Free Republic

Police said Berris McKenzie was struck three times before an officer was able to handcuff him A Florida man says Lauderhill Police went too far when they repeatedly used a Taser on him for loitering outside a convenience store. As reported by WSVN, police say, Berris McKenzie, 64, was warned multiple times about selling coconuts and sugarcane from his van in the parking lot of Kwik Stop Food Store on Northwest 16th Avenue. McKenzie doesn’t have a permit to sell his goods. “It’s against city ordinance to be selling items or conducting business without going through the city for a...

Incredible video released tonight. Chicago police officers confront a man wanted for stabbing a citizen nearby. Perp has a large knife, overcomes the Tazer and then charges the female sergeant. He is shot 15 times before falling. No word if the officer was stabbed.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS A suicidal man who had doused himself in gasoline became engulfed in flames at an Arlington home Monday after an officer used a stun gun him, police said. The officer who used the Taser on the man believed that the man was holding a lighter in his hand and was about to use it, police spokeswoman Sgt. VaNessa Harrison said at a news conference. Harrison acknowledged the risk of using an electrical stun gun near gasoline, but said the man was “very frantic and erratic and became a danger to everyone in the room.” “We realize that a...

A civil rights advocacy group called for more regulations regarding the use of Tasers by police. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's New Haven branch said a man died this week following a crash and an altercation with emergency responders. ... Thomas Lane was involved in a crash on Interstate-95 in West Haven Monday, according to state police. When troopers arrived at the scene, they said Lane was stuck in his car with a head injury. As they tried to help him, they said he became combative and hurt a first responder. A trooper used his Taser...

A man was tasered by police after he picked up his garden hose and attempted to stop a fire spreading that was threatening to engulf his home. Dan Jensen, 42, awoke from a nap last Thursday when he hear his wife, Angela, also 42, scream that the house next door at 3420 Beechwood Terrace N in Tampa Bay was ablaze. When the father of two went outside, the fire had already engulfed his neighbors’ home and a fence in between the two houses and the flames were starting to lick the corners of the Jensens' home.

On March 17th, three white men were leaving an Applebees restaurant after midnight in Seneca, South Carolina. One of the men, Terry Moore, 32, of Macon County, NC, went to the bathroom while his two friends went straight to their car. When Moore walked to the car alone, he encountered between 15 and 20 black men. The men allegedly yelled racial slurs at him like "tree honkey" and "cracker," then brutally attacked him. Moore's friends say that he was zapped with a tazer and then stomped on after he fell to the crowd. The victim suffered several serious head injuries...

Late one night in October, a 17-year-old on a bike was chased by a police officer in a cruiser. When the boy refused to stop, the officer aimed his Taser out the driver's window and fired. The boy fell off the bike and the cruiser ran over him, killing him.

A problem bear that has been frequenting Hillside homes and yards in recent weeks was subjected to shock therapy from police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker's Taser on Thursday morning. After the small black bear got into a fish fryer on the porch, Parker decided to try a novel approach to deconditioning the animal to people, he said. He armed himself with a backup firearm and a personal Taser C2, which launches a 30-second burst of 100,000 volts, Parker said. "I thought, 'Here is a wonderful opportunity to give this a test,' " Parker said. He fired out the window and...

An Arkansas cop tasered an unruly 10-year-old girl after her mother called police to report that the child was crying, screaming, and refusing to go to bed. The tased girl, Kiara Medlock, is about 65 pounds and 4' 6", according to her father. ...he found the girl "screaming, kicking, and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her." Bradshaw added that, "Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to." After Kiara continued to refuse her mother's instructions, the cop concluded that "there was not going to be a peaceful resolution of the issue."

Emailed from my Sister, I couldn't stop laughing... A guy who purchased his lovely wife a pocket Tazer for their anniversary submitted this:

Fayetteville, N.C. — The American Civil Liberties Union wants Cumberland County authorities to curb their use of stun guns in schools after the weapons were used twice on students in the last week.

NEW YORK – An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge, officials said Thursday.

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...

Check out the link. There are plenty of instructional videos if you don't like this particular one. Kids all over America have been converting old film cameras into functional Tazers.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A police officer used a stun gun to zap a yoga instructor who yelled at her in a crowded department store, drawing questions about the non-lethal weapon's use. Elizabeth Beeland, 35, went to a Daytona Beach Best Buy on Nov. 26 to purchase a CD player for her father. Her attorney said she stepped outside the store when she received an emergency call about her daughter, leaving her credit card behind. A store clerk suspected Beeland was using a stolen card and called over Daytona Beach Police Officer Claudia Wright, who was investigating a separate call...

The US government has unveiled a "non-lethal" laser rifle designed to dazzle enemy personnel without causing them permanent harm. But the device will require close scrutiny to ensure compliance with a United Nations protocol on blinding laser weapons. The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHASR) rifle was developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, US, and two prototypes have been delivered to military bases in Texas and Virginia for further testing. The US Department of Defense (DoD) believes the weapon could be used, for example, to temporarily blind suspects who drive through a roadblock. However, the DoD...

Witness disputes officer’s account CYNTHIA M. ELLIS, The Telegraph 08/12/2005 WOOD RIVER -- A witness who watched the arrest of a car theft suspect said a bystander did nothing wrong by failing to aid police because the officer seemed to be in control of the situation -- including using a Taser to subdue the resisting youth. Officials said charges against a 40-year-old man for refusing to aid an officer could be dropped; however, police first must complete their investigation into the matter. Peter Skinner, of the 100 block of Thompson Avenue, is charged with a misdemeanor for refusing to help...

PITTSBURGH - Police charged four people protesting the war in Iraq, two of whom suffered minor injuries from the police response, when 60 people disrupted traffic by marching the wrong way down a busy one-way street toward an Army recruiting station. The Pittsburgh Organizing Group planned the Saturday morning demonstration. A spokesman for that group, David Meieran, accused police of responding with "inappropriate and excessive force." Meieran claimed some protesters were pepper sprayed and Tasered; he said a 68-year-old woman who was not resisting was bitten by a police dog. Police spokeswoman Tammy Ewin initially said no pepper spray was...

AURORA, Colo. -- Aurora police have reviewed a weekend incident in which a man accused of stealing salad from a Chuck E. Cheese salad bar was hit with a stun gun twice by officers and said that proper procedures were followed. The incident began at 4:05 p.m. Sunday when officers were called to the restaurant on a report of a larceny in progress. Police talked to the Chuck E. Cheese manager, who told them that a customer had refused to show proof that he had paid for food. The manager said the man was seen "loading" his plate at the...

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...