Dont Tase Me Bro! Dont Tase Me!

Woman argues with Trooper, refuses to cooperate, repeatedly threatens “this is a lawsuit,” then guess what happens?

Outside a Maryland high school gym last Wednesday, sophomore Brandon Bennett got into a small altercation with a fellow student. It was after a basketball game and tempers were high, but the the two were separated by officials and students without much problem.

Only then did things get really violent.

According to Julius Bennett, the student’s father, Deputy Anthony Lenzi fired a Taser at his son after being told twice by a senior officer it was not necessary:

“He left two puncture wounds just above his heart in his chest,” says Bennett. “And [Brandon] said to me that he was in quite a bit of pain because he could feel electric shocks going throughout his whole body.”

The father says he has written proof Sgt. Mathew Kempel twice ordered Lenzi to holster the weapon, but Lenzi fired anyway, hitting the teen in the chest:

“Brandon did absolutely nothing wrong,” says Bennett, “and there was no reason to use that type of force on my son.”

The Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office says Lenzi has been reassigned to internal duties while authorities investigate the allegations. Bennett is hoping fair punishment is given.

“I will not be satisfied until I know that Deputy Lenzi will be in a position to never to this to anyone else’s child ever again.”

SOURCE:

• RawStory.com

A man that drove aggressively on the I-15 freeway wound up being shot with a taser by a Nevada highway patrol trooper.

Eyewitnesses said the man was swerving in and out of traffic on the freeway and hit another vehicle.

The man finally got out of his car at the Charleston/I-15 off-ramp.

Eyewitnesses say he was screaming at people around him and even physically attacked one of them.

Things escalated when the highway patrol showed up.

People who work nearby said a NHP trooper was trying to stop a man they said was acting wild and screaming. The entire incident was caught on traffic cam.

The man was pacing back and forth yelling at the trooper who kept telling him to stop. Finally, the man appears to taunt the trooper and takes off his hat and shirt.

At that point the trooper, who still had no backup, shot the man with a taser, causing him to fall face first in to the street. Eyewitnesses say they thought the man was over agitated and seemed to be intoxicated.

“Drugs. That’s what it looks like because the guy — he never stopped screaming after he came too.

After the man was hit by the Taser, the trooper was able to put him into handcuffs.

Eyewitnesses say once the shock wore off, the man continued screaming.

NHP said there is no indication in the man’s vehicle that he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but they will be looking into that possibility.

Nevada highway patrol says that the trooper acted accordingly and that are happy to see that non-lethal force was able to bring this situation to end — and that it did not escalate to the point where someone’s life was put in danger.

Here’s the video:

SOURCE:

• Liveleak.com

Despite claims by politicians and some police officers that Tasers would save lives by preventing shootings, the devices that are being used by a growing number of police forces were never meant as an alternative to guns, experts say.

Statistics obtained by the Canadian Press bear out that idea, showing that in some of the cities that have recently adopted Tasers, the number of police shootings has remained fairly consistent and low, while Tasers are being used exponentially more often.

In Winnipeg, for example, police shootings of suspects are rare. There was one in 2003, and none in 2004. In 2006, the Winnipeg Police Service fired guns on suspects twice. They also started using Tasers in September of that year, firing them at individuals 37 times before the year was out.

“Tasers are not meant to replace firearms,” Cst. Adam Cheadle, the service’s use of force co-ordinator, said in a recent interview.

“The Taser is on the same playing field as a baton or [pepper] spray.”

n Calgary, there was only one officer-involved shooting in 2003 - two years before Tasers were introduced - and none in 2007. So far this year, Calgary police have “deployed” (a term that includes any incident where the machine is unholstered and its laser is activated, even if it ends up not being fired) their Tasers 133 times.

In Montreal, police were involved in three shooting incidents in 2003, before they had Tasers. They also used their firearms three times last year, while firing Tasers 28 times.

Numbers in many other jurisdictions are hard to come by. The RCMP, whose members have fired Tasers more than 3,000 times since 2001, said it doesn’t keep track of how often firearms are used across the country. Police spokespersons in Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax were unable to provide comparable statistics on Taser and gun usage.

The numbers that have been released counter the idea promoted by some politicians and police officials in the early 2000s, when the stun guns were being introduced, that officers would be able to use Tasers instead of their guns and that could save lives.

When the RCMP unveiled plans to equip its Alberta detachments with Tasers in 2002, Sgt. Steve Gleboff told reporters “what we’re trying to do is eliminate the necessity to shoot somebody.”

Two years later, when controversy erupted over Taser usage in Ontario, then Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter said the devices were a better alternative to firearms.

Even the man currently probing the RCMP’s use of Tasers, Paul Kennedy, head of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission, told a police oversight convention last year that being hit by a Taser was better than being hit by a bullet.

That expectation was wrong, according to the man who trains Calgary police officers to use Tasers.

“Use of force experts across Canada right now, we’re kind of shaking our heads going, ‘How did we give the impression to the lay public or the media that Tasers were ever supposed to be a replacement for lethal force?’” said Staff Sgt. Chris Butler.

“They were another use-of-force tool in the same regard as the baton, the O.C. spray. Just another tool.”

Reduce injuries, compared to batons or spray

While Tasers may not reduce the number of police shootings, Butler said they have succeeded in reducing the number of injuries that can result from an officer having to use a baton or pepper spray on a suspect, or wrestle with him.

“In 99.7 per cent of Taser uses, there are no injuries. When you compare that to a baton use, the statistical likelihood of injuries from a Taser deployment are much less.”

The growing use of Tasers was highlighted in an interim report by the RCMP complaints commissioner last week, which said Taser use “has expanded to include subduing resistant subjects who do not pose a threat of grievous bodily harm or death and on whom the use of lethal force would not be an option.”

In response, the Mounties issued new guidelines limiting Taser use to situations where “a subject is displaying combative behaviours or is being actively resistant.”

Eighteen people in Canada have died in recent years after being hit by a Taser, although the company that manufactures the weapons stresses they have never been directly blamed for a death.

SOURCE:

• Vancouver 911 Truth Movement

This picture is a diagram from an Arizona man’s US Patent application showing his taser-proof clothing.

Or if you want to get technical it’s the patent for an “energy weapon protection device”.

Or perhaps if you’re a Marketing Guru, it’s part of the new “Don’t Tase Me Bro” line, where red scars are the new brown.

It’s basically conductive and non-conductive material in layers that prevent an electric charge from ever reaching the body — because yelling “Don’t tase me, bro!” just doesn’t work.

This stuff wouldn’t be such a bad idea if you get tased on a regular basis, and if you had pants and a mask made out of the same material.

While a jacket is a good start, you don’t want to be zapped in the face and/or testicles because the coppers find out you’re wearing a tase-proof jacket.

SOURCE:

• Geekologie.com

GILBERT, AZ – Before she lets them shoot her little pink stun gun, Dana Shafman ushers her new friends to the living room sofa for a serious chat about the fears she believes they all share.

“The worst nightmare for me is, while I’m sleeping, someone coming in my home,” Shafman says, drawing a few solemn nods from the gathered women. Shafman, 34, of Phoenix, says she knows how they feel. She says she used to stash knives under her pillow for protection.

Welcome, she says, to the Taser party.

On the coffee table, Shafman spreads out Taser’s C2 “personal protector” weapons that the company is marketing to the public. It doesn’t take long before the women are lined up in the hallway, whooping as they take turns blasting at a metallic target.

“C’mon!” she says. “Give it a shot.”

Shafman isn’t an employee for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International. She’s an independent entrepreneur who’s been selling Tasers the way her mother’s generation sold plastic food storage containers.

As a single woman who lives alone, Shafman says she’s the perfect pitchwoman for Taser.

The company agrees. Taser officials like Shafman’s homespun sales tactics so much that they plan to build a living room set at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and have Shafman hold a Taser party for buyers and dealers.

Taser doesn’t expect its dealers to start imitating Shafman. But spokesman Steve Tuttle says company officials think people can learn from her approach.

“When I talk about Taser, I come across as a salesman,” Tuttle says. “When you see her, it comes across as very real.”

Shafman tried moonlighting as a door-to-door Taser saleswoman. But years of negative press about Taser made it tough.

So the Taser party was born.

Shafman says she’s sold about 30 guns per month at $349.99 since her first Taser party on Oct. 15. She gets a discounted dealer rate for the units and keeps the difference.

Taser launched the C2 in August. Though it packs the same electric punch, the C2 is smaller than the bulky personal stun guns Taser developed years ago, and its sleek exterior makes it look more like an electric razor than a weapon. They’re legal in every state but New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C.

Shafman says many of her women customers love that the C2 is small enough to fit in their purses, and that it comes in a variety of colors. When it comes to choosing weapons, she says, a lot of women want them in pink.

“It’s a girl power kind of thing,” Shafman says. “You’re kind of making a statement: I know I’m the most sought after victim in regards to sexual assault, sexual abuse. So please stay away from me. If in the event you do come after me, I’m going to use my pink Taser to put you on the ground.”

Amnesty International, which has criticized Taser’s assertion that its weapons are nonlethal, frowns on the C2 and any attempt to spread the use of stun guns. The organization says the weapons are frequently used in excess by trained police and are likely to be abused by the public as well.

SOURCE:

• Seattle P-I 

Now you too can go around like all the brutal, small-weenied cops everywhere and taser peeps by buying one of those $10 disposable cameras and re-rigging the wires:

SEATTLE, WA – A Washington State Patrol trooper shot a woman with a Taser when she became aggressive after he found her walking along Interstate 90.

The confrontation happened about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday on the westbound lanes of I-90, Trooper Jeff Merrill said.

The altercation was similar to one that ended fatally on Christmas Day, when Trooper S. Michael Cheek shot and killed Aaron Larson, 28, during a fight.

Cheek was the trooper who responded to calls reporting a man had jumped out of a car on a freeway exit ramp from Interstate 5 in Federal Way and was pounding on other vehicles.

Larson and Cheek fought in the freeway, and the trooper first tried to subdue Larson with a Taser. When that failed, he ended up shooting the man.

The case is being investigated by Federal Way police. Cheek remains on leave and Larson’s father has said he plans to sue.

In Wednesday’s incident, motorists began calling to report a woman walking along the right lane of the freeway. The woman was stepping into the freeway lanes, along the shoulder, and was walking with her back to oncoming traffic, Merrill said.

“She was really completely oblivious to the cars coming up behind her,” he said. “She’s lucky she didn’t get hit.”

A trooper soon caught up to the woman, who is believed to have walked for more than a mile along the freeway.

When the trooper activated his emergency lights, the woman jumped over a concrete barrier and onto a designated pedestrian path.

The trooper stopped and tried to talk with her, but the woman jumped back onto the freeway and began yelling at him.

“She was screaming, swearing, just really agitated,” Merrill said. “It didn’t make a lot of sense what she was saying.”

Because the woman was behaving so aggressively, the trooper called for backup, then shot the woman with his Taser when she failed to calm down.

The powerful jolt brought the woman down and the trooper was able to take her into custody.

The 37-year-old Seattle woman was taken to Harborview Medical Center and was expected to undergo a mental health evaluation.

SOURCE:

• Seattle P-I

NEW ORLEANS, LA – A bitter battle is brewing over New Orleans’ public housing projects.

On Thursday the protests turned violent as the city council prepared to vote to tear down the old projects.

As protesters broke through locked gates outside of City Hall, New Orleans police pepper sprayed and tasered the crowd, trying to hold them back as they attempted to get into city council chambers already filled to capacity:

Inside tempers also boiled over as the council prepared to vote to tear down four of the city’s public housing projects and replace them with mixed income housing.

Opponents claim it is a racist move that will continue to leave the city’s poor without homes.

Those in favor of the tear-down, including the city’s mayor and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, say the massive housing projects failed New Orleans well before Katrina and that new housing will give the city a fresh start.

“We cannot go back. Katrina washed it away we have to move forward,” said the Louisiana Finance Housing Agency’s Wayne Woods.

Protesters promise to continue the fight to stop the demolition.

SOURCE:

• WCBD

PHOENIX, AZ – A man trying to set a building on fire was taken to the hospital Friday morning after a fall from the roof.

For hours, police and firefighters tried to get the suspect off a roof near 48th Street and Guadalupe in Phoenix.
Police say the man broke into an apartment, climbed on the roof, and tried to start a fire.

After police negotiations failed, firefighters tried using a water hose to spray him down.

Then police shot him with rubber bullets, then…just watch this amazing video:

Eventually, cops used a taser on him, causing him to fall off the roof and onto a balcony.

Officers say he then jumped two stories to the ground below.

He was taken to the hospital.

Police are working to find out who the man is and why he started the chaos.

SOURCE:

• AZCentral.com