Rory Rickwood's Taser Protest Image
I doubt that police authorities expected the level of Taser abuse that has now reached epidemic proportions. The idea of a weapon that would not kill but incapacitate a violent or threatening suspect must have seemed like manna from heaven.
The general consensus appears to be that Tasers would be used instead of guns therefore reducing deaths at point of arrest. Whether that was a sensible assumption is subject to debate but in practice we now have gung-ho cops using them for the flimsiest of excuses.
Below is a list people killed by police this year using Tasers. Ninety-percent of those victims were unarmed. There is not record of how many of the four or five armed victims actually drew a weapon. Four of that list were children under twenty-one, the youngest only 15! Of the 45 victims a massive forty-two percent were black in a nation where blacks only represent 6% of the population. There were also 7 Hispanics, 9 Caucasian and a further eight where no race is recorded.
Now if the authorities accepted that they cocked-up on this one, admitted that the killer officers have exceeded their authority and accept that the Taser is NOT a non-lethal weapon then no decent police chief would ever deploy these weapons again.
But they haven’t accepted any of that, in fact, over the last eight years the cops who have used these instruments of torture and death are responsible for 389 killings. Another report has documented over 450 killings.
They stubbornly refuse to withdraw the Taser, they refuse to stop their cops murdering innocent people. They have known for eight long years that Tasers are killing people who, in most cases, would not have been shot so the Taser is not being used as an alternative to the gun.
This article has reported on the deaths in the United States it hasn’t dealt with the thousands victims of torture by Taser. Canada and the United Kingdom also deploy the Taser and there have been deaths in those counties also. More on this at another time.
2001 – December 2008 344 Taser deaths in the USA, source: Amnesty International.
January – October 2009 45 US citizens killed by Tasers, source: Electronic Village Blogspot
Sadly, the total to January 17 2010 has risen to 61 Taser deaths.
Here are the names of the 2009 victims, RIP.
Jan 9, 2009, Derrick Jones, 17, Black, Martinsville, Virginia
Jan 11, 2009, Rodolfo Lepe, 31, Hispanic, Bakersfield, California
Jan 22, 2009, Roger Redden, 52, Caucasian, Soddy Daisy, Tennessee
Feb 2, 2009, Garrett Jones, 45, Caucasian, Stockton, California
Feb 11, 2009, Richard Lua, 28, Hispanic, San Jose, California
Feb 13, 2009, Rudolph Byrd, 37, Black, Thomasville, Georgia
Feb 13, 2009, Michael Jones, 43, Black, Iberia, Louisiana
Feb 14, 2009, Chenard Kierre Winfield, 32, Black, Los Angeles, California
Feb 28, 2009, Robert Lee Welch, 40, Caucasian, Conroe, Texas
Mar 22, 2009, Brett Elder, 15, Caucasian, Bay City, Michigan
Mar 26, 2009, Marcus D. Moore, 40, Black, Freeport, Illinois
Apr 1, 2009, John J. Meier Jr., 48, Caucasian, Tamarac, Florida
Apr 6, 2009, Ricardo Varela, 41, Hispanic, Fresno, California
Apr 10, 2009, Robert Mitchell, 16, Black, Detroit, Michigan
Apr 13, 2009, Craig Prescott, 38, Black, Modesto, California
Apr 16, 2009, Gary A. Decker, 50, Black, Tuscon, Arizona
Apr 18, 2009, Michael Jacobs Jr., 24, Black, Fort Worth, Texas
Apr 30, 2009, Kevin LaDay, 35, Black, Lumberton, Texas
May 4, 2009, Gilbert Tafoya, 53, Caucasian, Holbrook, Arizona
May 17, 2009, Jamaal Valentine, 27, Black, La Marque, Texas
May 23, 2009, Gregory Rold, 37, Black, Salem, Oregon
Jun 9, 2009, Brian Cardall, 32, Caucasian, Hurricane, Utah
Jun 13, 2009, Dwight Madison, 48, Black, Bel Air, Maryland
Jun 20, 2009, Derrek Kairney, 36, Race, Unknown, South Windsor, Connecticut
Jun 30, 2009, Shawn Iinuma, 37, Race, Unknown, Fontana, California
Jul 2, 2009, Rory McKenzie, 25, Black, Bakersfield, California
Jul 20, 2009, Charles Anthony Torrence, 35, Caucasion, Simi Valley, California
Jul 30, 2009, Johnathan Michael Nelson, 27, Caucasion, Riverside County, California
Aug 9, 2009, Terrace Clifton Smith, 52, Race, Unknown, Moreno Valley, California
Aug 12, 2009, Ernest Ridlehuber, 53, Race, Unknown, Greenville, South Carolina
Aug 14, 2009, Hakim Jackson, 31, Black, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Aug 18, 2009, Ronald Eugene Cobbs, 38, Black, Greensboro, North Carolina
Aug 20, 2009, Francisco Sesate, 36, Hispanic, Mesa, Arizona
Aug 22, 2009, T.J. Nance, 37, Race, Unknown, Arizona City, Arizona
Aug 26, 2009, Miguel Molina, 27, Hispanic, Los Angeles, California
Aug 27, 2009, Manuel Dante Dent, 27, Hispanic, Modesto, California
Sep 3, 2009, Shane Ledbetter, 38, Caucasian, Aurora, Colorado
Sep 16, 2009, Alton Warren Ham, 45, Caucasian, Modesto, California
Sep 19, 2009, Yuceff W. Young II, 21, Black, Brooklyn, Ohio
Sep 21, 2009, Richard Battistata, 44, Hispanic, Laredo, Texas
Sep 28, 2009, Derrick Humbert, 38, Black, Bradenton, Florida
Oct 2, 2009, Rickey Massey, 38, Black, Panama City, Florida
Oct 12, 2009, Christopher John Belknap, 36, Race, Unknown, Ukiah, California
Oct 16, 2009, Frank Cleo Sutphin, 19, Race, Unknown, San Bernadino, California
Oct 27, 2009, Jeffrey Woodward, 33, Race, Unknown, Gallatin, Tennessee
Nov 14, 2009, Darryl Bain, 43, Black, Coram, New York
Nov 16, 2009, Matthew Bolick, 30, Caucasian, East Grand Rapids, Michigan
Nov 19, 2009, Jesus Gillard, 61, Black, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Nov 21, 2009, Ronald Petruney, 49, Race: Unknown, Washington, Pennsylvania
Nov 27, 2009, Eddie Buckner, 53, Caucasian, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Dec 11, 2009, Andrew Grande, 33, Caucasian, Oak County, Florida
Dec 11, 2009, Hatchel Pate Adams III, 36, Black, Hampton, Virginia
Dec 11, 2009, Paul Martin Martinez, 36, Hispanic, Roseville, California
Dec 13, 2009, Douglas Boucher, 39, Caucasian, Mason, Ohio
Dec 14, 2009, Linda Hicks, 62, Black, Toledo, Ohio
Dec 19, 2009, Preston Bussey III, 41, Race: Unknown, Rockledge, Florida
Dec 20, 2009, Michael Hawkins, 39, Caucasian, Springfield, Missouri
Dec 30, 2009, Stephen Palmer, Race: Unknown, Stamford, Connecticut
Jan 6, 2010, Delano Smith, Black, Elkhart, Indiana
Jan 17, 2010, William Bumbrey III, Black, Arlington, Virginia
I thank Electronic Village Blogspot for the list.
Please join us on December 4, 2009 for the Day of Blogging for Justice!
Related posts:
- Police Taser Killing: In A Little Over One Year US Police Killed 61 Americans By Taser There have been deaths wherever Tasers are used but in...
- Police Taser Brutality: Three More Americans Tortured To Death In just five days since I last updated the list...
- Police Taser Torture: So You Think Tasers Are Non-Lethal? I find it incredible that there are, despite all the...
- Police Taser Brutality: Cops Taser Wheelchair-Bound Double Amputee For “Resisting Arrest”! I am dumbfounded at the sheer depravity of US cops....
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The “one Accord Coalition” has a website http://www.taser-torture-victims.com dedicated to the study of the after-effects from Taser use.If you are among the 100,000+ victims of Taser abuse and have lingering after-effects please visit our site and share your experiences. Your information will be studied and placed in our data base to be presented to State Legislatures and Congress for action to outlaw electrical torture in the USA. Please place a link to us on your website at http://www.taser-torture-victims.com
http://www.wlwt.com/news/21958523/detail.html
We have to do something about this. I have been quiet since the death of John Meier – april 1, 2009. he was not on drugs or drunk. A doctor sent him out of his office with what he said was a sleeping pill….NOT. This is a very sad story. What can be done to stop the use of tasers as well as these incompetent doctors??
Re-evaluation of policies related to: Taser brand Electronic Torture Devices
The Founding Fathers knew that future Government Officials would be tempted to use Cruel and Unusual Punishment as a means to control the populace. That is why they added the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and why it is repeated in all Fifty State Constitutions. Section 13 and 19 of the Texas Constitution Bill of Rights confirms the intent of the Founding Fathers.
Sec. 13. EXCESSIVE BAIL OR FINES; CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT; REMEDY BY DUE COURSE OF LAW. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishment inflicted. All courts shall be open, and every person for an injury done him, in his lands, goods, person or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law.
Sec. 19. DEPRIVATION OF LIFE, LIBERTY, ETC.; DUE COURSE OF LAW. No citizen of this State shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, privileges or immunities, or in any manner disfranchised, except by the due course of the law of the land.
There is no more Cruel and Unusual Punishment than being slowly electrocuted alive with 50,000 volt fish hook barbs driven deep into the flesh of a human being.
Cruel and Unusual Punishment is a clear violation of the U.S. Eighth Amendment.
Punishment of any kind without due process violates the U.S. Fourteenth Amendment.
The United Nations Declared the use of Electronic Torture Devices to be a potentially Lethal form of Torture.
Many Law Enforcement Officials across the Nation, eager to use Electric Torture Devices, failed to demand verifiable human test results as to their safety from the manufacturer. This resulted in over three hundred fifty Electric Torture Device related deaths in the U.S.
The company Taser International manufacturers and sellers of Electric Torture Devices used by most Police Departments lied to every Police Department from the outset. They could not and did not test their Electric Torture Devices under conditions encountered in by police in the field. It is impossible for the manufacturer to have electrocuted human subjects with electrodes in every possible combination of locations on the body and head as it randomly happens in the real world.
Due to inherent in-accuracy of the Taser brand Electric Torture Devices, the projectiles are apt to hit anywhere on the body. This is compounded if the target is moving when an Officer deploys the device.
Electrocutions would also have to be carried out for the various lengths of times to have any validity. Tests would have to be made on subjects with various physical and mental conditions, again with electrodes in every possible position on the body and for the various times that are likely to occur in field use.
An army of masochist-fools would be required to allow these tests to be made on their bodies and obviously there would be a few killed.
The company Taser International lied to every Police Department when they sold their Electric Torture Devices as non-lethal devices. They bragged that it used excruciating pain to control an arrest subject.
The company realized that agony caused by slow electrocution with 50,000 volts of electricity delivered through barbed electrodes driven under the skin constitutes Cruel and Unusual Punishment . They quickly changed their advertising slogans and no longer bragged that their devices caused severe pain. Now they use the less cruel sounding “Neuro-Muscular Disruption”
When they started to get feed back and law suits over Taser related deaths they announced that a Taser was no longer classed as a Non-Lethal but now a Less-Lethal weapon. They no longer call a Taser a “Conducted Energy Device”. It is now a “Electronic Control Device.”
These advertisement changes gives Taser’s Electronic Torture Device the star-trek like description “neuro-muscular disruption” and calling it Less-Lethal gets them off the hook if someone is electrocuted to death.
Taser International got around the test problem by using Police Officers as Lab Assistants and the Public as Lab Rats. They saved even more money by freely harvesting Para-Medic and Emergency room records and Medical Examiners findings.
In September 2009, Taser International sent out a bulletin to all Police Departments to instruct officers not to aim Tasers for the chest area for fear of possible heart stoppage. This had the effect of further pulling the rug out from under every Police Department and Officer that chooses to use these devices. Due to the device’s poor accuracy, each use is playing Russian Roulette with a human life and the company said in effect that it will not stand behind any Officer or Department that causes unintentional death using their devices.
Police Officers who Use Cruel and Unusual Punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution and the Thirteenth Amendment and Nineteenth Amendment of the Texas State Constitution are accountable for State and Federal crimes.
There is no more Cruel and Unusual Punishment Than the use of an Electric Torture Device on a human being and it is a clear violation of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of all fifty States.
Michael Patrick Jacobs Jr. was Electrocuted Alive by a Ft Worth Texas Police Officer using an Electric Torture Device. He had barbed electrodes shot one half inch into his neck and chest and 50,000 volts of Electricity flowed through his head and body for fifty-four screaming, agonizing, seconds before his nerves were seared and his young healthy heart was stopped from beating.
Michael Patrick Jacobs Junior was neither charged nor convicted of anything yet he suffered thirteen times more screaming agony than a Convicted Felon would suffer from electrocution in the Electric Chair.
Use of The Electric Chair was declared to be Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
Michael Jacobs treatment at the hands of Ft Worth Tx. Police was a clear violation of both of the U.S. and Texas Constitution. His Death was declared a Homicide. His killer goes unpunished.
Don’t let another person be Tortured to Death
Support
The Michael Jacobs FAT-COP- LAW
The Michael Jacobs Federal Anti Torture by Civilians Or Police Law
Outlaw the Manufacture, Sale, Possession or Use of Electronic Torture Devices in the U.S.A.
sclctarrantcounty@yahoo.com
Contact Reverend Kyev Tatum
S.C.L.C. P. O. Box 60700 Ft Worth, Tx. 76115
817 966-7625
[...] Cop Tases 10-Year-Old Gir And how exactly did they base them off those stats? Taser Brutality: 389 US Citizens Killed By Tasers The Duck Shoot [...]
When will these murderous cops and their masters be brought to book? Rest In Peace Darryl Bain.
We documented the 46th taser-related death this weekend … 43-year old Darryl Bain was tasered twice by Suffolk County police yesterday. He died after the second jolt.
I hope you are joining the December 9th Day of Blogging for Justice: Stop Taser Torture.
peace, Villager