A CNN article declares that the use of Tasers by police is under scrutiny, since use of Tasers has caused deaths and injuries.
Tasers have been used by police to kill a man while taunting him with racial epithets, to Taser a 10-year-old girl to get her to take a bath, and engage in a drive-by tasering of an unidentified suspect, just to name a few bizarre and unjust instances.
CNN in particular highlights the experience of Steven Butler, who was Tasered by police because he was “drunk and disorderly.” He suffered immediate cardiac arrest, according to doctors. His brain may have been deprived of oxygen for as long as 18 minutes, and he is now permanently disabled. As a result, his family has filed a lawsuit against the maker of the Taser, Taser Internnational (full article here).
Once again, police do not seem to understand the purpose of their existence. These days, it is a radical proposition to say that police are hired to make society safer and to protect people.
People who are drunk and disorderly are a nuisance at the most. If Butler was actually dangerous, he likely would have been charged with some kind of drunk in public offense (which usually requires that one be extremely drunk and causing danger to himself or others). Thus, before police intervention, the Butler situation was one of nuisance and annoyance. After police intervention, the damage done consisted of the far greater harms of cardiac arrest and brain damage.
The same was the case with Baron Pikes – before police intervention, society had a suspected drug user. There was no imminent danger, and no one was being harmed. After police Taser intervention, society was left with a video tape of cops screaming “n*gger” and subsequently a dead man (with no trace of drugs in his system).
Again, with the 10-year-old who wouldn’t take a bath – before police intervention, all there was, was a misbehaving child. After police intervention, society was left with an injured and tortured child.
In none of these situations did police actually keep anyone safe or make anything better. Very clearly, they made the situation much worse, in all of these circumstances.
Dr. Douglas Zipes, a cardiologist, intends to testify against Taser in the Butler lawsuit. He says that Taser International was dishonest in their assertion that there was no cardiac risk of being Tasered. Other medical experts say that people hit by a Taser near the chest experience a significant increase in heart rate – up to 220 beats a minute.
Tasers have caused death and significant injury, but are not classified as a firearm. They are technically an “electronic control device.” San Francisco is one of the few big-city police departments that do not use Tasers. The chief of police in San Francisco George Gascon wants to institute Tasers, but admits that to call it “nonlethal” is incorrect.
Ultimately, the title of the CNN article is misleading. The “scrutiny” is not by the government, but is by private lawyers suing for victims such as Butler. The government is not rethinking its brutal treatment of citizens, nor is it reconsidering its use of dangerous weapons in unwarranted situations, sometimes on completely innocent people.
The article notes Taser International has seen increasing profits due to police and private use of Tasers. As much as Taser International sounds like a despicable little business, the real blame must lie with the government. Without the consistent and zealous support of state police departments everywhere and without government funding, Taser International would not be as successful or as profitable as it is. Indeed, it might not even exist.
Taser International has no contractual duty to the people; the government does. Taser International has never promised to be accountable to the people or to serve the people; the government has. Yet the ongoing “scrutiny” over the dangerousness of these products is being pursued by private people.
It’s not difficult to see where this is all going – if, or when the evidence shows that Tasers are in fact dangerous, overused, and frequently abused by police, the government will disclaim any responsibility, and Taser International will go down as the fall guy.
As with so many government blunders, the blame will shifted to the private party involved, even though it was government funding, government policy, and government support that allowed the private party to flourish in the first place.
You are correct in stating that Taser devices cause cardiac arrest, ventricular fibrilation and acidosis – all contributors of death. The Zipes testimony speaks for itself and many are now the wiser for folks understanding that high power and low frequency (the real culprit in CED’s) kills. What I don’t think people understand is that Taser has made some major false claims that could (in all appearances) be considered blatant fraud! Take their Medical Safety Information (pg 9) which makes a comparison to the IEC479 standard (which uses body current and duration as the X/Y axis constants inside their graph) but uses a graph “made up” of information not founded in the IEC479 standard (uses body current and pulse width) and the “switch” the X/Y axis…? Whoops! How stupid are we – at least a decade worth, although this has been well known and hushed by Taser insiders and stakeholders. The Chief in SF still does not have it right with “less lethal” – how many people need to die in order to term the device lethal – 500? I think we’re about there! AFA law enforcement, a choice few drank the koolaide for the rest and now the entire force continuum is in the tank…some thinking a new policy is going to help…this is not a time to continue “majoring in the minors” – this is a bleeding juglar with the loss of public confidence at stake along with officers being outfitted with failed and unproven technology (to tape sensors to the skin of a pig or better yet, cut a pig open and tape the probes to the muscle fiber and turn up the power until fibrilation to gain your science is ludicrous…),. We measure radar guns but not electical devices that introduce electricity into the body – hello! Have you ever heard of a medical examiner doing forensics on a taser device post incident – NO! The examiner works for the county and probably a stakeholder. Taser needs to be held accountable before going out of business which is the eventuality of not doing the proper safety and science before going to market! Every LE agency in the world should demand their money back for the devices and training for the above reasons! The SF Chief should get a hold on Taser lies and people die…don’t believe me – ask the 480 plus families now missing loved one and Taser trying to pond them off as dopers and drunks, along with LE! Wake up people!
These cases are really tragic, and they show that police departments need to set very strict rules about the use of tasers.
I sincerely believe that tasers are a useful tool, even given the risks they entail. After all, if a cop feels that he needs to instantly subdue someone, and doesn’t have a taser, he’ll probably use his gun. And we know which of those is most likely to kill.
However, cops need to stop treating tasers as convenience items. Like a gun, they should be used as a last resort, when their lives or the life of someone else is in danger.
Yes. I would prefer cops use tasers instead of guns… but they need to understand that tasers are still dangerous weapons and kill people, which I do not think they understand at all. Tasering is becoming a commonplace thing for all kinds of non-violent, non-threatening behavior. Police use tasers for even the most harmless forms of non-compliance, and this is not acceptable.
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