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:

• Afro-Netizen - Taser Death of Black man by White cop near...
  
  
• Black Voices - 21st Century Whips
  
  
• Diane Dimond - The 50-Thousand Volt Solution
  
  
• Electronic Village - Police Taser 16-Year Old Robert Mitchell to Death
  
  
• Jack and Jill Politics - A Day of Blogging for Justice - Against Extra-Judicial...
  
  
• Mondoglobo - Louisiana Police Electrocute Handcuffed Man in Grocery Store
  
  
• Pam's House Blend - NC: More Freestyle Law Enforcement Death-by-Taser
  
  
• Problem Chylde - Tasing as Deadly Force
  
  
• Race Wire - Black Teenager Killed by Cop’s Taser
  
  
• Tasered While Black - Police Taser and Kill Black Man and Laugh About It
  
  
• Tasered While Black - Black Man Tased and Beaten in Peoria, IL
  
  
• The Super Spade - Tasered While Black
  
  
• Ultraviolet Underground - Electrocuted While Black

~ ~ ~

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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Louisiana Taser Death Goes to Grand Jury

On January 12th, Baron "Scooter" Pikes, a 21-year-old sawmill worker, tried to run from police in Winnfield, Louisiana, when they attempted to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for cocaine possession. Winnfield police officer Scott Nugent ran Scooter down. Nugent fired his Taser at Pikes six times in less than three minutes -- shots recorded by a computer chip in the weapon's handle -- in an effort to subdue him. He was handcuffed and then officers put Pikes in the back of a cruiser and drove him to their police station -- where Nugent fired a seventh shot, directly against Pikes' chest.

After the seventh shot, he was dragged out of the car onto the concrete, where he was shocked two more times. When Officer Nugent was finished with him, Scooter was dead... after being Tasered nine times.

A coroner's report found that Scooter had been handcuffed and on the ground when he was first hit with the Taser and might have been dead after the seventh shock from the 50,000-volt device was delivered. The coroner believes that he was shocked two more times after he was dead.

On August 12th, a Louisiana grand jury will convene to decide whether fired Officer Nugent should face criminal charges in the January death of Scooter Pikes, who was Tasered nine times while handcuffed, the parish's district attorney announced Monday.

Winnfield police officers have had Tasers for one year and officers have used them 14 times, according to police records - with 12 of the instances involving black suspects. Ten of the 14 incidents involved Officer Nugent. Officer Nugent is white; Scooter Pikes was black.

How Tasers Work:

The Taser is a conducted electrical weapon developed and manufactured by Taser International, Inc. (Scottsdale, AZ) since the 1970's. Conducted electrical weapons are less than lethal weapons used by thousands of law enforcement agencies in the US. More than 120,000 private US citizens carry a Taser for personal protection. The Taser delivers an electrical pulse, resulting in tetanus like muscle contractions, and sudden death has been associated with its use.

How does it work? The Taser is a weapon powered by 8 AA nickel metal hydride batteries. When the operator fires the device from a distance of as much as 7 meters (21 feet), 2 9-mm barbs (#8 fishhook), attached to the Taser gun by copper wires are discharged. The barbs may hook the skin, but more often the clothing and the electrical impulse can be delivered through 2 inches of clothing. Once contact is made, an electrical pulse (up to 50,000 volts) is discharged for 5 seconds which incapacitates the subject. More electricity is released as the trigger is pulled again.

Voltage is energy potential, but it isn't voltage that poses danger - it is electrical current expressed in amps (amperes). The average current of the Taser is 2 amps (maximum US household current is 240 amps and the threshold for ventricular arrythmias is 50-100 amps).

Estimates of 170 deaths since 1999 have been attributed to Taser use, and while intuitively the thinking may be that the cause is cardiac arrythmias, that does not pan out. While Tasers have been tested on volunteer subjects, those subjects are "healthy workers" and are subjected to one 5 second electrical pulse. The population being subdued by the police may be intoxicated or in a stated of excited delirium - i.e. violent and aggressive.

The American College of Physicians (ACEP) recommends that agitated subjects be brought to the ED for medical evaluation and supportive care. If subjects are intoxicated (alcohol, cocaine, PCP, methamphetamine) or agitated due to psychosis or other unknown reasons, they may be hyperthermic, tachycardic and dehydrated. Supportive medical care - with sedation and intravenous fluids -may prevent death in police custody in these cases. Laboratory studies for drug and alcohol levels and other abnormalities can be done and treated.

[Hat Tip: HealthLine]

Read the CNN.com article on Taser death of Baron "Scooter" Pikes here and here.


plez sez: hopefully, justice will be served. nothing can be done to bring Scotter back to his family, but it is every hope that mr. nugent pays for the torture and murder of mr. pikes.

by all accounts, the taser is effective in disabling a person with one or two shocks. if mr. pikes was already handcuffed and on the ground prior to the first shock, this case borders on calls for charges of torture, indifference to life, first degree murder, hate crime, and any other fancy legal term that can be culled. this may be premature and i'm usually not one to ask for harm to come to people, but this sounds like a capital offense by a racist and sadistic individual who obviously enjoyed the thrill of shocking Black people.

i wouldn't be opposed if the DA went for the death penalty... of course, in the electric chair!