NYT: As Police Use of Tasers Rises, Questions Over Safety Increase

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/national/18TASER.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

As the sun set on June 24, something snapped in Kris J. Lieberman, an unemployed landscaper who lived a few miles from this quiet town. For 45 minutes, he crawled deliriously around a pasture here, moaning and pounding his head against the weedy ground.

Eventually the police arrived, carrying a Taser M26, an electric gun increasingly popular with law enforcement officers nationwide. The gun fires electrified barbs up to 21 feet, hitting suspects with a disabling charge.

The officers told Mr. Lieberman, 32, to calm down. He lunged at them instead. They fired their Taser twice. He fought briefly, collapsed and died.

Mr. Lieberman joined a growing number of people, now at least 50, including 6 in June alone, who have died since 2001 after being shocked. Taser International, which makes several versions of the guns, says its weapons are not lethal, even for people with heart conditions or pacemakers. The deaths resulted from drug overdoses or other factors and would have occurred anyway, the company says.

But Taser has scant evidence for that claim. The company's primary safety studies on the M26, which is far more powerful than other stun guns, consist of tests on a single pig in 1996 and on five dogs in 1999. Company-paid researchers, not independent scientists, conducted the studies, which were never published in a peer-reviewed journal. Taser has no full-time medical director and has never created computer models to simulate the effect of its shocks, which are difficult to test in human clinical trials for ethical reasons.

[LittleApple81]

1. That is enough checking. Come on, people are worse than pigs and dogs

and if one pig and five dogs survived that should be enough.

What are you, a commie felon-cuddling librul? We'll demonstrate how safe it is, just come a little bit closer.

<sarcasm off>

[Baltimoreboy]

2. Let's just shoot them with Glocks instead

[lanparty]

3. They're less lethal than bullets ...

I'd rather be tazed than shot.

Of course, had the man not rushed at police, he wouldn't have been TAZED or SHOT. The fact that people would lunge at police officers is lamentable. But cops are typically ALWAYS in the danger zone and have more reason to be agressive than a normal citizen.

Finally, police departments need to review their policies concerning tazers. If a suspect is unarmed and uncapable of harming two burly police officers, there is no need for tazers, just a night stick in the ribs or solar-plexus.

[DulceDecorum]

7. Re: lunging at cops

There was a deaf man whose infant-child became terribly ill. He and his wife were wailing because they had no phone (what with both being deaf) Some passerby became alarmed and dialed 911.
The cops arrived.
The man and his wife used sign language but the cops did not understand and told them to calm down. The man made gestures to the cops trying to get them to come into the room where the infant was lying. The cops renewed their directives to calm down.
The distraught father "lunged" at a cop and died in his tracks.
His wife promptly did the same and obtained the same response. She, however, survived the gunshot wounds inflicted upon her.
Two days later, the summer heat betrayed the presence of the now-decomposing body of the infant whose illness has caused the death of his concerned father.

The Police Department said that correct procedures had been followed and the officers acted in self defense.

I guess that killing the guy with a taser might have been more "humane."
http://www.wesh.com/news/3531912/detail.html
Perhaps we should recommend this type of electroshock "therapy" to the slaughter-houses.

WHY THE HELL DO YOU SUPPOSE
THEY CALL OUT "clear" BEFORE THEY JUMP SOMEONE'S HEART?
The damn thing can KILL YOU, that is why.
And they are allowing flatfoots to use them against CHILDREN!!!

Diamondstone is keenly aware of the Taser's ability to cause significant burns. He is preparing a lawsuit on behalf of a family whose 16-year-old son bears ugly scars left by four 50,000-volt, five-second jolts from a Taser gun pressed four times to the back of his neck by a Seattle police officer. The teenager was a backseat passenger in an SUV stopped by police for a busted headlight, Diamondstone said. Events turned messy during a routine pat down when the teen protested that he was claustrophobic.
"Before he could get the whole sentence out of his mouth," Diamondstone said, "he was thrown up against the car, taken down to the ground, hit with flashlights, hit with the Taser multiple times and eventually handcuffed."
Nothing was found in the car, no charges were filed and everybody was released at the scene, he said. An internal police investigation concluded the incident was "an unfortunate misunderstanding" and ruled three of the four officers involved in the altercation did not violate department policies. The fourth was told to get additional Taser training, Diamondstone said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/2675553

Four 50,000-volt,
five-second jolts from a Taser gun
pressed four times to the back of his neck.
WHAT, exactly, were those cops trying to do?

Cops have been known to use tasers on elementary schoolchildren. One case hotly debated here on DU, involved a nine year old girl.
But not to worry folks, you too can purchase your own taser. And the cops are ALREADY complaining.
http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=65328

[Justice]

4. Oh Great, They Just Approved Them in My State

[nodehopper]

5. More good news for the RNC

I am really hoping to be alive and in full possession of my limbs by the end of it.

[gottaB]

6. The danger isn't just the weapon itself

but the false sense of safety.

Good article.