My "mini"-Taser experience

Unfortunately the New Zealand Police will be giving tasers a trial run next year. They obviously haven't learnt from the American experience. Thankfully the move has been opposed by both Amnesty International and the Green Party (who hold 9 seats in Parliament currently, at least until the September election). However, I don't think that will stop it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3369982a10,00.html There's an article about it here.

Keep up the good work fighting for human rights over in the 'Land Of the Free'!

Perhaps you would have perfered they used bullets?

Dear "Shooter"

That was darling. Do us a favor, dear, do spellcheck before emailing us, you will gain an ounce of credibility. Maybe. Oh well, you just shot a blank. God bless you.

Dear Cam,

Thank you for this valuabe info. Keep'em coming !

I actually feel a bit conflicted now about telling my folks about the "mini taser" experience. It was really insignificant compared to the agony inflicted on the real victims, and I volunteered to just know what we talk about when getting involved in the draft of the taser protocole for SF.

I hope no attention is drrawn on me any further, we want to keep ISF (Idriss Stelley Foundation) activily involved in eradicating taser use.

Thanks again ! Peace, mesha

Thanks nice that you put yourself through that experience. Your a woman, not a man and not on any drugs. Do you have statics on who the police mostly use tasers on? Are they all men? Are they mostly on drugs? What are their sizes? I would imagine that your experience is much different than a man and depending on his size and if he were on drugs or even what type of adrenaline he was experiencing at the time.
I believe that each situation is different, each person has different health issues, and each person has different tolerances.
Tasers might not be the best for every situation, but, at least there's a buffer before the bullet.

Good Deal! I bet they didn't think that you or anyone else for that matter would volunteer. I could just imagine feeling the shock and I too would be thinking of those that had endured that torture excessively.

Oh and for bullets, she's lucky she didn't get bullets used, they usually follow shortly after excessive tasing......

So you and I do have something in common. I was a little unsteady for a few minutes afterwards. In the demo, did they tell you that with the X26 it logs every usage by date, time and duration?

Sounds scary. Like you dudes are making me nervous.

Hit and run cowardly comments

>Tasers might not be the best for every situation, but, at least >there's a buffer before the bullet.

You mean torture before the bullet. The police rarely, if ever, use tasers in self defense. When they actually feel threatened, they always use their guns. Everybody knows that. In the vast majority of cases, however, they aren't assaulting or murdering guilty people or even armed people. Armed, unarmed, partially armed, handicapped, elderly, sick, underage, they'll torture and murder anyone they feel like, because there is rarely, if ever, any accountability. Tasers merely provide them with yet another new and horrific way to torture people before they murder them. Anyone who doubts this can pick up any major Californian paper, and there will inevitably be stories of murders committed by the police, which the police have subsequently interfered with the investigations of in order to prevent prosecution. The courts are, of course, also flagrantly biased in this matter, as in the Rodney King case, where the trial was moved to the Simi Valley to ensure an all-white, ultra-right-wing jury would acquit regardless of the evidence. I'm not going to do your research for you, as this isn't exactly the Iraq WMD scandal. Everybody knows this.

In the rare cases when police officers who commit these capital murders (in most states with the death penalty, a murder involving torture is considered a capital offense) are held to account, the sentences are vastly less than for anyone else convicted of the same crime. The same is true in torture cases such as that of King or Abner Louima, where the victim didn't die. Of the half dozen officers involved in each case, fewer than four served any time at all, and most were out within months. Try committing the same offense against a police officer, however, and you'll be sure to get decades, if you even live to tell the tale. Even though police officers have to swear an oath to uphold law and order, they are invariably held to a lower standard than ordinary citizens, when common sense (at least by the official version of police existing to serve and protect) should dictate that they be held to a higher standard.

As far as I know, no police officer has been executed in California since the death penalty was re-legalised by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, but for supporters of the death penalty (I'm not going to take a specific position on the matter here), police brutality on this level provides some of the best arguments for their pro-capital punishment position. On the other side of the coin, for those opposed to the death penalty, ending crimes on this level could make it easier for them to abolish the death penalty, not that the police are ever executed for the murders they commit.

The first step towards ending the death penalty, I would argue, is always to lower the severity of crime, and hence public outrage. This can also avert the fears that many people have about lynching. The certainty of punishment, rather than the level of punishment, is obviously key to this, as if a 12-year old is held to account for a robbery or an assault, it may make an impression that will keep them from becoming a more serious criminal later. They also should not be allowed to become police officers, however reformed they may seem to be. Social workers can often be naive. Of course, rehabilitation is also key, especially with children, but adult police officers, sworn to uphold law and order, who torture children and old ladies to death and then laugh and brag about it, may be beyond help. Sorry, I'm off on a warm and fuzzy liberal tangent now.

-B.Z.