Stupid fucking civil liberty loving cock-jockeys!

[weemadando]

Several Australian states have just completed trials of air-tasers which will now be adopted by Special Operations Groups with possible future employment by beat-cops.

Now, the SOGgies commented on several occasions where they used air-tasers to subdue suspects who would usually have been met by lethal force (ie a burst from an MP5 or a Steyr). The subjects all were taken into custody and suffered no side effects.

Then after the announcement out come the civil liberties junkies who are saying that because in the past there have been SOME deaths linked to the use of air-tasers they shouldn't be used at all!

So what are they saying? That they'd rather the SOGgies just shoot the fucking people next time, not bring them out alive?

Chalk up another victory for the morons of the left... While the rest of us on this wing try and hold back from killing them.

[egyptfrk]

Got a link for this news? Have the libertarians offered any alternatives?

[Admiral Valdemar]

This sounds familiar. Oh yes, that's it. This is the same human rights bullshit that's also led to the police force here having to carefully test and evaluate every type of wire and air taser there is over years to satisfy rights groups rather than bring them in and be done with it.

Even the plastic bullets are often seen as evil weapons of the state, so you can't win with these guys if your alternative is several tens of thousands of Volts worth of electric shock instead.

[Zed Snardbody]

Hell, we kill people here with ours, and hardly any one bitches.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

In Canada, we mace protesters. To death.

[Stofsk]

In Canada, we mace protesters. To death.

We use horsies. Low-tech solutions for a high-tech world. The future will not be user-friendly.

Ando, where did you get this news from?

[weemadando]

In Canada, we mace protesters. To death.

We use horsies. Low-tech solutions for a high-tech world. The future will not be user-friendly.

Ando, where did you get this news from?

Listen to NewsRadio, stay informed.

I've been meaning to post it for a few days. I believe ACT and Vic are the states currently involved in this.

And on a personal note - any motherfucker caught with marbles/ball bearings at a demonstration should be beaten mercilessly by police officers and any protestors who feel like joining in.

If you want to try your luck with a cop - go right ahead, riot shield + baton + many many more riot cops > dickhead anti-globalisation protestor. But don't break a fucking horses legs by doing something shit-headed and cowardly.

[Darth Wong]

It goes both ways; in the US, cops have been tasering children for truancy, and pediatricians are quite concerned about possibly health implications, particularly regarding damage to the heart muscle.

[weemadando]

It goes both ways; in the US, cops have been tasering children for truancy, and pediatricians are quite concerned about possibly health implications, particularly regarding damage to the heart muscle.

In Australia it would only be deployed with our SOGgies, and as stated, they have and likely only will (what with their line of work and all) use it in circumstances where lethal force would be the ONLY other option. I cannot see why the civil liberty dickheads are getting up in arms over this.

[Lagmonster]

In Canada, we mace protesters. To death.

And we mean often mean 'mace' as in, 'beat with a stick with knobby ends on it'.

[Alyeska]

I just read an article where amnesty international is demanding that all US law enforcement agencies cease to use the taser until it has been thoroughly tested for possible side effects. They cite that 74 people have died in the last year due to taser use.

What the fucking idiots forget is that without a taser a cop has the choice of SHOOTING the person, bashing them in the head with a nightstick, or do nothing. Tasers are by there very nature less dangerous and offer more options for an officer. Hell, the Phoenix city police have pointed out that since tasers were issued to their cops that police shootings dropped by 50% and that lethal shootings dropped 30%. That’s a MAJOR improvement. The math is obvious. Tasers save a hell of a lot more lives then they might kill.

Now I agree some cops are getting a little overzealous on their use of a taser because they think its 100% non-lethal. That and I’ve heard where something like 6 cops taser someone at the same time. Cops need proper training in the use of the taser. That doesn’t change the fact that a taser is quite safe and very useful.

I myself am thinking about getting one for self defense purposes.

[frigidmagi]

Guess they rather that the cops kept shooting. Or that the cops just stayed home.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

It goes both ways; in the US, cops have been tasering children for truancy, and pediatricians are quite concerned about possibly health implications, particularly regarding damage to the heart muscle.

You're shitting me! Where is this going on?

[frigidmagi]

Nowhere I've heard of I can say that much.

[Col. Crackpot]

It goes both ways; in the US, cops have been tasering children for truancy, and pediatricians are quite concerned about possibly health implications, particularly regarding damage to the heart muscle.

You're shitting me! Where is this going on?

well there was one instance of an unruly violent 7 year old getting tazed when he couldn't be brought under control in school, but i know of no cases of kids being tazed for truancy. I demand evidence to support this assertation.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Yeah, but it's that shock or getting whacked in the chest or face with a plastic bullet. And they can certainly kill. Batoning ain't nice either.

Non-lethal doesn't mean it's going to be like being smothered in pillows and sent to sleep until you wake up in a cell. Non-lethal is just a method that doesn't immediately or in most cases cause death. People die from antibiotics, but it's not like we pull them off the shelf for a few minor incidents. Non-lethal weaponry should only be employed as a last chance when a mob is fully unruly. Get the hydrocannons out first and the horses and dogs and so on.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yeah, but it's that shock or getting whacked in the chest or face with a plastic bullet. And they can certainly kill. Batoning ain't nice either.

Non-lethal doesn't mean it's going to be like being smothered in pillows and sent to sleep until you wake up in a cell. Non-lethal is just a method that doesn't immediately or in most cases cause death. People die from antibiotics, but it's not like we pull them off the shelf for a few minor incidents. Non-lethal weaponry should only be employed as a last chance when a mob is fully unruly. Get the hydrocannons out first and the horses and dogs and so on.

Unless, of course, you're a civil rights protestor, who apparently wants the police to advance with fixed bayonets or something to clear streets.

[Rogue 9]

Or an OmniTaser Supreme.

[aerius]

Given proper training on the use & limitations of a Taser, it's a valuable tool in the force continuum used by a cop (fists, baton, pepper spray/taser, gun). Unfotunately, and especially in the US, the training is rather lacking and the Taser is sometimes (or often) touted as a cure-all for all situations. This leads to cops tasering little kids and other cops trying to zap hopped up drug addicts and getting hurt or killed. And that's why a lot of people are flipping out and screaming at cops for using Tasers. Of course it doesn't help when the Taser company categorically states that their products are non-lethal (the correct term would be less-lethal), and yet anyone can see that people are getting killed, so once again blame falls on the police because they "must be doing something wrong". A most unfortunate situation.

[salm]

well there was one instance of an unruly violent 7 year old getting tazed when he couldn't be brought under control in school, but i know of no cases of kids being tazed for truancy. I demand evidence to support this assertation.

that must have been quite week police man. my grand ma could grab a seven year old and keep him under control. and she´s dead.

[Darth Wong]

It goes both ways; in the US, cops have been tasering children for truancy, and pediatricians are quite concerned about possibly health implications, particularly regarding damage to the heart muscle.

You're shitting me! Where is this going on?

well there was one instance of an unruly violent 7 year old getting tazed when he couldn't be brought under control in school, but i know of no cases of kids being tazed for truancy. I demand evidence to support this assertation.

You don't know how to type "taser child" into Google, and then look at the first three links?

[Alyeska]

well there was one instance of an unruly violent 7 year old getting tazed when he couldn't be brought under control in school, but i know of no cases of kids being tazed for truancy. I demand evidence to support this assertation.

that must have been quite week police man. my grand ma could grab a seven year old and keep him under control. and she´s dead.

Actualy when you are dealing with children who refuse to be restrained any attempt at physicaly restraining the child can end up with the childs bones being broken because they constantly struggle against you.

[Col. Crackpot]

You don't know how to type "taser child" into Google, and then look at the first three links?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tazer+child

the stories are all about the same child violent special needs kid from florida that i mentioned. Where are all of these kids getting tazed for truancy?

[Plekhanov]

You're shitting me! Where is this going on?

well there was one instance of an unruly violent 7 year old getting tazed when he couldn't be brought under control in school, but i know of no cases of kids being tazed for truancy. I demand evidence to support this assertation.

You don't know how to type "taser child" into Google, and then look at the first three links?

I suspect tha tmight be a bit much for Crackpot so I've done it for him

According to the field study statistics cited above, 7.69% or 148 of the 2050 taser applications involved people aged from 12 to 18, although no breakdown was given of children under 18. A later analysis of 2,690 taser field uses shows 183 applications (7.4%) involving children aged 10 to 18.(60) Taser International has informed Amnesty International that it has records of four children under ten who were subjected to police tasers: one seven-year-old, one eight-year-old and two nine-year-olds, two of whom it says were armed with knives and one with a machete. However, there may be other cases.(61)
....
Disturbing cases continue to be reported. In May 2004 a police officer from South Tuscon, Arizona, used a taser on a nine-year-old girl who was a runaway from a residential home for severely emotionally disturbed children. According to reports, the child was already handcuffed with her hands behind her back and sitting in the back of a police car when the taser was used as an officer struggled to put her into nylon leg-restraints. The officer is reported as saying that the girl was "screaming, kicking and flailing, and would not listen". Reportedly, the officer had requested the taser because he was aware of the girl’s combative behaviour from past incidents. Fred Chaffee, president and chief executive of the children’s home, was quoted as saying that a lot of children from the home "no matter what they’re diagnosed with, have poor self esteem, poor impulse control and poor judgment, a learnt set of behaviours that aren’t terribly socially acceptable". (62) The officer in the case was cleared of criminal wrongdoing but faced an administrative review at the time of writing.

The reason that human rights groups are wary of “non-lethal” weapons is that cultures can develop whereby they end up being used as a first resort rather than after non-violent methods have been attempted, this doesn’t just happen with tasers there are plenty of examples of mace for example being used rather indiscriminately, several American states for example allow tasers to be used against people "passively resisting" police. Tasers and other "non lethal" weapons are also sometimes used to punish/torture suspects and prisoners.

Florida
Local police agencies in Florida were among the first to adopt the new generation tasers on a wide scale. Twelve (nearly one in five) of the recent US taser-related deaths discussed under Chapter 2 occurred in Florida, with four in Orange County alone. In addition to those cases, Florida police have reportedly used tasers to subdue:

o a man who refused to be fingerprinted and wrestled and shoved officers (Pembroke Pines Police Department, Broward County)
o a woman who interrupted a seminar at a country club and pushed officers away, shouting that they were "sick with demons" (Pembroke Pines Police Department)
o a man who refused to discard the drink he was drinking in a park and refused to turn round and be handcuffed (Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
o a woman who, ordered out of a pool for swimming naked and once dressed, refused repeated commands to turn round and put her hands behind her back. (Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
o a 15-year-old schoolgirl, who was tasered and pepper sprayed after arguing with officers after she and other children were put off a bus during a disturbance. (Miramar Police Department, Broward County)
o a 14-year-old schoolgirl who was tasered after fighting with a school "resource officer" in a classroom. The officer first used the taser as a "stun gun" applying it directly to her chest; when she continued to struggle he deployed the "air cartridge" twice before she was handcuffed. (Putnam County Sheriff’s Office)(41)

In May 2004, the city of Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida, announced a review of police taser use after reports that officers had fired two tasers simultaneously at an unarmed 23-year-old man who had turned his back on officers when they called at his house to investigate a neighbour’s complaint about loud rap music. He was allegedly jolted multiple times, causing acute pain. A study of police incident reports conducted by a local newspaper found that Melbourne police had used tasers against 75 people in 18 months, most of whom were unarmed.(42) They included

o a 14-year-old boy who had allegedly broken a window and tried to run away;
o a 50-year-old man who refused to give police his date of birth during a disturbance at a picnic;
o a woman jolted at least five times with a taser as an officer held her down.

The paper also reported on the case of 20-year-old Dontae Marks, a bystander who protested when police tried to arrest a friend for being drunk outside a night-club. Police reportedly pointed a taser at Marks’ chest when he refused an order to leave, then tasered him in the back as he walked away shouting an obscenity. Six officers then reportedly grappled with him in a struggle in which Marks was pepper-sprayed and touch-stunned at least ten times while lying face-down on the ground. He was reported to have sustained 13 taser burn marks across his back, neck, buttocks and the rear of his legs. He was later acquitted on charges of affray and has filed a lawsuit. According to the WW report, an internal police review found the taser use to be justified.

Dontae Marks’ attorney is quoted as saying "They went straight for the Taser because it was quick and easy for them. He was doing what they wanted him to do, but because they didn’t believe him, they tased him. And that’s what blew the situation up." The following incidents were also cited in the article. All were reportedly found to be within police departmental policy.

o An 18-year-old was tasered when he told police responding to an under-age drinking party to "get the f…out of my house". He was tasered again when, after complying with an order to put his hands up, his hands started to drop.
o A driver pulled over on a bridge, angry that his car was being towed away for lack of insurance, was tased after repeatedly complaining and turning his head and body towards an officer.
o A woman who fell asleep in her parked car was tasered when officers woke her up when they opened her car door and, according to the police report, she glared at them and reached for her pocket. According to the WW review, police reports were inconsistent as to whether or not she was warned before the taser was used.

The Portland Police Department subsequently reviewed its taser use, finding that out of 595 uses since a pilot project began in July 2002, only one had been ruled out of policy.(48) In May 2004, Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth reported to the city commissioners that the department would introduce stricter policies and training on taser use. The new policies would reportedly continue to allow officers to use tasers against handcuffed suspects but would instruct officers to consider other methods of control before stunning children, pregnant women and the elderly. At the time of writing, plans were underway to expand the deployment of tasers in the Portland Police Department, by issuing one to every patrol officer.

1. 6 (ii) Jails and custody facilities
....
o An inmate of Creek County Jail, Colorado, was tasered with escalating jolts of electricity when he refused to pick up a food tray he had thrown onto his cell floor. The inmate was not combative in any way and the taser appears to have been used to punish him for repeatedly ignoring an order. According to the jail incident report, after throwing his food tray onto the floor, he was asked to step out of his cell and told "he would be tazed (sic) if he would not comply". He came out of the cell, as instructed, and sat on a bench. When he ignored orders to go back into the cell to pick up his food tray, he was shot with a taser and subjected to three separate two-to-three second cycles of electricity before a "full five second burst" was applied.
o James Borden, a mentally disturbed man arrested for a parole violation, died in November 2003 after being shocked at least six times with an M26 Taser for being "uncooperative" while he was being booked into Monroe County Jail, Indiana. He was reportedly face-down on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back when a custody officer applied the shocks. A statement released by the county Sheriff’s office after the incident said "standard procedures by trained officers to control combative or uncooperative individuals" had been used. However, a jail officer was later charged with battery in the case, after a judge found that Borden, while uncooperative, had not engaged in threatening or violent behaviour. (see Section 2 for further details of the case).
o During 2003, nearly a dozen inmates of Greene County Jail, Missouri, were allegedly threatened or abused with tasers for failing to comply with orders. They include a woman allegedly tasered for failing to remove an eyebrow ring while being booked into the jail; and a distraught woman tasered when she failed to quieten down. (See lawsuits, below). More recent allegations from the jail include disturbed inmates being shocked with tasers while strapped down on restraining beds.

Washington: immigrant woman tasered in front of sons
A lawsuit has also been filed in the case of Olga Rybak, a 5 feet 4 inches tall Russian immigrant woman who was tasered multiple times by an officer from the Washougal Police Department, Washington, in August 2003, after she refused to sign a citation for a dog violation. The officer had gone to her house with the citation after her dog had bitten an officer the previous day. Rybak, who spoke little English, at first refused to sign it, asking for a translator. While attempting to arrest her, the officer shocked her at least 12 times in 91 seconds in front of her two young sons – first using the weapon as a stun gun, then stepping back to insert a cartridge and twice firing darts at Rybak who was writhing around on the front porch. When the boys (aged 11 and 12) tried to help their mother, the officer reportedly threatened to taser them as well. Rybak’s attorney has informed Amnesty International that the boys have been receiving psychiatric treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the incident.

According to the attorney, the shocks caused extreme pain and left 27 red burn marks on Olga Rybak’s body. The officer who used the taser (who was a taser Training Officer for the department) did not record the number of jolts in his report. The taser chip was tested only after photos of Ms Rybak’s injuries were presented, and this recorded that the taser had been discharged 12 times during the incident.(89) In April 2004, Washougal’s police chief, Robert D Garwood, reported that the officer had been demoted for using "poor judgement" in the case even though he had acted "within proper legal boundaries". Garwood said that the department would review its policy on taser use.(90)

Greene county jail, Missouri
A federal lawsuit was filed in February 2004 against the Sheriff and officers of Greene County Jail, Missouri, alleging a pattern of serious ill-treatment of jail inmates, including abusive use of tasers. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 11 former inmates, most in temporary custody pending the posting of bail. The allegations of abuse ranged from physical brutality and excessive force to acts of humiliation, including guards forcing female inmates to take off their clothes in the presence of male staff and exposing them to the gaze and ridicule of guards and male prisoners. They include the following accounts from the alleged victims:

o An African American woman was asked to remove her jewellery on being booked into the jail in June 2003. She removed everything except an eyebrow ring, which was difficult to remove. When she asked for a mirror she was allegedly sprayed in the face with pepper spray and, when she put her hands up to protect her face, was shot with a taser, causing her to fall to the ground and lose control of her bladder. While on the ground, a male officer forcibly removed her eyebrow ring with pliers. She was left in her urine for several hours without being given anything to clean herself with.
o A man being taken to the "drunk tank" was slammed to the ground face-first. As he lay on the ground bleeding, a guard allegedly fired a taser gun at him, causing acute pain, although he was not moving or struggling. He was taken to hospital where he had stitches to his mouth. On return to the jail, when told he had failed to shampoo his hair satisfactorily, an officer threatened him with a taser gun, saying "you don’t want this again". On his release, the jail tried to get him to sign "reprimand papers" stating that he was shocked with a taser because he had attempted to run to the jail entrance; according to the lawsuit, he refused to sign the papers because the facts in it were not true.
o A man who said he might be allergic to soap in the shower was threatened with a taser gun and told to use the soap provided.
o A man booked into the jail on an outstanding traffic warrant was allegedly assaulted and subjected to an "overly invasive bodily search" and repeatedly called a "faggot"(91). He was allegedly tasered while he was prostrate and in handcuffs.
o A woman booked into the jail in March 2003 was placed in a cell by herself in a distraught condition. A jail employee said he would taser her if she did not be quiet and calm herself. It is alleged that, while she was attempting to calm down, two guards entered her cell and one attached two taser clips to her shirt in the chest region; the other guard then activated the taser gun. According to the lawsuit, she suffered "severe burns and permanent scars to her chest and stomach" as a result of being tasered.
o A woman instructed to strip front of male guards hesitated after removing all her clothes except her underwear; she was pushed into the shower by a male guard and saw an officer pointing a taser at her as she emerged from the shower. It looked like a firearm and she was very scared, begging the officer "don’t do this". She was given nothing to dry herself with and she was escorted from the room by male guards while wearing a small paper garment resembling a "diaper" and forced to walk past male inmates waiting to be booked into to the jail.

[The Yosemite Bear]

The problem with the usa is not the taser.

The idiots at no less leathal should pay attention.

1. The deaths in the USA are the result of people mis using the devices. deliberatly targeting locations where it can cause injury, and death. (the cincinati college student, getting shot in the head by a riot pepper delvery vehicle that is supposed to burst at someone's feet)
2. There are existing laws with harsh penalties for law enforcement types who use equipment for torcher, and melecious mischief (well there goes all the US prison and under aged taser deaths)
3. if people used common sense this wouldn't be a problem...