A Recipe for Disaster: School Cops Are Being Armed with 50,000-Volt Tasers

[ensho]

http://www.alternet.org/rights/142652/a_recipe_for_disaster%3A_school_cops_are_being_armed_with_50%2C000-volt_tasers


Tasers aren't 'nonlethal'; they've killed hundreds. With younger people being especially vulnerable to the Taser's shock, the risks could be very deadly.


One spring day this April, at the Franklin Correctional Institution on Florida's Highway 67, Sgt. Walter Schmidt pulled out his electronic immobilization device -- EID in correctional officer parlance -- and zapped two people, who immediately "yelped in pain, fell to the ground and grabbed red burn marks on their arms," according to the St. Petersburg Times.

The two were not inmates at the prison, however. They were students visiting as part of "Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day."

The move cost Schmidt his job, despite his claim that he merely intended to demonstrate how the devices worked. He had even asked the children's parents (who were also employees at the prison) permission first. "When they said 'sure,' I went ahead and did it," he told the Times.

"It wasn't intended to be malicious, but educational. The big shock came when I got fired."

-snip-

Even as news outlets across the country report episode after episode where police officers tase and use stun guns on unlikely people -- the pregnant woman at a baptism in Virginia or the 72-year-old woman in a Texas traffic stop -- more and more police officers are being given tasers to carry into schools.

And not just on college campuses; middle and high schools across the country are inviting Taser-toting cops on school grounds.

This comes at a time when Tasers have claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including three teenagers this year.

-snip of examples-

In 2006, an 11th-grader named Angel Debnam was tased at her high school in Bunn, N.C., just outside Raleigh.

"Something sticks in you, and it's like a wire," Debnam described to local ABC affiliate WTVD. "When I was on the ground crying and shaking, he asked me, 'Was that enough? Are you calmed down now?' and he did it again."

-snip-

In December 2008, Amnesty International released a 130-page report, "Less Than Lethal? The Use of Stun Weapons in U.S. Law Enforcement," which found that since 2001, 334 people had died after being tased. (This figure is already obsolete.) The vast majority of these deaths were due to cardiac or respiratory arrest. Of the 334 victims, 299 of them were unarmed.

The state with the most recorded Taser deaths was California, with 55. Florida ranked second, with 52.
-snip of more examples-
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sadists love the taser

I would think parents of the schools that use tasers would be in the principal's office throwing fits.

[indepat]

1. Willful execution of 299 unarmed people in the land of the free and home of the brave: how

many more unarmed people must be killed by not-so-brave cop-types in the land of the free before the citizenry wake up, say enough is enough. and put an end to this outrage which is tantamount to frivolous executions? :grr:

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. If cops can't handle teenagers...

...maybe they need gym memberships more than they need tasers.

[ensho]

3. agree and mediation education

nt

[slackmaster]

5. They need to learn the proper use of sarcasm

:sarcasm:

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

4. The taser, IMO, is a wonderful tool for law enforcement.

But it does need more training and more scrutiny when and how it may be deployed. And when officers abuse or misuse it them, they should be punished as if they abused or misued thier firearms. One thing is for certain, the current practice of reaching for the taser because it's "convenient" needs to be stopped imediately.

[NashVegas]

6. It's a Wonderful Tool For Forced Submission to Authority

Which isn't *quite* the same thing.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

7. Sometimes enforcement of the law requires assailants to subit.

And I've not met many violent people or drunks that just roll over and give up as soon as johnny law tells them to. There's many situations all the time where one or two cops cannot handle the situation and the lethality of firearms is either not warranted or not the best course of action. Would you rather see someone resisting arrest be beaten into submission or tasered? What about female cops who may physically stand no chance against the aggressor... should we just tell them to "hit the gym"?

In a school setting, there are MANY children around. If, God forbid, there were an intruder would you rather the police use something like a gun or taser to subdue the indivual. Keep in mind, missed taser shots are nothing like stray bullets.

Mace and pepper spray are OK, but the taser is a good stop-gap measure between spray and guns. As usual, the problem is not the tools so much as the people misusing them and the misconceptions about them - but for some reason the people and media seem fixated on blaming the object. I guess it's just easier for them than getting to the heart of the real problem.

[NashVegas]

8. I Guess It Depends on How One Defines "Assailant"

Me, I reserve it for people who are violently aggressive. Too many taser victims are not.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

12. Then why villify the taser

when the cops are the ones pointing them at the wrong kinds of "assailants"?
Police training/policy is to blame for alot of the abuses taking place - not the tool.

And sure, deaths will come from the taser from 100% warranted and responsible use. There's no way to predict how people will react to being shocked under any given time/circumstance. But this is no different than a severe beating, getting shot with bean bag or rubber bullets, spraying with mace, or even wresling/tackling. When you resist arrest or fail to comply, despite the means used by the officer, odds are you risking greivious injury one way or another... unless of course cops are just supposed to ask politely then leave the person alone. :eyes:

[NashVegas]

13. Ah Yes. Guns Don't Kill People. People Do

How much stock do you own, may I ask?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

15. You are dodging the point being raised...

And what's funny is that you raised a meme that you probably could not defeat in and of itself. Since you brought it up, it's correct guns don't kill people. People kill people and guns are sometimes the means. Eliminating guns doesn't effectively decrease violent crime rates - so that push seems kind of worthless.

I'll make is simple for you:
Is the taser a valuable tool when used in appropriate situations?

Police need to be trained by a policy recognizes tasers are less lethal (not nonlethal) weapons to subdue violent criminals when the use of firearms is inappropriate BUT ALSO when use of lesser means would prove ineffective. It's the ignorance of the latter part of that statement that leads to over utilization of the taser and subsequently more (ultimately unnecessary) deaths. One point I'd like to raise is that banning the use of tasers will not lead to lower deaths out in the field.

To answer your question... I do not own any stocks in any company nor do I own a taser or have a special interest in their dissemination.

[Mariana]

10. I agree. Any officer who abuses his or her Taser

should promptly be arrested and charged.

[Raineyb]

14. We don't arrest and charge for cops who abuse their guns

what makes you think the abuse of the Taser will EVER see such treatment.

[Kievan Rus]

9. And it's times like these that make me thank God I'm out of high school

[Gman2]

11. I ahve heart failure, so I cannot protest, , or do anything that would put me around those

that might be tasered, or I likely will die. This is outrageous. Here they pepperspray dem house meetings. With old people. They shoot everyone. This plavce is wrong. San Diego is fascist.