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
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
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)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
We are a society bathed in sadism and brutality - and this is just one of many examples of parents behaving badly along with police again misusing a Taser to enforce compliance rather than a substitute for a gun. What mother would gladly give consent for her 65 lb, 4'6" daughter to receive a 50K shock!? (The Smoking Gun):
An Arkansas cop tasered an unruly 10-year-old girl after her mother called police to report that the child was crying, screaming, and refusing to go to bed. The tased girl, Kiara Medlock, is about 65 pounds and 4' 6", according to her father. Anthony Medlock, a truck driver who does not live with the fifth grader and her mother, provided TSG with a recent photo of his daughter, which can be seen at right. According to the below Ozark Police Department report, when Officer Dustin Bradshaw arrived at the residence last Thursday, he found the girl "screaming, kicking, and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her." Bradshaw added that, "Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to." After Kiara continued to refuse her mother's instructions, the cop concluded that "there was not going to be a peaceful resolution of the issue." Bradshaw warned the girl that she was "going to jail," but the child continued kicking and crying and resisted his attempt to handcuff her. During the tussle, Kiara "struck me with her legs and feet in the groin, reported Bradshaw, who countered with a brief "stun to her back" with his Taser.
Here is the police report. Her father said: "If you can't pick the kid up and take her to your car, handcuff her, then I don't think you need to be an officer."
Oh really, now -- how long have I been blogging about this "electrical shock device" and the deaths, maimings and abuse heaped upon the guilty and the innocent, the elderly, the mentally disabled, the bedridden and wheelchair bound, as well as humans minding their own business on bicycles and at a child's baptism party? Never mind the story of a Taser being used to sodomize a suspect.
Law enforcement officials around the country have been on a mission to prove that face-to-face negotiations are passe, and compliance should be achieved by physical assault, even in cases where there is no threat to the officer. Occasionally (well in too many cases), the Taser "negotiation" ended up with the Tasee DOA.
Now the company has decided to issue this hilarious-if-it-wasn't enraging advisory to police that there might be a bit of a problem if you unleash the 50K blast directly into someone's chest. Did someone need to consult Mr. Wizard to figure out this "problem?" (Raw Story):
Taser International stressed that suffering an "adverse cardiac event" after being zapped was "extremely unlikely," but human rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed by the electroshock weapons.
In a bulletin dated October 12, the Arizona-based company issued new guidelines saying it had "lowered the recommended point of aim from center of mass to lower-center of mass for front shots."
"When possible, avoiding chest shots with ECDs (Electronic Control Devices) avoids the controversy about whether ECDs do or do not affect the human heart," it explained.
"Researchers have concluded that a close distance between the ECD dart and the heart is the primary factor in determining whether an ECD will affect the heart. The risk is judged to be extremely low in field use," it said.
Read that carefully - Taser International still doesn't take responsibility for the danger and outcomes we've seen of its "non-lethal device."
"We have not stated that the Taser causes (cardiac) events in this bulletin, only that the refined target zones avoid any potential controversy on this topic."
Taser's training bulletin states that "the risk of an adverse cardiac event related to a Taser. .. discharge is deemed to be extremely low." However, the bulletin says, it is impossible to predict human reactions when a combination of drug use or underlying cardiac or other medical conditions are involved.
"Should sudden cardiac arrest occur in a scenario involving a Taser discharge to the chest area, it would place the law-enforcement agency, the officer and Taser International in the difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, the Taser. .. could have played," the bulletin says.
The bulletin recommends that when aiming at the front of a suspect, the best target for officers is the major muscles of the pelvic area or thigh region. "Back shots remain the preferred area when practical," it says.
Meanwhile the devices are being handed out to guards at schools, and proliferating without any standardized training to law enforcement departments all over the world. And of course, this bit of business from Taser International shows a buff black brother getting it right in the target zone.
(Miami Herald) BRADENTON, Fla. -- Authorities say a Bradenton man died after being stunned by a Taser as he attempted to flee arrest.
Police say an officer tried to pull over 38-year-old Derrick Humbert in a residential area just after midnight Monday, but Humbert jumped out of his vehicle and started to run away through the yards. An officer chased Humbert and stunned him with a Taser.
Officials say paramedics took Humbert to a nearby hospital, where he died.
Humbert was wanted on a warrant for possession of marijuana.
I can just hear the law and order crowd saying, "Well, if he hadn't have run, he never would have been tasered!" Sure, because we can't have someone wanted on a marijuana possession warrant eluding police. Think of the danger he presents to the community! Had he escaped from police, he might have, uh, smoked a bowl?
What motivated him to run from a mere possession charge? In one of the thirteen decrim states, he would have only faced a ticket for his marijuana possession, something he probably wouldn't have tried to run away from, but in Florida, he could face a year in prison for a joint and a felony conviction and five years for three-quarters of an ounce. Even the federal government won't give you a felony for possession unless it is your third strike.
Even then, what is the justification for electrocuting a guy over a little weed? (Let's not mince words: tasering is electrocution.) Remember when tasers were introduced and we were told they would be a non-lethal way of subduing a dangerous criminal and protecting police lives? We were told that tasers would reduce the number of shootings of suspects because police could use the non-lethal taser instead?
Because Tasers are often seen as completely safe and non-lethal, they are often used as a weapon of first rather than last resort. They have become less an alternative to deadly force than an alternative to less-intensive policing techniques. In the more than 351 cases Amnesty International has tracked where individuals died after being shocked, in only a small fraction --about 10 percent -- of the incidents was the individual carrying any kind of weapon.
In Houston, for example, department policy has allowed for Tasers to be used when an officer feels he or she is going to be physically threatened -- but without an imminent danger. Houston officers have shocked more than 1400 individuals since 2004. Hundreds of those individuals were not charged with a crime. An audit found that police shootings of suspects had not decreased after the introduction of Tasers in the city -- which had been one of the primary stated goals of using the weapons.
My friend Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend has been following these cases for years and there is also the excellent blog Electrocuted While Black that chronicles this horrendous abuse of police power. This injudicious use of tasers must end! The use of a taser should have to meet the same prerequisites as the use of a handgun in policing. Police should not be allowed to use tasers on citizens merely because they are being argumentative, uncooperative, or fleeing, unless the citizen is armed or presents an imminent danger to the community.
Surely a guy wanted for smoking a little weed doesn't fit those prerequisites.
I point you over to Electronic Village, where Villager is keeping track of some sobering stats -- the number of deaths due to the misuse or abuse of the Taser. We're up to 36 deaths this year, with 39% of the pre-trial, extra-judicial electrocutions and executions were perpetrated against black men, who represent only 6% of the population in the U.S.
Jan 9, 2009: Derrick Jones, 17, Black, Martinsville, Virginia
Jan 11, 2009: Rodolfo Lepe, 31, Hispanic, Bakersfield, California
Jan 22, 2009: Roger Redden, 52, Caucasian, Soddy Daisy, Tennessee
Feb 2, 2009: Garrett Jones, 45, Caucasian, Stockton, California
Feb 11, 2009: Richard Lua, 28, Hispanic, San Jose, California
Feb 13, 2009: Rudolph Byrd, Age Unknown, Race Unknown, Quincy, Florida
Feb 13, 2009: Michael Jones, 43, Black, Iberia, Louisiana
Feb 14, 2009: Chenard Kierre Winfield, 32, Black, Los Angeles, California
Feb 28, 2009: Robert Lee Welch, 40, Caucasian, Conroe, Texas
Mar 22, 2009: Brett Elder, 15, Caucasian, Bay City, Michigan
Mar 26, 2009: Marcus D. Moore, 40, Black, Freeport, Illinois
Apr 1, 2009: John J. Meier Jr., 48, Caucasian, Tamarac, Florida
Apr 6, 2009: Ricardo Varela, 41, Hispanic, Fresno, California
In the above video, Stanley Harlen was pulled over for allegedly speeding; he stopped in front of his house. As his mother came out in her robe, she watched as officers wrestled with him. One officer fired the Taser three times for 31 seconds. For 14 minutes he received no medical attention; when paramedics arrived it was too late. He was dead. The Moberly city manager's response is hardly reassuring. Andy Morris: Harlen's death is "unanticipated and unintentional. Police officers must often make split-second decisions in tense, rapidly-evolving situations."
Ken Burton, the Police Chief of nearby Columbia, MO's PD also has officers who use Tasers but he strictly limits their use -- no fleeing subjects are allowed to be tased, and when deployed, only for 5 seconds at at time.
This CBS report showed a graph of statistics, compiled by Taser International itself, and the growth in the use of these "non-lethal" devices has skyrocketed from 500 law enforcement agencies in 2000 to 14,201 in 2009. And there are no mandatory standards or training for Taser usage. Taser International has actually put out a disingenuous statement that defies reality, considering the rising body count.
The electrical output of a taser device is incapable of causing death.
Sure, the voltage alone in one blast itself may not kill, but what about the medical condition of the tasing victim? What about shocking someone for 31 seconds? What about repeated blasts to an elderly or disabled individual? This is a situation out of control.
The NAACP is renewing a push for federal standards on police use of force after the shooting of an unarmed Black man by two White police officers inside a church while day care children watched, the Associated Press reported.
According to witnesses, the man was surrendering but officials in Rockford, Ill., deny this description of events, saying Mark Anthony Barmore attempted to grab an officer's gun after they cornered him in the church.
However, both sides agree Barmore ran when officers approached him in the church parking lot, highlighting the suspicion and fear that can poison relationships between police and minority communities across the country.
"There are no national standards for the use of force (or) training for use of force," Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, said Sept. 11.
The issue "is not primarily about racism," Jealous said, citing the recent case of a 72-year-old White woman tasered by a White Texas officer during a traffic stop. "We want to make sure the standards are the most modern and appropriate ones possible."
The level of sadism we've seen time and again; here's yet another -- a woman blasted in the back by an officer in Cincinnati -- while she was on her knees. It became a serious problem for the PD because she is the daughter of a city councilman:
While heightened security might be a necessity in an age where kids smuggle deadly weapons to school, this fact alone should give parents and school officials pause. Even as school administrators and local law enforcement accept and incorporate Tasers as disciplinary measures, deploying them on school grounds is putting students at risk.
Last September, police officers in Hawthorne, Calif., tased an autistic 12-year-old boy at his middle school after he became "violent," launching a misconduct investigation by the police department.
In June, at Penn Hills High School in Pennsylvania, a student was tased in the hallway after ignoring a police officer's orders to put away his cell phone. ("The kid refused to listen," Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton explained, saying the student then "pushed the officer.")
In 2006, an 11th-grader named Angel Debnam was tased at her high school in Bunn, N.C., just outside Raleigh. "Something sticks in you, and it's like a wire," Debnam described to local ABC affiliate WTVD. "When I was on the ground crying and shaking, he asked me, 'Was that enough? Are you calmed down now?' and he did it again."
In March, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the number of law enforcement agencies that have given Tasers to officers who work on school campuses has grown to well over 4,000," according to Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications at Taser International. That's up from 1,700 in 2005.
This is a lengthy article with many more incidents of childrent being brought into submission by a 50,000-volt shock. Are these truly situations where a gun was necessary (the designed purpose for the substitution with a Taser)? In case you were wondering, the state with the most recorded Taser deaths was California, with 55. Florida ranked second, with 52.
This piece was bumped from my day subbing for Glenn at Salon because it was quite similar to a piece by Monday subber Digby (I hadn't seen her post). However, you all get to kick it around. :)
As you all know, I frequently blog about the rollback of civil liberties, specifically when it comes to police brutality and the misuse of the Taser, an electroshock device designed as a non-lethal alternative to using a firearm. A Taser delivers 50,000 volts into its target, causing strong involuntary muscle contractions. While there is no doubt that Taser International's controversial device has resulted in calls for a ban on the use of it, the fact is we're talking about a tool, training, and misuse. It takes a human being with badge to shoot one of these things off at a suspect (um, well not anymore, but we'll get to that later).
Police officers, who put their lives on the line every day protecting and serving communities around the country, are now dealing with a host of thugs bad apples in their midst who seemingly have: 1) lost the capacity to communicate effectively with agitated unarmed people to defuse tense situations; 2) fail to understand the concept of the Taser as the last resort before using a gun; 3) an inability to judge a life-threatening situation from an annoying one; and 4) so few interpersonal skills and patience that they see the Taser as a weapon to make a person submit to their will or instantly comply as a time-saving measure. Unfortunately, the Taser has been deployed in instances that have resulted in a subject expiring, or as Electrocuted While Black refers to it, "pre-trial, extra-judicial electrocutions and executions."
The abuse of this device is disproportionately deployed against minorities (surprised, no?). In Houston, an audit found incredible statistics:
Black officers are less likely to use Tasers, but black suspects are more likely to be jolted with the weapons, according to the first city audit of Taser use by Houston Police officers, KPRC Local 2 reported.
...The audit of 2.8 million calls to police from January 2000 to June 30, 2007, found black suspects make up 66.9 percent of all people zapped with the device, despite making up 46 percent of the total incidents and comprising 24.7 percent of the Houston population.
...The report spells out that most officers have only used their Taser one time, but one officer has used his on 13 people, another used it on 12 people. Two officers had shocked nine people each, and four officers had eight Taser incidents each.
• Over 7,000 law enforcement employ more than 140,000 Tasers in the United States • In a 6-year period, Amnesty International reports over 290 deaths from police Taser usage in the USA and Canada • Use-of-force policies provide guidance for police officers to follow during specific scenarios • Two Department of Homeland divisions rejected its use altogether.
Questionable Taser usage on suspects, such as non-violent or previously restrained suspects, damages community perception of law enforcement personnel. Shocking and provocative videos circulate at rapid speed on Youtube depicting questionable Taser usage and are seen not just by members of a single community, but are viewed by millions around the world.
We call on our Congress to speak out and organize public hearings on the systemic human rights violations occurring with Federal funding against black, Latino, Native American and other Americans.
While there continues to be considerable media and congressional attention to torture in Guantanamo, there is comparatively little attention to the mounting evidence of human rights violations in the streets of America by a number of police departments across America, including torture and killings of black children, women and men through-out the United States through the use and abuse of Tasers.
...We believe most Americans would favor Congressional hearings as to whether our own U.S. police, policing policies and actions violate Federal and International laws prohibiting human rights violators. Evidence of widespread police abuse of tasers is more than enough to warrant our concern and justify a congressional inquiry.
One has to walk away from that thinking that a few of those officers are, to be charitable, electro-trigger happy against minorities. The natural follow up question is what, aside from bias, motivated those officers to Taser first more often than their colleagues and what training might have reduced those numbers.
Honestly, from the numerous Taser abuse stories I monitor each month, the buckwild brutes with badges seem to leave no demographic untouched. Witness these incidents:
* In Manassas, Virginia, a 55-year-old Bible study teacher and a mother were Tased three times in rapid succession, on his own property where a child's baptism party was being held, seen by a yard full of children and family members. The police were called because of a noise complaint. Video.
God dammit, WTF is wrong with people!? This is an outrage; what does it take to stop the madness of police brutality and abuse of the 50K volt Taser -- now used as a compliance device instead of social skills and training? This case involved only a complaint of excessive noise that brought the police to a home. Again, the police violence occurred in a private residence in front of a yard full of children.
A Latino family in Manassas, Virginia, is celebrating the baptism of their two young boys, at a party held in their grandfather’s backyard. The police arrive in response to a noise complaint, and ask to see the grandfather’s ID. The family’s account says that he provided it, but the police report say that he refused; both accounts agree that the grandfather was then Tasered three times in rapid succession, on his own property, and then charged with ‘public intoxication.’ The pregnant mother of the two boys ran to help him as he lay on the ground — and was also Tasered, then charged with assaulting a police officer.
I’ll say it again — all parties agree that county police officers arrived at a children’s baptism party being held at a private residence, then Tasered a 55-year-old Bible study teacher three times and Tasered a pregnant woman once, in front of a yard full of kids, including her kids, and family members. Then they read rights. To the grandfather and the pregnant woman. For ‘public intoxication’ and ‘assaulting a police officer,’ respectively. As they lay temporarily paralyzed on the ground.
Can you imagine being one of those two boys, and watching as your own mother, pregnant with your sibling-to-be, is electrocuted by police officers and arrested, for rushing to the side of your grandfather as lay paralyzed on the ground? How would that make you feel about your relationship to the police, as a young Latino man about to grow up in the astonishingly xenophobic state of Virginia?
God almighty, it makes me sick to keep reporting on this bullsh*t police brutality state because we all know there are so many good law enforcement officers putting their lives on the line every day. But they are working alongside some seriously disturbed/power-mad sadists with a badge who clearly have no skills, training or desire to properly subdue or communicate with civilians -- they reach for the Taser, which is meant as a substitute for a GUN, and blast people into submission.
Officers who used pepper spray and a Taser to remove a man from a store bathroom found out only later he was deaf and mentally disabled and didn't understand they wanted him to open the door, police said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Mobile Police Department said the officers' actions were justified because the man was armed with a potential weapon - an umbrella.
The man, Antonio Love, has, according to his mother Phyllis Love, the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and didn't realize the police were trying enter the bathroom.
Police spokesman Christopher Levy said Tuesday store workers called officers complaining that a man had been in the bathroom for more than an hour with the door locked. Officers knocked on the door and identified themselves, but the person didn't respond.
Officers used a tire iron to open the door, but the man pushed back to keep it shut. Officers saw the umbrella and sprayed pepper spray through a crack trying to subdue the man, Levy said. They shot the man with a Taser when they finally got inside, he said.
Officers didn't realize Love was deaf or had mental problems until he showed them a card he carries in his wallet, Levy said. He was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, but officers released him and took him home after a magistrate refused to issue a warrant.
Levy said officers were justified in using force against Love since he had an umbrella.
"The officers really worked within the limits of our level-of-force policy," he said. "We had no information about who this guy was."
BTW, Love said that the officers laughed at him after they found out he was deaf. The officer has since been placed on administrative leave. I don't know if it's a training issue, a lack of humanity or what, but these weapons are being abused all around the country by the police -- and the abuse is being affirmed by their superiors in many of these cases -- it's frightening. How can we stop the madness?
Here we go again. A cop is caught using a Taser not in the place of a gun, but as a device to ensure compliance from a belligerent person who is not a threat to the law enforcement officer.
Dash cam video has been released to FOX 7 showing exactly what happened between a Constable's deputy and a 72-yaer-old woman, before she was tasered last month. The officer says says Kathryn Winkfein mouthed off, and was physically non-compliant. Winkfein told us that wasn't true. Precinct 3 Sgt. Maj. Gary Griffin says he's reviewed the dash cam footage and he's standing by his deputy--he says followed policy.
Just after two in the afternoon on May 11, the video shows Deputy Chris Bieze stopping Kathryn Winkfein for speeding on a notoriously dangerous strip of Highway 71. After completing the paperwork, the officer returns to Winkfein's truck, but she refuses to sign the speeding ticket.
"Take me to jail," Winkfein demands on the tape, "I'm a 72-year-old woman." That's when the deputy opens the driverside door to arrest the great-grandmother. "Give me the ******* ticket now," Winkfein curses. The deputy shoves her. "You're gonna push me? A 72-year-old woman?"
The shove, the Constable's office says, served to get the two out of oncoming traffic. Then, the deputy warns her one of five times.
"Stand back, " Bieze says. "I'm gonna tase you." She responds by saying, "I dare you."
The deputy announces he's going to taser Winkfein, and the woman hits the ground as the taser is deployed.
I do not see how the police could view this as a proper use of a taser. Bieze threatens to taser her again if she does not put her hands behind her back. He then tasers her again. He then charges her with resisting arrest.
The video is a textbook example of how tasers have served to escalate the level of force in such encounters. While Bieze might have called for back up or physically restrained Winkfein, he moves almost immediately to the use of the taser. The fact that Constable McCain would watch this video and find (here) that Bieze acted properly raises serious questions of his own judgment.
A Boise, Idaho, police officer who pushed a Taser inside a man’s buttocks and threatened to “Taser his balls” violated use-of-force policy, but didn’t break the law, an ombudsman has found.
What is truly astounding, and sickening, is that although the victim is suing and the officer is facing disciplinary action, not only is the officer not facing criminal charges for sexual assault, but the local papers, in reporting the story, are not even calling it a sexual assault or clearly stating that the officer sodomized the victim--even though they are linking the audio of the assault in which the rapist officer can be heard clearly stating,"That’s my...Taser up your ass."
Incredibly, The Boise Weekly reports that, "A Boise Police officer who Tased a handcuffed man and threatened his genitals with further electric shock, is back on the beat after an unspecified disciplinary action sometime in May".
Whatever the suspect did to break the law in the first place, this officer's behavior is beyond inexcusable; it is also criminal. As is the behavior of the officers who held down the victim as he was being assaulted (if the assailants had been anyone but on-duty police officers, they would have been charged as accessories). Yet no criminal charges have been filed.
More details after the jump. [Warning: graphic details]
A traffic stop for speeding in Travis County, Texas, led to the Tasering of a 72-year-old great-grandmother by a deputy. Feisty Kathryn Winkfein apparently so frightened the law-enforcement officer when she "used some profanity" and "got violent" that he felt it necessary to subdue her with a potentially dangerous jolt of electricity.
Winkfein was reportedly doing 60 in a construction zone where the posted speed limit was 45 when she was pulled over. She was ticketed but declined to sign the ticket, leading the police officer to place her under arrest lest civilization collapse for want of the surrender of a penny's worth of ink.
Given that the speeding ticket had already been issued, it's also difficult to understand what purpose was served by prolonging the encounter and demanding a signature.
Especially when the woman (half the officer's size) is caught on tape repeatedly saying that she WOULD sign the ticket!
What is this world coming to? Oh, and the prison officer offered up this reason for 43 kids getting blasted with the stun gun -- "it wasn't intended to be malicious, but educational." And this can also go under the tag "Parents Behaving Badly":
According to information released Saturday by the Florida Department of Corrections: During "Take Our Children to Work Day" events at three prison facilities, 43 children were hit with stun guns while others were exposed to tear gas.
"Three prison guards have been fired, two have resigned and 16 more employees - from corrections officers to a warden - will be disciplined due to the incidents that unfolded April 23, said DOC Secretary Walt McNeil," reported The Miami Herald. "An investigation is ongoing.
"None of the children in any of the incidents required medical attention or was notably harmed, McNeil said. He said the children, who ranged in age from 5 to 17, were all children of prison officials." "The jolt sent at least two of them sprawling to the floor, crying out in pain and clutching at agonizing burns on their arms. One child ended up in hospital," reported the Mail Online.
My, my, is this what we call progress in the New World Police State? Taser International has convinced our friends across the pond to deploy the "electronic control device" in London this week, where protestors can feel the burn, as it were, if they get too out of hand. (AlterNet):
Months after the Republican National Convention in the U.S., such sweeping security measures may seem to be par for the course. But in the UK -- where police forces have traditionally not carried guns -- it was not that long ago that Tasers were new to the streets. Since their arrival in the spring of 2003, however, their popularity has skyrocketed; last fall, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a plan to spend £8 million on Tasers and Taser training for 30,000 police officers, providing some 10,000 new Tasers to police across England and Wales. "I am proud that we have one of the few police services around the world that do not regularly carry firearms," Smith said, "and I want to keep it that way." But an arms expert at Amnesty International UK called the move "a dangerous step in British policing," citing "numerous" taser deaths in North America as a cautionary example.
There are plenty of cases to review right here on the Blend. But Taser International is now offering a model with new and enhanced capabilities that is surely going to be attractive to the sadist set...
On March 31, the company's latest Taser model -- called the Shockwave -- hit the market; according to Taser International website, it "allows for both increased safety and stand-off capability during hostile situations, minimizing risk with a stand-off distance of up to 100 meters." But as Dalia Hashad, director of Amnesty International's USA Program focusing on domestic human rights, wrote about the product last falll, the Shockwave "belongs in my 'You've Got to Be Kidding' file along with Taser International's leopard-print MP3 player that doubles as a taser and their employment of Playboy Bunnies for promotion." The company's literature shows it to be a powerful crowd-control weapon:
"With the push of a button at a stand-off distance of up to 100 meters, the Shockwave unit deploys multiple standard TASER® cartridges that are oriented across an area arc. Full area coverage is provided to instantaneously incapacitate multiple personnel within that region."
En masse Tasing capability -- when law enforcement cannot even educate cops on the beat to use a single-stun device appropriately -- is unbelievable. Take a look at this device in action (via EnGadget):
The first (gulp) generation of Taser remote area denial systems consists of a Taser 6-shooter module covering a 20-degree arc at 25-feet. Best of all, they can be daisy-chained into an apparently endless array of hot neuro muscular incapacitation action.
In Peoria, a man was beaten, stomped on at least 20 times and was repeatedly Tased by two police officers last May. The officers (Andrew Smith, left, and Gerald Suelter) face multiple charges. (PJStar):
Officers Gerald W. Suelter, 39, and Andrew R. Smith, 29, each face four counts of official misconduct and one count each of battery, mob action and aggravated battery. Both men appeared in court via video from the Peoria County Jail, where they have been held since their arrests on Monday.
Assistant State's Attorney Steve Pattelli on Wednesday offered details of the May arrest, both seen and those not caught on tape from an in-car video camera, that began after Scott stopped his SUV near Abington and Perry streets after a brief chase.
"One officer punched the driver at least twice in his face, and while three officers were handcuffing the driver, Peoria police officer Gerald Suelter approached and drew his electronic Taser . . . Suelter removed the air cartridge from his Taser and began to repeatedly stun the driver," Pattelli said, noting Scott was Tasered by Suelter at least three times.
"Peoria police Officer Andrew Smith was the last of the officers to arrive . . . after (Scott) had been pulled from the vehicle and was on the pavement with five other police officers above him," Pattelli continued. "When Smith arrived, he began to kick and stomp the driver at least 20 times, at one point repositioning himself for leverage."
The defense said the officers acted because they weren't sure if Scott had a weapon. About how many Tasings and stomps into the corrective action did they actually look for the nonexistent weapon?
And in Boston, a 15-year-old dies after being Tased. More after the jump. Oh, I didn't even get to the part about Taser International looking for a stimulus handout. That's below the fold as well.
Oh really? This is going to be the defense of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART officer who executed a handcuffed, down-on-the-ground, 22-year-old Oscar Grant on a transit platform. (Raw Story):
According to files released Friday, Johannes Mehserle, the Bay Area Rapid Transit officer who shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant on New Year's Day, told a fellow officer he planned to shock Grant with his Taser, not shoot him.
...The court documents, which contain statements from fellow BART officers present during the shooting, indicate that Mehserle had intended to use a Taser on Grant.
"I'm going to taze him, I'm going to taze him," Mehserle said, according to Officer Tony Pirone. "I can't get his arms. He won't give me his arms. His hands are going for his waistband."
..."The judge said Mehserle's statements 'seem to be inconsistent' because if Mehserle truly believed that Grant had a gun then Mehserle would have been justified to pull out his gun and use deadly force and wouldn't have needed to use his Taser," said KTVU.
Stupidly, the BART police chief compromised the investigation to the point that an outside agency has to take it over. Why? Look at this:
Also on Friday, it was announced that an outside agency would take over the shooting investigation, displacing BART Police Chief Gary Gee after he circulated a memo describing how BART employees might go about sending money and material comforts to Mehserle.
"It is unacceptable for the police chief, who ostensibly is investigating Mehserle and other officers ... To encourage officers to visit and make financial contributions to Mehserle," said John Burris, who represents Oscar Grant's family.
And what else was left in the arsenal of the Dallas, NC police department to use? In this case, the family says that Terrance Kennedy was trying to run from the police, who were attempting to arrest him on an assault warrant. After that, the stories from the man's family, bystanders, and the police diverge. With stories all over the map, finding out what really occurred will be challenging, to say the least.
A Dallas, N.C., man who police say tried to grab an officer's gun was fatally shot Saturday in the small town about 20 miles west of Charlotte.
But witnesses, including one of the dead man's family members, told the Observer's news partner, WCNC, that they believe the police officers acted inappropriately.
Investigators said Kennedy got into a fight with the police officers and tried to grab one of their guns before he was shot. Police haven't said which officer's gun they believe Kennedy went for or which officer fired the fatal shot.
...Kennedy's family members - and others who said they were outside the home at the time - said Kennedy first tried to run from the officers.
Some of the bystanders, who were still outside the home Saturday afternoon, said officers first used pepper spray on Kennedy, then used an electronic stun gun. Some told WCNC they saw an officer hit Kennedy with a police baton before he was shot.
...Police in the town of about 3,700 would not confirm the family's account Saturday, saying that only Chief G.W. Buckner could speak about the matter. The chief didn't return calls to his office phone Saturday.
The family has contacted the president of the Gaston County NAACP, Clyde Walker, who said his office will file a complaint with the Dallas Police Dept. and the NAACP national office.
"We're not going to make any accusations against the police department," said Clyde Walker. "We're not going to be rioting. We want to do this thing in a civil matter."
Before October, it would be hard to imagine a person more care free. Pamela Brown, the "Hula Hoop Lady", exercising for everyone's enjoyment in Norfolk's Ward's Corner. But that innocence was shattered when Officer Nicholas Parks tased her for refusing to put her arms behind her back.
To this day, she still has trouble sleeping, and told NewsChannel Three her confidence is gone. "He abused me like I'm some kind of a murderous criminal.", said Brown.
Even in the Garbled taser video recording, you can hear Pam repeatedly trying to tell Officer Parks to look at her medical card. "In my back pocket is where my medic alert information identicard... In my back pocket..." "ma'am, I'm gonna tell you one more time to (unintelligible) down and put your hands behind your back."
She also wore a necklace and bracelet that day, that details her condition. Pam suffers from a brain injury, and has pins in her shoulder that make it painful to be handcuffed.
But Officer Parks never looked, and tased her three times for resisting arrest.
Norfolk's city attorney Bernard Pishko told NewsChannel Three that in the heat of the moment, Officer Parks couldn't understand what Pam was saying. But Pam's attorneys, brain injury specialists, aren't buying the city line, and Tuesday, filed a five million dollar lawsuit against officer Parks, claiming he willingly tortured her.
Charges against her were dropped and the officer was placed on administrative leave. Below is the video captured by Parks' camera (note it appears it is covered at the moment he blasts her with the shock device) recording the incident:
(New York) - Industry claims that taser stun guns are safe and non-lethal simply do not stand up to scrutiny, said Amnesty International today as the organization released one of the most detailed reports to date on the safety of stun guns. The report, which includes deaths that occurred between June 2001 and August 2008, showed that the number of people who died in the United States after being struck by police tasers has reached 334.
Amnesty International's report -- which includes a study of 98 autopsies that were independently reviewed by a forensic pathologist -- found that 90 percent of those who died after being struck with tasers were unarmed and many did not appear to present a serious threat. Police officers used tasers on schoolchildren, pregnant women and even an elderly person with dementia. More than 30 individuals died after being shocked in jails, where tasers are also widely used, or in the booking area of police stations after they were already under police control.
California and Florida are the states with the highest number of deaths -- 55 and 52 respectively. Phoenix and Las Vegas have the highest city counts with five deaths reported. Although most of the 334 deaths nationwide have been attributed to factors such as drug intoxication, medical examiners and coroners have concluded that tasers shocks caused or contributed to at least 50 deaths.
Many of the people who died were subjected to repeated or prolonged shocks -- far more than the five-second "standard" cycle -- or by more than one officer at a time. Some people were even shocked for failing to comply with police commands after they had been incapacitated by a first shock.
Nobody wants police shooting suspects when there is a less-lethal alternative available. The problem is that police are now using tasers as an instrument of compliance rather than self-defense.
Law enforcement agencies in Canada are banning the shock device in the wake of a study by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
The study includes a medical analysis that concluded someone shot with a Taser could face as high as a 50 percent chance of cardiac arrest.
The Taser company, however, still says its weapons can't kill.
"It is unfortunate that false allegations based on scientifically flawed data can create such uncertainty," Steve Tuttle, a Taser vice president, told The Arizona Republic.
Stories of Taser-related deaths have stacked up over the years, many involving police officers who never realized the harm their Taser could cause.
A man described as "emotionally disturbed" fell to his death after police Tasered him on fire escape. The officers who gave the order took a Glock 9mm from the locker room and shot himself in the head.
And, as I blogged earlier this week, an Oklahoma man in diabetic shock was Tased first, with questions asked later.
El Reno police officers approached a vehicle that had spun-out on the interstate. Inside was a man who they thought was drunk or on drugs. The man was wrestled out of his truck on Interstate 40 because he wasn't cooperating with police. Moments later police tazed the man.
After several attempts officers were finally able to get the combative man into custody. What they don't realize is the 53-year-old wasn't drunk or on drugs. He was in severe diabetic shock. In fact, his blood sugar level at the time was 11.
..."Eleven is pretty low blood sugar and he would not be able to process those commands coming from the officers," explained Dr. Mary Ann Bauman.
Oh really, now -- how long have I been blogging about this "electrical shock device" and the deaths, maimings and abuse heaped upon the guilty and the innocent, 
In the above video, Stanley Harlen was pulled over for allegedly speeding; he stopped in front of his house. As his mother came out in her robe, she watched as officers wrestled with him. One officer fired the Taser three times for 31 seconds. For 14 minutes he received no medical attention; when paramedics arrived it was too late. He was dead. The Moberly city manager's response is hardly reassuring. Andy Morris: Harlen's death is "unanticipated and unintentional. Police officers must often make split-second decisions in tense, rapidly-evolving situations."
God almighty,
There are plenty of cases to review 
In Peoria, a man was beaten, stomped on at least 20 times and was repeatedly Tased by two police officers last May. The officers (Andrew Smith, left, and Gerald Suelter) face multiple charges. (
