Posted on Tue, 02/19/2008 - 13:37 — by jif
Ms. Bender really needs to do some research before writing an article that will be read and believed by the masses. She said in her article that when a taser is used people "generally" do not die. She then quotes some Amnesty International statistics that purport a number of people have died after being subdued with a taser. I've read some of the literature on deaths that occurred after a taser was used. It turns out most people who die after being tased were in a state of excited delerium and were on the road to death by the time the police got there and used the taser on them. The taser did not kill them, they killed themselves with the use of drugs. The Berekely City Council does not know the first thing about law enforcement and the tools available to be used. Maybe they should defer to someone at the Berekely PD who knows something about the subject and stop worrying about how it "looks" to the public. News flash - police work is not soothing and subduing out of control drunks is not pretty! What next, are they going to paint the guns lovely shades of pastel so that they do not look so intimidating?
On a side note, why are the articles referring to this suspect as a "grandmother?" Apparently I missed the memo which states that once someone becomes a grandparent they are incapable of committing crimes. Anyway, she sounds like she was a real pillar of the community! My favorite quote, from the neighbors who view this shooting as unjustified, was when they referred to the suspect as someone who was like a mother or grandmother to everyone in the neighborhood and took care of all the children. Then, in the next breath, they admit that she drank excessively and fought endlessly with her own children. High praise indeed! Maybe "grandma" should have run a daycare and I could have left my kids in her very capable hands. I'm sure these geniuses will provide very convincing testimony in the civil lawsuit being filed by that snake John Burris. And isn't that what this is about anyway - adding to Mr. Burris' already overfilled coffers!
Finally, what difference does the race of the officer and the suspect make? Would the media attention be different if the suspect had been a middle class white woman? What if the officer was white? For the love of God people!
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 72
I've read some articles on Tasers as well and I highly disagree with your assertion that people have died because they are drug users or in a state of delirium. Tasers or shocks affect people with heart conditions or people on medication. There are many people who take medications for various medical conditions. This does not qualify a person as a "drug user". That is a perjorative term for persons with medical ailments on prescription medicine.
When cops go to tase people, which they are using in more and more inappropriate ways like restraining people through tasing who come to speak at public meetings or protest, which has nothing to do with restraining violent people, they don't know the medical history of the person they are tasing.
Also, in certain heart conditions there are problems with electrical impulses of the heart. Tasing could possibly affect the heart. There needs to be more studies on this issue. Clearly in the Berkeley case Tasing might have been preferable but once you open the door then how many cases would it have been used in Berkeley where it wouldn't have been appropriate and people would have died? I don't believe shocking people is necessarily a good way to deal with mental illness or alcoholicism or drug addicts except in the most violent situations. I wasn't there so I'm NEITHER JUDGING nor BLAMING the officer. I don't feel it is the fault of police officers who are forced to deal with mental health situations because the State of California and the Legislature has failed to keep open or maintain decent rehab facilities or mental health facilities.
More and more police are being called upon to deal with mental health issues of folks who need treatment and mental health hospitalization, in other words, people who literally might need physical restraints and strait jackets. This situation calls for another kind of response that the police are not trained to make nor is it their duty. It calls for the intervention of mental health workers skilled in subduing violent mentally ill individuals. Clearly, this isn't police work but society has now decided it is.
It's a shame because now we have to use Tasers on people and more and more on any kind of behavior the police don't like. I don't believe we need additional weapons in the arsenal of police officers to forcibly subdue people, many of whom aren't criminals especially when some of the biggest criminals today in our society are running around completely unapprehended and unrestrained.
There is something seriously sick and wrong with a society that turns increasingly to force to quell its citizens under all sorts of situations that are not criminal and its called REPRESSIVE.