ForYourContemplation3 Tasers
Folks -
This would be funny, if it were a skit on television.
For your contemplation.
Jim Szpajcher
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 10:13 PM
Subject: Police short changed by the almighty deity? Or do they check their brains at the curb when they put on their uniform.
Kids Visiting Prisons Get Stun-Gunned, by Jessica Gresko
http://news.aol.com/article/florida-prison-shock/485960?icid=main|netscape|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fflorida-prison-shock%2F485960
MIAMI (May 16) – Demonstrations at three Florida prisons where more than 40 children were shocked with stun guns have led to the dismissal of three employees and the resignation of two others, the Department of Corrections said Friday. The incidents took place on April 23, national "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day." As part of demonstrations at two prisons, children held hands in a circle, and one was shocked with the stun gun, passing the shock around the circle. At another prison, children were shocked individually.
Other Taser incidents:
The police chief of a small Central Texas town was arrested April 6 after he allegedly used a Taser on his wife. Oly Ivy, 30, was charged with aggravated assault. The Oakwood City Council voted to fire him immediately. Ivy’s attorney said his client "is taking these allegations very seriously."
A cell phone video released in January shows actors Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright being arrested after they refused to leave a bar. Wright was repeatedly hit by a Taser. "What are you doing? Why are you still shocking him?" someone yells in the recording. The incident occurred in July 2008. The prosecutor later agreed to drop all charges.
Sheriff’s deputies Tasered Gladwyn Taft Russ III while trying to arrest the man at his father’s funeral. The incident occurred Nov. 15 in Wilmington, N.C., as Russ, who was a pallbearer, was helping to load his father’s casket into a hearse. The sheriff later apologized.
A pastor filed suit in July against a Toledo, Ohio, hospital after being hit by a Taser and beaten by security guards at the facility. Much of last year’s incident outside St. Vincent Mercy Hospital was recorded on video.
Campus police wielded Tasers against University of Florida student Andrew Meyer as they tried to remove him from a forum featuring Sen. John Kerry. Meyer cried out, "Don’t Tase me, bro!" but was shocked anyway. After video of the Sept. 17, 2007, incident was posted on the Internet, the university opened an investigation that found the campus police officers were justified.
A Warren, Ohio, police officer repeatedly jolted Heidi Gill with a Taser during a traffic stop on Sept. 2, 2007. Dashboard video from his cruiser captured Patrolman Richard Kovach hitting Gill with the stun gun while she was handcuffed. She was knocked unconscious. All charges against Gill were dropped. Kovach was later fired from the police force.
Police were summoned to the airport in Vancouver, British Columbia, in
October 2007 after Robert Dziekanski became upset. A series of mix-ups had left the Polish immigrant stranded there for hours. Although witnesses — including a man who recorded the confrontation on video — said they warned police that Dziekanski didn’t understand English, officers hit him with a Taser at least twice. Dziekanski died. (Sources: AP, CBS, CBC, TMZ)
Also see the story “Letter a Scathing Indictment of RCMP” by Gary Mason, Globe and Mail, May 15, 2009 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090515.wmason0515/BNStory/National/home
It started out as an apology for the role Canada’s national police force played in the death of her son, Robert. But in its writing, police psychologist Mike Webster’s open letter to Zofia Cisowski became a scathing indictment of the force’s leadership.
"So how could this happen?" Mr. Webster writes in his letter to Ms. Cisowski. “The short answer is an inept, insular and archaic group of RCMP executives has let the Force fall out of step with 21st Century policing." [from an Open Letter to Zofia Cisowski] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090515.wmasonletter0515/BNStory/National
