TaZer headlines and commentary TODAY
Why a multidisciplinary TASK FORCE is needed in Canada regarding the RCMP, policing and mental health issues NOW.
The lies are proliferating, people are more confused than ever, the Amnesty Intl. report on their use (1985) is IGNORED, the money to be spent on increasing the number of them coming into Canada is already budgetted.
POLITICS as usual in CANADA and meanwhile the TORTURE continues ...
The article from Hawaii highlights one of the BIG FAILURES - how do you get a person who is carrying a taZer to get up to speed on mental health issues, communication rather than intimidating and Zapping, on the legal issues involved and so on in EIGHT FRIGGIN HOURS?? I ask you ...
Other urls so far Today
Globe and Mail
London Free Press
Veeger
Here from Britain FIRST - this is what's a comin - there is BIG MONEY and lots of political advantage in the TaZer torture gun racket ... OBVIOUSLY ...
Met Police to pilot Tasers
Electric justice for London
The governing body of the Metropolitan Police yesterday gave approval for Tasers to be issued to non-firearms-trained police in a pilot scheme beginning next month. Similar trials are already underway with other UK police forces.
"Members [of the Met Police Authority] raised legitimate concerns about broadening the use of Taser to routine policing," said Cindy Butts, MPA deputy chair.
"We remain worried about the message this sends out to London's communities about the escalation of confrontation and need further reassurance that vulnerable people... will not be adversely affected.
"However... Without the Met participating, this authority will be unable to influence a final decision about future use of the Taser.
"Consequently, today we agreed that the Met participates in the trial with the following rider: I will lead an MPA working group, working with the Met to jointly monitor and evaluate the trial...
"We want to move forward and influence the national debate. Our concerns have not gone away, nor have they been answered... We will monitor these areas rigorously and ensure that the experiences of London influence national policy for the good."
The MPA has agreed to let the Met deploy Tasers in the hands of non-firearms police only on the third time of asking. On two previous occasions MPA members were "dissatisfied" with the level of information provided.
The full MPA announcement is here. ®
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Sandra McCulloch, Times Colonist
Published: Friday, November 23, 2007The B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police yesterday threw its support behind a provincial review into Tasers in hopes the process will win back public support for the device and the police officers who rely on it.
"It has become obvious, frankly, that many in the public do not share our confidence in the safety and effectiveness of these devices,"association president Gord Tomlinson said at a news conference at Saanich police headquarters yesterday.
"We hope that any review of the Tasers will lower the temperature of the public outrage surrounding their use."
The police chiefs, who are meeting in Victoria this week, voted unanimously yesterday to keep using the devices.
Tomlinson noted that public interest in Tasers has been at "record-high levels" following the Oct. 14 death of Polish immigrant Roger Dziekanski, who was zapped twice with a Taser stun gun by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport.
A recording of the incident, shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, was carried on the Internet and newscasts worldwide, leading to a negative backlash toward the RCMP and Tasers.
Since then, more Tasering incidents have hit the spotlight, including a man who died in a Dartmouth, N.S., jail yesterday after being Tasered about 30 hours before, and a Chilliwack man in serious condition in hospital after being hit with a baton, Tasered and wrestled to the ground by RCMP on Monday.
Yesterday, Tomlinson staunchly defended the Taser's use by police officers across the province, saying
"If we didn't believe completely that they saved lives and prevented injuries ... we wouldn't be using them."
The public reaction to the Dziekanski's death has to be addressed through a provincial public inquiry into the weapon and its effectiveness, said Tomlinson. Among the numerous reviews underway is one by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
Tomlinson expressed condolences to Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski.
"No mother should ever have to lose her son under these conditions, with her grief becoming so public and so intertwined with the ensuing controversy," said Tomlinson.
The four RCMP officers involved in Dziekanski's death are "horrified" by the incident, said Tomlinson. They have been reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007
| Big Island Police Talk Tasers | | |
| Written by KGMB9 News - news@kgmb9.com | |
| Thursday, November 22, 2007 01:32 PM | |
|
Now police are planning informational meetings to answer the your questions about the new non-lethal device. By the end of the month, 225 police personnel will have completed the eight-hour training sessions required to use the taser. The goal is for all sworn personnel to eventually be trained and equipped with the devices. Police will demonstrate the device and answer questions at 6 meetings. All will be held from 6 - 8 p.m. Aupuni Center Conference room in Hilo
Kealakehe Intermediate School cafeteria in Kona
More meetings will be planned. |
Big Island Police are about to start using tasers while on patrols.A few facts on Tasers
Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, November 23, 2007Taser is the brand name for the conductive energy device, or CED, used by thousands of police departments, military, private security firms and law enforcement agencies across Canada and around the world. The devices are also known as electronic control devices. The handheld weapon is manufactured by Taser International, based in Arizona.
The company makes several Taser models that release volts of electricity through metal probes which penetrate clothing or skin. The impact normally leaves a small puncture in the skin and the pain received is usually equivalent to a bad sunburn.
Depending on the model, a Taser uses compressed nitrogen to project two small probes from as far away as 10 metres, at a speed of more than 160 feet per second. The probes are connected by insulated wire and an electrical signal is transmitted through the wires to where the probes make contact with the body or clothing. The shock overrides the body's nervous system and results in a total loss of muscle control for the duration of the shock. Recovery from the shock is "instantaneous," according to the company.
The technology "temporarily debilitates even the toughest individuals with minimal risk of injury," according to Taser International.
The company recommends a minimum of six hours of training for police officers to learn how to use its device.
It says Taser devices save lives and reduce injury to suspects and police officers compared with other use-of-force options.
Taser International acknowledges the devices are not "risk-free," but says they have undergone extensive scientific testing and are among the safest use-of-force products on the market.
They are currently used by more than 11,000 law enforcement, military and correctional agencies in 44 countries.
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007
IF they subdue, than HOW the hell can the TaZered victim be a RISK to innocent bystanders. Correct me if I have some logic!! How can ANYONE take this company SERIOUSLY ???Tasers 'obvious' scapegoat, company says
National Post
Published: Thursday, November 22, 2007Mark Kroll, a biomedical engineering professor and chair of the medical advisory board for Taser International, prepared a safety report to address some of the questions surrounding the weapon. He is also a member of the company's corporate board. "We all want answers and we all want to blame something," he writes. "In the 1990s, in-custody-deaths were blamed on pepper spray. Today, Taser devices are being seen as a simple, 'obvious' scapegoat for these tragic deaths."
Some of the highlights of the report: Q Could a Taser pulse stop the heart? A The brief electrical pulses are too short in duration to affect the heart. No scientifically reliable data exists to find that a Taser causes electrically induced cardiac arrest.
Q Have any deaths been scientifically linked to a Taser application? A Mr. Kroll investigated more than 400 in-custody deaths which occurred within a week of an electronic control device (ECD) being used and found four cases where there may be a scientific link between ECD usage and death. In these cases, a violently resisting subject fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury. There was also a case where the ECD ignited a person covered in gasoline. Q What if the Taser malfunctions? A Taser devices are powered by batteries. If one were to malfunction, the amount of electrical discharge would be reduced and not increased. Q How can the Taser device affect the skeletal muscles but not the heart? A The electrical pulses stimulate the motor nerves which in turn cause the skeletal muscle to contract. The muscles most affected are those nearest to the Taser's electrodes. Computer modeling studies show that very little current goes more than one centimetre below the skin. Q Do longer Taser applications affect the heart?
A Electricity does not build up or linger in the body like poison, the report says. If a person is not electrocuted by an electrical current after five seconds, the person will not be electrocuted by a 60-second exposure. "If one Ping-Pong ball hit to the head does not kill a person, 1,000 probably cannot either," Mr. Kroll writes.
Q Could the Taser cause "lethal fainting?"
A Taser has been subject to a lawsuit based on the theory that the device hurt and this made the person's heart slow to the point that it stopped. But "vasovagal syncope" --a sudden drop in blood pressure which leads to fainting--is not possible with extreme agitation.
Q What about the suggestion that the emotional stress of a Taser application could indirectly cause cardiac arrest?
A This is a legally convenient theory as the police officer cannot add any stress to a violent subject or he will die, the report argues. "This leaves absolutely no options to the police officer except to walk away and increase risks to innocent bystanders and the violent suspect himself." People under significant stress do have an increased incidence of ventricular fibrillation. But most of the increased risk is seen after six months of stress. The idea of someone (without severe existing heart disease) dying from extreme anger or stress is not scientifically supportable and is an urban myth, says the report.
"You Gotta Ask Me Nicely"by digby
When a man questions why a policeman has pulled him over and refuses to sign the ticket, the policeman electrocutes him to make him comply:
The video shows the Utah Highway Patrolman pull over Jared Massey and his pregnant wife who also had their baby with them in the car and ask for Mr Massey's license.
Mr Massey tells the officer he does not understand why he has been stopped or what he is being charged with, at which point the officer orders Massey to get out of the car. The officer then puts down his clipboard and immediately takes out his Taser and points it at Mr Massey without any provocation whatsoever, yelling "Turn around and put your hands behind your back" as Massey attempts to point out the speed limit sign and engage the officer in conversation.
A shocked Massey asks "what the hell is wrong with you?" and backs away, turning around as the officer had demanded, at which point the officer unleashes 50,000 volts from the Taser into Massey's body, sending him screaming to the ground instantly and causing his wife to jump out of the car and yell hysterically for help.
Lying face down on the ground a shell shocked, Mr Massey says "officer I don't know what you are doing, I don't know why you are doing what you are doing" to which the officer replies "I am placing you under arrest because you did not obey my instruction."
Mr Massey then once again asks the officer several times why he was stopped and what he is being charged with. He then asks for his rights to be read and points out that the officer cannot arrest him without doing this. Instead of reading Massey his rights the officer then addresses another patrolman who arrives on the scene sardonically commenting "Ohhh he took a ride with the Taser" to which the other officer answers "painful isn't it".
The icing on the cake comes at the end of the video when the officer LIES to his own colleague about the encounter, clearly stating that he verbally warned Massey he was going to tase him, as is the law, when there was no warning whatsoever.
Mr Massey is planning to file a lawsuit against the Utah Highway Patrol. He says he was already slowing down as he approached the 40 mile per hour sign in the construction zone outside of vernal. All charges except for the speeding ticket have been dropped.
This amazing video reveals how eroded civil and constitutional rights have now become. The officer had no legal right to make Massey sign any document he did not understand.
Police in the country are now allowed to torture speeders by the side of the highway in order to get them to comply. The only difference between this officer slugging the speeder in the stomach and putting 50,0000 volts of electricity in him is that the latter doesn't leave any marks. The intent, the pain and the goose-stepping authoritarian message are exactly the same.
Word to the wise. Do not ever question the police, no matter whether they are violating your rights, ignoring the constitution or breaking the law. It is perfectly legal for them to torture you on the spot if you do.
I'm feeling so free I can hardly breathe.
Update: many emails on this one.
First, I'm advised, correctly, that "electrocute" means death by electricity. So electrocute is an improper way to describe this incident. (Not this one, however.)
Also, former police officer writes in with this:
I forced myself to watch that clip, and as a retired peace officer, =my opinion is both the trooper and motorist were at fault.
The motorist was obligated to follow instructions, and appeared to be leaving, "resisting arrest. But the trooper's use of escalated force demonstrated a sad lack of training.
I've had similar incidents in my career where the subject refused to cooperate and turned to leave before we were done. In each case, I explained quickly and briefly the options and consequences of their leaving without completing the detention - warrant for arrest, incarceration, huge fines, etc. At worst, I'd have to have a warrant issued for them to be stopped farther down the road, including escalation of force. But in no case was I warranted to use deadly force in preventing them from leaving.
In my opinion, law enforcement has been issued tazers and told by the tazer companies and department leaders they aren't "deadly force", and now their use has become a replacement for good police training.
I think we'll see tazers eventually taken out of general use, but I doubt we'll ever see wide-spread adequate police training.
Carol
THE DEATH OF ROBERT DZIEKANSKI
Tasers used too often, too soon, investigator says
OTTAWA, VANCOUVER -- The man who will head a review of the RCMP's use of tasers following the death of a Polish visitor in the Vancouver airport says he is concerned they may be deployed too quickly and too often.
Paul Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said yesterday that there have been instances "where I thought it was being used inappropriately at too early a level of intervention."
Through the review ordered this week by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Mr. Kennedy said he wants to get a sense of whether RCMP "policy and their model in terms of recourse to force is appropriate."
And he wants to find out whether officers "have thought about other devices. Have they been told that this is either a last resort or should be used at the higher end in terms of intervention?"
The inappropriate use of tasers is not a new concern for Mr. Kennedy. In his annual report tabled in June, he said one taser-firing incident led him to conclude that a review of the weapons was necessary.Mr. Kennedy pointed to the case of an intoxicated woman - he didn't name her - who was tasered by an RCMP officer and taken to the police station.
"That was okay in the first instance," he said. But then "she is in the station and the device is used against her again. It's a woman handcuffed in a station when there were other officers there. I said that is inappropriate in my belief. The commissioner agreed with me."
The review, Mr. Kennedy said, will provide an opportunity to look at the full range of cases in which they have been used and determine whether the rules are clear and are being followed.
Even before Mr. Day requested the broad look, Mr. Kennedy launched an investigation into the conduct of the four officers involved in the arrest of Robert Dziekanski.
That probe is in addition to separate reviews being conducted by the Canada Border Services Agency, the B.C. coroner and the Vancouver Airport Authority, as well as a public inquiry that has been promised by the B.C. government.
Mr. Day has requested that Mr. Kennedy's initial report be filed on Dec. 12.
Mr. Kennedy's expressed concerns about taser use prompted the co-founder of the company that manufactures the device used on Mr. Dziekanski to question whether the commissioner might hold some preconceived biases about the devices.
"Is he already developing an opinion without all of the facts?" Tom Smith of Taser International Inc. asked The Globe and Mail from his office in Scottsdale, Ariz. "Because my response would be this device has more accountability features built into it than any other system in the world. It records every time the trigger is pulled, the date and the time."
Mr. Smith also noted that police tend to file reports on taser use. And he said some of his company's devices are equipped with cameras to record incidents in which they are used, leaving a visual record for later examination.
Police informed of tasered man's psychiatric illness - widow
HALIFAX - A Nova Scotia man with chronic psychiatric problems that at times fuelled a violent streak should have received special treatment for his illness, rather than being placed in a correctional facility where he later died, family and mental health experts said Friday.Howard Hyde, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in his 20s, died Thursday morning in a Halifax-area jail, about 30 hours after he was shocked with a Taser in a violent struggle with police.
Hyde's widow, Karen Ellet, said she made it clear in a 911 call to police that Hyde suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was off his medications and was so agitated he assaulted her.
She restated that when four officers showed up at her apartment late Tuesday to arrest him on the domestic dispute charge.
"He should have been taken to some kind of mental hospital to be medicated, to get him stable and get him rehabilitated," she said Friday.
"He just totally collapsed mentally. He was hardly coherent. That's what bothers me the most - he was so defenceless."
Hyde's sister, Joanna Blair, said officers should have treated Hyde with special care since he had a long history of run-ins with police, had been in and out of mental health institutions and feared police.
"I think that he should have been taken to a psychiatric hospital, and then his charge of abuse should have been dealt with when he was in a calmer state," she said from her home in Shelburne, N.S.
Jean Hughes, a professor at Dalhousie University who specializes in psychiatric nursing, said police officers need specific training on how to approach people with mental-health conditions to ensure such encounters don't turn violent.
She said mental-health patients who are paranoid can become afraid very easily, especially if they have had violent encounters with police in the past.
Hyde was tasered by police during an arrest in 2005.
"Once you've had encounters where people have used violent or corrosive or intrusive means of working with you, then you learn to expect that that's probably going to happen again," said Hughes, a former vice-president of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
She said police could use techniques to defuse a situation, including non-threatening body movements, limiting the number of officers that interact with a suspect and calm language.
Const. Jeff Carr with the Halifax police said there are no firm guidelines governing the treatment of people with mental illness and that officers judge each case individually.
"If we believe that a person is possibly going to harm themselves or someone else we can make an arrest, we can take them to hospital for assessment under the Hospital Act," he said.
"It's an individual call on the part of the officer."
Hyde wasn't taken to hospital for psychiatric evaluation or treatment.
The executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia said Hyde's case is a grim example of the police failing to respond appropriately to a mental-health patient.
Stephen Ayer said the police should have brought a trained mental-health clinician with them to the scene, or ensured Hyde received medical attention before he was brought to the police station.
"That individual with a mental illness should be taken to hospital as a first step, and if there's going to be any booking, it should be done in a hospital, because clearly a severe mental illness such as Mr. Hyde was suffering from needs to be treated," said Ayer.
"It's a tragedy that it wasn't treated appropriately."
Sgt. Mark Gallagher, a spokesman for the RCMP, which is investigating the death, said the priority is to ensure the safety of those arrested and the people around them.
"When you take charge of someone you have to remove the imminent danger to other people," he said.
"So is it safer to have them at a correctional facility with people who are watching them 24-7 and checking on them every 10 to 15 minutes or can they be left in a hospital when most times we're not asked to go into the examining room?"
Police have said Hyde, an amateur musician who did odd jobs, became violent when he was being booked. He jumped the counter at police headquarters, ran past two officers and a booking agent toward the door before one of the officers stunned him with a Taser.
He was at a correctional facility early Thursday when he got into a scuffle with security guards, Gallagher said. He went into medical distress and died of unspecified causes soon after at a nearby hospital.
After Hyde was shocked a day earlier, he went into medical distress and was sent to hospital, where he was assessed and released back into police custody.
The police have said it is far too early to speculate whether the Taser contributed to Hyde's death, and medical experts say it's unlikely it would have had an impact 30 hours later, but it raised further questions about how the police handled Hyde's arrest.
The case has also widened scrutiny over the use of Tasers and prompted the Nova Scotia government to order a review of the devices.
A number of reviews and inquiries have been set up into the use of Tasers since the death on Oct. 14 of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport.
Dziekanski's death was captured on video and elicited outrage from viewers around the world.
On Friday, medical experts cast doubt over the effect the Taser had on Hyde.
Dr. John Butt, a forensic pathologist who reviewed Taser use in British Columbia in 2005, said it would be improbable for there to be any lingering physical effects from the electric shock.
He said the fact that Hyde was assessed in hospital and released suggests the Taser was not directly behind his death.
"Most unlikely," said Butt in an interview. "When he was discharged from hospital he was hopefully fit, so that in part answers that question."
Still, Butt said the results of an autopsy will make it easier to determine what part, if any, the Taser played in the death. That report wasn't expected until next week at the earliest.
John Webster, a professor emeritus in biomedical engineering at University of Wisconsin, agreed that the stretch of time between the Taser shock and Hyde's death makes it improbable the two are linked.
"I can't think of any cause and effect there," Webster, who has researched the effects of Tasers on pigs, said in an interview from Madison, Wis. "It seems unlikely to me."
The manufacturer of the Taser says the device has never been conclusively linked to any deaths in Canada.
Arizona-based Taser International said Friday its devices are safe and blamed news reports for fuelling "hysteria" about the stun guns.
"No one has waited for the medical examiner to come back on the cause of death ," said spokesman Steve Tuttle, referring to the deaths of both Hyde and Dziekanski.
"And so the speculation here has now led to multiple investigations - which we support - and yet we have a history of the Tasers not causing death, particularly in Canada."