Friday, November 16, 2007

Tom Swift and his amazing electric rifle

I was sick to my stomach after watching the man die screaming on the floor, a policeman's knee on his throat while another hit him with a Taser, again and again. Of course the immediate response was to lie and insist he had attacked the police, but the camera doesn't lie. His crime was being unable to speak English in an international airport too disorganized to have an interpreter on the staff.

I felt the same way when a handcuffed man died in a neighboring town after being hit one of these devices earlier this year and again today about the man described by BBC News who was comatose on the seat of a bus and yet was Tasered by zealous policemen when he couldn't answer their questions.

It's unlikely that any officer will be prosecuted for doing anything wrong by attacking or killing defenseless, unarmed people in this fashion even though all of them had other alternatives. The Taser, which derives it's name from the early 20th century boy's adventure books, is an acronym for Tomas A Swift Electric Rifle. Unfortunately, we're arming people with the emotional stability of a teenager with these things and convinced that it's non lethal, even though scores of people have died after being Tased, they will used them as a substitute for professional police work. Witness the Canadian police, whose first words were "Can we tase him?" and how they ignored the information that he simply needed an interpreter and tased him; tased him again when he was down on the floor screaming and then again until he died.

Taser International's assertion is that the Taser has never killed anyone although many people have died from related causes - like the cardiac arrest caused by being hit by a Taser. That's a bit like saying bullets don't kill people, it's the bleeding. Over 220 people have been killed by them in the US alone.

A quasi-lethal weapon like this is a dangerous thing. It allows or encourages inappropriate and sometimes reckless force without the appropriate restraint. It is being sadistically used against non-violent prisoners. It is being used as a first response on anyone suspicious looking, or anyone angry or shouting or stubborn.

It kills people at the worst, traumatizes and humiliates them at best and quite obviously is a joy to use for those authorities who enjoy traumatizing and humiliating people or are simply too cowardly to be policemen. It's time to ban the things.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post and take on this. I think tasers have a place but not in airports and not at the strength they apparently have. In gang infested inner cities where everyone is armed, I can see it. In places where no one is armed, like an airport or a courthouse, its way over the line.
And of course you are right. They are put in the hands of imbeciles so anything can be expected to happen.

Capt. Fogg said...

The manufacturers propagandizes very hard to establish that it's non-lethal, which it is - most of the time.

It's become a cop out for the cops, as it were, because when things get confusing or something makes them nervous they can just zap everybody, cuff them and send them off somewhere instead of actually being policemen.

They've used them on 6 year old girls and 80 year old women in wheelchairs and even if those people didn't die, the humiliation and excruciating pain can't be disregarded. They've zapped people sitting in cars and i have to believe that much of this results from cowardice and some of it from the love of hurting and humiliating people.

Anonymous said...

re: "Witness the Canadian police, whose first words were 'Can we tase him?'"

Yes, I thought I heard that in the video. But now (6/2009), no mention of the "Can we tase him? Can we tase him?" segment. Now that the police email admitting pre-planning of the taserings (after each officer denied doing so on the stand!) has surfaced on the last day of the inquiry, you'd think the video segment when the officers ask "can we tase him?" would be mentioned. But ... nothing. Why did we plainly and clearly hear "Can we tase him?" on the video, but no mention of this in the media. Try googling "Can we tase him?" (with the quotes) Notice something missing in the coverage? The press should be all over the "Can we tase him?" captured on video seconds before the man is tased in the airport. But nada. What the heck?