Friday, April 24, 2009

Day of Blogging for Justice: Death by Police Tasers

Over the past couple of years, there has been a growing epidemic of taser-related deaths at the hands of the police. Unfortunately, an unsettling number of these deaths are Black men. As peace officers, the job of the police is to maintain order and enforce laws. Using their police powers to indict, convict, and execute innocent Americans has never been part of their job description. The only time that deadly force should be used is when their lives or the safety of the general public is threatened.

The taser is supposed to be a non-lethal way to subdue and apprehend those suspected by the police of crime or mayhem. Unfortunately, this tool has become as lethal as a bullet fired from an officer's service revolver.

CNN.com reports that Amnesty International has reported that, since June 2001, more than 150 people have died in the United States after being subdued with a stun gun. The organization has called for police departments to suspend use of the devices pending study of their possible risks. Few have done so, said Amnesty, which added that more than 7,000 of the nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies use the devices.

Back in July 2008, plezWorld posted the sad story of Baron "Scooter" Pikes who was executed by the police after he was tasered NINE TIMES.

After wandering over to Electronic Village, you will notice that Scooter's sad story is far from being out of the ordinary:

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plez sez: i am a proponent of the actions necessary to review the use of tasers. if they are no longer a non-lethal alternative, then maybe they should be banned.

it is my hope that by bringing this story to plezWorld on this day of blogging for justice, the injustice caused by the unlawful use of tasers by the nation's police will be addressed.

the UN has condemned the use of tasers as torture. in light of the ongoing discussion about the Bush policies of torturing prisoners of war, we have verifiable examples of US citizens being tortured to death by the very police who had sworn to protect them.

~ ~ Citations from Around America ~ ~

Read the July 2008 Chicago Tribune article about Scooter Pikes death by taser.

Read the July 2005 Arizona Republic article about a Chicago death caused by police taser.

Read the February 2009 Indybay article about the sixth man killed by San Jose police and their tasers.

Read the April 2009 DetNews.com article about the second 15-year old in one month who was killed by a taser.

Read the November 2007 CNN.com article about a Maryland man who was killed by a sheriff's taser.

Read the October 2008 Reuters article about the New York police officer who killed himself after order a taser death.

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6 comments:

Unknown said...

Plez,
Outstanding post with excellent links to news articles about taser abuse around the nation. Thank you for participating in our Day of Blogging for Justice.

I invite your blog readers to see what I had to say about taser torture in America and sign online petition seeking congressional hearings.

peace, Villager

AAPP said...

Great post, on point as usual. Keep up the positive blogging.

Best wishes,

AAPP

Hathor said...

How does one find out about these blogging events?

plez... said...

i found out about this Blog for Justice from Electronic Village blog...

Constructive Feedback said...

[quote]Over the past couple of years, there has been a growing epidemic of taser-related deaths at the hands of the police. [/quote]


Plez - help me out.

You call the death of 150 people over such a wide span in time an "epidemic"?

I can only guess what you call the actions of the "Domestic Thug Pirates" who register 7,000 dead Black people per year in ONE YEAR?


The thing that pisses me off about this AfroSpear motivated distraction (and you don't appear to be a member of Afrospear from what I can tell) is that in the face of an OVERWHELMING HURRICANE that has been drowning masses of people within the Black community - you all's ideological bent has you unable to see the primary source of the flooding.......instead the dynamics of your will to FIGHT THE POWER has you focused upon the man who took a wizz into the pool of water and say that the liquid that HE contributed is the most offensive among of water which is drowning people.

The bottom line of it all is that you all fight AUTHORITY but can't find a voice to counteract the "Domestic Pirate Thugs" who's MURDEROUS ACTIONS INDEED SHOULD BE CALLED AN "EPIDEMIC".

Again - you and AfroSpear have every right to advocate against whatever threat that you can identify. I will NEVER act against your right.

I HAVE A RIGHT to place your 'THREATS' into their proper proportion and allow those 3rd party people of conscious to appraise your focus accordingly and to understand your motivations that accompany them.

Here are Black business owners who were tased and tortured by Domestic Pirate Thugs. They knew that there would be no protests against their actions.

BLACK FAMILY SUFFERS "TASERED WHILE BLACK FROM THE DOMESTIC PIRATE THUGS:

http://withintheblackcommunity.blogspot.com/2009/04/domestic-thug-pirates-trifecta-assualt.html

plez... said...

CF,

i write about wrongful death at the hand of police, whose sworn job is to protect the public... and somehow you attempt to re-position the argument to your rant about "domestic thug pirates." give it a break man... we're talking apples & oranges!

and while the police should be out thwarting the efforts of those "domestic thug pirates," they are out killing innocent people! let someone YOU know get electrocuted to death by a police officer during a routine traffic stop just because... and we'll see how ridiculous you think this post really is.

your level of self-hatred is troubling.