Call to Ban Tasers in San Jose

After the killing of Bich Cau Thi Tran in 2003, the Coalition itself for a short time welcomed tasers as an alternative to deadly force. But the tasers turned out to be deadly themselves, and over 100 have since died across America after being shocked by the devices. The Coalition, anxious to prevent a taser killing in San Jose, issued a report Monday that says that tasers are being used with alarming frequency, and since they were put into use in San Jose, the number of police shootings has increased, not decreased as was predicted. “They are being used primarily on the vulnerable members of our population,” said Aram James, a Coalition spokesperson. “They’ve been tested in the streets, and we’ve had more than 100 deaths now, and if that’s not enough to say ‘look, it’s time to ban them,’ I don’t know what is.”

Perhaps 20 media outlets attended the press conference. Speakers were Richard Konda, of the Asian Law Alliance, Dr. Andrew Phelps, a mental health advocate, Corina Cardenas, daughter of slain citizen Rudy Cardenas, Samina Faheem Sundas of the American Muslim Voice and Andrea Prichett, of Berkeley Copwatch.

Below are links to two pdfs, the first is a copy of the very informative report, which the Coalition put together over the last two months under the direction of David Junya Taylor; the second is a graphic by Doug Minkler and Aram James. Below that are more photos of the event.