June 26, 2002
Page A4
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Tasers at Worst are Killers
Electro-shock devices may do more harm than good
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Editor’s note: The following
is a response by the group
Portland Copwatch to the
Portland Police B ureau’s ex
perim ent with a new taser
electric dart gun, a weapon
developed as an alternative
to lethal force.
On Monday, June 17, Port
land P o lice C h ie f M ark
Kroeker announced that the
Portland Police Bureau is now
equipped with tasers, small
electro-shock devices which
are supposed “less lethal” al
ternatives to guns or pepper
spray.
T a se rs are at
best an unknown
danger and at
worst, two-time
killers, according
to human rights
group Amnesty Inter
national.
A 1998 book on police
brutality and prison abuse
in the USA, “United States of
America: Rights for All,” de
scribes the taser and its cousin,
the stun gun, as devices that
“jolt” a suspect with 50,000
volts of electricity.
The book claims that in two
separate incidents in 1996, a
29-year-old woman and a man
died after being shot by police
with tasers.
Not enough independent re
search has been done on the
short-and long-term effects of
tasers to be conclusive. How
ever, last September, the medi
cal journal "The Lancet" cited
three deaths from 218 people
hit by tasers.
The Lancet also articulated
the need to study “injury thresh
olds” and the effects on nerves,
adding that two people with no
history of cardiac disease went
into cardiac arrest between 5
and 15 minutes after being hit
with tasers.
We are very
concerned that the
chief is adding to the
police arsenal with
no community input.
He seems to have
forgotten his promise
to leave L.A.-style
policing in L.A.
--Kristian Williams
of Cop watch
A
Che
of
th e
re a s o n s th e
p o lic e are e x
perim enting with
th e se d e v ic e s is
due to the com m unity outcry
follow ing the shooting death
o f Jose Santos M ejia Poot
last year in a psychiatric hos
pital. Ironically, it appears that
the m anufacturer of the gun
suggests not using the taser
on people who have epilepsy
— a neurological disorder that
M ejia suffered.
M em bers of local police
accountability group Portland
Copw atch question whether
the taser has been fully and
in d e p e n d e n tly te s te d for
safety on people with spe
cific health ailm ents such as
heart conditions or epilepsy.
The group also worries that
once the new devices are
readily available, police may
m isuse them, as they have
with other weapons like pep
per spray and “beanbag”
guns; each of which have
been used against un
armed civilians including
peaceful dem onstrators.
“ W e are very c o n
cerned that the chief is
adding to the po
lic e a rs e n a l
w ith
no
c o m m u n ity i n p u t,” sa id
K ris tia n
W illia m s
of
C o pw atch. “ He seem s to
have forgotten his promise to
leave L.A .-style policing in
L .A .”
Copw atch also raised the
issue o f officer training and
noted that other “less lethal”
tech n o lo g ies have proven
quite deadly. They pointed to
the Portland deaths of Brian
Penton and Richard “D ickie”
Dow in 1998 as probably re
lated to the “ less lethal” OC
Pepper Spray (the m anufac
tu re r paid D o w ’s fam ily
$ 10,000 earlier this year), and
the use o f “beanbag” guns—
which is being curtailed na
tionally in the wake of nu
m erous deaths caused by
those supposedly “non lethal”
w eapons.
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