Fort Worth offers family $2 million in Taser case

Houston Chronicle ^ | 05/16/2010 | MIKE LEE

[Responsibility2nd]

FORT WORTH

[Responsibility2nd]

I support the use of tasers. They're a lot safer than physically restraining someoen.

But being shocked for 54 seconds?

Why not shoot the guy 54 times?

Overkill.

[Hodar]

It goes beyond that.

After a 54 second Tasering, the cops ignored him and didn’t investigate as to why he was no longer moving. CPR didn’t begin until they noticed that he was turning blue.

I’m a fan of the Taser, the gun is lethal and the Taser is a method to handle conflict without endangering the officer. However, this case appears to be a situation where a cop was simply too stupid to be in a position of authority - if you Taser a person, and he goes down - you take that time to check to see if they are conscious, if they are breathing, and then you cuff them. It’s not rocket science. You do not let the body remain on the ground, keep shocking the person; then ignore the motionless body.

[BuffaloJack]

> Overkill.
54 seconds!
I’d call that 2nd degree murder and a felony not a civil case.

[ZX12R]

Sounds like an experiment to see how long it takes to kill someone.

Latest study suggests...54 seconds.

[Filo]

a cop was simply too stupid to be in a position of authority

That described virtually all of them.

And here is another of those rare, isolated incidents where the police get away with murder and where the 99% give the 1% a bad name.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

You do not let the body remain on the ground, keep shocking the person; then ignore the motionless body.

Unless, maybe, you don't particularly like the person.

[VOA]

“
Fort Worth offers family $2 million in Taser case
“

Yes, this is an overkill/bad-copping case on the face of it.

But suing over Taser usage (even non-lethal) must be becoming something
of a cottage industry for lawyers.

And a neat way for thugs (and their associates) to further constrain
even the good cops.

[WLR]

Tasers need to be banned for use in all but justified lethal force instances.

Taser Intl knows the truth. That is why they no longer market the devices as “Non Lethal”..

But their employment has not been restricted dramatically which would result in reduced purchases by Law Enforcement Agencies...Pulling things back would require our elected Officials call people in Law Enforcement on the Mat.. and of course our Elected Officials are really loath to do that.. After all they do not want Law Enforcement looking too closely at their own activities..

Really a sad state of affairs for the Citizenry. One more betrayal of the People by those elected and appointed.

W

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroshock_weapon
Tests conducted by the Cleveland Clinic found that Tasers did not interfere
with pacemakers and implantable defibrillators.[8] A
study conducted by emergency medicine physicians at the University of
California, San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center showed no lasting effects of the
Taser on healthy test subjects.[9] However, Taser
International no longer claims the devices are “non-lethal”, instead saying they
“are more effective and safer than other use-of-force options”.[10]
Currently, Tasers are programmed to be activated in automatic five second
bursts, although the officer can stop the energy charge at any time by engaging
the safety switch. The charge can also be prolonged beyond five seconds if the
trigger is held down continuously. The operator can also inflict repeated shock
cycles with each pull of the trigger as long as both barbs remain attached to
the subject. The only technical limit to the number or length of the electrical
cycles is the life of the battery, which can be ten minutes or more.
Repeated bursts by a Taser can be lethal as evidenced by the death of the
Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski [11] in the Vancouver,
BC airport where he died after the RCMP officer, in spite of his training,
repeatedly stunned him with a Taser.
The study [12] done by Pierre
Savard, Ing., PhD., Ecole Polythechnique de Montreal, et al., for the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), indicated that the threshold of energy needed to
induce deadly ventricular fibrillation decreased dramatically with each
successive burst of pulses, however, one pulse may provide enough energy to
induce deadly ventricular fibrillation in some cases. The threshold for women
may be less. [13

[thefactor]

Only 5 posts. Nice.

[Filo]

Only 5 posts. Nice.

Four - then mine.

The truth can't wait. ;-)