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Houston mayor calls for indepedent review of Taser use · 709 days ago
Since December 2004, the Houston Police Department has used Tasers 1000 times. In this article, Police Chief Harold L. Hurtt mentions his staff has identified 39 instances in which officers used Tasers on armed suspects where they otherwise would have used a firearm. That’s all well and good, but what about the 961 other instances that they used Tasers on people, mostly minorities? What is the justification for that?
From The Washington Post:
Police data show that in almost 1,000 Taser deployments since December 2004, 63 percent of the suspects were black. Houston’s population of 1.95 million is 25 percent black.“If that brother was not a Texans football player, if that brother didn’t have the resources that he has, he would have been another big brother that was Tased, and that’s it,” said New Black Panther Nation’s Quanell X, who organized a community meeting with police officials earlier this month to discuss Taser policy and police treatment of blacks.
“Not until a high-profile African-American football player was Tased did the city sit up and notice,” he said. “We need a cease-and-desist order of those Tasers until there is a complete and independent study of their use.”
For a year, Houston City Council member Ada Edwards, who is black, has sought a medical study on the effects of the Taser and also a moratorium on its use because “we have such a preponderance of minorities being Tased,” she said.
Now Mayor Bill White has called for an independent review of Taser use.
— SWAT Team
Rev. Calvin O. Butts II wants NYPD reform · 719 days ago
Does Rev. Butts really think anything will get done? I wish him luck, but it doesn’t seem like he has enough inertia behind him to get anything done. Bloomberg is only pretending to care, and for some reason Al Sharpton was standing there with Butts yet the article is quoting Butts instead of Sharpton. Sharpton has clout on a national level, so why wasn’t he the figurehead for this call for reform in the New York Police Department if they really think it’s going to accomplish anything?
From The New York Times:
The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, one of New York’s most prominent and moderate black clerics, demanded yesterday that the city rein in rogue members of the Police Department whom he described as “ignorant savages who continue to prey upon our people as if we have no respect by virtue of our humanity or our citizenship.”The surprisingly sharp comments by Mr. Butts were made at a news conference outside City Hall that was called to announce a march for today to protest the killing of an unarmed man, Sean Bell, on Nov. 25 by the police.
At yesterday’s event, political and community leaders said they planned to challenge Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to adopt a list of proposed changes in policing including several that were presented after Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, was killed by police officers in 1999. For Mr. Butts, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the pointed remarks represented a marked change.
— SWAT Team
Lorain, Ohio police use Taser on 12 year old child · 719 days ago
I’m digging around for old news about police brutality where officers used Tasers on children, elderly, handicapped, or other defenseless people. Amnesty International has researched and concluded that police are using Tasers routinely to shock people who are mentally disturbed or who simply refuse to obey commands – officers of the law are not using the stun gun as an alternative to drawing a firearm but instead are using it primarily to shock unarmed people involved in petty crimes. They have called for a nationwide ban on the use of these weapons by police, and we here at Police Download Report join them in wishing it were not legal for cops to wield these cruel devices. Over 200 deaths have been attributed to Taser use, with a lot more deaths unreported and undiscovered due to bad autopsy results. We’ll continue to bring you as much coverage of Taser abuse by police officers as we can find.
A 12 year old riding the schoolbus was a victim in 2005:
Police departments use the x26 Taser to shock unruly suspects into submission, but Lorain residents are stunned that an officer used one on a school bus to subdue to 12-year-old boy, reported NewsChannel5.According to the police report, police were called to remove the boy from the bus after he tried to steal another boy’s CD case.
Police Capt. Russ Cambarare said the boy cussed at the officers and then threatened her.
“Then he made a threat that he was going to kill her, he bucked his head backwards and hit her on the chin and broke one of his arms free,” said Cambarare.
Outside, at the corner of East 30th and Vine, what police are calling an angry mob was pounding on the bus, demanding the officer let the boy go.
In 2004, a lot of opposition to Taser use sprung up from this incident, where police shocked a 6 year old boy:
Police in Miami Dade County say they did the right thing when the used a Taser to subdue a six year-old at school.The school’s principal called 911 after the child broke a picture frame in her office and waved a piece of glass to keep people away from him.
When two Miami-Dade officers arrived the scene the boy had already cut himself under his eye and cut a large gash in his hand.
The officers tried to reason with the boy, but when he started cutting his own leg, they shocked him with a Taser. They then grabbed him to prevent him from hurting himself when he hit the floor and called an ambulance.
Miami Police say the Taser was necessary to prevent the boy from seriously harming himself with the glass.
Today Governor Jeb Bush told the Associated Press he doesn’t know the circumstances of why adults couldn’t control a six-year-old.
When Jeb Bush is shocked by this kind of abuse, you know it’s serious abuse and not liberal whining.
And here’s a rare case where the cop was actually punished for his abusive use of a Taser. It was so blatant that it couldn’t be ignored:
While the deputy checked her driver’s license, Bledsoe called the Sheriff’s Office back to complain about the deputy’s rude treatment, and the dispatcher said she would send a sergeant.While Bledsoe was speaking to the dispatcher, Dix attempted to take her cell phone.
Suddenly, according to the suit, Dix let Bledsoe go. She took one step away, and he shot her in the back with the Taser.
According to the computerized log in Dix’s Taser, Bledsoe was hit five times.
Dix then took her to the Escambia County Jail, where she was charged with resisting arrest without violence and disorderly conduct. The State Attorney’s Office dropped the charges on March 15, 2004.
An internal affairs investigation found that Dix had no reason to arrest Bledsoe, which made any use of force against her unnecessary.
The investigation also found that the entire episode likely was recorded on Dix’s in-car video system, but he either lost or destroyed the tape.
— SWAT Team
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Officer Art Lewis performed 'exam' on 14 year old girl · 723 days ago
From local6.com:
A police officer in Longwood, Fla., accused of inappropriately touching a teen girl has been accused of sexual harassment before, Local 6 News has learned.Officer Art Lews, 37, was arrested this week after a 14-year-old girl claimed he touched her inappropriately.
A report said the girl’s grandparents called police after they suspected the girl had sex with her boyfriend.
Click here to find out more!When Lewis arrived, he allegedly took the girl into another room and said he needed to perform an “exam” on her, police told Local 6 News.
In 2003, the Altamonte Springs Police Department investigated Lewis after a co-worker claimed he had sexually harassed her but there was not enough evidence to support the claim, according to the report.
“She then stated that he told her to remove her pants,” Longwood police Officer Herb Stewartson said. “And then he performed some type of what you can think of as an exam. It is a shock and completely out of leftfield. Nobody expected this.”
— SWAT Team
