Man tasered by Oakland police at A's game on video

This is a video posted by an A's fan of an incident where the Oakland police were called to respond to a fan who was seated in the wrong section, drinking vodka, and had been making annoying remarks to nearby people. The three officers taze the somewhat elderly, gray-bearded man for making verbal statements of noncompliance, even though he makes no physically violent moves and is firmly settled into his seat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcklIVkphxA

THERE IS NEVER ANY REASON TO TASER ANYONE. TASERS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL AS THEY ARE A LETHAL TORTURE WEAPON. I do not care how many foul or racist words anyone uses: Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. This childhood chant is very correct. THE MAN WAS CLEARLY NOT HURTING ANYONE AND THESE 2 STINKING BURLY COPS TASERED HIM ANYWAY. This video is excellent evidence for the whole world to see why WE NEED TO ABOLISH ALL POLICE DEPARTMENTS, ABOLISH TASERS AND SUE ALAMEDA COUNTY FOR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS UNTIL DA ORLOFF IS KICKED OUT OF OFFICE AND TASERS ARE BANNED. And this writer despises sports and that is irrelevant too. Call DA Orloff now to tell him to resign immediately at:
Alameda Co. Distr Attorney Tom Orloff
510-272-6222
510-271-5157 fax

cops in the U.S. these days are some of the biggest, most fearful wimps on the planet, completely insecure if they don't get the respect they think they automatically deserve

they'd rather kill someone than go home with a little bruise on their arm. cops are tasing elderly women these days rather than get their hands dirty

and the OPD is claiming this is a "textbook" case of proper taser use. so apparently non-compliance by a citizen is good enough to get a tasing from lazy, wimpy, insecure cops these days

yet they sold the idea of tasers to the public as a way to avoid using guns on citizens. that's *not* at all how they are being used

These cowardly muthafuckas are off the hook and need to be severely disciplined. This IS what fascism looks like.

OPD are brutal thugs. Those who know the OPD, know that's true.

This is disgusting and totally unacceptable. Most cops have lost all common sense. I guess the $129,000 yearly salary has gone to their heads. Of course, we have to pay more in parking meter charges, fines and meters until 8pm to pay for their salaries. The city political leaders do nothing but fall over themselves in their lovefest in giving OPD union almost anything it wants.

Anyway, the police do not know how to deal with people. They are dangerous. As long as Pat Gonzalez, the murderer of Gary King, Jr. is allowed to stay on this force, OPD will always be a tainted institution. Who can help save us - the citizens of Oakland - from the OPD?

"I guess the $129,000 yearly salary has gone to their heads."

$129,000 a year? Yeah, right. lol

With BART on the verge of creating a review board for better police oversight, City of Oakland continually underfunds and would prefer that the CPRB did not exist at all. Internal Affairs will look the other way on this one and it will go away quietly.

Call your City Council member and tell them that you want to keep the CPRP intact and that you support civilianization of Internal Affairs.

Why should the cops possibly get hurt, or the suspect get hurt further? He was drunk, belligerent and asked to leave the area several times. His signal to the cops was he wasn't going so the least amount of force was used. The cops tried to grab and control him, but he pulled away. hat is a textbook use of the taser.

I think tasing the man was unnessary, due to the fact that they tased him when he was already handcuffed. My greatest issue is with the man in the background that was pushed down stairs by security. I personally know him & spoke to him about the sitution. He had asked security what was going on & video taping the incident, when the unprovoked security guard pushed him down the stairs. This action caused him physical injuries, which he does have pictures of. In the video, you can clearly see he was not a threat & was immediately pushed for no reason. He was there with his wife to enjoy the game & was not drinking alcohol. The Coliseum staff insist that the Oakland PD confirms he was trying to penetrate the barrier but it's obvious they did not see the incident & it's clearly not the case on the video. What's is the Oakland Coliseum going to do about it???

I think tasing the man was unnessary, due to the fact that they tased him when he was already handcuffed. My greatest issue is with the man in the background that was pushed down stairs by security. I personally know him & spoke to him about the sitution. He had asked security what was going on & video taping the incident, when the unprovoked security guard pushed him down the stairs. This action caused him physical injuries, which he does have pictures of. In the video, you can clearly see he was not a threat & was immediately pushed for no reason. He was there with his wife to enjoy the game & was not drinking alcohol. The Coliseum staff insist that the Oakland PD confirms he was trying to penetrate the barrier but it's obvious they did not see the incident & it's clearly not the case on the video. What's is the Oakland Coliseum going to do about it???

I thought tasering was supposed to be used instead of shooting a gun at someone. That is not what has happened - it is used to force obeyance to the police and totally violate the individuals right to dispute or protest. It seems to be used casually by police to assert their force. It haskilled many people and is considered by many to be very dangerous - not something that should be used so recklessly and casually.

So many americans are so stupid they really don't have a clue as to what is really going on so they accept almost anything pushed on their feeble thinking minds by politicians and the media. Tasers have no place in this society...but since the Taser companies employee lobbyists and probably contribute handsomely to our corrupt politicians they will have an unending market. To hell with the people.

yes, a lot of us were wondering about the man pushed down the stairs in the background. Falling backwards down some stairs could cause some serious injuries. It would be an accident if the guard had taken a step backwards, unaware that someone was standing there. But you clearly see that he saw someone there and deliberately physically tried to clear him. He should have verbally told the fans to get out of a perimeter.

from above comments;

'They'd rather kill someone than go home with a little bruise on their arm. Cops are tasing elderly women these days rather than get their hands dirty."

This sort of describes police brutality overall, whether for this specific incident or many others where tasers are used. Clearly people who are overtly intoxicated in public places require some sort of intervention from trained professionals, though the use of a taser as the only alternative for lethal force by gunfire is a poor option..

The problem with tasers as the only "non-lethal" option is that it isn't always non-lethal, and often times the person being tased may react with a heart attack, especially if they are already intoxicated or on some sort of medications that could interfere with their nervous system. The taser device briefly stops the heart and weakens the muscles by effecting the entire nervous system, so it is like gambling to claim to know how every individual will react differently. Save the gambling for the casinos, not for people's lives..

Background on tasers;

"Taser's stun guns are designed to shoot a maximum of 50,000 volts into a person's body through two compressed nitrogen-fueled probes, thereby disrupting the target's electromuscular system. The probes are connected to the Taser gun by insulated wires, and can deliver repeat shocks in quick succession. The probes can pierce clothing and skin from a distance or be directly applied to a person's body -- a process known as "dry stunning" -- for an ostensibly less-incapacitating, cattle-prod effect.

"The impetus for Tasers came from the often community-led search for 'less-than-lethal' police weapons," explains Norm Stamper, former chief of the Seattle Police Department and author of Breaking Rank. "[There were] too many questionable or bad police shootings, and cops saying, correctly, that there are many ambiguous situations where a moment's hesitation could lead to their own deaths or the death of an innocent other."

According to Taser's promotional materials, its stun guns are designed to "temporarily override the nervous system [and take] over muscular control." People who have experienced the effect of a Taser typically liken it to a debilitating, full-body seizure, complete with mental disorientation and loss of control over bodily functions.

Many Taser-associated deaths have been written up by coroners as being attributable to "excited delirium," a condition that includes frenzied or aggressive behavior, rapid heart rate and aggravating factors related to an acute mental state and/or drug-related psychosis. When such suspects are stunned, especially while already being held down or hogtied, deaths seem to occur after a period of "sudden tranquility," as Taser explains in its CD-ROM training material entitled, "Sudden Custody Death: Who's Right and Who's Wrong." In that same material, the company warns officers to "try to minimize the appearance of mishandling suspects."
"

read more @;
http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/breaking-down-understanding-our-enemies/32227-death-taser-killer-alternative-guns.html

More taser info;

"When Tasers Kill

From time to time, individuals die after being shot with a Taser, raising important questions about the safety of these devices. They are certainly not non-lethal weapons: although more research is urgently needed, certain groups appear to be at greater risk of suffering serious harm, including death:

people with pacemakers

people with heart conditions

drug users

those who fall as a result of the loss of muscle control

Most of us would probably prefer a jolt from a Taser to a bullet wound; however, it’s clear that, in at least some instances, we still don’t really know what that jolt is doing to the body."

Read more @;
http://biology.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_does_a_taser_work




However, other truly non-lethal options exist;

For brief times i was employed at psychiatric institutions where all "psych tech" (orderlies, "white coats", etc...) employees were given a training course in using safe physical restraint holds, including basketholds. This hold wraps the person's arms in front of their chest and prevents the person being restrained from harming themselves or others, though when used by itself does not induce heart attacks as tasers have shown to do..

Certainly the salary of psych techs was nowhere near that of the heavily armed police agents, though if there was a "code" called over the intercom all available psych techs were supposed to help out in the restraint of anyone who was going into a "crisis" where their behavior presented a risk to themselves or others, though no tasers were needed to accomplish this goal..

Psych techs never recieved tasers or any other sort of weapons other than our own hands that were used to grab people's limbs and hold them down until they became calm. Never mind how strong or enraged the person was, we never carried any weapons other than our own bodies. For longer term restraints cloth was used to tie people down..

Occasionally psych tech workers were injured during this process of physically restraining people, and were given sick leave resulting from this injury. However, very few workers or people incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals have died as a result of physical restraints alone, though this does not include the deaths from chemical restraints (usually from overmedication of pharmaceutical products)..

The point is that simple physical restraint techniques like those mentioned above are far safer than pharma chemical restraints or electric shocks from tasers, and police need to give serious consideration to employ simple physical restraints as the first option before resorting to dangerous electric shocks of tasers..

Not that this is an endorsement of forcing people into mental health hospitals with restraints, though the risk of this method is far less than that of tasers. Police could at least try to physically engage with intoxicated and/or mentally disturbed people first without using the taser's electric shocks.

How many grown adults are needed to hold down one intoxicated baseball fan until he becomes calm? Unless he was an octopus with eight arms disguised as a human, my guess would be four cops at the most, and possibly less than that, no tasers needed!!

I believe that the police responded with excess force. The person causing the disturbance was not even on his feet. I feel like further efforts could have been exhausted before the police used the tazer.

The person causing the problems at the game has a disease called Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder. Its surprising that the police were not able to recognize that this person was not just drunk and agitated but that he was mentally ill as well. I watched the video once and recognized that the person may have schizophrenia or some mental impairment.

People with schizophrenia may hear voices other people don't hear or they may believe that others are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These experiences are terrifying and can cause fearfulness, withdrawal, or extreme agitation. Clearly, this situation agitated this person and the symptoms of his schizophrenia only worsened as the situation progressed. People with schizophrenia may not make sense when they talk, may sit for hours without moving or talking much, or may seem perfectly fine until they talk about what they are really thinking.

Our police need to be better trained in recognizing and handling people who suffer from these types of mental impairments. This person has a severe case of schizophrenia and suffers from other mental illness as well. Some of this sickness was caused by childhood trauma including but not limited to molestation and physical abuse. Not to mention, this person served his country in the Vietnam War which only advanced his mental health condition. I understand that police offers are trained to focus on safety and that is their priority. However, with so many Americans suffering from untreated mental illnesses it seems like we as a country should be driving for a cure and better access to treatment for all who suffer from mental illnesses and not just criminal justice. Perhaps, if the severely mentally ill were treated maybe crime would be reduced?

I know most people are thinking why doesn’t this guy just take his meds and he will be better? There are a variety of reasons why people with schizophrenia do not adhere to treatment. If they don't believe they are ill, they may not think they need medication at all. If their thinking is too disorganized, they may not remember to take their medication every day. If they don't like the side effects of one medication, they may stop taking it without trying a different medication. Substance abuse can also interfere with treatment effectiveness. Its really hard to understand the mind of people with schizophrenia until you walk a mile in their shoes.

Schizophrenia is an extremely puzzling condition, the most chronic and disabling of the major mental illnesses. Its unfortunate that people who suffer from treatment resistant mental illnesses such as this are viewed as “burdens” on the society and treated like animals and not human beings. I certainly hope that some public service worker reaches out and tries to find help for this person so he is able to live a meaningful life in the community.

Again, public safety of innocent people is of the most importance. I just only hope that the public can be more aware of mental illnesses and schizophrenia. These people suffer, something those of us who are not mentally ill will never understand. It would be great if our country could focus more on getting good treatment and services for people who have schizophrenia. Its no wonder that more then 20% of people in prison in the USA are severely mentally ill and most often it is untreated.