UN Committee: Taser guns torture and kill
The latest news on Tasers (and other electroshock weapons) comes from the UN Committee against Torture (CAT):
Taser electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee said on Friday [November 23, 2007] after several recent deaths in North America.Not really any new information for regular visitors of my site. But what's interesting is WHO is saying this, the United Nations Committee Against Torture, a "body of highly regarded independent human rights experts that monitors implementation of the Convention by State parties".
"The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture," the UN's Committee against Torture said.
They've got more to say too:
"In certain cases, [tasers] can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events," the committee of 10 experts said.So now even the United Nations regards tasers as torturous weapons that can kill. When will our police stop using Tasers?
Three men, all in their early 20s, were reported to have died in the United States this week, days after a Polish man died at Vancouver airport after being tasered by Canadian police.
The man, Robert Dziekanski, 40, fell to the ground and died after the police officers piled on top of him. There have been three deaths in Canada after the use of Tasers over the past five weeks.
- 24.com: Stun Guns "a form of torture"
- wikipedia: UN Committee against Torture (CAT)
4 comments:
Thank God that someone has finally listened to the outcries of the Canadian people against the torture inflicted on human beings here by our law enforcement!
I cannot believe that Canada vehemently professes to be a democracy and condemns torture and terrorism against humanity in other countries of the World when it is happening here by the hands of the RCMP. We send our men and women to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight against terrorism and yet it is happening right here in Canada. What a hipocrite our Government is!
The RCMP have the legal right to inflict torture, brutality, pain and take the life of a human being without suffering any consequences. Our Federal Government has obviously lost touch with the meaning of "DEMOCRACY" and "HUMANITY".
Thank God for the gut wrenching video of the death of Robert Dziekanski by the RCMP that Paul Pritchard had the backbone to release to the public and the World. The brutality of the Federal RCMP against human beings can no longer be covered up with lies and the evidence be swept under the carpet.
TASERS must be abolished and the RCMP members must be held accountable for their criminal activities just as anyone else does who commits a crime!!!! They should not be "above the law" just because they are police officers!
It appears that many of the RCMP members are cold-blooded and sadistic and have joined the force so they can get a rush out of torturing someone and watching their victim writhe on the floor, scream in pain and breathe his/her last breath.
I am haunted daily by the shocking, horrific and gruesome images leading to Robert Dzieksanki's death.
What has happened to this "LAND OF PROMISE"??????
Thanking God for a man�s death so one can push their delusional propaganda is cold blooded and sadistic.
Anyone who thinks we live under torture/terror have never been anywhere and their opinions should be considered a joke.
Tasers have been to commit torture by people all around the world. I don't only think that police has tortured, we know they have.
To assess if torture has taken place we need to define torture first:
any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as
1} obtaining information
2) punishing him for an act he has committed or is suspected of having committed
3)intimidating or coercing him
4)for any reason based on discrimination
Next we need evidence of torture having taken place. Unfortunately there are ample examples of police around the globe torturing people by using electric shock instruments to torture:
- Brazil:A hooded Brazilian police officer claims to use an electric shock instrument during torture sessions. A civil police officer was quoted as saying of this instrument, ''The main thing is not to leave any marks...It is efficient and gives us pleasure.''
- China:Two young women, Zhang Hongjuan and Li Tongjin, claimed in letters to their families which were later made public that they were tortured during interrogation when they were detained on separate occasions during August and October 2001. "In her letter, Zhang Hongjuan states that police officers at the Public Security Bureau detention centre in Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, shackled her hands and feet, ripped open her shirt and beat her on the chest with an electric baton. Li Tongjin wrote to her family that police officers at the same detention centre shackled her feet and tried to pull off her shirt, before beating her on the chest and legs with an electric baton."(77)
There's lots more "fun" here.
And what about Canada? Well, our most "famous" case is the Arar case. We know Canadian officials have contributed (by cooperating with regimes that outsource torture) to the torturing of Maher Arar.
But when it comes to using the taser, it's mostly used as a torturous tool:
Three out of four suspects stun-gunned by the RCMP were unarmed, according to a review of 563 cases that shows Tasers are often used for compliance rather than to defuse major threats.
There you have it. People are mostly Tasered into 3) compliance; and that's torture, if you like it or not.
BTW: Anyone who thinks we all have to think what Wayne thinks, only because its HIS opinion, has never been anywhere, and their opinions should be considered a joke.
Post a Comment