Jesus’ General, whose indefatigable heretosexuality we salute, has an excellent post up on one of my favourite subjects, tasers, and the misuse thereof, as does Martin over at his own personal blog Wis[s]e Words. ( See also this description of the reporting of apolice tasering in Vermont from Blazing Indiscretions and many YouTube tasering videos, with outraged commentary, from LAist)
Given that these torture weapons are now in daily use by British police, even if they have no weapons training, a fact which seems to have been lost in all the media panic over the economy, it might be a good time to revisit the subject and see what it is we British subjects might now find ourselves subjected to should we presume to resist a police officer.
So here are my previous posts on the subject. and a sample of the kind of casual brutality that taser use encourages US cops to adopt and which has now been exported to Britain. An increasingly violent, repressive police force has been been enabled in pursuit of – what else – personal profit.
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But it’s not just Texas and not just America. It’s a British issue too. UK Indymedia alleges:
A 15-year-old boy has been shot with a Taser gun during a police raid in Moss side Manchester.
Police “”claim”” the teenager began threatening officers during the search of a property on Broadoak Road in Moss Side on Monday the 15 year old child had to have a ambulance called after police appear to have used the Tazer on the unarmed child because he was dis-obeying officers after he became concerned at having the front door smashed in.
And Amnesty International reports:
Amnesty International today (16 October) expressed concern after a man died in County Durham, three days after he was shot with a Taser electro-shock weapon and a baton round. Brian Loan, 47, is believed to be the first person in the UK to die after being shocked with a Taser. A Home Office post-mortem reportedly found that he had died of natural causes.
It doesn’t take a degree in jurisprudence, criminology or psychology to realise that if you give people (and people inclined towards militarism and authoritarianism at that) weapons, tell them they are the less-lethal option and then put those people in stressful situations, that they’ll use them.
If it were just the stupidity, perhaps it could be dealt with by legislation banning the sale and use of the device.
Fat chance.
Taser has made multiple millions from producing and marketing cattle prods for controlling the populace and it’s had the help of many prominent UK and US government figures to do so: not least the horribly corrupt Bernie Kerik, (who Bush tried to make director of Homeland Security before his exposure) as have a host of other Republican worthies.
WASHINGTON – Bernard Kerik, President Bush’s choice to run the Homeland Security Department, made $6.2 million by exercising stock options he received from a company that sold stun guns to the department — and seeks more business with it.
Taser International was one of many companies that received consulting advice from Kerik after he left his job as New York City police commissioner in 2001, when he was earning $150,500 a year. Kerik remains on Taser’s board of directors, although the company and the White House said he planned to sever the relationship.
Partnering with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and also operating independently, Kerik has had business arrangements with manufacturers of prescription drugs, computer software and bulletproof materials, as well as companies selling nuclear power, telephone service, insurance and security advice for Americans working abroad.
Even the UK police have made money from coercive technology:
THE American manufacturer of Taser, the controversial stun gun, gave the exclusive British distribution rights to a senior serving police officer who helped win Home Office approval for the weapon.
Inspector Peter Boatman had a 50% share in a company that sold Tasers at the same time as devising Britain’s first police training programme for the use of weapons.
Boatman was in charge of assessing the merits of Taser as head of operational training for Northamptonshire police and was regarded as an impartial expert on the weapon.
Since he left the force a little more than three years ago, his firm has provided 1,500 Tasers worth about £1m to 20 British police forces. It is the exclusive UK distributor for the US company, Taser International.
Disclosure of the apparent conflict of interest comes after Taser International, the US manufacturer, was accused of providing American police officers with share options potentially worth $1m.
Police repression is a dirty business all right:
Companies House records show that Boatman took a 50% stake in a start-up company, Pro-Tect Systems, in December 2000. He became a director of the firm on December 5 and resigned three weeks later, on December 27, but held on to his stake in the company.
In February 2001, Pro-Tect received the Taser contract for the UK. Within two months Boatman was acting as an adviser to the Home Office on whether to issue Tasers to British officers. He was “regarded as a national and international expert” on Tasers, Chris Fox, the former chief constable of Northamptonshire, said yesterday.
In December 2001, three months after the Home Office approved trial imports, Boatman publicly rebutted claims by Police Federation officers that Tasers could be dangerous. Boatman wrote “with sadness” to Police Review that “this technology is very effective — more than any other technique, device or equipment for establishing control over violent and dangerous subjects”.
He retired from the police on April 16, 2002. Two days later he was installed as chairman of Pro-Tect Systems. His fellow founding director and friend, Kevin Coles, had been running the firm in the meantime.
More…
The development sale and use of coercive technologies for controlling rebeliious civilians is a big business and a dirty business. If this were just an issue of a a few rogue cops acting outside their remit, then the problem could be solved by better training, legislation and codes of practice.
But there is just so much money involved and there’s so many vested interests in the sale and use of these torture gadgets, that their use will only proliferate.
When shooting an innocent man seven times in the head on a tube train while he’s going about his lawful, innocent private business attracts no opprobrium whatsoever for the guilty officers, then I don’t hold out much hope for any redress against an illegal police tasering.
Much more on police taser incidents at Bad Cop. No Donut!
Those UK incidents occured when the taser was just on trial with British police. Now that they’re available to any helmeted meathead, I fear that taser violence will become so prevalent, like polcie beatings, that it’s not even reported any more.
