[Dialogue] UN: Tasers Are A Form Of Torture

Mon Nov 26 13:21:26 EST 2007

Published on Sunday, November 25, 2007 by CBS News
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/25/national/main3537803.shtml>  

UN: Tasers Are A Form Of Torture
"Stun Guns" Are Under Fire After Six Deaths This Week; Rallies Held
Demanding They Be Banned

(CBS/AP) - A United Nations committee said Friday that use of Taser weapons
can be a form of torture, in violation of the U.N. Convention Against
Torture.
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Use of the electronic stun devices by police has been marked with a sudden
rise in deaths - including four men in the United States and two in Canada
within the last week.

Canadian authorities are taking a second look at them, and in the United
States, there is a wave of demands to BAN them.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture referred Friday to the use of TaserX26
weapons which Portuguese police has acquired. An expert had testified to the
committee that use of the weapons had "proven risks of harm or death."

"The use of TaserX26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of
torture, and that in certain cases it could also cause death, as shown by
several reliable studies and by certain cases that had happened after
practical use," the committee said in a statement.

Tasers have become increasingly controversial in the United States,
particularly after several notorious cases where their use by police to
disable suspects was questioned as being excessive. Especially disturbing is
the fact that six adults died after being tased by police in the span of a
week.

Last Sunday, in Frederick, Md., a sheriff's deputy trying to break up a
late-night brawl tased 20-year-old Jarrel Grey. He died on the spot.

"I want to know what he did that was so bad," the victim's mother, Tanya
James, said. "Did the deputy think that their life was in danger? Did he
have a weapon?"

The death came just weeks after Frederick police used a Taser to subdue a
high school student.

Black leaders held a rally Tuesday calling for the department to ban Tasers,
at least until there is a clear policy on how they are used. The NAACP says
it appears the sheriff's office is using Tasers routinely, rather than as a
weapon of last resort.

Also this week, in Jacksonville, Fla., in two separate cases two men died
after being stunned.

One suspect, who fled a car crash and tried to break into a nearby home,
struggled with a policeman, prompting the officer to tase him three times.
The man continued to fight, and tried to bite the officer, while he was
being tased. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Another man died Tuesday after a Jacksonville officer pulled over his car.
When the officer approached it, the man took off running. When the officer
caught up with him, during a struggle, authorities say the officer used his
Taser to subdue the suspect.

After being placed in the back of the police car the suspect became
unresponsive. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Last Sunday, in New Mexico, 20-year-old Jesse Saenz died after Raton police
used a Taser to subdue him. Police say Saenz was struggling and fighting
with them as they attempted to take him into custody.

Saenz died after being transported to a county jail.

In Nova Scotia, a 45-year-old man who was jailed on assault charges jumped a
counter and ran for the door as he was being booked. He died yesterday,
about 30 hours after being shocked.

And in Vancouver, where Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been criticized
for their use of a Taser against an irate airline passenger at Vancouver
Airport last month, 36-year-old Robert Knipstrom died in a hospital four
days after police used a Taser, pepper spray and batons to subdue him.

Police earlier said Knipstrom was agitated, aggressive and combative with
officers. The cause of death has yet to be determined.

More than a dozen people have died in Canada after being hit by Tasers in
the last four years.

The reported incidents this week did not have cameras documenting the use of
the Tasers, but in British Columbia, a tourist's video camera recorded the
death of a man tased twice while in custody at the Vancouver Airport last
month.

That horrifying video shows Robert Dziekanski, a Polish man who spoke no
English, become increasingly agitated. He was shocked twice, and then died.

The stun guns were denounced at memorial rallies in Vancouver and Toronto
for Dziekanski.

Among the 1,000 people at the Vancouver rally was Paul Pritchard, who shot
the video of the confrontation at the city airport.

The crowd gave a hero's welcome to Pritchard, who said he "saw the life
drain out of a man's face" and heard "blood-curdling screams."

A rally in front of the Ontario legislature in Toronto drew several hundred
people, including Bob Rae, a Liberal candidate in the next federal election.

Rae said the events leading up to Dziekanski's death must "never, ever be
allowed to happen again."

The prominent - and sensational - reports of deaths following the use of
Tasers has increased attention to their legitimacy, and prompted a bold
defense by their manufacturer.

Taser International, based in Scottsdale, Az., released a statement
following the Vancouver Airport incident saying no deaths have ever been
definitively connected to what the company describes as: "the low-energy
electrical discharge of the Taser."

That's 50,000 volts.

"The video of the incident at the Vancouver airport indicates that the
subject was continuing to fight well after the TASER application," Taser
International said. "This continuing struggle could not be possible if the
subject died as a result of the Taser device electrical current causing
cardiac arrest. [Dziekanski's] continuing struggle is proof that the Taser
device was not the cause of his death.

"Specifically in Canada, while previous incidents were widely reported in
the media as 'Taser deaths,' the role of the Taser device has been cleared
in every case to date," Taser said.

The devices are used by about 12,000 police departments, often in chaotic
situations.

Retired police officer Paul Mazzei told CBS News correspondent Joie Chen,
"Minus the Taser, they would have to use an impact weapon like a baton,
possibly pepper spray or in some extreme cases of violent behavior they
might even have to use deadly force to control that individual."

In fact, in New Mexico earlier this month, the parents of a suicidal woman
who was shot to death by Bernalillo County deputies two years ago are suing,
contending that the police should have used Tasers instead of firearms.

Brittany Wayne was killed in her bedroom 23 seconds after police arrived.

And in Utah, a patrol car's dashboard camera caught an officer tasing a
driver who refused to sign a speeding ticket. The officer is now under
investigation, accused of being too quick on the draw.

Amid a growing outcry, civil rights groups are urging police to put down
their Tasers until more research is done.

"The danger of Tasers is that they seem safe, they seem easy and therefore I
think it's natural that police will be inclined to use them much more
quickly than they would ever use a gun," Amnesty International USA Executive
Director Larry Cox told Chen.

CBSNews.com producer David Morgan contributed to this report.

C MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc.

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org 

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/25/5431/

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