What a terrible and sinister story. It seems that racial discrimination is as alive as it was half a century ago in the land of the free. I see programs involving american police on tv and on youtube and ive seen drunken white women get out of cars and fall over obviously incapable of driving and the police help them to their feet and escort them to the police car but ive also seen plenty of clips where black women are treated very roughly and violently by the same forces.

Yep, it's safe to say that Southern Crackers represent the REAL terrorist threat in the USA. This blog and its discussion is a good sample of what I mean, and what makes the sorts of terroristic attacks reported in the above item possible.

revoltnow, yeah i watched katrina happening , it was like seeing a third world country after a disaster , you know a country with no resources to help its people, not a grand old historic city in america.

SIMPLY PUT, THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR POLICE ANYWHERE TO USE TASERS WHEN THE SUSPECT HAS ALREADY BEEN CUFFED!!! this is the definition of excessive force...

...just another extrajudicial police execution...
This happens when a nation abandons the rule of law.

This happens all over the country. Please don't demonize or limit this to the South.

What about Amadou Diallo in New York?

Johnny Gammage in Pittsburgh?

Rodney King in LA?

Unfortunately, you could go on and on.

You have officers essentially fighting a war where the enemy is a poor black population. And what happens in a war? The enemy is dehumanized.

Then you have people choosing sides, feeling that they now have to resent and fear one another based on race.

It's all part of the war on workers and the poor. Division along racial lines has always done nothing but benefit the elites. Instances such as these help eat away at the roots of Solidarity.

Don't succumb, please.

At least this sick fuck will be charged.

Jesus christ, tasing him while he was unconscious?

iwarrior:

Well said.

Revoltnow,

I would have though that such yankee chauvinistic attitudes like yours toward the south would have been put to rest years ago.

Want to talk about racist pigs? Wouldn't the first place to kick out of the union be New York City, followed by Philadelphia, then maybe Chicago? I lived most of my life in the South - Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, plus some time in Georgia and Alabama. but I've never seen the kind or racism, political corruption, and rural-small-town bigotry and backwardness that I've seen here in the quintisentially "Northern" Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

revoltnow , don't evict the south, hold the racist establishment accountable! What an offensive suggestion. I've lived in Louisiana and the shit that goes down there is unbelievable. All it takes to get a gun and a badge is a high school diploma and a clean drug test. "Officer" Nugent should go to prison.

So Black History Month is continued.
When is going to be American History? Or better yet, human history. Or just world history...or the last chapter of the history of how GAIA evicts the entire human race off this Eden?
Of course, that "gop" should be pernitted to commit suicide (just like his dad.) What did the old man know anyway--how some twenty black men got hung in the cottonwood trees?
Cops got power. they don't have justice. power without justice is fascism.
Louisiana is a fascist state--and people wonder why Pelosi can't get their reps to impeach Bush....

This happens all over America. There has now been over 200 deaths in this nation as a result of tasing. I live in a middle class neighborhood in Denver. A man was tased to Death just a few blocks from my home, and right outside his residence! He had a wife and 2 daughters. This amounts to nothing more than Capital Punishment being administered on the streets of our nation with no trial, no representation, and no conviction! IT IS TIME IT STOPPED! What we need is to form an alliance against this practice and put an end to it NOW!

In America, the colored folk are portrayed as savages.

I believe this caucasian person continues using the American form of savagery for white people->abusing your power (which often results in harm/death) and getting away with it.

It might take another 200 years to civilize this cruel untamed country at the very least...don't take yourselves out of the equation on race and discrimination...it's alive and well and lives everywhere ..it's the plague of our times

a backwoods version of bush & co.

Just like the 60's and 70's. When it is white on black it gets hyped as racial. When it is black on white it gets buried, or gets written off as non-racial. The reason is they want to polarize the races, divide and rule, get the blacks all outraged by hyping an attack as racial, and then the whites get pissed when they realize that retaliatory attacks on them get buried. I saw this in South Boston in the 70's, it was a very effective strategy. History repeats.

Rather that looking at this in a non-racial way, and seeing it as authoritarian abuse that happens to be a "white" policeman on a person who happens to be black, they ask you to chose racial reasons. This tasering is an outrage, as it represents authoritarian abuse of fascism, but race is a red herring. How many videos have we seen of white on white, or black on white tasering in the last year or two?. It's not race, it's the boot of authoritarian fascism making itself known to the lower and middle classes. You are going to be well acquainted in the future.
People are so easily misled.

But what is racial is the system with regard to the drug laws. That really needs to be discussed.

Amnesty International has been working on the issues surrounding Tasers for a few years now. Tasers are marketed as a safe way to control aggressive individuals. They are not. Aside from their use as a means of torture as in this case, Tasers, in increasing numbers of cases, are being used as the only means of physically disabling persons who are excitable or posibly ill. For those with medical conditions and those on medications, Tasers can be and have been deadly. There was the deaf man in Colorado just out of a shower whose apartment was mistakenly raided. He could not hear to obey and was Tased to death. Recall the young man with a question for Senator Kerry in Florida last year. While he did not die, anyone could tell from the videos shot that he was no physical threat to the security people. He was just talking. Yet he was repeatedly Tased.

each community needs to police their own police - they work for us - they can be fired - they are only there because we hired them and we pay them

this is a good chance for people to learn to exercise grassroots activism, elect people to city government offices who reflect the wishes of the people and get rid of the corrupt cops - it CAN be done

Police work is a magnet for sociopaths and John Wayne wannabees. I know people who aspire to police work for the access to drugs it will afford them.

US police should be stripped of all potentially deadly weaponry. They should have guns that shoot pellets that once subdermal test the blood chemistry to determine whether to release their tranquilizer. If there's a tenth of what would be a fatal dose then the pellet should wait for removal without releasing it's tranquilizer.

If the judiciary wasn't so thoroughly corrupt nothing else would be necessary to get these pigs in check. But by the time a lawyer becomes a judge they're ankle deep upside down in back scratching sinister entities.

Judges should be elected. The political class has too much history as scofflaws to be trusted hand picking judges...

If cops could depend on harsh prosecution for their heinous misdeeds they would surely think twice before tasering people into cardiac arrest, or raping them with a broom handle, or raping peace protestors (miami) or shooting unarmed people, or shooting knife carrying people at a distance, or shooting everyone they ever shoot in a vital organ as has become police standard practice...

I used to think it was all about the rule of law, but law without justice is just another form of tierney. if your looking for the rule of law then you will; find aggressive interrogation, rather than torture, you will find retro-active immunity rather then accountability. I've had a stomach full of this stuff called rule of law. Try being a poor person accused of a crime and see want kind of justice you'll get with the legal aide society. You'll face the prosecutor with his police dep. and all the wealthy corp. backers of the rule of law. Can't hardly wait for another Florida election with its rule of law. its time for a good Ole once of moral justice.

Unfortunately, rocyahsoul, MiMiCcS, and others have the cops' number.
I have close relatives who are cops and have worked closely with cops for over 20 years.
Police work is a magnet for antisocial types. Those who enter their ranks and discover this truism and other abuses within "the system" are given two choices, accept the "code" or quit. Where would a guy with a high school diploma and otherwise limited economic prospects garner so much "power," "respect," "authority," _and a paycheck_ to make the average college educated teacher turn green with envy? More on these _arriviste_ poor later.
Training in _perjury_ comes naturally, surreptitiously at the academy and _ideologically_ on the job. Do what it takes to convict "the bad guy." And their power in the "halls of justice" is complete.
In the parallel universe of TV-land--where most people are "aghast" at this type of event--cops tackle you, then the "men in blue" gently pick you up and as you lean against the police car to be handcuffed, they read you rights from a Miranda card.
In the real universe, they tackle you and inflict a couple of slaps and elbows for not submitting to their uniform and badge. If you are lucky. If you are not lucky and a minority, you get slammed again for good measure, against a brick wall, gravelly asphalt, prickly cyclone fence and you end up scratched, cut and bleeding, clothes torn, and you're black and blue all over; including a torn lip. At this point you are on your stomach. Your wrists are twisted back. You're handcuffed bruisingly tight and raised so that your shoulder blades pinch against each other.
And you are "smart" to not ever swear at the cops at this point.
The batons on the buttocks and calves cannot be far behind. And, the cop when his shift ends or at a choir boy session, laughs-off the stress "you caused him" with a few beers and boasts about his latest exploit in taming "the bad guy." For _anyone_ cops arrest, in their manichean worldview, is _always_ "the bad guy." That's part of their institutional ideology.
Where do departments find these guys to recruit? But for 4 to 6 months in police academy, most of these fellows would be asking you, "would you like fries with that?" 'Nuff said. Or as the joke goes, Q: "What do you call that guy in the wrestling/football team who got all C's and D's in high school?" A: "Officer."
The minute we started handing guns and tasers to beat cops, a lot of cops became citizen beaters. A sadist like Scott Nugent was a natural to hide in blue. With this lack of impulse control he'd be a natural candidate for state prison otherwise. But he has a union and an entire "thin blue line" ready to back him up. And perjure themselves for him if necessary.
Historically, the courts have allowed cops such a broad standard of _situational_ "reasonable force" that were it applied to you and me no one could be convicted of "murder" or "assault with a deadly weapon" in a court of law.
It's unfortunate that we don't have statewide "drafts" for police. A three years service on the beat should do it. After that those who demonstrate authentic investigative material can either re-enlist strictly to desk/investigation jobs and never do beat work again.
I am persuaded that the shift work involved deprives cops of normal acquaintances/friendships other than other cops. And, thus, their mores and worldviews become self-reinforcing and isolating.
I am also persuaded that patrol/grunt work tends to reinforce narcissitic pathologies in some. And those unlucky "civilians" who do not show due deference or the submissive posture are in serious trouble.
I am also persuaded that the stress due to shifts, lousy diets, and, frankly, a frequent interaction with some violent, alienated and anti-social types tends to give some cops who are otherwise decent human beings, a form or post-traumatic stress disorder. Hence, the limit of three years on the beat.
I am persuaded we should not have professional beat cops; only draftees or three year volunteers.
Finally, I leave you with the thought uttered by a robber baron from the Guilded Age, "We hire half of the poor to kill the other half."
They don't have to kill us all physically, just enough of us to intimidate the rest. It worked well for Hitler and Stalin.

Here in Canada, Vancouver, B.C. to be precise, the RCMP are still trying to cover-up the death of Robert Dzikanski(sp?), the Polish man who was killed with a TASER after being ignored by Canada Customs officials for EIGHT HOURS. He grew upset and emotional, and was throwing a chair around.

The RCMP response?

They TASERed him three seconds after approaching him, causing heart failure and death.

In the public inquest into the death, the RCMP investigated themselves (again!), and cleared the officers of wrong doing.

Meanwhile in Poland, this is growing into a major international rift between the governments of Poland and Canada. FIVE major Polish news services covered Mr. Dzikanski's funeral, and the public in Poland is calling for a PROPER criminal investigation.

To MiMi - Robert Dzikanksi WAS WHITE! THE RCMP WHO KILLED HIM WERE WHITE!

This is not a 'racial' bias as you seem to think, where the black community is complaining that they are being picked on.

This is about police, in both the US and Canada, reaching for a weapon that has a proven LETHAL track record as a matter of first resort, instead of using the training they are supposed to have received to lower the threat level to a point where NO ONE gets injured.

This is about police brutality, and a growing number of cases where any public display of dissent or disobedience is seen as a threat to the brutal ruling class.

This is nothing less than the normalization of violence being used against the general populace, in accordance with the foundation of a POLICE STATE.

here's another recent story of cops using tasers unnecessarily...

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

and if you all remember the "bro dont tase me" guy...

this isnt relegated to this backwards town... this is becoming a widespread phenomena... its a way to get ppl used to being cattle prodded as a normal way of police life... to not question this police procedure that's clearly inhumane!!!

has anyone considered making this an issue come this november? Maybe we can get PETA to give us some advice? i mean seriously... if they can put gay issues (which have NO business being a part of our govts business) why cant we make this an issue?

i understand that cops have it tough... but just like cheney said about soldiers dying in iraq ... when asked if he felt bad for their deaths.. his response was... "they enlisted"... leaving a person to infer that no.. he doesn't feel bad because they enlisted and knew the risks?

well i'm sorry... but you chose to be a police officer were there are going to be inherent risks.... it comes with the territory... and tasing a blind woman.. or tasing a young man to death.... or tasing a man for excursing his 1st amendment rights.... well thats not the spirit of "to protect in serve"

to protect themselves?
to serve... who?

how does this help the community?

not sure... but between having to right the govt... having to right the police from overarching power... and apparently having to stop obama if he's elected from developing a national security force... WE THE PPL have alot of work to do huh?

time to hit the sack then... and dont forget your wheaties in the morning kay?

btw... before i head off to bed... just wanted to reiterate... that we all need to be paying CLOSE attention to whats happening in chicago... there's another controlled experiment thats happening there at this very moment.... and the outcome very well may determine if martial law is coming to a town near you!

I am a pretty "law and order" guy, but I have never never NEVER understood why you need to taser someone that is on the ground and handcuffed. They aren't going anywhere. Why not just wait a few minutes and talk to them. Even yell at them, whatever, they are going to just get tired and give up. If they don't then have three or four guys pick him up and toss him in a van if you need to. You don't need to taser them once they're down. Period.

Another thing that gets me is people that are over the edge and boxed in by police and then get shot 20-30-40 times when they lunge at cops with a magazine or a knife or whatever. If you have three or four cops with guns drawn, couldn't a first step be one of them saying I have this covered and maybe shooting one time if at all rather than all the cops emptying their entire clip into the guy. You are really likely to survive one gunshot, you haven't a chance when you're shot 40 times like that black guy in Brooklyn a few years ago. (who had no gun...)

I think there is a pervasive air in the police today that they are the thin blue line and that on one side is anarchy and peace on the other and that simply isn't so. Taking a breath and negotiating or simply using appropriate force could save a lot of lives. Trying to take non-lethal shots at unarmed suspects as well seems to be common sense rather than trying to kill with each shot....

Anyway. This situation is wrong regardless of the color of the victim or the perpitrator.

i'm surprised people are surprised by this behavior. bottom line is someone is selling something, agencies buy it. people get kickbacks for buying it. funny thing though anyone hear of any cops lawyers wealthy people getting tased

Unfortunately, I grew up in that town, and things have not changed since I left almost 30 years ago. There is legalized racism there, but the blacks refuse to standup. They would rather be pacified briefly than take a stand for a complete change. So much of what has gone on has been because they sell out to those in the majority who have some semblance of power and money, and the Blacks there who do have influence are the ones who sell out. It is sad and what's worse is that this is only a minor piece of the big pie.....the world would be shocked by what really goes on and has gone on there.