11 Year old Florida elementary school Student Tasered by Police

www.wcsh6.com is reporting on an altercation at a Florida elementary school ended with an 11-year-old girl being Tasered by police and sent to the hospital on Thursday. It happened at Moss Park Elementary in Orange County. Authorities said the altercation happened during the school's morning announcements and both the student and the officer were injured.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said the student who was shocked was trying to push another student into oncoming traffic. Other students went to teachers to report the incident.

"There should be guidance counselors. The principal should have been there to calm the child down instead of having an officer do it," parent Cherley Constant said.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said there were a few teachers around.

They said the 11-year-old shoved a desk and chair, started spitting at the teachers and refused to go to the principal's office. "She was crying. She had tears coming down her face. She was bright red," student Taliesin Ploeg said of the girl who got shocked with a Taser gun. Read More HERE

Troubled Suburban Atlanta Police Now To Get Tasers - Even After 12 Fatal Shootings

Tasered While Black: As reported by Harry R. Webber of The Associated Press, A Grand jury found that 1 of 12 fatal shootings by DeKalb police were unjustified. Get this, Webber reports a special grand jury questioned in a report released Thursday whether the right training is being provided to a suburban Atlanta police department whose officers killed 12 people in 2006, four times as many as the year before.

There is more, as reported by Harry R. webber, The panel also recommended that all law enforcement officers, including those in DeKalb County, get more training at night, in use of force and how to de-escalate situations. It also suggested that law enforcement officers should be equipped with Tasers, and that all law enforcement officers should undergo alcohol and drug screening immediately after a use of deadly force incident. DeKalb County police currently don't use Tasers. More HERE

Are Tasers proving their worth for American police departments?

Tasered While Black (publisher) says: Well The Ventura County Star seems to think it works for he Ventura County Sheriff's Department. And they have data to back it up. Sounds like other police departments could learn a lot from the Ventura County. read the article (below). What do you think?

They write, 'When the Ventura County Sheriff's Department decided just over a year ago to arm its deputies with Tasers, The Star asked for an annual report so the public could evaluate their use and gauge their effectiveness. The department responded, and the numbers show Tasers — small handheld weapons that deliver an electrical shock to a violent suspect — have reduced the risk of injury to deputies, offenders and members of the public. Remarkably, Ventura County sheriff's deputies have not been forced to shoot anyone with a gun since 2006, a statistic the Sheriff's Department attributes to Tasers being fully implemented by the department.

From 2000 to 2006, there were, by comparison, 17 deputy-involved shootings in the Ventura County sheriff's jurisdiction. Statistics kept since 2002 indicate that the majority of those shootings involved suspects who were mentally ill.

In 2007, deputies used Tasers approximately 123 times or just over 10 times a month, Chris Godfrey, a commander in the Sheriff's Department, told The Star's Editorial Board at a meeting Tuesday. Of the 123 total uses, confrontations were resolved successfully 107 times.

Tasers have proved to be so useful to law enforcement that all police departments in Ventura County now use them, according to Cmdr. Godfrey.

For the most part, deputies used their Tasers in situations such as suicide prevention, pursuits, subduing the emotionally disturbed and those under the influence of alcohol and drugs. All those hit with a Taser, via dart-like probes, became incapacitated. However, once the Taser is shut off, those hit recover immediately.

Cmdr. Marty Rouse knows firsthand what it feels like, having been "tased" during training. "It is like all your organs are doing a dance," he told The Star Editorial Board. "It's incapacitation."

Among the department's 2007 findings:

— In 22 incidents, fear of being hit with a Taser was enough to make a suspect quit resisting and surrender.read More HERE

Tasered While Black in South Carolina, Black People Being Tased Excessively in the Carolinas'

Tasered While Black, Publisher says: It is a damn shame that black folks young and old are getting tasered to death in high numbers. Yes, black folks are holding folks accountable. Check this out, the SC Public Safety, Highway Patrol chiefs resigned amid racism claims
Now we learn that some State Police/Trooper organizations use Tasers more often on African-Americans. Surprise, surprise! Is there any doubt that Taser use is excessive in black communities?

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• VIDEO | Trooper uses taser on uncooperative woman
• South Carolina troopers get less training than in other states
• Taser guidelines
• Taser incidents

There is more. As reported by Gina Smith and Wayne Washington, "A December 2004 video sank two of South Carolina’s highest-ranking law enforcement officials because black lawmakers and the state NAACP kept pushing for the most convincing evidence to prove black motorists were being mistreated. Department of Public Safety Director Jim Schweitzer and Highway Patrol Col. Russell Roark, under pressure from Gov. Mark Sanford, resigned their posts Friday after release of the video. The video shows a trooper threatening to kill a suspect and using a racial slur during a 2004 traffic stop in Greenwood.

About 2½ years ago, Lonnie Randolph, president of the state NAACP, began hearing rumors that on several occasions, Highway Patrol troopers used racial slurs during traffic stops involving black motorists. “But we didn’t know the details. We didn’t know when the incidents had taken place,” Randolph said.

That’s when Randolph and others went to work, trying to track down details.

They eventually found someone who could corroborate rumors they had heard about the Greenwood incident. In that case, the trooper found a handgun and illegal drugs in a vehicle during a traffic stop. When one of the passengers fled, the trooper used the slur and made the threat. That officer was ordered to anger management and sensitivity training, but kept his job.

Randolph shared his information with friend Rep. Leon Howard, a Richland County Democrat and chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. It was fodder for the case members of the caucus gradually have been building against the Department of Public Safety for about two years.

They had heard rumors of racial profiling during traffic stops. The caucus also had received complaints from black troopers and from white troopers about disparities in the way they were promoted and disciplined. Concerns brought to officials at the Department of Public Safety had gone nowhere, Howard said. “At no point in time could we get any cooperation from Schweitzer or Roark,” Howard said. “So we had no choice but to wait for the right moment.” That right moment came last month when Schweitzer, Roark’s boss, was up for a second term to head the Department of Public Safety. The caucus held up the legislative approval needed. Then they obtained a copy of the video. When it arrived, they knew they had something explosive.

Howard showed Sanford that video along with two others. One showed a black woman handcuffed to the bumper of a patrol car, and the other showed a state trooper using a Taser on a black motorist." Read More HERE

That is not all, Channel 7 News reports more video is out from Highway Patrol and black lawmakers say it's evidence of abuse of power. Video obtained by News Channel 7 shows a 24 year old African American woman tased by a white Highway Patrol Officer. The agency tased 17 drivers since last fall and 11 of them were African American.News Channel 7 spoke with Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter who says the numbers do show a trend of abuse of African Americans. But a USC law enforcement expert says the number of taser incidents is too small to provide context.

Black Teenager Tased to Death For Wearing Gold Teeth and Earrings at Work?

Tasered While Black asks: Was this young man harrassed on the job and Tased to Death For Wearing Gold Teeth and Earrings?

Victoria Cherrie reports from the Charlotte Observer on how, "A local attorney on Tuesday refuted the police account of a confrontation in which an officer used a stun gun on a 17-year-old who later died."

She reports: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said an "agitated" Darryl Turner threw something at a manager, ignored commands and advanced toward Officer Jerry Dawson Jr. last week, prompting the 15-year veteran to use his Taser to get Turner under control.

A preliminary autopsy showed no obvious cause of death.

The incident happened at a Food Lion on Prosperity Church Road where Turner bagged groceries and was a cashier.

Court documents say Turner had been asked by the customer service manager to leave the store about 1:15 p.m. Thursday, but he refused. Police have declined to give more details about the incident, which is being investigated by homicide detectives. An internal investigation is also underway.

Attorney Ken Harris, who represents Turner's family, is conducting his own investigation.

Harris said he has interviewed a witness who told him the officer entered the store as Turner was arguing with a manager. The witness said the officer told Turner to "step back."

The witness told Harris that Turner obeyed the officer's command, but was shocked with the Taser while standing less than five feet away, Harris said.

"According to the witness, Turner neither approached or threatened the officer at any time," Harris said.

He declined to identify the witness, but said he would provide an affidavit with his account to police. Department spokeswoman Julie Hill said detectives hadn't received the paperwork as of Tuesday evening.

Investigators interviewed all the people in the store who presented themselves as witnesses, she said. And she urged anyone else with information to call the department.

Co-workers, including a supervisor, said Turner was a reliable employee who had never been reprimanded at work. They said he had some disagreements with the customer service manager, who had asked him to tuck in his shirt and complained about Turner wearing gold teeth and big earrings. Read MORE HERE

Tasers Are No Answer

By Ted Lang

The occupation of a police officer is more a profession than it is an "on the job" routine, as so often is described by both police and their TV counterparts. What makes it a profession is the demanding work schedule, the stress of life-and-death realities not experienced by the public, and the ever-present realization that any day might be one's last. Spit-second life-and-death decisions are a daily concern.n such split-second decisions must be made, and an officer may have to resort to use of a sidearm -- either to protect another life or his/her own -- we are all in agreement that the police officer should win in these situations. The use of deadly force is never an easy decision, and if a police officer is either under-armed or outnumbered, the chances for his survival are poor.

A classic and very tragic case of the loss of a brave police officer was the brutal shooting and murder of New Jersey State Trooper Philip Lamonaco in 1981. Lamonaco was outgunned by a felon armed with a 9 mm semiautomatic military-style handgun.

At the time of his murder, virtually all police departments across the nation were using six-shot revolvers, holdovers from the days of the Old West's Colt "six-guns." Semiautomatic pistols hold more than twice the capacity of the old police service revolvers.

Today, it's hard to find either a law enforcement entity, or a law enforcement officer, who doesn't carry a semiautomatic sidearm. The larger capacity and rapid-fire capability of the semiautomatics have caused split-second life-or-death situations to occasionally become horrific cases of overkill. This happens mostly in cases where police are undercover and working in teams. The horrible examples are the multi-shot one-sided gun battles that undercover police have had with unarmed alleged perpetrators.

Examples in New York City are the fatal shootings of Sean Bell (50 shots fired) and Amadou Diallo (41 shots fired).

There is legislation now being considered in Trenton that would give New Jersey state, county and municipal police the option to use Taser electric torture devices on otherwise non-threatening, law-abiding citizens on the pretense that these "non-lethal" weapons will actually save lives. The bipartisan legislation is sponsored by state Sen. Anthony R. Bucco, R-Boonton, and state Sen. John A. Girgenti, D-Passaic. Officially, it is Senate Bill S182, and it would amend New Jersey Statute, 2C:39-3, "Prohibited Weapons and Devices."

The fallacy being overlooked by the good senators is that more than 300 people have been Tasered to death by these weapons.

They have not been adequately tested on humans relative to varying body chemistries, meals and liquids consumed before Taser torture, clothing and footgear being worn, and so on. No consideration is offered at all relative to the age and metabolic variations in humans.

Another fallacy is that police will substitute the use of the Taser electric pistol, which shoots a double-spiked prod attached to two wires connected to the gun, into the target. But common sense offers that in a life-or-death split-second crisis, a police officer still will rely upon his/her regular firearm.

More often than not, Tasers are being used dangerously by increasing numbers of police. There is the case of the Utah Highway Patrol officer Tasering a motorist for a minor traffic infraction in front of his wife and screaming 5-year-old son on an isolated road. There is the incident of four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers Tasering a large, strapping man at the Vancouver airport for the crime of not being able to speak or understand English.

Then there is the case of 56-year-old Emily Delafield, a woman in Florida who uses a wheelchair. She was Tasered 10 times over a three minute period. Of course, she died.

Taser International, the biggest distributor of these deadly weapons, had financial connections to disgraced former New York City Police Department Commissioner, Bernard Kerik. They have an extremely aggressive sales and lobbying team, not to mention a "dream team" of lawyers who have beaten back the multitude of mounting lawsuits against the company and its horrible product.

And they also have the attention of Bucco and Girgenti. And that's a shame

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March 26, 2008 © Theodore E. Lang 3/23/08 All rights reserved. Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.

Posted here: http://www.dailyrecord.com

Blake Dupree, Tased by LA County Sherriffs, Spinal Cord Injury

Lt. James Tatreau Jr., a former driver and bodyguard for L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, An LA County Sheriff who organized a game called "Operation Any Booking" in which deputies competed to see how many people they could arrest. Has been involved with something mote deadly.

As reported by Richard Winton and Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers "Los Angeles County sheriff's officials have launched a misconduct investigation of two supervisors who authorized the use of a stun gun on a 21-year-old arrestee because he was unruly and refused to submit to electronic fingerprinting, The Times has learned.

As a result of being shocked with a Taser, Blake Dupree fell off the top of a jail bunk bed and broke his back. The injury has left him temporarily paralyzed and he could be crippled for life, his attorney said.

According to sheriff's officials, Dupree, who showed signs of being mentally ill or under the influence of drugs, had been generally "uncooperative" for hours before a lieutenant at the Lakewood sheriff's station approved the use of the Taser, which delivers a 50,000-volt shock.

The investigation into the Feb. 27 incident -- much of it captured on videotape -- will determine whether use of the Taser violated department policy.

Department rules prohibit using the device on "persons in danger of falling or becoming entangled in machinery or heavy equipment which could result in death or serious bodily injury." Despite the prohibition, the policy does allow for supervisors to decide whether use of a Taser is warranted on a case-by-case basis.

Lt. James Tatreau Jr., who authorized the use of the device on Dupree, has been reassigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation, sources said. A unnamed sergeant who was involved in the decision has also been reassigned. More HERE

At the time of this report we are not sure if Blake Dupree is black or not. But as far as this publisher is concerned Black Dupree was treated like he was black, so he was in fact, "Tasered While Black."

Darryl Turner , Black 17 year old, Tased To Death,Tasered While Black

Darryl Turner passed away after being involved in an altercation inside a Food Lion in northeast Charlotte.

Damn, There seems to be an all out attack on black boys and men. This time it's in Charlotte, N.C. according to Brad Borders at News 14:

CHARLOTTE -- There are new details in the death of a 17-year old who was Tased on Thursday by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer and later died.

Darryl Turner passed away after being involved in an altercation inside a Food Lion in northeast Charlotte. There are now multiple investigations in to the case, including one from the boy’s mother, who has already hired an attorney.

"It felt like my heart was going to come out of my chest when I found out,” said Tammy Fontenot, Turner’s mother. "I just want the truth to come out, that's what I’m concerned with -- the truth." Police are investigating what happened when Turner was Tased during the altercation. According to a CMPD statement, an officer deployed the Taser when Turner refused verbal commands and moved toward police.On Friday, Turner’s friends and family visited Fontenot to help her through her grief.

More HERE

Tasers For Civilians

Source: Delaware OnLine

Cpl. Shawn Brittingham of the Georgetown Police demonstrates a police model taser last month. News Journal file/by Bob Hebert

DOVER -- The $350 Taser C2 is pretty in pink and absolutely stunning in leopard print, and it can be paired with an optional holster that functions as an MP3 player.

Aesthetically far removed from its police counterpart, the newest generation of powerful electronic weapons is meant to appeal to civilians -- particularly women.

Taser International's most recent quarterly revenues increased 60.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, and Wall Street analysts expect earnings to grow at a rate of almost 50 percent this year and next -- with the potential for significant growth in the largely untapped civilian market. The civilian C2 model -- the one with the leopard print -- made a splash at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and infomercials for the device began airing in February. A merchant in Elkton, Md., calls them "quite popular."

The weapons' increasing popularity among the general public has sparked a recent move in the General Assembly to fine-tune the criminal code to make it a felony to assault someone with a stun gun.

Concerned about potential misuse of the nonlethal self-defense weapon, which temporarily disables a target with an initial shot of 50,000 volts, Rep. Joseph W. Booth, R-Georgetown, sponsored House Bill 298. In December, an aggressor used a stun gun during a home invasion at a Sussex County mobile home park.

Although it already is a felony to spray someone with tear gas or chemical Mace unless it's in self-defense, the law does not mention Tasers or stun guns. Because of that, the Sussex County incident had to be prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

"It should be given the same treatment as Mace," Booth said. Booth said he asked a group of state troopers whether they would rather be sprayed or shocked.

The vote was unanimous: None wanted to be zapped with the Taser.

"It's not fun. Not fun at all," said Georgetown Police Capt. Ralph Holm, who has been shocked as part of his Taser training.

"There is pain associated with it. However, it's more about disrupting the muscular or nervous system, and it overrides that so you have no control."

The Taser shoots two metal darts that are connected by wires to the handheld unit. The initial zap of 50,000 volts creates a spark that can penetrate up to 2 inches of clothing. Once contact is made, the Taser puts out short pulses of 400 volts, enough to disrupt the nervous system and knock an assailant to the ground.

Other stun devices do not shoot darts, but deliver the high-voltage shock through physical contact with the victim.

It is billed as a nonlethal weapon and an alternative to deadly force -- but Arizona-based manufacturer Taser International has long been embroiled in controversy over whether the devices can kill.

Amnesty International contends that more than 290 people in the United States have died after being struck by police Tasers, and the group opposes their sale to civilians.

Taser International disputes those allegations. Recently, the company announced that three wrongful-death lawsuits against it had been dismissed -- bringing to 66 the number of lawsuits it has won or had dismissed.

On Tuesday, Delaware State Police announced that about 100 troopers will be issued Tasers after they receive training. That decision follows a pilot program last year in which 16 troopers were issued the units.

State police also will prepare an annual report on the deployment and use of the device, said Superintendent Col. Thomas F. MacLeish.

Much of Taser's sales to civilians come from the company's online store or from specialty retailers.

Ken Potter and wife, Marie, of Elkton, Md., sell the devices through their online store, Protect Your Home and Family.

Ken Potter said there is no such thing as a typical Taser customer.

"I have a whole spectrum, from young married couples on up," he said. "I had a lady call me in her 80s that wants one, and she was not afraid to use it."

The pink and leopard-print versions of the C2 are a further move to market the devices to women, who already have taken to the C2 for its light weight and ease of use.

It doesn't even look like a gun, unlike the civilian X26C, which is modeled after the police version and resembles a futuristic handgun. More HERE