Have a look at the following video. It's self-explanatory, and a lot of "fun" :)
http://wcco.com/video/?id=69634@wcco.dayport.com
Todd Lappegaard, you are the Taser Nazi of the Week.
Congratulations!
H/T Excited Delirium
LINK
- Star Tribune, Minneapolis: Todd Lappegaard exposed
By Kris Kotarski, Calgary Herald October 19, 2009 9:18 AM
Earlier this month, just days before the second anniversary of Robert Dziekanski's death at Vancouver International Airport, Taser International posted a bulletin for law enforcement organizations instructing officers to avoid shooting people in the chest, and encouraging them to target the abdomen, legs or back.
"When possible, avoiding chest shots with electronic control devices avoids the controversy about whether ECDs do or do not affect the human heart."
Aim lower. Avoid controversy. Words to live by.
Considering the ongoing public-relations disaster that is the Braidwood Inquiry into the Oct. 14, 2007 death of Dziekanski after he was repeatedly stunned by RCMP officers with Taser International's weapons, it is not surprising that "the controversy" is a matter of grave concern for the company.
Controversy is not conducive to a healthy bottom line, and even fundraisers featuring Playboy bunnies cannot make people forget the stunning video of Dziekanski screaming on the floor before he died, with four RCMP officers standing over him with Tasers drawn.
The Braidwood Inquiry has heard a number of compelling arguments to ban the weapons completely, and Amnesty International's running tally of American fatalities that occurred shortly after a Taser discharge (presently at 351 since 2001) is enough to give anyone pause.
Yet, as Taser International and police spokespeople are quick to point out, there are also compelling reasons to continue to arm officers with the weapons, especially in light of the very real dangers faced by the police.
The second anniversary of Dziekanski's death is a good moment to reflect on this ongoing argument, and to consider what electroshock weapons have done to our society. Do Tasers make us safer? And, more importantly, do they make us a better people?
Writing at Salon.com,American blogger Digby has argued that "Tasers were sold to the public as a tool for law enforcement to be used in lieu of deadly force." "Nobody wants to see more death and if police have a weapon they can employ instead of a gun, in self-defence or to stop someone from hurting others, I think we all can agree that's a good thing. But that's not what's happening."
A quick YouTube search shows a number of incidents in the United States and in Canada where officers use the weapons against people who, as Digby puts it, "have not broken any law and whose only crime is being disrespectful toward their authority or failing to understand their 'orders.' "
Here's but one example. After getting into an argument about a parking ticket with a Kelowna RCMP officer in 2007, 68-year-old John Peters was punched in the head and Tasered twice while sitting in his car next to his horrified wife. It is not difficult to imagine how the argument between Peters and the officer may have progressed, but it does require a major stretch of the imagination to see how a 68-year-old stroke survivor who is partially blind in one eye could have possibly threatened the officer in a manner that justified his treatment.
In that case, the RCMP has since admitted its mistake and the officer was disciplined by the force, but that hardly makes up for the terror of the initial situation. And that is the problem with Tasers. Anyone who has read about cases like Dziekanski's or Peters' is entitled to feel disgusted by the practical-- if not the theoretical --use of the weapons.
The basic premise underlining community support for police work is fairness. Without fairness, there is no chance for trust, and without trust, the dangers faced by police officers and ordinary citizens increase exponentially.
Weapons like Tasers continue to shock the conscience not because of how they are used in theory, but because of how they are used in practice. And, despite assurances by Taser International, aiming lower will not solve the underlying issue of fairness, or stop the very credible accusations of cruelty, negligence and abuse.
Kris Kotarski's Column Runs Every Second Monday.
It took almost seven years, but there seems to be some movement in the 2002 Bob and Mike Wasylyshen Taser Kids for fun case:
[Mike Wasylyshen, the] Edmonton police constable who Tasered a passed-out teen in 2002 and avoided punishment from the police chief of the day--his father [Bob Wasylyshen] --will likely now have to face a disciplinary hearing.Great, well done, Mike. And you too, Bob, for supporting taser use on drunk kids. What a hell of father you make!
Not so cool, Mike, but let's not forget who thought that what Mike was doing was "all fine": indeed, his own father Bob Wasylyshen.
In a ruling last week, the Law Enforcement Review Board ordered Police Chief Mike Boyd to lay several charges against Const. Mike Wasylyshen related to the Oct. 5, 2002, incident in which 16-year-old Randy Fryingpan was Tasered eight times in about one minute.
Fryingpan was passed out drunk in the back of a car that police were called to investigate. Everyone in the vehicle, except Fryingpan, got out when police ordered them, and Fryingpan was Tasered.
1. Mike deployed his Taser on (Fryingpan) eight times in the span of 68 seconds, in what appeared to be an effort to remove the passed-out youth from the vehicleCongrats, Bob and Mike Wasylyshen, you both are Taser Nazis of the Week!
2. No evidence was presented to justify the use of a Taser; nor was any evidence presented to explain why the Taser was deployed eight times in just over a minute
[Mike] Wasylyshen had been out drinking with some other officers at a bar on Whyte Avenue (Edmonton) in December 2005 and had become very drunk.At about 2:30 in the morning, he left the club and spotted Devin Stacey, who was hailing a cab across the street. Stacey had just had knee surgery and was using crutches to get around.
Crown prosecutor Marta Juzwiak told the court [Mike] Wasylyshen started yelling and berating the 22-year-old man, and called him a "cripple". He then ran across the street and punched Stacey in the ear, and moments later struck a security guard who was trying to stop the altercation that had broken out.
Wow! And this jerk is still working for the police? What's wrong with the Edmonton Police?
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday afternoon, [Devin] Stacey said he thinks Wasylyshen should no longer be a member of the force.
"If you're a cop and you assault someone, especially on Whyte Avenue, you shouldn't be able to be a cop anymore," he said.
Well said, Devin!
At least someone got it right on the Braidwood Taser Inquiry, and this time it's nobody less than Emile Therien, past president of the Canada Safety Council. In short, he argues that there currently are no standards when it comes to the use of tasers in Canada, and that this is inexcusable. Emile suggests that a moratorium should be put on the purchase of new tasers.
I like to go one step further. Given all the "un-explainable" deaths soon after being tasered, Braidwood should have put a moratorium on the use of tasers until country-wide standards are in place, and that ALL tasers (those in use and those scheduled to be acquired) proof to comply to these standards:
Jul 31, 2009 04:30 AMRe: Lessons learned in Taser tragedy, Editorial July 27
In failing to recommend that standards be developed for Tasers, the Braidwood inquiry, unfortunately, has squandered an outstanding opportunity to move this agenda that much more forward. The federal government, as recommended in an RCMP report, must now take the initiative and set standards for Tasers used by all police services in Canada, under its power in the Criminal Code to regulate firearms. Standards for their efficacy and use must be developed.
The fact, acknowledged by the manufacturer, is that one in 20 of these devices fail. This failure rate defies all logic, is inexcusable and smacks of shoddy manufacturing and quality control. No other electrical product can be legally sold in Canada unless it is tested and certified by a recognized national standards organization.
Until these standards are in place, police services should place a moratorium on the purchase of these electrical devices. Establishing minimum standards would further ensure police accountability and allay public fears and concerns.
Emile Therien, Past President, Canada Safety Council, Ottawa
LINKS
Who would have thought the Braidwood inquiry would take such a major turn "before" closing arguments ?
Today it was revealed that a crucial email was "overlooked" by the legal team representing the Government of Canada.
In the now partly disclosed email, Supt. Dick Bent writes to an RCMP Assistant Commissioner that the four officers responsible for the killing of Dziekanski "had discussed [their] response en route [to the airport,] that if [Dziekanski] did not comply that they would go to [use the taser]".
This appears to contradict earlier made statements by the four officers; they all testified in court that no discussion on how to respond had taken place prior to entering the airport.
Sounds like signs of cover-up to me.
Helen Roberts apologized today for the "overlooked" email from Bent, but, for someone who has been following this inquiry closely, I find it very hard to believe that such a damning email can so easily be overlooked; of course this legal team wanted to protect the government and its subsidiaries from blame, and given they were the single collector of government dossiers they had the intend, means and the opportunity.
Taser-Nazi of the Week
However appalling the above might read to you, it's not the sole reason why Helen Roberts got nominated for being the Taser-Nazi of the Week. After all, my explanation is still nothing more than speculation on WHY she and her team "overlooked" such a crucial email.
Neither did she get nominated for breaking out in tears: these are stressful times for everyone involved, including Helen Roberts and her Mounties.
What got her nominated was the content of her tearful explanation. She simply kept in line with her "old" narrative, propping up the cops's version of the truth that they never had any conversation about how to respond before getting to the airport, and that Bent was, how did she put that again, simply "mistaken."
A mistake, that explains it, right?
Helen Roberts, dismissing crucial evidence as a "mistake" while withholding this highly contradictory evidence coming from a top RCMP brass has gotten you nominated for Taser-Nazi of the week.
Congratulations!
UPDATE 1: This post called "Canada: Cover-up of RCMP murder of immigrant worker unravels" on the World Socialist website should not be missed
UPDATE 2: I agree with Vancouver Sun's conclusion of the column Mounties in Tasering should face prosecution: "That was not an "oversight." It was professional incompetence or a cover-up."
Tasers are more effective than ever, especially in the "head zone":
Sue Bailey
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA – Stun guns can cause seizures if their tiny electric barbs pierce the scalp and shock the brain, says a new article on the accidental jolting of a police officer.
The unnamed Ontario cop, in his 30s, was chasing a suspected robber when he was hit in the back of the head with a Taser fired by his partner.
Within seconds, the officer collapsed and went into a full-blown seizure – foaming at the mouth – for about a minute, says the article co-written by Toronto neurologist Dr. Richard Wennberg.
[The accident] is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal released Monday.
[...]
"Our report shows that a Taser shot to the head may result in brain-specific complications. It also suggests that seizure should be added to the list of Taser-related adverse events."
What appears to be a rare if not isolated case should serve as a cautionary tale, Wennberg said in an interview, especially as Taser use grows.
"In that [a seizure caused by a taser] hadn't ever been reported before, we felt sort of obligated to report on it in the medical literature so that people would know that for sure this can happen.
"To discharge that amount of electrical current in a region overlying the brain, it didn't seem impossible to me that this could happen in a mechanism similar to giving electroconvulsive therapy or something like that."
Wennberg says stun guns pack about the same jolt used to induce seizures in electroshock therapy. [...]
The police officer came out of his seizure bewildered and with a severe headache. He was later diagnosed with a concussion, likely from the impact of the dart or from hitting his head after collapsing. He still suffers headaches and has difficulty concentrating 18 months later, Wennberg said.
He has not had any seizures since. [...]
"Taser International is aware of a few incidents during training in which an officer experienced a seizure following a hit by a Taser device."
Those incidents were not written up in medical reports. But the company's document 'Product Warnings: Law Enforcement' clearly warns against targeting sensitive areas such as the head and further states that the risk of a seizure "may be heightened if electrical stimuli or current passes through the head region." [...]
"They certainly don't mean for these things to ever be aimed at the head – nor was it meant to be in this case even. But it wouldn't always have to be an accident. I'd be surprised if (a seizure) didn't happen most of the time to people if they actually did get Tasered in the head."
Taser International has steadfastly defended the relative safety of its devices although it stresses that no use-of-force tool is risk-free.
More than 20 Canadians have died after being Tasered. [...]
Plenty of reasons why Kwesi Millington is the receiver of the Taser-Nazi of the Week nomination.
The most obvious ones:
1. "A bulletproof vest, handgun, baton and pepper spray were not enough to quell the fear RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington says he felt when confronted by Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski [who was holding a stapler] during a fatal October 2007 incident at Vancouver airport."
2.Without any warning Constable Kwesi Millington fired the taser at Robert Dziekanski, who, according to a scared Kwesi Millington, was making a threating gesture with a stapler toward one of the other three officers.
3. As a reaction to this "fluid" situation Kwesi did not taser Dziekanski once, not twice, no, Kwesi tasered "the subject" another four times AFTER it had fallen down on the floor from the excruciating pain from the first taser deployment.
4. Throughout the Braidwood hearing Mr. Millington's initial explanation continuously contradicted the Pritchard video, which seems nothing short of a cover up. The (a) yelling of Dziekanski, the (b) raising high of the stapler, (c) not functioning of the taser, (d) number of deployments of the taser, (e) even the intensions of Mr. Dziekanski (why Dziekanski walked to his luggage when asked for his passport and identification), they were all proven wrong by the video or other evidence presented at he inquiry.
What was it that Abraham Lincoln had to say about long strings of lies and cover-ups?
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Kwesi, you are the Taser-Nazi of the Week.
Congratulations!
LINKS
- Globe and Mail: "He was carrying a weapon and all four of us were only in our underwear"
- Dawg's Blawg: Braidwood to show us the obvious: the RCMP defeated by a single amateur video
This is what got Charles Momy nominated:
The bottom line is that [tasers] saves lives," said Charles Momy, president of [the Canadian Police Association].
Repeating misinformed corporate mantra's has got you nominated for Taser-Nazi of the week.
Congratulations!
Thank you.
LINKS:
- CBC: All Officers need Tasers
- Taser-Nazi of the Week
The Canadian Press has a list of Canadian cases since 2003 in which people died after police use of Tasers:
Nov. 3, 2008: Gordon Walker Bowe, 30, from Castlegar, B.C., died in hospital after he was located in the basement of a Calgary home by police responding to calls about a possible break-and-enter.
Oct. 29, 2008: Trevor Grimolfson died after he was confronted by police armed with Tasers who found him running amok in an Edmonton pawn shop.
Sept. 30, 2008: Frank Frachette, 49, died after he was jolted with a Taser by police who were trying to arrest him in connection with a bank robbery in Langley, B.C.
Sept. 16, 2008: Sean Reilly, 42, died less than 12 hours after he was Tasered during a struggle in a cell at a police station in Peel Region, outside Toronto.
July 22, 2008: Michael Langan, 17, died in hospital after being shot with a Taser. Winnipeg police say the youth refused to comply with repeated requests by officers to put a knife down. The victim was believed to be involved in the theft of property from a vehicle.
June 23, 2008: Jeffrey Marreel, 36, died in custody after Ontario Provincial Police, responding to a disturbance in the town of Norfolk, near Simcoe, shocked him with a Taser. Marreel's father said the man had a history of drug use and lost his job at a flower nursery two weeks prior.
Nov. 22, 2007: Howard Hyde, 45, died about 30 hours after he was Tasered by Halifax police at a Dartmouth jail. An inquest later ruled his death accidental and the result of "excited delirium," not the Taser.
Oct. 17, 2007: Quilem Registre, 39, died in a Montreal hospital after police used a Taser on him at a police station. Police say Registre became aggressive during questioning after he was stopped for a traffic violation.
Oct. 14, 2007: Robert Dziekanski, 40, died after police used a Taser and forcibly subdued him after he became agitated at Vancouver Airport, where he had arrived from Poland.
Aug. 30, 2006: Jason Doan, 28, died in Red Deer, Alta., after police used a Taser in responding to a complaint about a man seen damaging vehicles.
Dec. 24, 2005: Alessandro Fiacco, 33; witnesses said police used a Taser to subdue an agitated Fiacco who had been running into traffic in Edmonton.
July 15, 2005: Paul Saulnier, 42, died in Digby, N.S., after police tried to keep him from leaving the detachment by using pepper spray, batons and a Taser.
July 1, 2005: James Foldi, 39, died after police used a Taser while trying to arrest him following reports of numerous break-ins in the Beamsville, Ont., area.
June 30, 2005: Gurmeet Sandhu, 41, died in Surrey, B.C., after police used a Taser while responding to complaints about a domestic dispute.
May 5, 2005: Kevin Geldart, 34, died after police tried to subdue him with a Taser outside a Moncton, N.B., bar.
Aug. 8, 2004: Samuel Truscott, 43, died in Kingston, Ont., hours after being shot with a Taser. The Ontario coroner said Truscott was killed by a drug overdose.
July 17, 2004: Jerry Knight, 29, died in hospital in Brampton, Ont., after he was shot with a Taser during a violent struggle with police. A pathologist found no proof the stun gun was to blame for his death, saying Knight died from restraint asphyxia and cocaine-related 'excited delirium'.
June 23, 2004: Robert Bagnell, 44, died at a Vancouver hotel after being shot with a Taser by police, who said Bagnell was in the throes of a potentially lethal cocaine-induced psychosis at the time.
May 13, 2004: Peter Lamonday, 33, died in London, Ont., after being pepper-sprayed, punched and shot several times with a Taser during a struggle with police. Ontario's Special Investigation Unit concluded Lamonday died from cocaine-induced 'excited delirium" and not from police action.
May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichikov, 25, died in Vancouver after he was forcibly subdued and hit with a Taser by police while reportedly high on crack cocaine.
Sept. 28, 2003: Clark Whitehouse, 34, died in Whitehorse, Yukon. RCMP reported Whitehouse fled on foot while attempting to swallow drugs. Officers used a Taser to subdue him. A short time later, he appeared to be having trouble breathing and was pronounced dead at hospital.
July 22, 2003: Clay Willey, 33, died in hospital in Prince George, B.C., 16 hours after police used a Taser on him at an RCMP detachment. Willey was arrested in the parking lot of a local mall after police received complaints about a man acting aggressively. An autopsy found he had potentially lethal amounts of cocaine in his system.
April 19, 2003: Terrance Hanna, 51, died at the North Burnaby Inn in Burnaby, B.C., after pulling a knife and hammer on police. High on cocaine, he went into cardiac arrest after police shot him with a Taser.
RCMP officer Benjamin Monty Robinson, one of the four officers involved in the killing of Robert Dziekanski, has been caught drunk-driving and killing 21 year old Orion Hutchinson last Saturday.
One of the four RCMP officers involved in the Tasering of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski is facing charges of impaired driving causing death after a collision in Tsawwassen Saturday.Yes, the police is always eager to come up with names, except when it involves one of their colleges; Getting it Right did find the answer to who it was here:
However, Delta police -- who are investigating the crash -- have refused to identify the officer until he makes his first court appearance on Jan. 15 and is formally charged.
An RCMP officer facing charges of impaired driving causing death in Delta is refusing to comment on the charges against him.To be honest with you, I think the idea of releasing the names of suspects is a bad practice to begin with. In the Netherlands all media is used to address suspects (but also convicted criminals) only by the first letter of their last name (that would be Benjamin R. in this case); and I am in favour of such a policy. But if the full name does need to be exposed on ideological grounds (and the Law and Order types in N-America are convinced it does) than at least be consistent about it.
Reached by The Vancouver Sun on his cellphone Wednesday, Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson hung up as soon as a reporter identified himself.
Follow-up calls to Robinson went to voice mail and messages left for Robinson were not returned.
Robinson is due to appear in Surrey Provincial Court on Jan. 15 after he was allegedly involved in a collision Saturday night that left 21-year-old Orion Hutchinson dead.
The French are fed up with the tactics of Taser & Co. and have now arrested the head of SMP Technologies (also nicknamed "Taser France"), Antoine Di Zazzo.
No reason to doubt Arizona's TASER INTERNATIONAL has something to do with this, although they love to pretend they don't: TASER INTERNATIONAL is a company that how showed again and again (and again) that it cannot be trusted.
Read on to see how real scum operates:
The ConnextionIndeed; "Taser France", in a concerted effort with some police officers, customs, and private investigators tried to frame one of France's main taser critics, Olivier Besancenot.
Police have arrested the head of a French company that supplies Taser stun guns [nicknamed Taser France] to security forces on suspicion of spying on a Trotskyist leader who has campaigned for a ban on the controversial weapons.
Six police officers, a customs official and two private detectives were detained along with Antoine Di Zazzo, head of SMP Technologies ["Taser France", the sole importer and distributor of taser] guns in France, officials said.
Paris prosecutors launched a probe in May after a magazine reported that a private detective firm was tailing ex-presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot, the postman leader of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire(LCR) [and a fierce critic of taser use in France].
Besancenot said he was due to appear next Monday in a Paris court because Di Zazzo was suing him for libel, "seeking 50,000 euros from me simply because I drew attention to an Amnesty International report" on Taser guns.And for this libel suit, any more information on perhaps less-than-legal practises on the side of Besancenot would be excellent "discoveries" for the DiZ Zazzo and his rightwing capitalist and statist friends.
Rights group Amnesty says that nearly 300 people have died around the world after being zapped with a Taser and has demanded a moratorium on the weapon's use while a full investigation is conducted.Tasering IS torture, I couldn't agree more.
A United Nations committee said last year that use of the gun constitutes "a form of torture" that can result in death.
Di Zazzo, whose company has supplied Tasers to the French army, police and gendarmerie since 2004, has adamantly denied that the guns can be lethal.Of course tasers are lethal, nobody is denying THAT anymore in North America (unless they are really, really stupid), even TASER INTERNATIONAL doesn't make any of those bigoted claims on their site anymore.
Besancenot is currently winding up his LCR party to found a Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste in January, which will seek to attract members of the Parti Communiste, environmentalists, disaffected Socialists and anti-globalisation activists.Four percent of the vote for a communist party? That's not bad.
In last year's presidential election [Besancenot] won 4% of the vote.
Domain name : taser.fr
Status: Active (see also Web Site)
Registrar : AMEN / Agence des Médias Numériques
Creation date: 03/05/2004
Anniversary date: 26 May
Domain Name Servers (DNS):
* Server # 1 : ns1.amen.fr [62.193.206.141]
* Server # 2 : ns2.amen.fr [212.43.229.70]
More info Holder : SMP TECHNOLOGIES
55, avenue Marceau
75116 Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 45 00 40 83
Email: info@taser.fr
More info Administrative contact: Antoine Di Zazzo
SMP TECHNOLOGIES
55, avenue Marceau
75116 Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 45 00 40 83
Email: info@taser.fr
More info Technical contact : AMEN France
Departement Noms de domaine
12, Rond-Point des Champs-Elysees
75008 Paris
France
Phone: +33 8 92 55 66 77
Email: afnic@amen.fr
I'm sincerely saddened by the follow up on this story. When are those people, that write policy on taser use, going to realize that tasers cause harm to suspects AND police officers?
NYPD officer kills himself over Taser episodeLINKS
NEW YORK — The man was naked, teetering on a building ledge and jabbing at police with an 2.5-metre-long fluorescent light bulb as a crowd gathered below.
Lt. Michael Pigott responded by ordering an officer to fire a stun gun at the man, who froze and plunged headfirst to his death in a scene captured on amateur video and replayed frequently on the Internet.
The officer was remorseful and distraught. He apologized and sought the family's forgiveness. Then he went to his unit's headquarters Thursday morning and fatally shot himself, just hours before the family laid the victim to rest.
"The lieutenant was deeply distraught and extremely remorseful over the death of Iman Morales in Brooklyn last week," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "Sadly, his death just compounds the tragedy of the loss of Mr. Morales."
The suicide marks another tragic turn in a case that has raised questions about the use of Tasers by the country's largest police force.
In Canada, police have come under intense scrutiny for using the shock weapons after a would-be Polish immigrant died at Vancouver International Airport last fall.
Robert Dziekanski was twice jolted by RCMP Tasers after the officers were called to deal with an agitated Dziekanski, who had been wandering around lost for hours after his flight arrived.
The latest Canadian victim in a Taser-related incident is a 49-year-old from Langley, B.C. who died on Tuesday after crashing through the window of a home and being jolted by an RCMP stun gun.
In New York, thousands of police sergeants began carrying Tasers on their belts this year after the NYPD expanded use of the weapons, a trend that has been playing out in police departments across the country in recent years. The pistol-shaped weapons fire barbs up to 10 metres and deliver powerful shocks to immobilize people.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has acknowledged that the weapon is controversial, and some organizations are strongly opposed to police use of Tasers - fearful that the guns can be abused without clear guidelines.
Police said the use of the stun gun in the death of Morales appeared to violate department guidelines, which explicitly bar their use "in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface." Marchesona also was reassigned to desk duty but was not stripped of his gun and badge.
Pigott learned firsthand the dangers of Tasers after he was called to a Brooklyn apartment building on the night of Sept. 24.
Witnesses and neighbours said Morales grew increasingly agitated and threatened to kill himself, leading his mother to call 911. When police arrived, Morales fled naked out the window of his third-floor apartment to the fire escape. He tried to get into an apartment on the floor above, and then climbed down until he reached a ledge over a shuttered storefront, where he started jabbing at officers with the light bulb.
Pigott had to make a decision about what to do. He ordered Officer Nicholas Marchesona to fire the Taser.
The 5,000-volt shock immobilized the 35-year-old Morales, who then toppled from his perch. He plunged three metres to the ground and died. Officers had radioed for an inflatable bag as the incident unfolded, but it had not yet arrived when Morales fell.
Authorities believe the fall killed Morales, but an autopsy was inconclusive.
After the episode, Kelly ordered refresher training for the NYPD's emergency services unit on how to deal with the mentally ill and appointed a new commander of the unit.
Pigott was stripped of his gun and badge and assigned to a job with the department's motor vehicle fleet - a huge demotion for a 21-year veteran who was assigned to such an elite team. The Brooklyn district attorney's office and the police department investigated.
Pigott apologized for what happened, telling the Long Island newspaper Newsday that he was "truly sorry."
Sometime before 6 a.m. Thursday, the lieutenant went to the locker room at his unit's headquarters by himself and found a weapon that was not his. The married father of two sons and a daughter shot himself in the head on his 46th birthday.
About four hours later, the Morales family gathered at a church in Manhattan for their relative's funeral.
"This is horrible," said Morales' aunt, Ann DeJesus Negron. "I mean, for me personally, I know it's horrible because I would have never wished this on anyone, and we never wanted, of course, this for Iman, and we would never wanted this to happen to the officer at all, or anybody at all."
The episode also cast the spotlight on the NYPD's emergency services unit, a team of officers who deal with dozens of hostile scenarios every day, such as hostage situations, suicidal suspects, building collapses and hazardous materials threats.
"These guys are the best of the best, they really are," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "When people need help, they call the police, and when police need help, the call the ESU."
O'Donnell said that even a mistake caught on camera shouldn't take away from what the unit and the officers there do on a daily basis.
"You have a guy who made a mistake where there's no allegation of malice or ill will," he said. "And what happened after he made a mistake? He was named in the paper, shamed in the paper, suspended, and there was a strong story line that he could be criminal suspect."
NYPD officers are allowed to use Tasers if they believe emotionally disturbed people are a danger to themselves or to others. The department uses stun guns about 300 times on average. So far this year, stun guns have been used 180 times.
The department has used Tasers since 1984, but policy previously called for sergeants to store the stun guns in their trunks while patrolling.
"It is worth remembering that our police officers are not super men, but rather flesh-and-blood human beings who deal with life-and-death situations that most of us cannot even imagine on a daily basis," said Thomas Sullivan of Lieutenants Benevolent Association. "They deserve a kind thought and the benefit of the doubt for all the good that they try to do, especially when things do not work out exactly as we would have hoped for."
Pigott was a licensed pilot and a motor boat operator. He had worked as a lieutenant in ESU since 2002, and previously served as a lieutenant in a Brooklyn precinct and as a sergeant in precincts that covered Queens neighbourhoods.
Another day, another taser death. Who's still counting all taser deaths?
A man is dead after he crashed through a second-storey window, naked and bleeding from a chest wound, and was hit with an RCMP Taser.If this man was seriously bleeding from a chest wound, then why would someone taser him? Is having crashed through a window any reason to taser someone to death?
RCMP say they converged on a home in suburban Langley, B.C., Tuesday, following an armed robbery earlier in the day. A witness who saw a vehicle leaving the scene of the hold-up alerted police and followed the car to the home.
That's quite the stretch, "following an armed robbery". Is the account of one eyewitness enough to taser somebody to death?
Cpl. Peter Thiessen said police heard a man and woman arguing inside the home, and then witnessed the man come through an upper-floor window and hit the ground.
Did the woman throw this guy out? Then why taser the guy and not the woman?
With the gun used in the robbery nowhere in sight and the suspect trying to run inside the home despite a serious chest wound, police decided to use the Taser, Thiessen said.
What do you mean, despite? If I was naked and bleeding like hell I wouldn't consider going for a drink or see a movie; I would go inside, call an ambulance and if possible get dressed. What's so weird about that reaction?
[Thiessen] said the man was still alive when he was arrested but died en route to hospital.
Does anyone else have a Robert Dziekanski deja-vu here? Robert was still alive when he was arrested. But not much later he was dead, thanks to the great work of the RCMP.
Thiessen said a woman who was inside the home was arrested.
Well, problem solved then. It was all the woman's fault. How wonderful to turn the single reason for tasering the now dead man (to protect the female) into the perfect scapegoat.
This story stinks, and I don't like it.
LINKS
- Canadian Press: Langley RCMP kill seriously wounded and unarmed man with taser
-Truth not Tasers: 371+ Taser deaths, and still counting...
Full Article follows, comments at the bottom.
PS: RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen says that they killed the suspect "in the interest of public safety and the safety of police officers". Well done, Peter.
LANGLEY, B.C. — A man is dead after he crashed through a second-storey window, naked and bleeding from a chest wound, and was hit with an RCMP Taser.
RCMP say they converged on a home in suburban Langley, B.C., Tuesday, following an armed robbery earlier in the day. A witness who saw a vehicle leaving the scene of the hold-up alerted police and followed the car to the home.
Cpl. Peter Thiessen said police heard a man and woman arguing inside the home, and then witnessed the man come through an upper-floor window and hit the ground.
With the gun used in the robbery nowhere in sight and the suspect trying to run inside the home despite a serious chest wound, police decided to use the Taser, Thiessen said.
He said the man was still alive when he was arrested but died en route to hospital.
Thiessen said a woman who was inside the home was arrested.
The RCMP Major Crimes Unit and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team are investigating the incident with the oversight of Vancouver police.
The use of the shock weapons has been under scrutiny since Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after RCMP officers shocked him with a Taser at the Vancouver airport in October 2007.
A public inquiry into Dziekanski's death is scheduled to get underway in November.
Last week, Vancouver police used a Taser on a 16-year-old mother who refused to hand her one-month-old baby over to social workers.
Police said they acted because of fears the "mentally distraught" mother might smother the little boy during the three-hour standoff.
From Democracy Now!: Mentally Handicapped Man Falls to Death After Police Tasering
And here in New York, police are admitting at least partial fault in the death of a mentally handicapped man who fell from a building after he was tasered. Thirty-five-year-old Inman Morales was standing naked on a ledge when police confronted him to try to bring him down. Police say they had called for an inflatable bag to break Morales’s fall. But it had not arrived before an officer struck him with the taser weapon, sending him plunging to his death. [...]More from the New York Daily News: NYPD investigates two officers in Taser death [of] Brooklyn man
Instead of waiting for backup to arrive with an airbag that would have broken his fall, "an [Emergency Service Unit] lieutenant directed another ESU officer on the sidewalk to employ a [taser] against Morales, who fell to the sidewalk, striking his head," Browne said.Indeed, not a smart move. Hell, this NY police officer is smarter than I thought.
Morales, 35, fell 10 feet and landed headfirst on the pavement. He was declared dead at Kings County Hospital.
"It just wasn't a smart move. When you Taser someone, they drop like a stone. No muscle control. Under regular circumstances, the (suspect) could have jumped himself and been OK," a police source said.
Inman Morales, dead at 35."He froze and pitched forward," witness Ernestine Croom said. "They didn't put out a mattress or net or anything."
"That's a human being. You just let the man fall and kill himself?" said Robin Overton, 45, who works nearby. "I thought the cops were here to help him."
Tasers, tasers, tasers!
If you were waiting for this week's report on taser abuse in Canada then you can keep waiting for while.
A report on [taser use] that was expected this week at a police chiefs convention has been delayed until next year.I suppose it's tough to report on such an inconvenient truth when one of your main sponsor is so heavily involved in the outcome of the report.
Taser International is one of the top $ponsor$ of the police chiefs' conference.Indeed, the always humble Taser International. Not that Steve Palmer (Canadian Police Research Centre) would tell you about this particular conflict of interest, no, there's a better explanation (wink, wink):
"It's important that this (report) is done well and that this is done in a way that brings value to a broad group of stakeholders: public, police, and policy makers," Palmer said at a news conference Tuesday at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police convention.I see, "done well". Yes of course, now I get it, "well done" Steve. Taser's sponsorship of the convention has got nothing to do with it.
Taser International is one of the top $ponsor$ of the police chiefs' conference.Oh really? Gosh, I had no idea. Are you sure?
Taser International is one of the top $$$$$ponsor$$$$$ of the police chiefs' conference.But that wouldn't affect any of the "events" at such a conference, would it?
Ontario's provincial police commissioner says there is nothing wrong with Taser International sponsoring a police chiefs' conference.I told you so, didn't I?
Fortunately the lazy-lapdog-journalists of "the Canadian Press" had for once their follow up question ready, asking for some evidence of this so often repeated but false claim that tasers save lives:Julian Fantino says the weapons have saved many lives and are a tool like any other.
"The issue is not so much the tool as the rhetoric that revolves around it," he said. "I think the debate has gone off the rails.
"In my experience that particular device has saved many lives."
....Indeed, lazy-lapdog-journalists don't ask such serious questions, nor would there be a valid answer (which I've explained before here: tasers DON'T save lives).
Let's be clear about this right from the start: NOBODY deserves to die at age 17, comprende?
Yet there's one officer that keeps up the good-old rant for Taser: Constable Adam Cheadle of the Winnipeg Police Service.
Here's the bit that got him nominated:
"[Tasers are] another less-than-lethal option for them to utilize," he said.Well, sir, is there any decency in you? How DARE you to call the taser less-than-lethal, right after this 17 year old boy died from it!?!
"Tasers are not meant to replace firearms," Cst. Adam Cheadle, the service's use of force co-ordinator, said in a recent interview. "The Taser is on the same playing field as a baton or [pepper] spray."Let me see if I got that right:
Yes, I believe this is a first for Winnipeg:
The suspect who died after being hit by a Winnipeg police stun gun was 17 years old [...]Wonderful, I remember my 17th birthday quite well (and my 18th, and my 19th and so on).
[Const. Jacqueline] Chaput said the victim, whom she declined to name, was viewed as a suspect in an attempted car theft.I see, a 17 year old kid attempting a car theft is currently enough reason to taser someone to death; nice job, Winnipeg Police Services, no need to apologize to the victims relatives then.
Disappointing, but expected: Canada has another taser death.
WINNIPEG - A man died Tuesday after being shocked with a Taser by Winnipeg police in a back lane behind a city home.Trust me, Winnipeg Police Services; it might be your first taser death, but as long as you don't get rid of those electo-torture shock guns, it won't be your last.
Investigators had taped off a large area to investigate the incident Tuesday evening.
A police spokeswoman said it was the first time a suspect has died after a Winnipeg officer has used an "electronic control device."
"The male was conveyed to hospital in critical condition and has since succumbed to his injuries," said Const. Jacqueline Chaput.Dare I ask “what injuries?” I though the taser was supposed to be the (warning: sales pitch ahead) non-lethal weapon of the future?
[An eyewitness, ] owner of [a] store who identified himself as Dave, said the man walked calmly across the street, turned around and began giving the occupants of [a black Chevrolet Suburban] the car the finger.I always tell people, “don't finger black Chevrolet Suburbans because, hey, there could be police with tasers in there; and we all know the kind of hobbies they like”
There are quite a few things to be learnt from one of CBC's latest Access To Information (ATI) requests, consisting of email exchanges between RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass and RCMP Commissioner William Elliot. Here's the obvious (read the emails at the bottom of this posting):
The RCMP's “law and order” ideology is highly supported by BC's top Liberal administrators, including (well-known drunk and overpaid monkey) Gordon Campbell.
The RCMP doesn't trust the Globe and Mail, suggesting the paper is biased against the RCMP.
The RCMP doesn't trust the public at large, especially those critical of the RCMP.
The RCMP's own investigation was part of the overall media strategy to whitewash the killing of Robert Dziekanski by the four RCMP officers.
Let's get a bit more detail here:
(1) Do you remember what happened to BC's Premier in January 2003? Wikipedia does! He's Canada's only premier that has spent time in jail due to drinking and driving, yet is still in office. Driving with a blood-alcohol concentration level of above .08 per cent he COULD have easily killed someone!
Compare that with Robert Dziekanski's final “holiday trip” to heaven, killed after being tasered to hell and back. Having spent hours in the Vancouver airport's security zone, not knowing where to go and what to do next, he just lost it. Yes, he threw some computer stuff around, but anyone who has seen the Dziekanski Tasering video would agree with me that Dziekanski himself WASN'T going to kill anyone, not in a million years.
We now know that Gordon Campbell was highly supportive of the Force and the four officers involved.
(2) The anti Globe and Mail bias was quite revealing to me. I personally don't take the G & M too seriously (because of it's overall corporate and culturally conservative bias), but why does the RCMP hate the Globe and Mail so much? Perhaps point #3 is the answer?
(3) Gary Bass labels those critical of the RCMP as “armchair quarterbacks”. The derogatory seems to be used to disqualify all criticism, regardless of the validity.
I'm pretty sure that the majority of the people who saw the video were appalled by how the four RCMP officers “solved” the “C.E.W. incident”... there were plenty of very good reasons for critical discourse. Why did the RCMP use the taser on an unarmed immigrant in one of the most secure zones of the Vancouver Airport? Why did the RCMP have to kill Robert Dziekanski? Why did the RCMP not try to resuscitate Robert Dziekanski? Why did RCMP tell so many lies about the killing? Why have the killers not been charged? Who are the RCMP officers? Why are their names not made public? All valid questions (if you ask me), but non of them have ever been answered properly, and no apology has been made either.
The RCMP might not trust the public, but with "incidents" like these we surely can't trust the RCMP, and for overly obvious reasons: they get away with killing and lying without further consequences.
(4) Whitewash galore! At least the RCMP gets some things done! Remember Ian Bush? He was the youngster that was shot in the back of his head by the incredible rubber mountie while in custody. No serious problem for the RCMP spin machine (as long as pesky video cameras have been turned off, and ATI requests can be neutralized).
And the same RCMP started their media campaign in the Dziekanski killing case right "from the get-go". Remember Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre, lying through his teeth? I do.
Make no mistake about it; Robert Dziekanski was killed by four RCMP officers. And plenty of people have helped to cover it up or whitewash it, including Gordon Campbell:
[Gordon Campbell] was highly complementary of the Force, disappointed over the degree of criticism, and wants to support [the four RCMP officers that killed Robert Dziekanski] somehow.”
Supporting killers now, Mr. Gordon Campbell?
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
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