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|
email the perth indmedia mob...
All WA police to carry stun guns |
| by Elliot K - Perth Indymedia |
2007-06-26 12:21 AM +0800 |
June 26, 2007: The West Australian Police Commissioner, Karl O'Callaghan, says all officers on duty will be equipped with stun guns. The WA police force has purchased another 1,100 Tasers. Shaped like a gun but battery-operated, a Taser fires two fishhooklike barbs into a person's skin and disrupts a person's muscle control for five seconds.
The darts have a range of up to 21 feet; the tool also can be pressed directly against a person to use in stun mode. The pain can be excruciating, "freezing" someone on the spot
The Commissioner says officers will have a one-day training course on how to use the guns during the next six months. In the USA, 2000 approximately 5000 officers were been issued with tasers. By 2004 about 100,000 officers in over 5500 police forces across the United states have been issued with them.
Over 60 people have died in the United States after being tasered... |
Tasers are powerful electrical weapons used by over 7,000 of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the USA. They are designed to incapacitate by conducting 50,000 volts of electricity into your body. The electrical pulses induce skeletal muscle spasms that immobilise and incapacitate, causing you to collapse to the ground.
More than 150 people have died in the US after being struck by tasers since June 2001 - 61 in 2005 alone - and numbers are continuing to rise. Most who died were subjected to multiple or prolonged shocks. In 2006, Nickolos Cyrus, a 29-year-old man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was shocked 12 times with a Taser stun gun after a Wisconsin police officer caught him trespassing on a construction site.
Also in 2006, an American teenager carrying a Bible who shouted "I want Jesus" was killed after being shot twice by a police stun gun. Police in Missouri said 17-year-old Roger Holyfield would not acknowledge officers who approached him and he continued yelling.
In Seattle in 2004, deputies pulled over Valinda Otis, who told them she was 3 months pregnant and needed to use the bathroom. When police wouldn't let her go to a nearby restroom, she walked toward it anyway, and was quickly handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. She screamed and kicked the car door. That's when a deputy with the King County Sheriff's Office pulled out a Taser, pressed it against her thigh and jolted her with 50,000 volts of electricity.
"It was a sharp pain," said Otis, 24, who was three months pregnant at the time of the incident. "I kept asking, 'Is it gonna mess up my baby?'"
As well, deputies fired Tasers at a teenager who ran after not paying a $1 bus fare, a 71-year-old man who refused to get into a police car, and a partially deaf man who couldn't hear deputies ordering him to stop, reports show. About three out of four of those shocked by Seattle police were unarmed.
Civil rights advocates in the United States argue Tasers are being drawn too quickly and in cases in which such extreme force isn't necessary. They worry about potential abuses as more officers rely on the tool to subdue people who they say pose no serious threat to themselves or others.
In November 2004 Amnesty International published a comprehensive report detailing it's concerns over the use of tasers in the USA, calling for a suspension on their use and transfer pending an independent, rigorous and impartial inquiry into their use.
---
Arguments Against Tasers Being Issued To All Operational Police
* Expense including costs of training is better used for training about handling people in mentally affected states, in particular people with mental illness.
* Accountability while advocates argue that the tasers have inbuilt chips which record use, details of police use of weaponry is not made available to the public and as no organisation is funded to routinely obtain these detail, they remain hidden from the public.
* Threats: There is no way of keeping track of how often or in what circumstances a taser has been used to obtain compliance without being fired ('threatened use'). It is one of Taser's strengths that it can defuse a situation without actually being used, but also one of its weaknesses. The threat of a being shocked can and will be used to obtain compliance when violence was not an issue.
* Safety: 150 people in the United States have died since 2001 after being tasered and concerns are mounting as the number of deaths increases. After 6 deaths in Canada, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, in August this year, requested a "unique and comprehensive review of scientific research, field reports, and data on the use of Tasers in police work in Canada and around the World" (RCMP News Report 18/8/04).
* Lack of scientific research: There is a paucity of independent and rigorous research into the effects and safety of the tasers. There have been no tests published in scholarly peer-review scientific journals. Taser relies on two studies, one of a single pig in 1996 and on five dogs in 1999 conducted by company paid researchers. They also cite many examples of police voluntarily being tasered as evidence of safety, but for the most part they receive a shock one tenth that given to suspects. Medical experts warn to be wary of labelling tasers safe.
* Vulnerable groups: There are people who are particularly at risk when tasered. These are pregnant women and those with cardiovascular disease, people who are drug affected, young people, older people and those with mental illness. Some of these people such as those drug affected and with a mental illness are more likely to be tasered.
* Increased use: As the use of tasers become more accepted their use will increase, so that they are used in situations where they are not an alternative to deadly force but to ensure compliance. A 2002 study found 85% of people shocked with tasers were unarmed.
* Abuse: Reports of abuse of tasers when issued to all police are growing along with deaths.
o In Canada an officer has been charges with tasering a man while police handcuffed him; a peaceful protester was tasered as he lay on the ground in passive resistance; in May 2003 10 Algerians facing deportation from Canada were repeatedly tasered for refusing to leave the immigration ministers office.
o In the United States, suspects already in custody are tasered; a hand cuffed 9 year old girl was tasered; a 66 year old woman was tasered; in at least three dozen cases from Denver, police tasered the person multiple times in one incident; one man was tasered twice after he was handcuffed and in the car.
* Logistics: the weight of police belts exceeds 4 kg causing back problems and slowing police down. Another piece of kit will obviously add to this...
--
Sources: |
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News.com.au
Lawyers warn against Taser guns
ABC NEWS
Police are too quick to grab for Taser
USA: Taser-related deaths pass 150 mark
2004 Amnesty International
Taser death a cause for alarm
Death by Taser: The Killer Alternative to Guns
taser.com/
scale pictures
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All WA police to carry stun guns |
| by gary |
2007-06-28 2:01 PM +0800 |
All those people that were tased. Better than them being shot hey? My god people are such whingers. Police officer gets hurt wrestling with someone, you dont hear about that in the news. Member of the public gets tased for whatever reason and they have a cry.
Link here
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More... |
| by Member of the Public |
2007-06-28 7:47 PM +0800 |
What about the 70 odd folks who have been KILLED by Tasers?
Link here
|
Another member of the Public |
| by "Whinger" |
2007-06-28 11:41 PM +0800 |
I do not trust the WA cops with taser guns for one second. They will be abused like every other power they get given is!!!
Being tasered is at best an extremely traumatic experience and at worst fatal and the police cannot be trusted to carry these lethal weapons around. It is terrifying!
Link here
|
heh |
| by shayne |
2007-06-29 9:19 AM +0800 |
G'day Gary. Long time no see. Hows the force treating you?
Heres the thing. When you became a copper, you went in with full knowledge people are going to flip out occasionally and take a swing. Your trained to deal with it, and most of the time you guys are pretty good at it. Generally the worst that happens to a member of the public is we cop a scrape and a bit of bruised dignity. Possibly charges.
You guys get hammered. No two ways about it. But that was your choice when you joined the force. Theres a critical distinction here. The members of the public *didnt* make that distinction.
Now unfortunately Im in the 'dont trust' category. Something about getting beaten around the head for no goddamn reason at all simply for being a youngster in freo by police 15 years ago has given me the general belief that theres too many young hothead cops that wont blink before using the things.
I understand theres times it might be better than alternatives, like some dude coming at you with a knife. If some dude came at me with a knife and I had a taser I'd use it too. But Im worried that it'll get used similar to the way its used in the US, to immobilise arrest targets who otherwise dont pose a problem.
Have a search thru Youtube, and you'll find motorists being tazered for not getting out of a car, a young man being tazered in a library for not having a library card (and then when the other students protest that this is horrible they get threatened with the tazer too). Theres multiple storys of forest greenies in the US being tazered. On it goes
Whats the assurances that this thing isnt going to be treated as anything less than a weapon of violence to be used as the last resort to defend persons, and persons alone? Is there a schedule of punishments if its abused and used on , say, a shoplifting kid running away. Can I sue if I refuse to comply with you at a sit in and you tazer me?
What if I *am* a bit rough (And im not. Nonviolence and all that) and you tazer me and cause me a heart attack.
These questions all have to be answered before people will be even vaguely happy about this.
Does escalating an 'arms race' make us all safer.
I want you guys to find a way to make your job safer. Thats good for all of us. But dont do it at the expense of public safety. Your a member of the public too.
Link here
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It will never be abused |
| by Mar Bucknell |
2007-07-02 1:17 AM +0800 |
When Oz cops got given capsicum spray, exactly the same questions came up. (And by the way, also when WA cops got guns in 1980.)
At Beverley uranium mine in 2000, SA cops videoed themselves, and were videoed by other people, using 'a vital weapon of SELF-defence' against people who were running AWAY from them, including women and a minor.
It took ages for the rest of the activist community to get the people who were assaulted to press charges, cos they're anarchists, and didn't want to legitimise the police by using the courts to prosecute them.
I'm an anarchist too, so I sympathise with their position, though I disagree with it. Never make it easy for the bastards to use violence. When they finally did go to court with the video evidence, they won hands down.
I worry that we have to wait for some gay teenage street kid kicked out of home for being gay, and giving some lip to a cop, then dying from being tasered, before people wake up to this.
Who can forget the pissed-off-his-tree off-duty cop in central Fremantle shooting (yes, shooting, a real bullet, from a real gun) at a lippy bogan in a crowded mall on a weekend night a few years ago? (He did, at least, get sacked.)
Apparently everybody can forget that.
Link here
|
Men with limp dicks and their compensatory metal weapons |
| by Jerome |
2007-07-02 1:11 PM +0800 |
Ghandi was a real man. MLK was a real man. How many women take up weapons? Some but not nearly as many as men.
Real strength is standing up unarmed to someone who is armed.
Real strength is remaining peaceful in the face of violence. (Have you ever tried ignoring your own reactionary desire to fight violence with violence?)
Link here
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All WA police to carry stun guns |
| by Confused |
2007-07-03 3:24 PM +0800 |
I'm Confused. If you've done nothing wrong and you obey the law then why would you want to stop the WA Police getting Taser Guns?
The stun guns are for the safety of the Police and the public. If a Police officer tells you to get on the ground then just do it. Only people who have something to hide refuse to co-operate with the Police.
Remember this - Every time an officer uses his/her stun gun they have to justify their actions. People out there can abuse the Police and they never have to justify their actions. Get over it an let the Police do their job.
A Taser Gun is a safety tool and because crime is getting worse, Police officers need to be better equipped.
Or would you rather see more officers die?
Think of it that way.
Link here
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|
| by Jerome |
2007-07-03 8:02 PM +0800 |
I appreciate you perspective Confused. Get involved in some issues and some protests and then get back to us. You'll eventually see what people are concerned about.
There are "bad apples" in every sector of society.
Have you seen "A Clockwork Orange"?
I'm personally concerned because of the perpetually encroaching limits on free speech, right of association, freedom of movement etc. It's all a disguised attack on dissent.
Link here
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RESPECT MY AUTHORITY |
| by Sgt Cartman |
2007-07-03 9:33 PM +0800 |
"Get over it an let the Police do their job."
This is a classic example of mindless obedience to coercive authority. Whats next: I am killing you for your own safety?!
The police ONLY exist to dominate or control others - especially by exploiting fears, anxiety. It is their job. The state is based on successfully coercing the individual.
And this: "Only people who have something to hide refuse to co-operate with the Police"
I have nothing to hide, but nor will I obey an order from someone just because they have a uniform and told me to do something. Fuck that.
A deaf man in Canada was killed (by taser) by cops recently, because he refused to obey a police order. But he was deaf and could not hear their directions. They "tasered" him to death.
A man with a bad heart was killed by a taser, a pregnant woman tasered is concerned for her unborn baby... There are thousands of stories.
Remember this: OVER 150 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED AS A DIRECT RESULT OF TASERS. More than 150 people have died in the US after being struck by tasers since June 2001 - 61 in 2005 alone...
It is healthy to express dissent on a democratic society. I am extremely concerned that WA cops will ALL be carrying "stun guns".
I have every right to express this dissent.
There needs to be community discussion about this issue.
Tasers have taken over the worlds police forces. Taser is a massive corporation making lots of profit. And hundreds are bing killed as as result.
It needs to stop! People need to be aware of the risks associated with arming cops with more weapons to harm civillians.
Link here
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Confused |
| by Mar Bucknell |
2007-07-04 1:19 AM +0800 |
You certainly are Confused. Ever heard of Steven Wardle? Murdered by the WA cops. He was arrested for drunk and disorderly in the queue at the Entertainment Centre for Accadacca tickets in 1989. Eight hours later he was dead, beaten black and blue, and injected at least four hours after his arrest with a massive overdose of his own prescription drugs. Seventeen WA cops refused to answer the Coroner's questions on the grounds that they might incriminate themselves.
No one was ever charged over that.
Wow, what did he have to hide? Apparently he was Osama bin Laden's son.
Link here
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For Media... |
| by Hackstar |
2007-07-04 2:54 AM +0800 |
Anybody know any WA-based orgs who has an 'official' position on the human rights issue of Tasers etc...?
Link here
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Jerome / Sgt Cartman / Mar Bucknell |
| by Confused |
2007-07-04 7:57 AM +0800 |
You all crack me up. Judging by your comments, it looks like you have it in for the Police. Maybe you were a bad boy or girl when you were young and got in trouble with the Police and that's why you don't like them. Or maybe it's because your into doing illegal things and FEAR the Police using their Stun Guns against you.
Grow up, behave and you'll have no problems.
Only cry babies cry all the time.
Just remember DON'T call the Police when you find yourself in trouble because why should they help someone who doesn't support the reasons why there here.
Link here
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The Police are a tool of the State - no matter how much you want to ignore the fact |
| by Wake Up |
2007-07-04 11:38 AM +0800 |
You have failed to grasp the fundamental concept here. No wonder you are such a confused troll. In order to enter into any kind of credible discussion here, you need to be aware of the facts.
Over one hundred and fifty people have DIED in the United States from Police using Tasers on them.
The Taser corporation are making millions from taxpayer dollars, and in the process are KILLING people. There are many issues related to this.
Patricia Skelly, who has a mental illness, was tasered between nine and 15 times while in custody in jail and later in hospital.
Last year Amnesty International called on law enforcement agencies in the US to suspend the use of electro-shock weapons pending an independent, rigorous and impartial inquiry into their use.
Some issues:
- the significant year-on-year increase in taser related deaths;
- the lack of any independent and rigorous study into the health effects of the electro-shock devices;
- the fact that despite these safety concerns, tasers continue to be used as a routine force tool rather than as weapon of last resort;
- continued reports of excessive use of tasers, in some cases amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Did you actually read the article above?
Because it certainly doesn't seem like it.
Link here
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Um Confused |
| by Jerome |
2007-07-04 2:50 PM +0800 |
I have had some "trouble" with police. I was arrested when I was 17 for stealing pushbikes (that one has come back to haunt me time and again).
I was a cycle courier for a time and broke many traffic rules then, and was done for it some of the time. Once a cop lied in court that I rode my bike through a red light when in fact I had pushed it at a run.
As an activist I have been arrested and my previously negative opinion of police has shifted quite considerably. I do have quite a contrary opinion of the police compared to most of my activist friends now. That's positive.
But I am aware of the many bad bad things that SOME police have perpetrated.
Some are good and some are bad.
I don't fear being tasered one bit. I practise "Non-Violence" Confused. In all my actions and most of my thoughts, I practise non-violence my friend. You'd be suprised that when you practise NV you actually feel less fear, regardless of what an potentially happen to you. (Can't explain why). I'm sure there's some literature on it somewhere.
Personally, I feel to speak up becuase I feel it's wrong to misuse something like this. I FULLY understand that the police face DANGEROUS people in their line of work. They need to be supported in doing their job well, effectively, in line with human rights and all at the same time while being fully concened for their own safety. That can't be easy.
Unfortunately, with the powers they are given, there appears to be little (or sometimes no) demarkation between those callouts and their dealings with us (protesters and activists and the average concerned citizen).
Their must be some demarkation between the type of work they do. I acknowledge that often there is but also often there appears not to be.
Link here
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non-violent police |
| by john |
2007-07-04 11:23 PM +0800 |
Maybe they should follow your lead and use "non-violence" too Jerome ? - the police that is.
Why don't english bobbies walk around like wild west gunslingers as do the yanks and a - us - sies ? respect maybe ?
Link here
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Suspend the use of Tasers |
| by Peacemonger |
2007-07-05 1:01 AM +0800 |
The rise in stun gun-related deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S. law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona.
About 1,000 of the nation's 18,000 police agencies used Tasers in 2001; more than 7,000 departments had them last year, according to a government study.
Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office said.
Amnesty International has urged police departments to suspend the use of Tasers pending more study.
Link here
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Sweeping stun guns to target crowds |
| by Disturbed |
2007-07-05 1:26 AM +0800 |
Weapons that can incapacitate crowds of people by sweeping a lightning-like beam of electricity across them are being readied for sale to military and police forces in the US and Europe.
NEW SCIENTIST: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6014
Link here
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Cry babies |
| by Mar Bucknell |
2007-07-06 12:57 AM +0800 |
Hey Confused
Steven Wardle isn't a cry-baby. He's dead. Murdered by the police. Is that OK? The extra-judicial death penalty for being a lippy bogan?
There are times and places in history where you would have felt right at home. Amazing how many of those places were run by short angry men with dodgy moustaches.
And if the police tazer YOU cos they got the wrong address (yes, it does happen), who will you complain to? Yourself?
Link here
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In other news . . . |
| by Mar Bucknell |
2007-07-06 1:08 AM +0800 |
John, I don't know how much you know of recent history, but the British police are not non-violent. However, most British cops, to this day, don't carry guns. Until around 1980 only a tiny number of British cops could carry a gun without a magistrate's warrant. Violent crime was about a hundredth the US rate. Now they have guns, and vilent crime is up. And no, there's no doubt about which came first. Since 1980, when WA cops got guns, the WA violent crime rate has been steady if you count out confrontations between armed cops and armed crims. Before 1980 that had happened about three times in 150 years. Now it happens three times a year.
As for electric weapons for stunning crowds, I'm sure confused will be happy to be stunned if he's shopping nearby.
The West German police (as it was back then), did extensive research into sonic weapons for the same purpose, though I never saw any published results. The rumour was that the weapons knoocked you down and paralysed you from about 100m. You stayed paralysed for a few minutes - long enough for the cops to come get you.
Link here
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Insane world |
| by john |
2007-07-08 7:17 PM +0800 |
Thanks for filling me in Ma.
Crazy world where it is mandatory to install "life saving devices in your home that cut out the juice when it reaches 30 milliamps - but 'security' can pump a few hundred or evan thousands (depending on your 'bodies' resistance?) through you when they deem it 'appropriate force'?????
Sanctity of life for some but not others no doubt.
Link here
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