. Ever...no matter how minor you think the situation is.

    I'm not defending the police until I know more about this kid and his dimensions and such. But if he's known to have a temper, cops might know him and that fact too. So they might be inclined to use the taser more immediately.

   The taser, IS less brutal, considering all the other instruments used as stopping power, not KILLING power.

  Here in Los Angeles, there really is no way around what kinds of incredible violence is here and what kinds of people are armed and with what.
And we don't have enough cops or techs to cover the load of 4 million citizens and over 80, 000 gang members. That's just gang members, not your other kind of variety criminal.

Theft is theft, no matter how small the item is. it's still some one else's property.


Color me confused
They tased him for, basically, turning himself in?  How heated an argument did the supervisor.manager need to get into to address what the kid came back?  If they didn't like what he had to say when he fessed up, they could have just fired him told him to leave the premises and then requested the police charge him for grand-theft hot pockets.

PS
before anyone reads this and thinks I don't think they kid should have faced punishment for stealing, let me say I do.  I just don't know why any argument about this should have to have been escalated to the point of police being called in to take immediate action.  This wasn't some unknown shoplifter that could have skipped away and never faced any consequences, the kid was a known entity who could have faced shoplifting charges at a later date.

[ Parent ]
"They tased him for, basically, turning himself in?"
Officers responded to a disturbance call at the grocery store about 1:15 p.m. When they arrived, they saw Turner throwing something at a store manager, according to a CMPD news release issued Thursday night. The release does not say what the object was, and a police spokeswoman could not be reached.

According to the release, Turner appeared to be agitated, refused all commands and advanced toward the police officer. The officer then used his Taser to get Turner under control, the release said.

Even his mother is quoted in the news article as saying that her son had a temper, but, of course, couldn't believe that he would misbehave.


[ Parent ]
Celeb tasering
Alex Lifeson of Rush and his son had a run in with tasers in Florida.

My America includes LGBT families.

How about presenting the full story?
I read a lot of these Taser stories on this blog, and I appreciate that sometimes the device is used when it is not appropriate.  It's wrong, however, to assume that police officers get some sort of thrill out of using Tasers or that when someone dies after being Tasered, that the device is to blame.  Also, even though the information was available it was not reported that the teenager was throwing "an object" (unknown what) at the store manager when police arrived.  Police arrived in response to a report of violence, and Turner was agitated and advancing.

People here feel very free to generalize about people who are police officers in a way they never would about other people.  I just think that's wrong.

Here is a news article about the incident:

AT NORTHEAST CHARLOTTE SUPERMARKET
17-year-old dies after shock from police Taser gun
CMPD says teenager advanced toward officer
VICTORIA CHERRIE
vcherrie@charlotteobserver.com
A 17-year-old died at Carolinas Medical Center Thursday after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shocked him with a Taser during a confrontation at a grocery store in northeast Charlotte.

An autopsy will determine how Darryl Wayne Turner died.

Turner had worked as a cashier and bagged groceries at the Food Lion at 3024 Prosperity Church Road, where the incident happened.

Officers responded to a disturbance call at the grocery store about 1:15 p.m. When they arrived, they saw Turner throwing something at a store manager, according to a CMPD news release issued Thursday night. The release does not say what the object was, and a police spokeswoman could not be reached.

According to the release, Turner appeared to be agitated, refused all commands and advanced toward the police officer. The officer then used his Taser to get Turner under control, the release said.

The release does not say whether Turner was armed.

Turner's mother, Tammy Fontenot, said she couldn't see her son throwing something at someone during an argument.

"He had manners," she said. "But he did have a temper."

A preliminary check of N.C. criminal records did not turn up any criminal convictions for the teen.

Turner graduated from Crossroads Charter High School last year, his mother said. He had wanted to go to Central Piedmont Community College and be a personal trainer. He didn't have any health problems and had never been in trouble, she said.

Except on Thursday.

Around lunchtime, Turner had come home to eat and told his mom that he had stolen a couple of Hot Pockets from the store. A supervisor planned to get a district manager involved and he feared disciplinary action, she said.

She said she told him to go back to the store and face up to what happened.

It wasn't long after lunch she got a call from one of her son's co-workers, who told her about the incident, she said.

After Turner was hit, police called the Charlotte Fire Department and paramedics, department policy anytime an officer uses a Taser gun, the release said.

Homicide detectives are investigating Turner's death and will present their findings to the district attorney, the news release said.

The Police Department also will conduct its own investigation into the incident. A review board, made up of the officer's chain of command, internal affairs and a member of the city's community relations committee, will review evidence and interview witnesses to determine whether the officer followed all the department's policies, the news release said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have used Tasers or similar weapons since 2004 and said in their release that they have had no deaths associated with their use. Last year, officers used Tasers 138 times. Officers are to use them to prevent, whenever possible, the escalation to the use of deadly force.

Victoria Cherrie: 704-358-5062

-- Staff research Sara Klemmer contributed.


one more thing...
I agree that there should be more study of Tasers, and I also agree that they should not be considered so safe that they are used against people who aren't at least actively resisting police.  Let's not pretend, however, that using a Taser against an out of control subject is the equivalent of torture.  Not even Amnesty International believes that.

"Right now, we just don't know, and we need to stop sending police innocently into the field with a device they're being told is safe when in certain situations, it's not," said Jared Feuer, the director of Amnesty International's southern regional office in Atlanta.

"Force should always be proportional to the threat. Our concern with Tasers is that, because they're perceived as non-lethal, they're being used in situations where a baton would not even be justified."

-Charlotte Observer, 3/22/2008



That's NOT Amnesty
Jared Feuer, the director of Amnesty International's SOUTHERN REGIONAL OFFICE IN ATLANTA

That is NOT Amnesty's international stance on tasers. That is some regional Good Ol Boy speaking for a regional Amnesty.


[ Parent ]
Prejudice is prejudice
Oh, so any man from the South is automatically a "Good Ol Boy"?  The ignorance of that premise undermines the validity of your argument.  I would bet my paycheck that regional director of Amnesty International is anything but a "Good Ol Boy."

[ Parent ]
Oh I feel so sorry for the oppressed white christian patriarchy
That poor little minority; what did they ever do to deserve this?

Please; a justification of electrocution from GEORGIA is like Afghan feminism: Amnesty in a death-penalty state; what a pathetic laugh.


[ Parent ]
The fact that anybody is prepared to take the police's side in a case
..such as this; a kid with NO criminal record at all being shocked and dying for stealing HOT POCKETS ('someone else's property: fuck you asshole, who hasn't shoplifted something in their life?). Let's get one thing straight; this boy is DEAD. not in heaven waiting for mommy, not with the angels: DEAD rotting in the ground. His whole life erased. For NOTHING. That requires redress.

Compared to the police in my country, the US police seem to be a bunch of the most arrogant, racist, preening, mustachioed corporately-subsidized trigger-happy sadists on the planet; they wouldn't hesitate to side with the upcoming Nazi government of the US against you hapless dweebs. a private army; many aligned with extremist racist and religious groups. A bomb waiting to go off. A terrorist threat.


Comments like those are why I object to headers like the ones on this item
If the headline "17-year-old killed by Taser over shoplifted Hot Pockets" were actually true, then it really would be outrageous.  However, if you bother to read the actual reporting of the incident, as opposed to the commentary, then you would see that the teenager absolutely was not "killed over shoplifted Hot Pockets."

It's inflammatory and inaccurate and encourages attitudes such as the ones reflected in the steerpike66's comments.  Sad.


[ Parent ]
US police kill people by the truckload; innocent and guilty
Many of them belong to right-wing racist organizations (this is recognized as a SERIOUS problem; they are heavily armed and badly trained, bigoted and macho. There have been too many stories about unarmed or deranged people being gunned down by trigger-happy cops so far. Stories abound of rape victims mocked and ignored, gays mocked and ignored, blacks rounded up by the truckload and various perversions and miscarriages of justice.

They tazed him: he died; he was a minor and had NO CRIMINAL RECORD. Why THE F**K did they taze him? Would you care if he was 15? How about 12; can the cops taze a hyperactive 12 year old?

Where the hell do you torture apologists get off? F**k your miserable cowardly security; f**k your precious defense of private property and f**k your paranoid terrorist scares; I want to see some impartiality and some backbone; some clean decent law and order; not thugs electrocuting kids to make your fat ass feel safer in your suburb.

Rant ends.


[ Parent ]
remember this one?
Well, it turns out that the teen "died of acute ventricular dysrhythmia and ventricular fibrillation":
Autopsy results released this week reveal why a 17-year-old who police shot with a Taser died in March.

Darryl Turner was in an altercation with his boss at the Food Lion on Prosperity Church Road in north Charlotte when someone called police. Police said he was highly agitated when an officer shot him with a Taser. Turner was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.

Turner's autopsy says the stress of the situation and the shock from the Taser was too much for his body to handle. It says he died of acute ventricular dysrhythmia and ventricular fibrillation. In other words, his heart was pumping so fast and irregularly that he died.

The report states Turner did not have heart problems and he didn't have drugs in his system except for the medicines emergency workers used trying to save his life.

Turner's grandfather, Donald Fontenot, saw the report and said he's angry.

"Very much so. Why wouldn't I be? You know, you take a 17-year-old child away," he said.

Turner's family has not said whether they plan to sue police. They hired an attorney in March after a witness said Turner was obeying the officer’s commands when he was shocked. Police said Turner had been threatening the officer.

Police are doing their own internal investigation to see if the officer who used the Taser followed the rules. That officer is back on active duty after being put on administrative leave following the incident.

I wouldn't be surprise if Taser International sues the person that conducted the autopsy.  They have a history of doing so.

 



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