We know that Taser abuse is rising, and again, Amnesty International has been documenting cases where Tasers have been used when they weren’t necessary, and in fact, on several occasions, appeared to be used out of pure spite - and when people witness police officers abusing citizens for refusing to turn around, or evening sitting while handcuffed, the public is left with the impression that our police forces are becoming mean-spirited and seem intent on intimidating the public rather than protecting them - and that perception is one that leads many citizens to view the current conduct of many of our police forces to be more “Soviet Style” and thus believe that America is turning into a “Police State.”
These are some of the cases documented by Amnesty International and all include a video of the incident:
TASERs on Video
Viewer discretion is advised.
* December 20, 2007, Daytona Beach, FL - Elizabeth Beeland was struck by a TASER after she became loud and unruly at Best Buy. Video
* November 18, 2007, Trotwood, OH - Valreca Redden was struck by a TASER while pregnant. Police claim that they did not know she was pregnant at the time. Video
* October 14, 2007, Vancouver, BC - Robert Dziekanski became agitated after waiting ten hours in the Vancouver International Airport. Police shocked Dziekanski with a TASER multiple times, and soon after he was pronounced dead. Video
* September 17, 2007, Gainesville, FL - Andrew Meyer persistently questioned Senator John Kerry at a university forum. University of Florida police tried to escort him from the auditorium and later struck him with a TASER for resisting arrest. Video | Statement | Statement on report on incident
* September 14, 2007, UT - Jared Massey was struck by a TASER for refusing to sign a speeding ticket. Video
* September 2, 2007, Warren, OH - Heidi Gill got into an altercation with a bartender and mistakenly got into the wrong car while waiting for her friend to drive her home. When she refused to get out of the vehicle, she was struck by a TASER multiple times. Video (This video was removed by U-Tube.)
* November 23, 2006, Austin, TX - Eugene Snelling was pulled out of his car after trying to get his license and registration. He was struck by a TASER less than a minute later. Video
* November 14, 2006, Los Angeles, CA - Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a student at UCLA, neglected to show his student identification card at the library. He was then asked to leave, and when he refused he was struck by a TASER multiple times. Video | Democracy Now! piece on incident
* November 13, 2006, Sheffield Lake, OH - Kristina Fretter was taken to the Sheffield Police Department after being picked up for drunk driving. She was later struck by a TASER while wearing handcuffs. Video
Last night, while finishing-up this article, we experienced a severe thunderstorm and I lost my last four paragraphs - and they say everything happens for a reason. Early this morning, I was interviewed by Don Nicoloff on “Evident Footprints”, which is a BBS Radio Production, and during the course of the interview I learned there had been another Taser death in Cleveland, Ohio that he had just learned about on the radio. There’s no doubt the Taser is dangerous, and the way it’s being used in the U.S. and Canada is, IMO, a type of “behavior modification” which dates back to Pavlov’s Dogs and the famous psychologist, B.F. Skinner, who is known as the “father of behavior modification.”
The general population is being taught, through negative reinforcement that if you question authority in any way, protest, fail to mow your lawn when told, and other insignificant incidents that brought about Taser discharges, the message is loud and clear - you will be hurt, and in some instances, that may include the loss of your life. Taser use is widespread and growing by the day, so we can expect more deaths and incidents where ordinary citizens are “taught a lesson” that if they don’t comply immediately, no matter how absurd or insignificant the incident is, each and every one of us will feel the pain of non-compliance and Tasers are being used to intimidate large swaths of the general population. This could be an unintended consequence of their use, or it could be part of a larger plan to teach the citizenry that “resistance is futile.” I believe it’s the latter based on the enormous amount of taser incidents that occur almost daily, and in situations where if the office was armed with only his firearm and baton, death might have been circumvented. The studies have indicated that Tasers have not brought down officer related “shootings” where they needed to use deadly force, but add to an officer’s arsenal to use punishment whenever they feel their authority is challenged or in some cases, to “teach some suspects a lesson.”
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