Here is just another reason why readers of this blog should support our petition to Congress calling for public hearings on the systemic human rights violations occurring with Federal funding for the use of Tasers® against American citizens. It's time for the Federal government to investigate the wide spread tasering of Americans. We need to stop the taser madness.
The United Nation's Committee Against Torture has already declared that Taser use can constitute a form of torture. Now we learn about another city that have been using tasers on American citizens without justification.
Get this, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today directed the Maywood City Council to reform its Police department in the wake of a 16-month investigation which exposed "gross misconduct and widespread abuse." Brown will immediately seek a stipulated court order to secure adoption of reforms and oversight by the Attorney General's office. "
Over a period of five years, the Maywood Police Department violated the trust of the community it was supposed to serve and protect," Attorney General Brown said. "This investigation has revealed gross misconduct and widespread abuse including unlawful use of force against civilians. It is imperative that the city council take immediate and concrete steps to rein in the department."
Brown today released a 30-page report that found that the City of Maywood Police Department routinely used excessive force, did not obtain probable cause to justify arrests and searches, and operated without adequate oversight by the Maywood City Council and the City's Chief Administrative Officer. Investigators examined some 30,000 pages of documents from January 2002 through April 2007. Sixty-four witness interviews were conducted with sworn officers, city council members, City of Maywood administrative personnel, city residents, and civil rights attorneys.
The investigation was launched in response to a 2007 request by then-Speaker of the Assembly Fabian N? The investigation was headed up by Senior Assistant Attorney General, Louis Verdugo, who was assisted by special agents from the Attorney General's office, and Joe Brann, former Hayward Police Chief and Director of the COPS Office under President Clinton. Over the course of the investigation, Brown's office has been in contact with the Los Angeles District Attorney.
The City Council has taken limited steps to reform the department, most notably by hiring a permanent Chief of Police. Nevertheless, reform efforts are just beginning and many of the underlying structural causes have not been remedied. Brown has sole legal authority under California Civil Code 52.3 to ensure that police departments do not deprive "any person of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States or by the Constitution or laws of California."
Brown's investigation uncovered five major areas where the Department had violated the rights of community members, identified ten factors that allowed these violations to develop, and offered a 12-point plan of reform.
Findings Attorney General Brown's investigation found that: - Maywood police officers routinely used excessive force, and police department management did little or nothing to stop these abuses. In September 2006, for instance, officers, tased, assaulted and beat a father and son in front of their home after the son witnessed officers assaulting a man across the street. The son asked one of the officers for his badge number. As he wrote it down, he was assaulted by the officer. Other officers joined in. The young man was repeatedly shot with a Taser while he was handcuffed. At one point, the father yelled "what are you doing to my son." The father was then assaulted by several officers. Both men were taken to the hospital for medical treatment. They were charged with battery of a police officer, and resisting and obstructing an officer. The charges were later dismissed.
AAPP: You think this is outragious? There is More ----> More HERE
I will have thoughts on this situation later. What are your thoughts?
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