Blind Woman with Cancer Faces Assault Charges of Police Officer after being Tasered!

Police use taser on blind woman with cancer

Posted: var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate(”Jul 17, 2008 4:46 PM EST”); document.write(wn_last_ed_date);July 17, 2008 03:46 PM

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Family members are angry and speaking out after Dayton police used a stun gun on a woman who is blind and suffering from cancer. Police said they were looking for a suspect when they knocked on Denise Harris’s door Thursday morning. But according to both police and witnesses, things quickly got out of hand and Harris was tased.

“She was able to force herself down on to the floor and not be cooperative, grabbing on to the detective. A taser was dry stunned onto her arm to control her hand movement, then she was cuffed,” said Sgt. Charles Anderson.

Her family said she was yelling at officers because she was scared.

“She was terrified. She was extremely terrified,” said Harris’s niece, Dionna. “She was scared because the person identified themselves as a police officer. But she’s been robbed before by someone using the same technique.”

They said police used unnecessary force when officers came to the Fernwood Avenue apartment looking for Harris’s son, who is wanted. Officers said Harris attacked a detective.

“She’s blind and they pulled her off her Futon, handcuffed her and tased her because he said she swung at him. She can’t see,” said Harris’s sister Elvita Harris. “I’m very frustrated and upset. Dayton police need to implement a sensitivity program.”

Neighbors said they told officers she was blind and sick.

“It was heartbreaking,” Brenda Miles said. “I was almost in tears because I know the lady and I look out for her because she’s blind.”

Harris was taken to Good Samaritan for treatment.

The officers actions will be investigated, but Sgt. Anderson said Harris should have told them she was scared.

“She does not have to open her door. It was a voluntary thing for her to open her door,” he said.

Harris is now facing charges for assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.

Reported by Mandi Sheridan, WDTN / Edited by David Robinson

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Caught On Camera: Teen Dies After Shot With Taser Gun

A teenager dies after being hit with a police Taser gun for 37 seconds, and the whole thing is caught on tape by surveillance cameras.

Click link below for slide show.

original article

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The Electro-Muscular Disruption Bracelet

Now they propose to attach a taser bracelet on our wrists just to board an airplane.  Unbelievable!  The sheep are lining up!!

“A Small Inconvenience to Ensure Their Safe Arrival”

posted by Dominic Holden on July 16 at 16:54 PM

Nothing would make me feel more secure when I fly than wearing a remotely-activated taser bracelet from check-in to landing. And, lookee here, that’s exactly what an official at the Department of Homeland Security is considering. According to the Washington Times, the Electro-Muscular Disruption bracelet worn by airline passengers would:

• Take the place of an airline boarding pass• Contain personal information about the traveler

• Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes;The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if the passenger got out of line….

According to [a] letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, which was written to the inventor whom he had previously met with, Ruwaldt wrote, “To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in … the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”

Shocking, yes, but as the promotional video by Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. explains, it’s “a small inconvenience to ensure their safe arrival.”

Enjoy the flight!

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Lawless, Brutal, Taser Crazy Cops Threaten the Rule of Law

US cops, never paragons of virtue, intelligence or common sense, have lately gone rogue, perhaps encouraged by lawlessness and contempt for the rule of law by those who occupy the very highest offices in our land.

Thuggery trickles down!

Innocent civilians pay a heavy price with their lives, liberty and limbs.

My advice to my fellow Americans:

• Do not call a cop if you can avoid it. Cops can no longer be trusted and you might be the one who is beaten, tased, or thrown in jail!
• Don’t drive if you can avoid it; cops love to pull people over and harass them!
• Never presume to ‘assist’ a police officer!
• Complain to your congressman, your councilman that you do not appreciate the fact that your tax monies are being used to support the criminal activities of cops who disdain due process of law and the presumption of innocence while evincing a sadistic pleasure in the use of tasers, clubs, and physical force against persons for whom there is no probable cause to suspect that they have committed a crime or have even thought about committing a crime!

To any cop who might read this, I have some advice for you. Whether you like it or not, your ONLY duty and responsibility, your ONLY job is to ‘protect, serve and defend’!

Now –if you are not willing to do this within the spirit and the letter of the law, then I strongly suggest you get your sorry ass out of ‘law enforcement’ and into another line of work! You have become a symptom –not a cure –of utter lawlessness. If you’re not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem. Guess what! You ARE the problem!

Secondly, re-examine your motives for wanting to become a cop. Did you suspect that a mere uniform affords you the respect you might not have gotten elsewhere and otherwise? Do you suffer from lack of self-esteem? If so, get your sorry ass into another line of work! You are NOT making America better. You are subverting it!

If you don’t like what I’ve written then why don’t you come beat me up and by doing so prove my point! If you don’t like what I’ve written, then why don’t you consult Bush about how all the citizens of the US are, in fact, ‘terrorists’ and should be beaten up, arrested, rousted, incarcerated, harangued —all without probable cause or the presumption of innocence. Bush would like that.

When Americans are routinely beaten up or intimidated by ‘cops’ even as they are denied the protections of habeas corpus, then the crooked establishment (cops included) will have become the very justification for revolution. This has been the case throughout history; the theme resounds in common law, the works of esteemed philosophers to include John Locke and, our own, Thomas Jefferson.

whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,

Abolish this government is something –by God –we shall do! A new broom sweeps clean! Injustices, including police brutality, stupidity, cruelty and other abrogations of the rule of law, denial of various rights to assemble, dissent, or merely go about out daily lives unmolested by brutes without warrants is every justification for revolutions of any sort.

If you are a cop reading this and disagree with me, fine! That’s what free speech is all about! But don’t think for a minute that I will simply shut up, roll over or play dead because you happen to wear a blue suit! For all you know, I might be color blind.
Some additional resources:

• Parsing Officer Patrick Pogan’s Anger
• What Really Happened: Tasers a form of torture, says UN
• Cops Tase Barely Conscious Boy With Broken Back 19 Times For Non-Compliance
• Parents question why Ozark police used stun gun on injured son - 16-year-old is tased UP TO 19 TIMES!
• Tased Until Dead: The Epidemic of Taser Crazy Cops
• US Cops Go Out of Control; US Citizens No Longer Safe
• Tasers, Torture and Terror Tactics: America Becomes a Police State

Now to the photos of the latest in an epidemic of police outrages in Bush’ s police state:

The Brutal Cop Photo

*Update* Just wanted to take the time to thank everyone who came by and dropped off their opinion, the ones who gave it the thumbs up, the ones who dugg it and the guys over at reddit. With everyones help we were able to get 20,000 people to see these images. This site like always makes NO money from anything on here, its simply a site about powerful imagery. Thank you again, i would love if 100,000 people could see it, so lets make that happen. It is true, images can tell a million words.

*Updated 02/08/2008* Thanks to Andrew we have an update from a Providence Newspaper

Providence RI, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) march on Jackies Galaxy, a local restaurant chain supplied by HWH/Dragonland in NYC, a supplier notorious for slave labor conditions and a lack of basic labor rights. A few blocks before finishing the march North Providence police brutally tackled two of the marches after they moved to the sidewalk too slowly, both were arrested and one suffered a badly broken leg in the attack. More info here.

Today at 12pm EST the Providence wobblies organized a march on Jackies Galaxy, which is a restaurant chain that is being supplied by HWH in New York City, a supplier who is notorious for its slave labor conditions of up to 110 hours per week without basic labor rights (minimum wage and overtime).

Roughly 30-40 wobblies and supporters were marching towards a restaurant in North Providence when the police began following them en mass. They told the marches to move to the sidewalk, while this was initially ignored, the marchers listened to the police and began slowly moving to the sidewalk.
The police then surrounded the marchers in their squad cars and began getting out. With the police in full force, they began attacking the marchers, one fellow worker, Alex Svoboda, was pinned down by the police during her arrest and suffered a dislocated leg. Jason, another wob, was also arrested in during the police’ attack.

All thanx goes to Jonathan McIntosh and http://www.iww.org/

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Ozark Police stun downed teen up to 19 times

Parents question why Ozark police used stun gun on injured son

by Sara Sheffield, KY3 News

OZARK, Mo. — A family wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65.

Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery.

“We called the police. My wife was afraid he was going to get ran over or hit,” said witness Doug Messersmith.

Messersmith and his wife were the last known people to see 16-year-old boy walking, shortly before their phone call to 911.

“He looked a little agitated but, other than that, he didn’t look to be falling down drunk or anything like that,” he said.

By the time officers arrived, the teen was off the 30-foot overpass, lying on the shoulder below along U.S. 65, with no good explanation as to how he got there.

“According to the doctors, all injuries are consistent with a fall,” said his aunt, Samantha.

Mace’s dad believes it was just that, a fall, not a jump. The question is why.

“They tested his system. He was clean of drugs and alcohol. We don’t know why unless just being in shock and the whole thing in itself caused him to forget everything,” said Hutchinson.

His aunt says he is undergoing major surgery for a broken back and broken heel. While he was lying on the ground, she wonders why Ozark police used an electric stun gun on him up to 19 times.

“I’m not an officer, but i don’t see the reason for ‘Tasering’ somebody laying there with a broken back. I don’t consider that a threat,”

His dad says the use of the stun gun delayed what would have been immediate surgery by two days.

“The ‘Tasering’ increased his white blood cell count and caused him to have a temperature so they could not go into the operation.”

“He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he’s also making statements such as, ‘Shoot cops, kill cops,’ things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers,” said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset.

Police say although there are several unanswered questions; the reason for the use of a stun gun is not one of them.

“It’s a big concern for the officers to keep this guy out of traffic, to keep him from getting hurt,” said Rousset.

Mace was still in intensive care on Wednesday night, listed in fair condition. He was scheduled for surgery again on Thursday. The family, along with the Ozark Police Department, hopes someone will see this report and come forward with some information. You can call (417) 699-4789 with information or call the Ozark Police Department.

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Man Taser-shot in Colorado Springs

Police shot this man with a Taser in the park Saturday, July 12, while I was taping the IVAW Tower Guard action nearby. There had been a fight and 1 man arrested earlier and you can see the paramedics attending to a woman on the ground behind the police, who was involved in the earlier fight.

This man was arguing with them about something and so 1 cop held him while the other shot him from about 3 feet, and they arrested him. He had stopped resisting and was talking to them, and had both arms behind his back at that point and the arrest and handcuffs could have been applied without this.

The waste level attempted tackle from behind was poorly executed and did not pen his arms, so the cop could have been injured as a result. He could have also been shot with the Taser.

I don’t know what the argument was about and I don’t know what the guy did, but this is punitive use of a Taser to me, and not needed by the 4 cops that could have arrested this man without that level of violence. It is certainly NOT minimum force, which is the department requirement.

http://CSaction.org

Taser-Related Deaths of North Americans

See “A LIST OF THE DEAD” - SIX Americans have died since the beginning of July after being tasered. ONE Canadian and SIX Americans died in June after they were tasered. FIVE people died in May - four in the US and one in England - after they were tasered. SEVEN Americans died in April and SEVEN died in March after they were tasered. ONE Canadian and FORTY-TWO Americans have died since the beginning of this year. SEVENTY-EIGHT North Americans (that we know of) died in 2007, SIX of them Canadian. At LEAST 360 people have died in North America proximal to taser use since 2001. TWENTY-TWO people have died in Canada since 2003 after police used tasers on them.

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6 more deaths and it’s only July (2008)

The blog Truth…Not Tasers [LINK] has tracked SIX taser-associated deaths so far in July 2008. It’s just mid-July for gosh sake.

#355: July 2, 2008: Isaac Bass, 34, Louisville, Kentucky
#356: July 4, 2008: Othello Pierre, 23, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
#357: July 8, 2008: Samuel DeBoise, 29, St. Louis, Missouri
#358: July 8, 2008: Carlos Vargas, 42, San Bernardino, California
#359: July 14, 2008: Marion Wilson Jr., 52, Houston, Texas
#360: July 14, 2008: Deshoun Keyon Torrence, 18, Long Beach, California

The running average for North American taser-associated deaths is normally about seven per month. [LINK] This month is running at about twice that rate.

Average age (above list for July 200 is just 33 years old.

If you think that ‘heart problems‘ are a possible explanation, then you haven’t been paying attention: [LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK][LINK] and many more… [LINK]

‘Maybe drugs?‘ [LINK][LINK][LINK]

This blog has almost 500 posts and many such taser-excusing arguments as ‘heart problems‘ and ‘maybe drugs?‘ have been shredded months ago. Not to mention that Tasers cannot and will not avail themselves of such liability-on-them inducing excuses [LINK]. Use the search box at the top left (in the header) to search this blog for any other pathetic explanation keywords that you may be considering on Taser’s behalf.

It is worth noting that these taser-associated deaths are just the ones that are known. There is a high probability that there are other taser-associated deaths that are not reported as such, or the reports are not published in the on-line media where taser-critics can find the information.

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Man Dies After Shocked By Taser Gun

July 14, 2008

A burglary suspect died after an officer shocked him with a Taser gun late Sunday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Houston police said the man got into a scuffle with officers after a burglary at a home on Galaxy Street near Locksley Road at about 11:55 p.m.

Investigators said they found broken glass and three men were inside the home. The men were detained for questioning.

Police said the man kept running when they told him to stop.

An officer fought with the man as he tried to arrest him, detectives said. Another officer went to help and ended up shocking the man with a Taser gun twice, detectives said.

The man was arrested and paramedics were called to check him out, officials said. He was rushed to a hospital and died, police said.

The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine if the man died as a direct result of being shocked.

Houston police started using Taser guns in 2004. Officers have deployed their Taser guns more than 1,600 times and no deaths have been attributed to their use.

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Autopsy: Teen hit by Taser died of cardiac arrest

The Charlotte Observer (5 July 200 [LINK]

Doctor finds no pre-existing heart problems in youth who was shocked by police officer at grocery store. A 17-year-old shocked with a Taser by police after an altercation at a northern Charlotte grocery store died from cardiac arrest, according to an autopsy released Friday.

Darryl Wayne Turner’s heart was pumping so fast and chaotically from the Taser shot and stress of the confrontation that it stopped pumping blood properly. He died of acute ventricular dysrhythmia and ventricular fibrillation, according to the Mecklenburg medical examiner’s office.

Turner was the first Taser-related fatality in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s history and the youngest in the Carolinas this decade.

Police confronted an “agitated” Turner on March 20 during an argument with his manager of a Prosperity Church Road grocery store. Police said Turner threw something at a manager, ignored commands and advanced toward Officer Jerry Dawson Jr., who deployed a Taser. The energy weapon struck Turner in the chest, and he fell to the carpeted floor.

“This lethal disturbance in the heart rhythm was precipitated by the agitated state and associated stress as well as the use of the conducted energy weapon (Taser) designed for incapacitation through electro-muscular disruption,” Dr. Thomas Owens wrote in the autopsy. Owens found no pre-existing heart problems.

Turner worked at the Food Lion store, where he was a cashier and bagged groceries. Documents state he was asked by a manager to leave the store but refused. Police said Officer Jerry Dawson Jr., a 15-year veteran, fired his Taser to get Turner under control after the teen advanced toward him. An attorney representing the family says he talked to a witness who refutes the account.

An April study by the Taser Safety Project [LINK] found that the improper use of Tasers has contributed to the deaths of at least 11 people in North Carolina over the past four years. The autopsy cites a National Institute of Justice study that concludes that while Tasers devices are not risk-free, there is “no conclusive medical evidence” indicating a high risk of serious injury.

I believe that most taser critics are not claiming that there is a high risk of significant injury (or death). We’re concerned that there may be a moderate or low risk (depending on how you structure the question). And as has been admitted even by taser fan-boys, dart placement (i.e. pure luck) may be a significant part of the overall safety margin.

Note that Turner was hit in the chest (as opposed to in the back like all those FAKE training and demonstration deployments that Taser claims to support their theories of safety).

The incident is also a clear example where it is unlikely in the extreme that the police officer would have had any legal justification to use lethal force. So the argument that ‘a taser is better than a gun‘ does not apply here (in common with the vast majority of taser deployments).

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