A robber is cornered in a dead-end alley: He turns to face the police officer pursuing him, ready to fight. He pauses. The officer’s left forearm is encased in ballistic nylon, and half a million volts arc menacingly between electrodes on his wrist. A green laser target lands on the robber’s chest. He puts his hands up; it’s a fight he can’t win.
[more inside]
posted by dirtylittlecity
on May 31, 2011 -
132 comments
Followup-Filter: Former BART Ofcr. Johannes Mehserle, who
shot and killed Oscar Grant, has been
sentenced after being
found guilty of involuntary manslaughter [
previously]. Although the jury originally did not believe the officer's story - that he had intended to reach for and fire his taser but grabbed his firearm instead - the prosecution offered insufficient evidence to show that the use of his firearm was intentional. Former Ofcr. Mehserle will spend 2 years in prison for the shooting.
posted by thesmophoron
on Nov 6, 2010 -
82 comments
BART Police stripped of Tasers. After a sergeant attempted to taser a 13 year old boy, fleeing on bicycle, BART has decided to remove Tasers from the BART Police force.
“What are you going to do about Tasers? What are you going to do with officer who does something silly like shoot their Taser out of a window at the victim?” asked Sweet. “BART does not have enough insurance to pay for some of the things we do.” Previously.
posted by yeloson
on Apr 16, 2010 -
62 comments
A new twist in the controversy over the (ab)use of tasers. A judge in Niagara County, NY
has decided that tasing a suspect who refused to submit to DNA testing was a reasonable use of force. Ryan Smith, accused of robbery and kidnapping, already submitted one sample, which was contaminated when the government sent it to the wrong laboratory, and refused to give one a second time. The police asked a prosecutor what to do. His response: they could use force to get the sample, but as little as possible. So they tased Smith, who then submitted to the buccal swab.
[more inside]
posted by R_Nebblesworth
on Jun 5, 2009 -
157 comments
Taser use in law enforcement has been under increased scrutiny in recent years, especially following
the death of Robert Dziekanski in a Vancouver airport last year after being Tasered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (
previously). Now the CBC and Canadian Press have sifted through over 5,000 incident reports to create a
RCMP Taser use database, tracking use of tasers by Canada's federal law enforcement by province, incident, year or stuns used.
[more inside]
posted by Shepherd
on Apr 9, 2009 -
36 comments
Tasers are the new black. University of Florida student gets
tasered while police try to restrain him for "disrupting a public event" at an open mic when he brazenly began dogging John Kerry about the state of the 2004 election, Bush's potential impeachment, and Kerry's affiliation with the Skull & Bones Society. Video of the incident
here and
here.
Echoes from
this incident a little less than year ago.
posted by Mach3avelli
on Sep 17, 2007 -
476 comments
UCLA releases the results of an
independent investigation into an incident where a UCLAPD officer repeatedly tasered a passively resisting student (
previously on MetaFilter). The investigation found that the officer violated UCLA's use of force policies. Furthermore, it found that these policies are "unduly permissive" and that "the UCLAPD policy stands alone in its legitimization of the Taser as a pain compliance device against passive resisters." An internal investigation by UCLAPD previously determined that there was no violation.
posted by grouse
on Aug 6, 2007 -
31 comments
Muslim UCLA student tasered for not having ID "It was beyond grotesque," said UCLA graduate David Remesnitsky of Los Angeles, who witnessed the incident. "By the end they took him over the stairs, lifted him up and Tasered him on his rear end. It seemed like it was inappropriately placed. The Tasering was so unnecessary and they just kept doing it."
Some
additional coverage. Patriot act craziness or simple police overreaction?
posted by cgs
on Nov 16, 2006 -
369 comments
Need a quick pick-me-up? Electroshock therapy, police-style! Video of an abusive prisoner being incapacitated with a non-lethal, handheld, electrical device. Instant mood transformation is achieved.
(1.5m of quicktime) More videos available here. There's also a
video (13m of mpeg) of volunteers being zapped, not available on the page above. (Much laughter on that last one, because, you know... pain is funny.)
Probably not for the squeamish. via mister pants
posted by crunchland
on Nov 21, 2002 -
6 comments
Shock the prisoner It's the details of this story that horrify me. This guy is a repeat offender. Still, it's seems extreme to send him to jail to die for stealing painkillers. Oh and by the way, while the judge is doing that she doesn't want him to talk back.
posted by rdr
on May 31, 2001 -
31 comments
Stun-Gun Kid Zaps Schoolmates - A Queens, NY junior-high student swiped a stun gun from a neighbor's apartment and zapped his schoolmates during horseplay that sent a dozen youngsters to the hospital yesterday - "Nobody thought it was dangerous. Everybody thought it was fun."
posted by radio_mookie
on Apr 5, 2001 -
4 comments
