Vermont State Police Splurge on Tasers

Is there an increased crime wave to justify this: According to GMD, Vermont State Police want to purchase 260 tasers (@ $100 thou a pop, erm, make that a zap).

Chicago cop tasered unconscious diabetic 11 times

A Raw Story report:

Police officers from two Chicago suburbs are being sued after one of them allegedly Tasered a man having a diabetic seizure because the diabetic involuntarily hit the officer while being taken to an ambulance.

Prospero Lassi, a 40-year-old employee of Southwest Airlines, filed the lawsuit (PDF) with a federal court in Chicago last week, following an April 9, 2009, incident in which Lassi was taken to hospital following a violent diabetic seizure -- and being Tasered 11 times while unconscious.

That day, Lassi's roommate found the man on the floor of his apartment having a seizure and foaming at the mouth, according to the statement filed with the court. The roommate called 911 for help, and police officers from the Brookfield and LaGrange Park police departments arrived to help with the situation.

As police officers were helping the paramedics move Lassi to an ambulance, Lassi -- still in the midst of the seizure and described as "unresponsive" -- involuntarily smacked one of the officers with his arm.

"Reacting to Mr. Lassi’s involuntary movement, one or more of the [officers] pushed Mr. Lassi to the ground, forcibly restraining him there," the complaint states. "[LaGrange Park Officer Darren] Pedota then withdrew his Taser, an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt a person’s control over his muscles, and electrocuted Mr. Lassi eleven times.

Worse, the other police offers present stood by and watched and failed to intervene, as Mr Lassi was being tasered.

81-year old Episcopal Priest Tasered by AF Base Police

One of the unofficial USAF mottoes is "No one comes close." Well they've certainly lived up to it.

Fairbanks (AK) Daily News-Miner

An 81-year-old man was Tasered during a traffic stop last week.

It is the second time since 1998 that police have had to make a show of force during a traffic stop to arrest Glen M. Wilcox, a Fairbanks-based Episcopalian priest and real estate agent.

Court documents allege that officers with Eielson Air Force Base’s 354th Security Forces Squadron pulled Wilcox over just after 1 p.m. Wednesday for going 11 miles over the speed limit on the Richardson Highway.

An officer, identified as a senior airman in court documents, took Wilcox’s license, registration and proof of insurance and wrote him a traffic citation. When he returned to Wilcox’s car, Wilcox refused to accept the documents and sped down the highway, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

Wilcox disputes that version of events.

Undernews has more taser torture updates here.

Dutch police shoot a taser for the very first time

As the use of tasers by Burlington police has increased, the first 'target' for police in The Netherlands was a 'suicidal' man:

The man, aged 30, stood on a balcony, pressing a number of knives against his throat. Despite talking to the man for hours, the police was unable to resolve the situation, which led them to resort to the taser gun. Subsequently, the man was brought into safety.

The use of the taser gun is subject to criticism in other countries. In the US a number of detainees died after receiving a shock from the weapon. An American study found in 1999 that shocks even weaker than those administered by the taser can induce cardiac arrests in people with a heart condition.

Police in Woerden, however, say the 30-year-old has not suffered any lasting damage from the arrest. The use of taser guns in the Netherlands is experimental, and limited to seven special arrest teams and the military police. The one-year test period is expected to end in May 2010.

IN CALIFORNIA THEY DREAM OF TASERS: ANOTHER CITIZEN DIES

On Sunday, I wrote about the taser death in Lakewood, Calif which happened late Saturday night. Today RickB (Ten Percent) made an apt comment on my post:

Pepper spray and Taser! This is lazy violent police work, if someone honestly thinks deputies are doing everything right when a naked man dies during arrest then you have internalised the police state and are a submissive herd animal sleepwalking into slavery.

Here's an UPDATE on the Lakewood death from a local watchdog group.

It never ends. Also in California, on Friday there was another taser death, "the sixth to occur after the use of Tasers by San Jose police since 2004." Thanks to Chris Floyd, who comments

The Taser has simply added another deadly refinement to the fun and games. Whereas in the old days the San Jose police probably would have been content with just clubbing a prisoner with batons, now they can whip out a handy-dandy ray-gun and shoot him full of electricity as well. Sure, sometimes the suckers die -- but because the ray-gun is not, ostensibly, a lethal weapon, the deaths can always be written off as an unintended consequence caused by an unknown pre-existing condition or something.

Of course, you can sometimes get a "pre-existing condition" from, say, being clubbed into bloody goo by batons -- or, as in a recent case of my personal knowledge, being handcuffed from behind and having your face slammed repeatedly into a concrete floor by a five or six deputies for the heinous crime of "sass." But it's best not to delve too deeply into these matters. After all, the Taserers and clubbers are only trying to keep us safe from terrorists -- sorry, from criminals. And as our entire bipartisan political class has taught us -- and keeps teaching us every day -- brutality, torture and murder should never be prosecuted if they are committed by government officials in the name of "security."

CANADA ISSUES RESTRICTIONS ON TASER USE

From WaPo/AP (12 February 2009): TORONTO -- Canada's federal police will no longer use stun guns against suspects who are merely resisting arrest or refusing to cooperate _ saying the guns can cause death.

ANOTHER DEATH BY TASER

PRESS-TELEGRAM Long Beach, CA:-- A man running naked on a quiet Lakewood street died after sheriff's deputies shocked him with a Taser gun, authorities said Sunday.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Art Spencer said Lakewood deputies responded to a disturbance call in the 5700 block of Silva Street at 10:15 p.m. Saturday.

Spencer said deputies found a "very large" man running naked in the street and acting irrationally.

Deputies tied to calm the man but he remained belligerent, Spencer said. When he advanced at them in a threatening manner, Spencer said deputies used pepper spray and at least one Taser stun gun to subdue him.

Shortly after the man was handcuffed, deputies realized he was not breathing and began to administer CPR, Spencer said. The man, whose identify has not been released, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Student Tasered and Arrested at Kerry Speech

Thanks to Martin Wisse at Wis[s]e Words for alerting us about this story. Jeralyn Merritt also has a post about it at Talk Left.

OCALA.COM - Student Tasered at Kerry speech -

Toward the conclusion of Kerry's UF forum, Meyer approached an open microphone at the University Auditorium and demanded Kerry answer his questions. The student claimed that University Police Department officers had already threatened to arrest him, and then proceeded to question Kerry about why he didn't contest the 2004 presidential election and why there had been no moves to impeach President Bush.

A minute or so into what became a combative diatribe, Meyer's microphone was turned off and officers began trying to physically remove him from the auditorium. Meyer flailed his arms, yelling as police tried to restrain him.

He was then pushed to the ground by six officers, at which point Meyer yelled, "What have I done? What I have I done? Get away from me. Get off of me! What did I do? ... Help me! Help."

Police threatened to user a Taser on Meyer if he did not "comply," but he continued to resist being handcuffed. He was then Tased, which prompted him to scream and writhe in pain on the floor of the auditorium.

After the incident, Capt. Jeff Holcomb of the UPD said Meyer had been charged with disrupting a public event and placed in the Alachua County Jail. Holcomb said there would be an investigation into whether the officers used force appropriately, adding that employing a Taser gun would only be justified in a case where there was a threat of physical harm to officers.

As Meyer was escorted away, he was followed by several students, including Matthew Howland, 20. Howland, a UF senior who said he didn't know Meyer, said he was "appalled" by the way UPD officers handled the situation. Howland acknowledged that Meyer had acted inappropriately by "rushing" the microphone and forcing a question on Kerry.

Read and watch the video of the OCALA.COM news story in toto.