Posted on 02/11/2005 8:57:05 AM PST by SeamusVA
CHICAGO — A man died after Chicago police used a Taser (search) stun gun to subdue him Thursday, just days after a teenager was critically injured in a similar incident that prompted a lawsuit against the city. Police said they used the stun gun when they were unable to restrain an unruly 54-year-old man who was fighting with officers at a high-rise building on the city's North Side Thursday afternoon.
The man went into cardiac arrest and later died, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. Authorities did not identify the man Thursday evening.
Police Cmdr. Michael Chasen said the man was trying to kick and bite officers and threatening to infect them with HIV (search), the virus that causes AIDS.
"'I'm going to kill you with my blood,'" Chasen quoted the man as saying.
The death came the same day an official with the Department of Children and Family Services sued the city and a police officer who used a stun gun on a 14-year-old boy on Monday. The boy, who also went into cardiac arrest, remained hospitalized Thursday night.
Police Superintendent Philip Cline defended the officers' use of the weapons at a news conference but said the department will delay plans to increase its number of stun guns.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
well gee you introduce an electric shock into a body that is electrically charged, some things might just happen from time to time ya know?
whats up with that old man saying he was going to infect them with his blood?!? ISSUES!!!
He got what he deserved......end of story!
"'I'm going to kill you with my blood,'"
Famous last words
I'm with the cops on this one.
"'I'm going to kill you with my blood,'" Chasen quoted the man as saying.
And THAT threat would give the police the right to use lethal force against the perp.
If anything, the cops were wrong for using a taser instead of a firearm against him.
don't bring your old man blood to a taser fight.
Oh the poor HIV-infected man. The cops should have tried to "understand" him/ sarc
Hold my beer.... Read this one on tasers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1313093/posts
The issue isn't whether or not the guy "deserved" to be killed. The issue is that the taser caused a lethal response from the man that the cops never intended. That cardiac arrest has occurred twice now in a short time should cause concern about whether tasers are viable for police work. I'd say they should be abandoned until a "safer" design can be produced; a safer design being one that will only immobilize, not kill.
What country do you live in?
USA. It is an extremely dangerous business to threaten the lives of police officers. If he threatened to infect them with AIDS, he is very lucky that he wasn't shot to death instead. But they didn't shoot him, and they certainly didn't intend to kill or even cripple him. Tasers are designed specifically for non-lethal applications.
Also consider: It's dangerous to over-exert yourself when you are in your heart attack years (54). It is not reasonable to expect to resist arrest violently and come out of it unscathed. How the American Criminal Liberties Union has come to expect police officers to subdue violent felons every time on charm, wit and sensitivity alone is flat-out extraterrestrial. So what planet do YOU live on where this actually happens?
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