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Tag: tasers

  • Don’t Tase Me, Sis

    A nice articlein Reason by Radley Balko. This one on police TV shows and use of force.

    Of course, there isn’t “always a good time to use a Taser,” as the multitude of viral web videos depicting taserings of grandmothers, pregnant women, and children will attest. TLC’s ad campaign is offensive, though merely the latest iteration of a genre of television that trivializes the state’s use of force and makes a mockery of the criminal justice system.
    …
    Cop reality shows glamorize all the wrong aspects of police work. Their trailers depict lots of gun pointing, door-busting, perp-chasing, and handcuffing. Forget the baton-twirling Officer Friendly. To the extent that the shows aid in the recruiting of new police officers, they’re almost certainly pulling people attracted to the wrong parts of the job.

    Read the whole article here.

    [thanks to Marc for the tip]

  • “Excited Delirium”

    Can you die from it? Does it exist? The Taser company, not surprisingly, says yes. Because if and when people die from “excited delirium,” there seems to be a good chance it will happen after being Tasered.

    Laura Sullivan of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” has a good report on this.

    Here’s part one and part two.

    (Thanks to Marc)

  • $12,500 in Seattle Taser Settlement

    A homeless felon in Seattle gets $12,500 for being tased twice simultaneously by two officers. That’s just what I don’t like my tax dollars going to. I’m not saying the cops didn’t follow procedure and their training. I am saying that procedure and training are wrong.

    [A] judge ruled that the two officers … were too quick to use their Tasers after confronting Releford outside a Tukwila convenience store to arrest him on outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
    …
    Both officers ordered him to turn around. When he hesitated at the conflicting commands, the officers fired their stun guns simultaneously, knocking him to the ground with a combined 100,000 volts, the documents say.
    …
    She said the officers didn’t adequately consider their other options before resorting to the use of Tasers.
    …
    “He didn’t resist,” she said. “They just didn’t give him time to comply.”
    …
    Releford — despite his size and a long history of run-ins with the law — had never been violent toward officers. In fact, she said, records showed that Vivet had arrested Releford six times in the eight months before the incident, all without incident.

    The story by Mike Carter in the Seattle Times.

  • Tasing Naked Man

    A man at a concert, probably tripping, is naked. He ends of getting tased.

    I’m generally against the use of tasers. And I particularly oppose the use of tasers as a compliance device. Especially when the suspect is unarmed. Even more so when the suspect is unarmed, naked, and there are three burly officers involved.

    And yet, I think this taser situation was justified. Check out the video on Jennifer Lena’s blog. Be sure to scroll down and read Corey’s comments. He sums up my thoughts pretty well.

    Once you accept that the guy needs to comply–either by putting on clothes or handcuffs–what are the police supposed to do? They can’t just walk away.

  • Good Taser Use

    I’ve said that Tasers are overused and too often lethal. But here is a perfect use–as an alternative to lethal force. Well done, BPD. The Baltimore Sunreports:

    Baltimore police use Taser to subdue armed woman

    November 17, 2008

    Baltimore police used a Taser last night to disable a woman who was wielding a handgun in front of a house in the 200 block of W. Lorraine Ave. in the Remington community, said a Northern District shift commander. Sgt. Michael Hennlein said the woman, who is in her 20s, and a girlfriend were arguing in the house about 9:30 p.m. when the woman fired a shot that shattered a window but missed the other woman. Hennlein said several people in the house ran outdoors, followed by the armed woman. During the incident, someone called police to report a shooting. Hennlein said that when officers arrived, the woman was standing outside, bleeding from cuts caused by broken glass and threatening to shoot herself and others. After officers warned her to drop the gun and she failed to comply, one of the officers fired a Taser, striking the woman in the upper body with 50,000 volts, he said. The woman was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment of the lacerations and the effects of the Taser. He said charges were expected to be filed against the woman upon her release from the hospital and that no other injuries were reported.

  • Taser use draws fire from Amnesty International

    The Boston Heraldreports:

    The stunning rise in Taser use has drawn the fire of the local Amnesty International chapter, which says Tasers were supposed to be a non-lethal alternative to gunfire.

    “Now it seems clear that police departments are using Tasers not as an alternative to lethal force but to get compliance.”

    Amnesty International says that since 2001, 320 people have died after being tased.

  • Lieutenant in Taser incident commits suicide

    I just heard on the radio that Lieutenant Pigott, the lieutenant who, one week ago, ordered the man on the awning in Brooklyn to be Tased, shot himself. That’s very sad.

    The lieutenant, I believe in good faith, made a bad decision that violated departmental rules. Allpolice officers violate departmental rules. I know I did. And not always in good faith. But I was lucky; nobody died.

    Mr. Morales should not have been tased. But had I been in the same situation, it was a decision I very likely could have made. Mr. Morales, a crazed 35-year-old man, died.

    After 21 years on the force, the lieutenant’s life came crashing down. He caused a man’s death. He was stripped of his badge and gun. He was demoted from a specialized unit he loved to a desk job in motor pool. His future, as he probably saw it, consisted of lawsuits, disgrace, and no end in sight. The NYPD threw him under a bus.

    On Wednesday, the Morales family held a wake. Lieutenant Pigott apologized for what happened, saying he was “truly sorry.”

    On Wednesday night, the eve of Lieutenant Pigott’s 46th birthday, he gained access to another officer’s gun and shot himself. He leaves a wife and three children.

    It’s very sad.

    There’s more in Newsdayand the New York Times.

  • More on the Tase

    The Timessaysthe LT who ordered the Tas is getting in trouble.

    Supposedly the Posthas a video. I wonder if it will change my mind. Here’s the link.

    Hmmmm…. Unfortunately the video doesn’t clear much up. It doesn’t show the interaction between the light bulb and cop on the fire escape. That’s what I want to see. Was the officer being attached and could the officer not get away?

    At the momentof Tas, there was certainly notjustification for lethalforce. And maybe time for a tactical retreat from the fire escape. But ifa person attacks an officer who can’t get away, I got no problem with shooting him one way or the other.

  • Oh, Taser. How you kill.

    Oh, Taser. How you kill.


    In an instructional manual for Taser use. This picture seems like an example of what notto do. Don’t Taser naked men standing on ledges.

    But it’s not that simple. Here’s story in The Daily News. The police were tying themselves to the fire escape to try and grab the guy. The guy takes a large fluorescent bulb and starts hitting and pokingthe officers. I think you gotta Tas him and take the chances he dies. I think you could shoot him in this case. But at least using the Taser gives him some chance to live.

    But I will note, because I’m generally against the use of Tasers, that this is at least the second man in New York to die after being Tased is the past few years. Tasers can be lethal and should be thought of as potentially lethal force.

  • Police officer indicted for Taser death

    This is rare: “A grand jury in a small Louisiana town last week took the rare step of indicting a police officer for repeatedly shocking a handcuffed suspect with a Taser.”

    Here’s the story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

    Race is involved. The tased guy was black. The officer, who was fired, was white.

    Meanwhile, in Houston. It turns out that there was no wrongdoing in each and every of the 1,700 taser incidents. That includes the the guy who shocked his own stepson. Here’s the story. Good job, H.P.D.!