All Police In Devon & Cornwall To Be Given Tasers

[Art Van De Lay]

http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co. ... ticle.html

Stun gun for every officer
EVERY police officer in Devon and Cornwall looks certain to be given the right to carry a controversial Taser stun gun.
Police officers with no firearms training, as well as those with specialist weapon skills, are expected to be given extra powers by the Home Office before the end of the year.
It would mean that within a few months every police officer would have the power to incapacitate a violent suspect with the 50,000-volt device.

[tal]

When I read the first story below last week, I had to wonder whether Montreal cops USE tasers or whether they only DON'T use them on their fellow cops:


Montreal cop's colleagues use rubber bullets in bust

October 22, 2008
THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL–A Montreal police officer was shot with rubber bullets and arrested by colleagues yesterday after he trashed equipment and opened fire during a four-hour standoff inside a 24-hour gym.

Gym manager Joe Maglione said the cop, 33, approached an employee out of the blue and said: "Look, I'm a calm guy. I never use my gun."

"Right there, that's when the employee ... went to reception and goes, 'Hey, call the cops, this guy's not all there.' "

The officer then hopped on a treadmill, still wearing his bulletproof vest and holstered sidearm, mumbling to himself and occasionally shouting at people in the club.

"He was far from being there," the manager said. "Doing what he did is not normal."

Maglione said the man had just finished his shift at a police station across the street. When police arrived 15 minutes later, he bolted to a second-floor office and barricaded himself in. Trashing its window and mirrors with dumb bells, he took eight shots at its steel ceiling and "could have killed himself ... bullets were flying all over the place."

"He went in there. He broke everything," said Maglione. Maglione said the man was a stranger to the club frequented by police, adding a police sergeant and the man's father who is also an officer tried for hours to get him to leave the room.

Const. Anie Lemieux said the stalemate ended when police persuaded him to open the door and officers swiftly neutralized the "incoherent" man with rubber bullets.

"The rest went well," she said. "It was a question of security. We'll have to wait to see if any accusations (charges) could be laid."
[/color]



This is merely the LATEST Canadian taser death:


Cops probed in Taser death
Last Updated: 30th October 2008, 4:07am

EDMONTON -- A man who witnesses say attacked at least one person and smashed up a pawn shop died yesterday after Edmonton police officers zapped him twice with a Taser stun gun.

Witnesses told CTV Edmonton the man entered the store in a gritty section of the city's west end, locked the door and began assaulting a man inside.

A woman said police arrived shortly after the commotion started and it took several officers to subdue the man.

"This guy comes over in a rampage, smashed at the door with his fist, took a couple of swings at the owner, then he went inside and started smashing the place up," Sheila Boddy said.

"When the police arrived, they couldn't even apprehend him and get him under control."

She said she heard several Tasers go off.

There were reports from the scene the suspect went into cardiac arrest shortly after police got him under control.

The Alberta watchdog agency on police was investigating to determine what happened and whether the police officers involved should face criminal charges.

"The individual was eventually wrestled to the ground, handcuffed, was observed in medical distress. He lost consciousness, was transported to hospital, where he was declared dead," said Clifton Purvis, executive director of the agency.

"What we are concerned about is the actions of the two police officers, whether their interaction with the deceased caused his death. If it did cause the death, it is our responsibility to determine whether there is any criminal conduct."

The man who died was not identified. Police estimate he was between 35 to 40.

About two dozen people have died in Canada after being hit with Tasers, which can deliver a shock of up to 50,000 volts. The company that makes Tasers points out the devices have never been directly blamed for a death.[/i][/color]

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Alberta's also going mad for Tasers, I hear, largely because it's once again going mad with oil-richness. The prairie states are going back to the days of the Bronfman's, I reckon. It's frontier territory again.

I don't blame the police for wanting Tasers there, in Alberta, considering all the new traffic coming through (they actually wanted sidearms -the peace officers, I mean - might have got them by now for all I know).

In rural Alberta - they should have a lot more than that, and most of them do. Cougars and wolverines and bears, oh my!
Criminals are the least of their worries. Must be one of the few places in North America, or on earth, where the Hell's Angels (and their rivals) drive carefully.

Tasers - will eventually be used for breaking whatever strike actions are taken against the tar sands. There will be some, when people wake up to the money they are losing.

[elfismiles]

Folks need to start local chapters of STAT (Stop Taser Abuse Today), stat!

www.StopTasers.org

Taser Watch
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=19766

[tal]

Looks like they've taken one out of Pharma's bag o' tricks on this:


link


May 11, 2008
Legal power of Taser International is cause for concern at Canadian inquests
By Greg Joyce, THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER - An Ohio court decision ordering a state coroner to remove all reference to Tasers from autopsy results is an "appalling interference," says British Columbia's chief medical officer.

The top medical examiner in the U.S. called the court ruling last week "dangerously close to intimidation."

But officials at a public inquiry currently underway in B.C. into the use of Tasers say their investigation will continue and their conclusions will not be swayed.

Art Vertlieb, commission counsel with the inquiry, said there will be no adverse findings made in the first phase of the inquiry, which is looking at Taser use in general.

But a second phase that will look specifically at the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport last fall is another matter.

"Once we get into the deal with the airport, that's going to be different. That's going to be a real inquiry in a more confrontational sense," he said.

"Under the rules in an inquiry in B.C. you can't say there's civil or criminal wrongdoing, but you can make adverse findings about people. It's right in the act."

The maker of Taser shock weapons sued the medical examiner of one Ohio county after she named the use of their stun guns as a contributing factor in three deaths in her jurisdiction.

Taser, which has an impressive line-up of lawyers on staff and a stunning legal winning streak of 68 and 0, asked the court to force the chief medical examiner to remove any reference to the use of a stun gun as a contributing factor in the deaths.

While the chief coroner of B.C. declined comment, the province's chief medical officer was blunt.

"I think this is appalling interference in transparency, in trying to find out what actually is going on," said Dr. Perry Kendall.

He could not recall similar legal cases involving Taser in Canada, but Kendall said he hoped the Ohio ruling is appealed.

"I doubt that it will stand. At least I hope it wouldn't stand."

Steve Tuttle, spokesman for Taser International, defended the company's record and vigorous defence of its product - and said the company is watching the public inquiry now underway in Vancouver.

"You can't miss it. It's getting quite a bit of coverage in Canada," he said.

The second phase of the inquiry will specifically examine the circumstances of Dziekanski's death and will be followed by a coroner's inquest.

Kent Stewart, chief coroner of Saskatchewan and chairman of the Chief Coroners and Chief Medical Examiners of Canada, says the U.S. ruling is cause for concern.

But he said coroners and medical examiners in Canada have a job to do and won't be swayed by Taser International's legal juggernaut.

"Certainly, every chief coroner and every medical examiner in Canada would be concerned," Stewart said from Regina.

"But we have to recognize that coroners and medical examiners in Canada have a legal responsibility to investigate deaths and make findings including establishing the cause of death.

"More importantly, those decisions must be fair and impartial and made without fear and bias. So that (ruling) does concern us."

The judge in the Ohio ruling was clear: "There is simply no medical, scientific, or electrical evidence to support the conclusion that the Taser X26 had anything to do with the death of (the three men)."

The judge ordered the Ohio medical examiner to change her official autopsy reports and death certificates for each of the three men.

John Manley, chief prosecutor in the case, told The Canadian Press from his Akron, Ohio, office that Taser is a formidable force in court.

"They are undefeated in terms of litigation," he said, referring to the cases, which involved wrongful death, product liability and failure-to-warn issues.

Only two of them involved findings by medical examiners, he said.

"They have plenty of money and they've got quite a large stable of expert witnesses. They are a formidable force as their record would suggest."

Taser brought in nine expert witnesses for the Ohio case, including the company CEO, cardiologists, doctors, electrophysiologists, and forensic pathologists.

Most of their experts witnesses have testified for the company in other legal challenges, said Manley.

Tuttle said Thomas Smith, the chairman of the board for Taser, will testify Monday at the Taser inquiry in Vancouver.

He was reluctant to comment on what action Taser might take in Canada if an inquiry or inquest was to make any "adverse finding" against the weapon.

"I couldn't even guess. This has only occurred twice and we've been around as a company for 14 years," he said.

The company is also awaiting a coroner's inquest into Dziekanski's death at the Vancouver airport, which will take place after the inquiry. RCMP are also investigating the incident.

"This is way too soon to be speculating on anything that we would do. (There is) an investigation (into Dziekanski) that's ongoing and we want to co-operate as much as possible," Tuttle said.

He said that there have been more than one million "applications" of Tasers on volunteers and in "field applications" and only twice have medical examiner's reports cited Tasers.

"Look at our 14-year track history and this has occurred twice... and that includes more than a million exposures to the Taser system in the field and with volunteers."




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