If you want to see George Bush get tasered (and let’s face it, who doesn’t!), check out Huffington Post today. Actually, that’s not quite right: it’s the luckless Colin Powell who receives the volts while Bush just gets pepper sprayed. OK, so it’s not really Powell and Bush but Jeffrey Wright and Josh Brolin, the actors who play them in the Oliver Stone film W.
Nonetheless, the footage has a particular relevance for Melbourne, where the fatal shooting by police of 15-year old Tyler Cassidy has prompted a renewed debate about the introduction of tasers to the force. At present, police everywhere else in Australia are either using or trialing the weapons, and the Police Association is campaigning for its members to be allowed to do the same.
In response, Deputy Commissioner of Police Kieran Walshe said, quite sensibly:
Earlier this year we had a look at the issue around tasers, we were mindful of some reports emanating from Canada (and) also a NSW Ombudsman’s report and we were also mindful of trials and roll-outs that were occurring in other states […].
We also took into consideration, clearly there’s evidence coming out of the United States that a number of people have died as a result of the use of tasers and we were not satisfied at that point in time it was the right move for us.
Indeed, it’s been fairly well documented that tasers can be far more dangerous than the euphemism “stun gun” suggests. According to a recent Amnesty International study, they’ve killed more than 70 people in the US and Canada since 2001.
That figure could well be higher, since Taser International, the corporation that makes the things, has been conducting (sorry!) a remarkable campaign of legal harassment against medical examiners who list tasers as a cause of death. The Arizona Republic writes:
Medical examiners say they’re concerned that Taser’s aggressive moves could have a chilling effect on doctors, preventing them from blaming Tasers for deaths even when evidence exists.
Even more disturbingly, the company has been offering stock options and cash payments to New York police in exchange for them conducting training programs with tasers.
But the Wright/Brolin footage matters for another reason. It provides a shocking (there we go again!) illustration of how tasers often get used in practice — not as an alternative to lethal force but as a supplement to conventional restraints. As Johann Hari pointed out in the Independent late last year, some ninety per cent of those tasered in the US are entirely unarmed. In many cases, they’re already entirely subdued when the juice gets turned on. In Orange County, early last year, video emerged of sheriff’s deputies using tasers on inmates strapped to chairs. In that context, a weapon delivering a huge jolt of electricity makes a handy torture device, especially when you consider Fort Worth Police spokesman Dean Sullivan’s description of what getting tasered actually feels like:
You just lock up. There is no fighting it. Imagine the worst charley horse you’ve ever had in your whole life, and now imagine it from your head to your toes. It will definitely get your attention. And it hurts. It really, really hurts.
None of this is to imply that confronting a mentally disturbed youth armed with a knife is an easy thing to do. But, in some ways, that’s the problem — tasers promise an instant technological fix to a much more complex issue. That’s why they make such a great tabloid story: a wonderful futuristic machine subduing violent perps by electricity — and yet our police are denied them!
Here’s a very modest proposal. Even those who support officers carrying tasers can surely agree with Elizabeth Crowther from the Mental Health Fellowship of Victoria that a greater understanding of psychiatric symptoms would dramatically reduce fatalities in street confrontations. Mental illness is not nearly as s-xy as an electrical gun but more training about it might well help police defuse confrontations without anyone ending in a bodybag. It would be nice, then, to see the Police Association and the tabloids campaigning for that, too.
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Absolutely yes more information is always good. But to suggest that our police forces should not universally carry tasers is doing harm. The young men on the front line do not get it right everytime. but to condem them to carry the stain of killing someone who in the cold light of day may have been handled better is wrong. To shoot any poor bugger for having a bad moment in a bad day in a probably bad life is wrong. To deliver a possibly (and it is only very small possibly against a very big likely with a pistol) dangerous shock to control that person outweighs enormously the risks. Do not discount the collateral benefit. If you are ever tasered, you will NOT want to repeat the experience. (Not even in the same ballpark as pepper spray) You friends who either saw you or whom you have told will NOT want to have a go. None of the friends of the police, Medics, bystanders who have been told of the experience, want to step up. This is a VERY effective tool. Now it is a red dot that does most of the work. This is a vital tool. Anyone who suggests for one second that it should not be on every police officer in our country has never seen real police work in action. I am not a cop. I do not think they get it right every time. They are doing an immensely difficult job. They are the best people trying to do their best for those times when we and our children need to be protected, either from others or ourselves.
Jeff Sparrow ought not to have misrepresented the position of Amnesty International so willingly in his efforts to undermine public confidence in the use of Tasers by police.
Mr Sparrow incorrectly claims “According to a recent Amnesty International study, they’ve killed more than 70 people in the US and Canada since 2001.”
Amnesty International makes no such claims of Tasers killing such large numbers of people. The report makes it plain that, upon examination by coroners, it has been found that other factors have largely been responsible for the cause of death. The report actually states:
Amnesty International is further concerned by the growing number of fatalities involving police Tasers. Since 2001, more than 70 people are reported to have died in the USA and Canada after being struck by M26 or X26 Tasers, with the numbers rising each year. While coroners have tended to attribute such deaths to other factors (such as drug intoxication), some medical experts question whether the Taser shocks may exacerbate a risk of heart failure in cases where persons are agitated, under the influence of drugs, or have underlying health problems such as heart disease. In at least five recent cases, coroners have found the Taser directly contributed to the death, along with other factors such as drug abuse and heart disease.
Dying after being struck with a Taser is very different to having been killed as a result of its application.
Debate about the use of Tasers is useful, however, blaming the application of a Taser for a death that a coroner has lawfully inquired into and attributed to another cause is mischievous at best.
Tasers have been routinely used in international law enforcement for many years and have been applied millions of times. The associated risk of taser use is quite low when compared with other use of force options available to police such as batons, capsicum spray and firearms.
Cameron Pope
General President
Queensland Police Union
Don’t like this, one bit. The conduct of the arrestees doesn’t seem that violent (albeit we see just a bit of it).
As an idle thought – would it make any difference if there was a log or incidence number of each tasing that was automatically recorded (e.g. a little electronic gizmo that triggered on firing, perhaps time and GPS-stamped), then published publicly (in a meaningful turn-around time)? Maybe?