Another Running 14-Year-Old Tased

This time in California:

CARLSBAD — A 14-year-old boy suspected of driving a stolen car while being under the influence of alcohol and drugs was chased and shot with a Taser early Thursday morning by California Highway Patrol officers.

Officers spotted the boy driving a 2000 Toyota Corolla south on Carlsbad Boulevard just north of Tamarack Avenue at 1:40 a.m. and tried to pull him over for a traffic violation, CHP Officer Eric Newbury said.

The driver slowed and pulled over but left the car in gear as he and a passenger jumped out and ran toward the beach, Newbury said. “These two kids just bailed,” Newbury said.

The car continued rolling down the road and was stopped by a patrol car.

Officers chased the boy and then shot him with a Taser at the top of a staircase leading to Tamarack beach. He fell and hit his head on the pavement and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

They also chased the passenger, who ran south toward the jetty where they lost sight of him, Newbury said. Officers formed a perimeter around the area but were unable to find him.

The teenage driver was identified as an at-risk runaway, Newbury said. He faces several charges, including possession of a stolen vehicle, driving under the influence and evading arrest.

Tell me again how tasers are gun alternatives. Would the cop have shot this kid if no taser had been available? Please.

Tasing A 14-Year-Old Girl In The Head

From NM (and of course some police fanboys come to this cop's defense in the comments):

A 14-year-old Tucumcari girl is recovering at an Albuquerque hospital after being shot in the head with a Taser dart by Tucucmari Police Chief Roger Hatcher.

Now, her parents say they want the police department to review its policies for using the Taser.

The girl was hit in the head Thursday by one of two darts fired simultaneously as she was fleeing, Hatcher said.

The other dart lodged in her hip.

Hatcher said be believed he had no other option.

“There’s a lot of issues,” Hatcher said. “She committed a delinquent act. She was running from police across traffic without looking.”

Hatcher said he chased her, ordered her to stop and “then did what I had to do.”

Her mother, Stacy Akin, said her daughter underwent surgery Friday morning at University of New Mexico hospital in Albuquerque.

Did you catch that? The girl was tased for running and crossing the street without looking! The girl was also injured from a post-tasing fall:

The Taser hit the girl in the head and back. She fell and a stick got lodged in her face. She had to have surgery and now has staples in her head where the Taser hit her.

Seriously, I sleep better at night knowing such big strong brave men are protecting me. And mind you, this wasn't some rookie, this was the chief of police!
(h/t Examiner Tuccille)

A Psychic On The Board In Mobile?

I'm really sick of this meme: "If only a taser had been available, a life might have been saved."

A school board member in Mobile, Alabama must know something that those of us paying attention to all the dead tased people don't know:

The Mobile County School Board voted Monday night against allowing school security personnel to carry and use Tasers, even after receiving training.

The school board meeting began with two people speaking against the Taser proposal.

Carolyn May said, "I know we need discipline, fine. But I think we're overreacting and we're going too far."

Doris Edwards said, "You know the Taser can knock a man down. Now, what is it going to do to a child." ...

Board Member Reginald Crenshaw said, "I, too, support the weapons at night when children are not on campus to secure facilities. I do not support any type of weapon such as a gun or a Taser during the day when children are there."

Board Member Judy Stout spoke in favor of the proposal, and talked about the shooting death at Davidson High School last year.

Stout said, "I watched several times the video of the young man shooting himself at Davidson last year. Had there been a resource officer with a Taser, he (the victim) brandished the gun, he threatened, et cetera, that young man would be alive today.

The school board voted three to two against the proposal.

Voting against the Tasers were Manzie, Crenshaw, and Bill Meredith.

Stout and Ken Megginson voted for them.

Please Judy, tell it to Darryl Wayne Turner's family.

Taser Nuts

And people wonder why I don't want cops having tasers. Here's why:

Danny Wilson insists he never saw it coming.

On February 16, the Waffle House waiter was chatting with two Gwinnett County police officers when a third officer approached, his taser set on stun.

"I heard something behind me," says Wilson. "As I turned around to look, he put the taser to my back and I fell down.

"It was very humiliating."

Wilson says as the other officers laughed, Corporal Gary Miles denied using his weapon. Gwinnett Police say when their investigators stepped in, Miles changed his tune.

"He stated he regretted it happened," says Corporal Illana Spellman. "He said he did it because he thought it would be funny."

Wilson and his attorney waited until they had surveillance video of the incident to report it to Gwinnett Police. On June 9th, the department started a criminal investigation into their own officer.

Miles has resigned from the force, and is now facing charges of battery and violation of oath of office. The other two officers, Sgt. Joey Parkerson and Sgt. Christopher Parry, have also resigned in lieu of termination.

Danny Wilson claims before that stunning night, the three officers would come into the Waffle House to eat breakfast and use their taser guns like toys, sometimes pointing it in his direction.

"One time I was playing a song on the jukebox, and they said 'don't play any stupid songs, we're going to shoot you with the taser,'" says Wilson.

Wilson claims on one occasion, another officer got involved.

"We do want to know who this fourth officer is that pretended to shock Danny with the taser," says attorney Mike Puglese.

Gwinnett Police say if another officer used his taser improperly, they want to know.

"We're going to look into that thoroughly," says Corporal Spellman. "We're not going to tolerate any misconduct against a citizen."

District Attorney Danny Porter says once the police investigation is complete, he'll look at the evidence to determine if more charges should be filed against Miles or others.

This is how they get used. There have been too many incidents involving cops, tasers, and "joking" to deny that.

Hey Joe Taxpayer

This is how your money's being spent:

MOBERLY, Mo. | This municipality agreed Monday to an indefinite moratorium on the use of stun guns and will pay $2.4 million to survivors of a man who died after police shocked him.

Stanley Harlan, 23, died in August 2008 after Moberly police officers stunned him three times during a stop for suspected drunken driving. His family settled with the city of Moberly on Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. ...

Harlan was shocked after arguing with officers during a traffic stop. Authorities have said he was suspected of drunken driving. A statement from his family's lawyers said he was accused of speeding.

The readout on the officers' Taser indicated Harlan was stunned three times, Ryals said. Harlan lost consciousness and died a short time later.

Calls to attorneys for the city Monday night were not immediately returned. But the city said in a news release that no fault was admitted in the settlement and its insurance company will pay the entire settlement.

All so some brave good-ol-boys can punish the citizens that piss them off.

Notice what caused the town to halt taser use (apparently only until the next town meeting)? It wasn't the death of a person. It was a big fat settlement. How nice.

And yeah, I get that this was covered by the town's insurance. But, does anyone think that the cost isn't going to get passed along to taxpayers? The cost of tasers is on you Joe taxpayer.

Monday Taser Update

An autopsy is being performed today on a man in CT who died after being tased (or here).

The death of a sixteen-year-old following a tasing was caused by the taser (which is circular to anyone who's been paying attention).

Police in Australia admit to tasing a man 28 times before he died.

The AMA jumps into the taser fray and basically says nothing. They like tasers, but want police to have better usage guidelines and police accountability. I'd bet all the post-tasing-dead would have wanted those too.

And Another Post-Tasing Death

This time in Utah (also here and here):

Brian Layton Cardall, 32, was traveling with his [pregnant] wife south on State Road 59 near Hurricane on Tuesday afternoon. According to KSL.com, the vehicle pulled over to the side of the road when Cardall, who recently had been struggling with mental health issues, began having an "episode."

Cardall left the car and ran down the road, and his wife called police, said Washington County Undersheriff Jake Adams. A Hurricane police officer who responded to the scene deployed a Taser on Cardall, who lost consciousness, Adams said.

Cardall was treated at the scene but he was pronounced dead after being transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St.George, Adams said.

How many deaths need to occur before it becomes OK to question the use of tasers?

Tasing, Then Shooting A 5-lb Dog

Unbelievable. Two cops had this Chihuahua cornered. They then tased and shot (more here and a photo gallery here) the dog dead:

When the Bullocks returned home from a family member's funeral on Friday, they found blood and three bullets on their front porch – along with a note to call the Blue Ash Police Department about their dog.

The Bullocks were shocked to learn that Jack had gotten out of the backyard and two officers who tried to catch him, ended up shooting and killing him right on the family's front porch.

"He was cornered on the porch and scared," said Sharon Bullock. "The officer bent down bare-handed to pick up Jack, and Jack bit him."

"My five-year-old cried himself to sleep the night before last, wanting his dog," said Sharon Bullock. ...

They're wondering why the officers didn't call the SPCA to catch the dog.

"They didn't make that phone call other than to come scoop the dog off the porch after they shot him," said Scott Bullock. "Two grown men that can't gather up a five-pound dog – and they're trained police officers – sounds ridiculous to me."

That officer later explained to the family that he was following procedure.

Blue Ash police say one of the officers was bitten on both hands. One hand was bitten 17 times and the other was bitten nine times.

The dog was holding on so tight he left one of his teeth in the officer's hands.

An officer attempted to tase the dog while another officer was holding him, but it did not work, so they had to shoot the animal.

Blue Ash police say the officers handled the situation according to department policy.

It's good to know that this police department has a policy in place for handling dangerous miniature animals.

You also have to wonder why the ever-awesome taser couldn't get the job done here. Canadians are discovering astounding failure rates in older models of the devices. I'm sure the newer models were made with the same quality and durability standards (and that's not a good thing).

Tasing Grandma

(updated below)
Seriously:

Police in Texas are standing behind a deputy's repeated taser attacks on an elderly great grandmother who was reportedly driving fifteen miles an hour over the speed limit in a construction zone.

Kathryn Windfein says she was driving to Austin for a twice weekly shopping trip when she was pulled over for speeding by a Travis County Constable deputy. She admits that she was speeding, but says the deputy's story about her "resisting arrest" and being "violent" is completely untrue.

In fact, while looking at the arrest report, she said, "I was not arguing and I was not combative. Everything in this is a lie."

This is not uncommon at all. The notion that police are honorable simply because they take an oath and wear a badge while supposedly "protecting' citizens is something out of the past, if it is even that. Police are people and people screw up, that is the way life goes.

And once in a while, a pastor or a great-grandmother or somebody more "unusual" is abused by police and the story comes forward.

In the comments of the article, the editor chimes in to make a point I don't think can be made enough. Mainstream media in the US has been hamstrung by a compulsion to present both sides of an issue as valid even when one side is clearly nonsense. The editor reminds us that there isn't another side to tasing a 72-year-old grandmother. It's sad that that needs to be written out loud.

The piece also embeds this news report on the incident:

The following news report contains some footage from the dashcam of the arresting cop's patrol car:

What a big, brave man!

Cop Love From The Courts

The Christian Science Monitor presents a brief summary of some of the issues with the willy-nilly taser application we're living with in the US.

The piece references a recent court decision that could be a huge problem facing those of us who don't think that our cops, aka people we pay to keep the peace, should have cattle prods at the ready for anyone they deem misbehaving. Our supreme court (SCOTUS) has declined to hear a case involving clear taser abuse:

In the case of the Florida driver, the Supreme Court justices offered no explanation for their decision not to hear his case. The move lets stand a federal appeals court decision that found the deputy's actions reasonable and justified.

"I hope [law enforcement officials] don't see this as open season to tase anyone who doesn't do exactly what they are told," says Tallahassee lawyer John Jolly, who successfully represented the deputy in the Florida case.

Do our cops now have carte blanche to tase as they please? If so, and given the political climate here in the US, there is little hope for rulings from the SCOTUS that favor liberties. Civil libertarians might get one or two more strong dissenting opinions for their reading pleasure, but civil liberties will be on the endangered list for some years to come in the US.

For reference, here is the incident that resulted in the suit the SCOTUS declined to hear:

Couple this situation with a recent ruling that cops can tase you to forcibly take your DNA and we have a scary situation indeed.

More Expensive Tasing

$225,000 and a dead loved one in CO:

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) - The family of a man who died after sheriff's deputies shocked him with a Taser will receive $225,000 to settle a lawsuit.

Larimer County decided to pay the family of Timothy Mathis instead of going to trial Monday. County Attorney George Hass told commissioners Tuesday the settlement prevents what could've been a costly trial.

$100,000 in NV:

Smith had thoughts of a multi-million dollar settlement. But he ended up being offered a $100,000 settlement two and a half years later by Tom Beko, attorney for the county's insurance carrier. Smith said he won't sign the offer. But Beko said Smith had agreed to the settlement offer in federal court but now wants to back out of it.

"I know he's really unhappy about it. This case was settled to resolve unbelievable legal costs in litigating this case," Beko said.

A motion has been filed to compel Smith to comply with the agreement, Beko said. Smith said the agreement, approved March 4 behind closed doors in federal court with Judge Brian Sandoval presiding, was only verbal.

"All the time I kept telling the judge what I wanted and he kept telling me there's only $100,000," Smith said. "They had me coerced into it."

Does that last bit mean that Smith would have been offered more had more funds been available? These devices are literally more trouble than they're worth.