We update villagers on the overactive use of tasers by the police regularly. I am grateful to see that the Afrosphere Action Coalition called for a formal Day of Blogging Justice on this topic. The police appear to be ignoring their own policy as laid out in the Use of Force Continuum. Police killed five people with tasers in January 2008 alone!
Powerful voices in the afrosphere are talking about this topic here, here, here, here and here. I urge you to join in the discussions as well.
Here are samples of stories that we reported to you in the past:
- 21-year old Black man tasered-to-death by Louisiana cop.
- 17-year old Black man tasered-to-death by North Carolina cop.
- Deaf Black man tasered-in-error by Kansas cop.
- Unarmed and naked 41-year old Black man tasered-to-death by Florida cop.
- 29-year old Black man tasered-to-death by Florida cop.
- 48-year old Black man tasered-while-shopping by Wisconsin cop.
- 33-year old pregnant Black woman tasered-while-seeking-help from Ohio cop.
- Black man tasered-while-driving-mother-to-Thanksgiving-Dinner by Texas cop.
Are we being too sensitive? Should we sweep our concerns under the carpet because the police are reasonable people doing a difficult job? Or should we continue to blog for justice whenever we see inappropriate use of tasers to executive our brothers and sisters before they get their day in court?
What say u?
12 comments:
this is a tragedy. but i don't see a legislative solution in the works, since most of these incidents will be handled as isolated cases in the individual jurisdictions.
it would seem that an organization like the NAACP (or ACLU) would be salivating to file a class action suit against these jurisdictions (and the maker of the Taser) over these senseless deaths at the hands of the police.
Plez - United Nations and others propose a full-out ban on tasers. I don't agree. I do think that the police should be trained better on Day of Blogging for Justice...
re: NAACP or ACLU -- I don't think that I should comment (smile)...
Interesting image of the Statue of Liberty. I'm a white man who used to work as a civilian in a Law Enforcement agency. But I have always been opposed to the use of the taser. Back in the day there was a story of an officer who tased a man who had fallen into a swimming pool. How dumb is that? By the way, while I was working in law enforcement one of the officers I respected the most for his professionalism and common sense was a black man. He and I had lunch together frequently. No... I"m not just saying that.
Villager, what was that stat you had about the number of tazer deaths over the past few years; and do you have a link to the info?
Thnaks.
im with plez
next we gone be dying in the emergency room
snap we already are
I dont see how filing a suite againts the makers of Tasers would be fair.
The argument would be that when used properly they are a benifit and help protect victim and perp.
The problem is the abuse of the Tasers by the police. It is the culture an attitude of law enforcement that needs to be addressed.
Randall - As a LEO ... do you have any advice or suggestions for citizens who want to ensure that tasers are used properly in their local police departments? Any advice from your perspective would be appreciated...
Yobachi - I cannot find that link. I think that AAPP used it in one of his posts recently...
RawDawgBuffalo - Yeah, the whole situation with emergency room healthcare is one we need to be talking about as well. But, today we focus on tasers...
Mike - Any thoughts on how we engage and address the police attitude or culture that leads to these taser abuses?
I weighed in on ADoBfJ on my spot.
I agree that tasers, used PROPERLY serve a purpose.
As for the owner of WayneHicks.com I say you offer him a nice glass of GFY (or a bottle of GTH) and get another URL Electronicvillager.com if you will.
The Ink - I'll be by to check out your Taser post. Thank you for supporting this blog campaign today.
It took me a minute to get 'GFY' and 'GTH' ... however, I think that I'm going to take your advice!
So what do we do?? I am tired of reading about all of these senseless, horrendous deaths and attacks by taser but the question is what do we do about it. The blogging campaign is a good start, but what next? How do we get the powers that be to take another look at the use of tasers? How do we get politicians, legislators, or someone who gives a D@#$ to do something?!
Tasers have their place but some of the ones using them are out of control.
guess what... if the maker of the Taser was sued, they would make sure that their product was used properly OR they would make the necessary improvements to the product to guarantee its correct usage:
* make a Taser that it is not capable of electrocuting anyone to death
* make a Taser that will only send a shock one or two times (not 5 or 10 times)
* make a Taser that has a specified time period between shocks (1 to 2 minutes)
i agree that the Taser is a great non-lethal weapon for use by law enforcement, but as we see, it is also a lethal weapon when it is misused by law enforcement.
Regina - I don't have a good answer. I encourage you to cut-n-paste your comment to the 'Kinfolk' as that is probably the next step in process...
Plez - Those are excellent alternative solutions. I never considered them before. I wonder if we can get Taser International to provide us with a corporate speaker for discussion of your suggestions? Would you be willing to cut-n-paste your suggestioons to the 'KINFOLK' so that we can discuss them in that GG-forum?
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