How safe are Tasers ?

[Mandy]

I wonder what prompted the UN to issue this warning ?

Did Portugal or the EU ask the UN ?

A google search on taser torture finds 1,380,000 articles : Google Search


News search doesn't show any coverage by the BBC. Is this the mass media again burying stories they don't like ?

This article shows how the manufacturer is resorting to legal means against the press :
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/26 ... r_verdict/

[11antoniacourt]

Thanks Luke and Mandy for the very interesting articles. Both eye openers.

[Marcella-FL]

Not saying tasers don't kill but I am really keen to discover why some people are so adversely affected and others are not. I am curious to see the countries of origin for the victims. Could there be something that makes some people more prone to die from it? I don't know - heavy metals in their system, body fat, blood sugar ... I don't know. They need more BROAD studies or just a more in depth look at the deaths. Don't give me just numbers - give me the breakdown by nationality, race, body type, age, sex.

Has anyone heard what the official cause of death for the Polish victim in Canada? I am curious if it was heart(taser related) or asphyxia(pile of cops on top of him related)?

[Mandy]

I believe tasers were first introduced with the excuse they will only be used when Guns would have been used instead.

This has turned out to be a complete falsehood.

Until tasers are limited to cases when guns would have been used, they should be withdrawn.

[luke]

Not saying tasers don't kill but I am really keen to discover why some people are so adversely affected and others are not. I am curious to see the countries of origin for the victims. Could there be something that makes some people more prone to die from it? I don't know - heavy metals in their system, body fat, blood sugar ... I don't know. They need more BROAD studies or just a more in depth look at the deaths. Don't give me just numbers - give me the breakdown by nationality, race, body type, age, sex.

yeah that could be interesting, i watch some of those shows with the police chasing after crooks - we have one here called 'americas dumbest criminals' some people get shot loads with the tasers - and are fine, well, not fine - but they don't die, other people get hit just once and die - must be something ... maybe its even just the type of shoes the persons wearing, isn't when you get hit by lighting it can depend on the type of shoes you're wearing whether you die or not? maybe its the length of time you're taserd for - maybe they should put a limit on it, like it'll only zap you for x seconds then automatically cut off to stop overzealous police

me personally, i'm against them completely and would go along with united nations ruling that they're torture. i'd rather the police just had guns, then they're going to think properly before using them - with the tasers they sometimes just zap away for for no reason.

[nico]

[web]https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3931934&page=1[/web]

This shit is getting out of control, I am getting sick of it. I hope they ban Tasers soon.

[faceless]

<embed src="https://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/med ... tesman.com" height="414" width="640">

[Mandy]

Modern day Nazis ..

[cherokee29]

Trying to imagine what happened after that,totaly unbelievable,.

[Mandy]

Trying to imagine what happened after that,totaly unbelievable,.

The driver & the pregnant woman probably got arrested for resisting arrest, assault on a police officer etc. The police use such tactics to act as a shield / bargaining chip against being sued.

[Marcella-FL]

Trying to imagine what happened after that,totaly unbelievable,.

This incident does not surprise me AT ALL considering it came out of Austin, TX! With his mother sitting next to him no less! This is a perfect example of the quality of law enforcement officers in the USA especially the south.

[luke]

Police accused of firing Taser into head of innocent man

Police fired a 50,000-volt Taser into the head of a 45-year-old company director who later proved to be unarmed and innocent. Daniel Sylvester, the owner of an east London security firm employing 65 staff to guard council offices, pubs and nightclubs, was driving home on October 20 when he was stopped by armed police because of "firearms related intelligence".

According to Sylvester, he got out of his car and was surrounded by officers, at least two of whom were carrying automatic weapons. Without warning, one officer fired a Taser into the back of his head which made him drop to his knees, he said. A second shock caused him to fall on his face, breaking a front tooth. A further six shocks made him wet himself and left him lying in the road in pain while the officers and sniffer dogs searched the car and found nothing.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has started an investigation and David Lammy, Sylvester's MP in Tottenham, north London, has written to Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, to say he is "deeply concerned".

The incident was part of Operation Neon, a crackdown on guns on London's streets by using armed response units to stop and search cars. Sylvester said the incident had left him traumatised and he now suffered from short-term memory loss. He doubts the police would have stopped him had he not been black. A spokesman for the Met said: "Just after midnight, officers on an intelligence-led operation stopped a car in Bounces Road, N9. The driver got out of the vehicle and was subsequently Tasered. Our information is the Taser was deployed once."

Sylvester had been followed by police cars for about three miles through Tottenham before they boxed him in.

"Armed police jumped out and opened my car door," he said. "I said OK, I'm coming. I asked what was going on and as soon as I stepped out of the car I felt something touch me on the back of the head and then I was on my knees. Then it happened again and I was on my face and I felt somebody pressing my head down with their foot. By the fifth time I realised officers were pinning my arms together. It was like they were trying to break my arms and I was in pain, screaming out.

"I was shocked eight times altogether and I had urinated on the floor. It was like being tortured. It went on and on and I felt they were going to kill me."

According to guidelines set by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers, Tasers should be deployed "where officers are facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they would need to use force to protect the public, themselves and/or the subject(s) of their action". Tasers have been used 47 times in London this year, with black people accounting for almost two-thirds of those stunned.

The government extended the right to use Tasers for all firearms officers in England and Wales this summer.

from https://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article ... 41,00.html

[faceless]

I'm sure it was a hellish situation, but I'd be prepared to bet a fair amount that this guy has been involved in a lot of violence in the past. You don't get to be the owner of a large security company like that without being able to exert a fair amount of pressure...