Police and Tasers

I don’t like police – you’ll know that if you’ve been reading. I don’t trust them. I don’t like what they represent. I don’t like their proclivity or opportunity for violence and corruption (Home Office), or their habit of stitching people up. I don’t like that they’d rather nick the victim of a crime than the perpetrator because of their absurd target culture (like they did after I escaped an attempted car-jacking and the cunts threatened me with driving offences when they came to take my statement). I don’t like their paranoid attitude to adults in relation to children. I don’t like their low-level bullying and stupidity as it relates to the law-abiding public. I don’t like the way they use anti-terror laws to unlawfully prevent public photography.

Most of all, I cannot understand why anyone would want to do the job, unless they were seriously in need of the self-importance that the uniform can imbue into the most scrofulous and homunculus specimens of our species.

To paraphrase Billy Connolly, wanting to be a copper should disqualify you from the job.

So, to the point. I’ve referred previously to Jacqui Smith’s plans to give lots of coppers tasers.

Significant evidence of abuse of these devices, and their deleterious effect on the standards and cilvility of policing,  has inevitably started to come to light.

Johann Hairy writes:

Daniel Sylvester can’t forget the night the police fired 50,000 volts of electricity into his skull. The 46-year-old grandfather owns his own security business, and he was recently walking down the street when a police van screeched up to him.

He didn’t know what they wanted, but obeyed when they told him to approach slowly. “I then had this incredible jolt of pain on the back of my head,” he explains. The electricity made him spasm; as he fell to the ground, he felt his teeth scatter on the tarmac and his bowels open. “Then they shot me again in the head. I can’t describe the pain.” (Another victim says it is “like someone reached into my body to rip my muscles apart with a fork.”) The police then saw he was not the person they were looking for, said he was free to go, and drove off.

This did not happen in Egypt or Saudi Arabia or any other country notorious for using electro-shock weapons. It happened in north London and, if the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has her way, it will be coming soon to a street near you. In Britain there are 3,000 police officers trained to use Tasers as part of specialised armed response units, but Smith has fired a jolt forward. She wants there to be 30,000 Taser-carrying officers, authorised to use them against unarmed citizens, including children. These “stun-guns” fire small metal darts into your skin, and through the trailing wires run an agonising electric current through your body.

Smith is right to say that the police face a growing threat of violence, and these heroic frontline officers must have the means to defend themselves. She’s also right to argue it better to use a Taser than to use a gun. But the police can already swiftly call out armed response teams, equipped with Tasers and firearms. If we move beyond this to a widespread culture of assault by electricity, it will only endanger the police – and the rest of us.

Smith wants Tasers to be distributed well beyond the ranks of specially trained firearms officers, but Tasers can kill.

If a copper is to carry a gun, intensive firearms training is undertaken and strict control on the carrying and discharge of guns is the norm. That’s why the name Jean Charles de Menezes will be remembered for a long time in the UK.

A taser is classified as a prohibited firearm in the UK, meaning the penalty for carrying or using one is the same as for carrying a live handgun. For you or me.

But this fucking mental woman wants to put them in the hands of Constable Fuckwit et al, who are trained only to fire a speed camera and kick the shit out of people.

Amnesty International has just published a report showing that, since 2001, 334 people have died in the US during or just after Tasering.

Jarrel Gray was a partially deaf 20-year-old black man involved in an argument in the street in Frederick County, Maryland, when the police approached him and ordered him to lie on the ground. He didn’t hear them – so they Tasered him. As he lay paralysed on the ground, they told him to show his hands. He couldn’t obey. They Tasered him again. Jarrel died in hospital two hours later.

Ryan Rich was a 33-year-old medical doctor who had an epileptic seizure while driving his car on a Nevada highway. He crashed into the side of the road. The police smashed a window to get into the car and Ryan woke up, startled. The police officer reacted by Tasering him repeatedly. Only when they were handcuffing him did they notice he was turning blue. He was dead before he got to hospital. The coroner noted dryly that the Taser “probably contributed” to his death. Taser International’s brochures claim their weapons have “no after-effects.”

So they can do damage, but what about the effect they have on the quality of policing?

Matthew Fogg, who led a SWAT team in the US, warns that Tasers create a culture where “if I don’t like you, I can torture you”.

If we slip into that policing culture, mistrust and violence against police officers can only increase. That’s why so many senior police are highly sceptical about Smith’s plans, from the former head of the Flying Squad, John O’Connor, to the former head of the West Midlands Police, Barry Mason.

Far from lowering violence, Tasers seem to lower the threshold that by which the police resort to violence – and criminals respond by lowering theirs. In the US, a 16-year-old schoolboy was Tasered by cops in a playground for “using profanity”; a dementia-riddled man in his eighties was shocked for urinating in the park; 50,000 volts were fired at a 17-year-old boy who had fallen off an overpass and broken his back.

…

Daniel Sylvester still has nightmares about what happened to him. If we don’t stop Jacqui Smith, many more British people will be joining him – and we will all be in for a shock.

However, it’s only fair to note that the Met, in a loch-ness-monsterously rare wielding of common-sense have said they want fuck all to to with it.

The Metropolitan Police have said they won’t participate in Smith’s Taser roll-out because they know it’ll be particularly disastrous for relations with black and Asian communities. In the US, only 18 per cent of Tasered people are white. Imagine if the boys in Brixton and Moss Side weren’t just been stopped-and-searched – which creates enough grievance – but apprehended in this way. How many Taser attacks would have to make it onto YouTube before we have riots?

But sadly, only because they might upset the fuzzies – not because they’re a grotesque shift in the balance of power between a legally disarmed populace and a hastily armed & ill-trained police force manned by power-crazed psycho dwarves.

That said, the Met have already had a little bother with Tasers as above. So have West Yorkshire Police:

Terror police ’shot’ man in coma

A man who had gone into a diabetic coma on a bus in Leeds was shot twice with a Taser gun by police who feared he may have been a security threat.

Mr Gaubert said he was on his way to meet friends when he suffered a fit on the bus and slipped into a coma which left him slumped on his seat clutching his rucksack.

Armed police were called to the bus depot in Headingley and when he failed to respond to their challenges he was shot with the Taser.

He said as this was happening, another officer was pointing a real gun at his head.

He was restrained and eventually came round in the police van.

He said it was only then that the officers realised it was a medical emergency, despite him wearing a medical tag round his neck to warn of his condition, and took him to hospital.

Mr Gaubert said he was told the police believed he looked “Egyptian”.

Here he is:

And if the pigs in Leeds don’t know what an Egyptian looks like then Christ help us all.

This happened in 2005 – so you’d imagine that by now, coppers would have had to face the music and pay for their mistake.

A statement from the IPCC said: “The IPCC managed an investigation into an incident on 13 July 2005 in which West Yorkshire Police discharged a Taser at a man while he sat on a bus in Leeds.

“The man was mistakenly treated as a potential security threat when he was, in fact, in a hypoglycaemic state. The investigation report was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in November 2006.

“The CPS returned its initial decision in February 2007 stating that no officers should be charged with any criminal offences.

“Consideration was then given by the CPS as to whether any offences had been committed under health and safety law.

“A decision was received recently to advise that no charges would be brought under this legislation.

“The IPCC must determine whether any disciplinary matters need to be considered against the officers involved.

“Initial recommendations regarding discipline put forward by the police forces involved have not been agreed by the IPCC and discussions are ongoing. ”

West Yorkshire Police said the matter was in the hands of the IPCC.

This was November 2007. Here’s July 2008:

‘All Clear’ for PC angers man shocked with Taser

EXCLUSIVE: A man who was shot twice with an electric stun gun after police mistook him for a suicide bomber has spoken of his anger at a decision not to discipline the officer involved.

…

Mr Gaubert said: “I feel disgusted at the way my complaint has been handled. It seems as though the IPCC are more concerned with protecting the police than dealing with the concerns of the public.

“It is now three years since I was Tasered and falsely arrested under the Terrorism Act. I was unconscious at the time of the attack with hypoglycaemia owing to my diabetes. I showed no aggression as I was unconscious and unable to respond to police demands. I have had no explanation or apology and it feels like the IPCC are denying me a full explanation.”

Mr Gaubert’s solicitor, Ifti Manzoor, of Sheffield-based Irwin Mitchell, said he and his client had been “kept in the dark” by the IPCC over an impending disciplinary hearing.

He added: “I find it astonishing that the IPCC are not prepared to divulge the nature of the misconduct charges that the two senior officers face or why the officer that fired the Taser is not to face charges.

“Instead, my client is expected to give evidence at a hearing where the officers themselves, the police force and the IPCC all know the exact nature of the charges and my client is not even given an outline. In circumstances where my client alleges appalling treatment by the police I would have expected the IPCC to make great efforts to ensure the matter was dealt with fairly and openly.”

…

Last month the West Yorkshire force revealed that it was extending the use of the Taser with the weapon issued to officers in Wakefield and Halifax. Mr Gaubert said this was a mistake.

And this is December 2008.

IPCC Challenged Over Reluctance to Reveal Details to Man Shot With Taser Gun

Police misconduct involving Taser

04/12/2008

A 34-year-old man who was shot as many as 3 times by police with a taser gun after he went into a diabetic coma on a bus in Leeds is challenging the decision by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to withhold vital details.

Nicholas Gaubert was shot with a taser gun and arrested in July 2005 after police believed he could have been a suicide bomber. The incident occurred just one week before the fatal shooting of Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes by officers in London.

Mr Gaubert described how he was on his way to have a drink with friends when he suffered a hypoglycaemic fit which left him slumped on his seat clutching his rucksack.

An armed police team was called to the vehicle and when he failed to respond to their challenges he was shot with the taser. Self-employed Mr Gaubert said that as one of his hands was not visible and he was still failing to respond to challenges he was shot with the electric stun gun again.

As this was happening, another officer was pointing a real gun at his head.

He finally came round in the police van and only then did officers realise it was a medical emergency, despite him wearing a neck tag to warn of his diabetic condition.

They took him to hospital but the police refused to take off his handcuffs while he was being treated.

The IPCC have confirmed that two officers face disciplinary hearings following the incident, Inspector Butterworth and Chief Superintendent Docherty, both of West Yorkshire Police. However the officer who fired the taser, PC Gumby, will not face any disciplinary proceedings.

Mr Gaubert’s lawyers, Irwin Mitchell, are now fighting for an explanation of why disciplinary proceedings against PC Mumby have been dropped, and for the full details of the charges against both officers to be disclosed prior to an IPCC hearing which is due to take place later this year.

So if there’s no training, no oversight and no restitution when it all goes horribly wrong, how can we be prepared to accept it?

And on the political tactics:

Labour has been very astute in creating an atmosphere of fear and hatred of young people but without conceding that so many of the problems – gang membership, the lack of social cohesion and general lassitude and fecklessness in blighted inner city areas – have all increased under this government. An absence of intelligent social policy, or simply neglect, is in almost every case followed by oppressive legislation and the kind of ad hoc measures that you see in Kent and Lambeth. These things go un-criticised because the tabloid press feeds on the same hatred and fears.

This is how Jacqui Smith has been able to give the police 10,000 Tasers with very little fuss. As Amnesty International reports these weapons are lethal. They discharge 50,000 volts and have been responsible for the death of 344 Americans between 2001 and August 2008. “The problem with Tasers is that they are inherently open to abuse, as they are easy to carry and easy to use and can inflict severe pain at the push of a button, without leaving substantial marks,” said the author of Amnesty’s report Angela Wright. Many people were shot with the gun after failing to comply with a police command, and that I suspect is exactly how it will be deployed in Britain. At some point we will begin to wonder how it was such a monstrous weapon was given to the police with so little debate.

Jacqui Smith can rot in hell. Even if her fuckwit housewife husband (Richard Timney, whose name she didn’t take) writes a series of letters to newspapers saying how wonderfully she’s doing keeping us all safe and sound.

Just fuck off.

The Muppets say Fuck the Police.

Update: Meanwhile, some hack over at politics.co.uk doesn’t seem to know this shit has happened to anyone in the UK yet.

AJ

H/T UKLiberty, Old Holborn.