"Amnesty International said it was the second death of a minor after Taser use this year in the U.S. and one of 351 deaths after use of a Taser in the U.S. since June 2001. Tuttle said the Taser has been exonerated as a cause or contributing factor in the vast majority of deaths."

I need to read up on the specifics, but this would imply the majority of dead taser-victims happened to die coincidentally after being tasered? How would they have fared if they hadn't been tasered, I wonder?

"City police Chief Michael Cecchini defended his officers' actions at a news conference Tuesday. He said officers were trying to settle a verbal dispute between Elder and a man, and the officers acted when the youth became unruly and took a "fighting stance" against them."

A fighting stance warrants tasering? What about one of Clint Eastwood's 'make my day' steely-eyed looks? Would that warrant a bolt?

Please people remember we do not have officers in police uniforms anymore. They have been replaced with gestapos while the Bush/Cheney dictators was in office.

a 15 year old can be just as tough and strong as a 25 year old. Not saying this doesn't warrant further investigation, but resisting arrest often poses a threat to officer safety - the Taser is meant to minimize the risk to both officer and offendor.

THAT aside -- tasering someone for looking like a threat is hard to justify. I'm 5 9, I weigh 200 lbs and am fairly muscular for an angry, shaved-headed Irishman - if I stare the wrong way at a cop who happens to get on my nerves, will that be enough justification to zap me?

a few years ago a friend of mine was sitting on the back drop-down door of his truck, by the creek in Boulder -- he was wearing a swim-thong that was roughly the color of his skin ---- a woman passer-by called police, thinking she just saw a naked man sitting there ---

the cops came, my friend was outraged at being harrassed and put his hands up in the air trying to argue with police and refusing to be arrested without a discussion --

he wasn't fighting, but wouldn't immediately turn around to be handcuffed --
he was tasered -- after getting the handcuffs on, the officers dragged him along so that the heels of his feet dragged on the ground and were cut during the arrest ---

he never committed an actual crime, but only had a false complaint against him ------

if you give them tasers, they will be used

The original theory for marketing tasers to law enforcement agencies was that they were an alternative to the use of firearms or nightsticks by police on the "use of force matrix" - an alternative tool to restrain or subdue an unruly arrestee that was less likely to cause death or serious bodily injury than the use of more traditional police weaponry would entail.

Theory is one thing. Practice in the field tends to be something else again.

Once police agencies buy into adding taser technology to their arsenals, train their officers in the proper use of tasers, and then deploy into the field, two deeply disturbing trends began to emerge in actual practice.

First, even well trained, well intentioned officers become inclined to resort to use of a taser during arrest incident confrontations in which they would never dream of using a firearm or a baton. For instance, what reasonably well trained officer would ever strike an unarmed suspect with a nightstick, much less draw his or her sidearm and actually shoot an unruly youth merely because the subject had "assumed a fighting stance"?

Taser manufacturers, marketers, and trainers continually emphasize these devices as a "nonlethal", or "less potentially lethal" force option. Small wonder then, there is a tendency for tasers to get deployed under circumstances in which no weapon should be displayed or ever used at all. Remember the infamous "Don't tase me bro!" incidents at the University of Florida speech given by John Kerry, or in the southern California college student library? Would anybody in their right mind ever argue that a cranky questioner from the audience, or a loud library patron, should be shot or beaten with a club?

Second, for less well trained, less well supervised, and/or less well intentioned individual officers, there is an omnipresent temptation not to use electroshock weaponry as an arrest tool at all, but rather almost as an implement of torture. These devices have enormous utility in shutting up irate, mouthy people who aren't really a physical threat to officer safety at all, not infrequently because the guy getting the jolt is already in full police custody.

There are reported federal civil rights unreasonable force cases involving misuse of tasers on persons cussing up a blue streak in the station house holding tank, or upon upset, verbally abusive arrestees who have already been fully restrained in handcuffs. The point being driven home is who's in charge here - that the time has come to shut up, and silently submit to authority.

I have practiced criminal defense law and handled police misconduct civil cases for thirty years now just a twenty minute drive south of Bay City, Michigan. In my experience, the Bay City Police Department (whose officers' actions led to the tragic death of Brett Elder last Sunday night) is no more, and no less, professional in its training and general command oversight than most other Michigan municipal police agencies.

That is what is most disturbing about this incident (now under Michigan State Police investigation). And that is also why it is wholly appropriate for Amnesty International to focus public attention upon the dark side of taser technology, as that venerable, internationally respected human rights organization has done.

Bill from Saginaw

Amnesty International should be ashamed of itself for threatening taser manufacturers who provide jobs and help grow our economy.

On March 17, 2009, in Pittsburgh, PA, a scientific paper was presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society which addressed the question of whether model M26 and/or model X26 Tasers have been responsible for, or have contributed to, the in-custody deaths that have followed their use by law enforcement agencies in the USA during the 21st century.

The scientific finding from this paper was that these Tasers have indeed either caused or contributed to a large proportion of the in-custody deaths that have followed their use by law enforcement officers--which is contrary to what Taser International Inc. teaches.

Two officers of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police attended the presentation of this scientific paper. One of these officers was Lt. Karen Dixon, who has training responsibilities within the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.

The finding from this scientific paper raises the question of whether law enforcement officers who use Tasers have received adequate training in the safe use of these weapons.

All the gun users I know are salivating over this device. That should tell you something immediately about the safety of this thing.

Seriously, though, I'm getting an impression the makers are just assuming mild electroshock only causes jittery muscle movements, as popular media likes to believe. The scientists, however, are saying that repeated shocks damage muscles and block breathing.

This madness of using a taser as first resort to possible physical confrontation needs to stop. Otherwise, what is being said here, that if the cops hadn't had a taser in this situation they would have shot this kid dead with a bullet? NONSENSE! NOT EXCUSABLE! STOP THIS TASER MADNESS! Three hundred and fifty plus deaths is using deadly force! How many more people have to die before this stops? Let's return to common sense!

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cops love tasers because they can subdue someone without having to put down their donuts.

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats

Thanks for reading past frank tarantino's spam post: the guy seems to think that spamming each and every CD topic is in the best interest of his cause. We all recognise spam by now, don't we? I'm optimistic about his alleged impending announcement, but I certainly don't need to be bludgeoned with spam regarding such a supposed juggernaut.

Anyway, here are my thoughts: "The Taser itself has saved thousands of lives, and medical science has shown it to be the safer alternative compared to any other tool on an officer's belt today," said spokesman Steve Tuttle."

The "tools" on a cop's belt aren't and shouldn't be the only things they use in the field to execute their mission. What about restraint, forethought, compassion, understanding, insight, guile, subterfuge, initiative, demeanor and discretion? Have we really ended up in a world of push-button minions?

The answer, for the most part, I fear, is...YES. So, how do we rectify the situation?

Sorry to post this here (it does relate to life and death) but no one would read it today under yesterdays article.

I had an insight,which may be obvious to many, to the riddle of why such a vast segment of the virulent and sometimes deadly anti-abortionists are so laissez faire or even supportive of criminal unnecessary wars that mainly kill defenceless civilians.

For the anti abortionists the core underlaying issue is not love and compassion for human life, but rather it is CONTROL and imposing ones ideaology on another person.

Attempting to Control is what makes believing in anti-abortion and supporting war compatible.

America has got to do something about their "taser happy" cops! They're literally murdering people and getting away with it!