Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Death by Taser

As I have blogged before ( see links below) Tasers should be outlawed, period. Here is another case in point, Christmas Eve in Edmonton and the Police used a taser and killed an unarmed man who had gone looney tunes on the street.

What they don't have enought 'deadly force' weapons in their arsenals, billy clubs, mace/pepper spray, guns, they need killer tasers too. There have been more deaths at the hands of police in Canada using tasers than using guns. And some will say they were only trying to subdue him, well he's dead now.

Since capital punishment is banned in Canada I didn't know going nutz was a capital offense. If that was the case then a good number of the Blogging Torys would be on death row.

Witnesses said police tried to calm him. For a few seconds he complied, placing his hands on the hood of a parked police car.He then stepped back and began pacing. Some witnesses said the man yelled out that he was being attacked by insects. Within a few seconds, still in a highly agitated state, he began approaching a police officer who had drawn his Taser .The officer raised his Taser and fired its twin darts, Wylie said.

And in a realted incident in South Carolina a man died after languishing in hospital after being shot twice with a Taser. A Florence man who died after being arrested was shot twice with a Taser, including once after deputies had him in custody, according to an incident report. Howard Starr, 32, died at a hospital Dec. 17 after a car chase in Florence.

Taser cop 'distraught' And well he should be. He killed someone. At least the Edmonton cops didn't shoot their guy while he was in custody. Thats murder, or manslaughter at least. But its actually business as usual with Tasers and cops.

The man joins a growing list of people who died after being jolted by a 50,000-volt surge of electricity from a Taser stun gun. Earlier this year, Amnesty International said the death toll has now surpassed 100 and called for a ban on the devices.

Make that 102. Tasers are too unpredictble despite the companies protestations to the contrary.

The company began selling Tasers to law enforcement in 1998, and more than 8,000 U.S. law-enforcement agencies have since armed their officers with them. Taser has consistently denied its products solely are responsible in the deaths, arguing that none have been directly linked to Tasers. The company also contends Tasers have saved thousands of lives, giving police an option short of deadly force when confronted by combative suspects.

Yep short of deadly force tell that to the families of the men killed in Edmonton and Florence.


See:
The Market Fazers Taser
Cops Clear Killer Tasers
Killer Taser Strikes Again
Killer Taser

Tags
/

1 comment:

EUGENE PLAWIUK said...

For no good reason a man is dead because the police used deadly force on him. Tasers are deadly weapons but the cops want to use them. As they do all weapons. Why not disarm the cops since having weapons causes others to escalate the weapons they have. Hmm didn't the British Bobbies go for years unarmed, except for the 'billy' club.
In New Orleans twenty officers surrounded another guy off his meds last weekend, he was waving a knife when he didn't get down they shot him.
As for the EJ report AI gives it as 100. As for other factors, interesting is that no study has been done on Tasers except after the fact.
Why do the cops need tasers, you have yet to answer the question.