From the tasering file

[pan]

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-11032007-1434893.html

FBI reviewing Tasering of sleeping man; no charges file

The Associated Press

NORTH BRADDOCK, Pa. - Two North Braddock police officers won't face criminal charges for Tasering a man who was asleep at home. But the FBI will review the incident for possible civil rights violations.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. says county police determined Officers Gerard Kraly and Lukas Laeuricia (loo-REE'-see-uh) didn't commit a crime when they Tasered Shawn Hicks, who was sleeping on his couch.

Police came to Hicks home because they were alerted by a silent security alarm at his home about 2 a.m.

Hicks says the officers Tasered him again after he woke up and showed them ID to prove he lived at the home. Hicks' attorney says he will pursue civil action.

[Mouse]

I've had a really good day. What brilliant replies up there, life took on a slightly different complexion. Feeling awfully sane. Goodness me.

Now, to satisfy Cal's curiousity, see if you can work out what went wrong here?

Here's what caused the alarm:
I responded to a very nice general email asking for help organising a volunteer rota. I had an idea of a slightly different approach, making an enjoyable model for tracking the action on the land, so I broke my rule of keeping well away:
Re: Volunteer Administration (13.25 June 23)
Yes, I'm interested,
it might not be quite the way you imagine.
Cannot afford to join, but very interested indeed.
Phone me.
(and horror of horrors I put my phone number here 
and my web address, not realising that it was going onto an online noticeboard. )
Remove email (13.29 June 23)
oh dear, can you possibly remove that, didn't realise it was published online, number you know. Damn.
I thought that was amazingly reserved in the circumstances, wanted to scream.
Re: remove email (19.10 June 23)
I meant the email with my phone number, please remove it immediately, and this one too.

Moderator please help. (19.20 June 23)
Please remove my last message and this one from message board, 
thought I was replying to a person not the world.
Three days later my emails were removed at last and I got this reply.
(16.22 June 26)
Hi,
Your reply to Susan has caused some alarm to her and other members of this group. The group is now intended for members only. The membership fee has just been reduced to £25 so if you would like to join, please let me know. Otherwise I may have to remove you from the group.
Kind Regards,
Membership Secretary and Group Moderator


It's hilarious really I suppose, now some time has passed and it doesn't really matter anymore. I put the web address so she could see my thought frames, (tactile 3D models to help with thinking and other hard stuff), but perhaps she looked at the back page about 9.11 being an inside job and the 1.2 million death toll in Iraq, that might have caused mental lock-down.
Honestly, you wouldn't believe how totally out of touch people are here. They don't know. They don't want to know.
This is beginning to feel like a party!

[waldopaper]

Hannah... bless ye for keepin' the faith... composting terlet and all. EM... maybe ye should print out some kind of flyer explaining just exactly what a permaculture garden IS... but they probably WANT chemlawn and sackcrete bird baths.

Sister... are ye serious about being welcome THERE? It may just happen! Now... for a new thread- self and environs! Jolly good idea!

[BO]

There's good surf in South Africa. I think we should all have a conference there after we form our non-profit so we can write the trip off.

Don't know why Sting and Bono should have all the fun.

[hannah j]

Calif. Newlywed Killed by Police in Case of Mistaken Identity

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

ANAHEIM, Calif. — A newlywed killed by police after he stepped outside his home to confront suspected burglars was shot in a case of mistaken identity, police said.

Julian Alexander died after being shot twice in the chest by a police officer who was chasing four burglary suspects early Tuesday morning.

Police Chief John Welter said the officer ran into Alexander, mistook him for one of the four juvenile suspects and shot him.

"The last thing we ever want to do, No. 1, (is) take somebody's life," he said. "And we certainly don't want to take the life of someone who is mistakenly believed to be involved in some criminal activity."

"He was a good kid, trying to protect his house," said Alexander's mother-in-law Michelle Mooney. "And the police, instead of asking questions, they just shot first. Somebody has to be held responsible for this."

Welter would not release the officer's name, but said he was a 10-year veteran of the department. The officer was placed on paid leave pending an investigation.

"It's mistaken identity, but that doesn't bring my son back," said Alexander's father Jerry.

He said Alexander got married last weekend and his 19-year-old wife is expecting a baby in December.

Alexander's wife said she heard the gunshots and tried to go into the yard, but the officer told her to stay inside. From the window they saw Alexander handcuffed and bleeding in the front yard.

Paramedics treated him at the scene and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The four burglary suspects were detained and interviewed, but no arrests were made.

Welter said investigators would interview the officer to determine what commands he gave to Alexander before he fired. Investigations will be conducted by the FBI, the Orange County Office of Independent Review and the district attorney's office, Welter said.

[littleoldme]

They'll get away with it, they always do.

[pan]

Four NYPD cops sodomize guy and then give him a misdemeanor ticket.

[pan]

NC undercover officers use Taser on pallbearer

[Kate]

I'm not surprised or shocked, this has become common place. Absurd and Cruel !

[curt]

Surprise: Cops Who Get Tasered Really Don't Like It

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 8:37 AM on November 24, 2008.



Apparently some police officers have a bone to pick with Taser Inte...

This report from the Las Vegas Sun about their police department's experience with tasers is fascinating. (Too bad the Brits didn't read it before deciding to arm their entire police force with these torture devices.) One of the most interesting thing about it is that nearly all the information police receive is from the Taser company itself.

Several cops got on their knees on a rubber gym mat. Kneeling in a line, they linked arms, interlaced hands, and looked up. All they knew of what comes next is this: It's going to smart.

This was called the "daisy chain." It was part of the Metro Police Taser training program, the alternative to hitting a single individual with thousands of volts from the weapon. It was the option officer Lisa Peterson chose, a decision she regrets.



The officers were at a training seminar in November 2003 to learn how to use the newest weapon on their belts, a device the manufacturer claimed would incapacitate a person but not do permanent harm. You can't really comprehend the Taser, students were told, until you're Tasered.

So an instructor attached alligator clips to each end of the daisy chain. Two officers became electrical bookends, strung at the shoulder by wires feeding back into a Taser gun. Pull the trigger and the daisy chain shudders, seizes and pitches forward, the pile of police officers becoming a portrait of Taser's selling point: neuromuscular incapacitation.

In the middle of the chain, hands locked at her sides, Peterson had only her face to absorb the impact. She fell hard on her neck and fast into the rabbit hole - traumatic internal disc disruption, steroid injections, surgical reconstruction, temporomandibular derangement, persistent dizziness, cognitive defects, numbness, vertigo.

Officer Peterson sued Taser International Inc.

So did two other Metro cops who were seriously injured after being shocked with Tasers during other training sessions in 2003. In their lawsuits they say Taser failed to adequately warn the police department of the potential for injury and minimized the risks of being shocked, which officers had been assured was not only safe but advisable.

[...]

Metro's initial approach to Taser instruction can be summed up like this: Almost everything the police knew about Tasers, and taught officers about Tasers, they learned from Taser.

[...]

Today, Taser warns that the device can cause burns. Moreover, the company acknowledges these burns can become infected. It warns that people who are shocked by Tasers can suffer bone fractures, hernias, ruptures and dislocations. Today, Taser suggests students be Tasered while lying facedown on the floor, eliminating falling hazards and stray Taser probes to the eye.


And yet, police use these things indiscriminately.

And nobody seems to think there's anything wrong with the police inflicting horrible pain on people on the thinnest of pretexts. As long as there's no permanent damage, there's no harm in it. Heck, even if there is permanent damage, it's the victim's fault for failing to be properly cooperative --- or agreeing to do it as part of their job.

You can see why waterboarding is now considered perfectly acceptable. The authorities only use it when they believe they need to (and ok, sometimes just because they're in a bad mood) and it doesn't leave any permanent damage either. No harm no foul. What's the problem?



H/T to pastordan and barb

[Kate]

We are such an advanced society. How pitiful.

Aren't there S&M parlors these sado/masochiastic blumps can visit for their NO HARM, NO FOUL oh and gee what's the problem????

[pan]

More than 400 taser related deaths since 2001

[pan]

U.S. police could get pain beam weapons