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Lieutenant in deadly taser case commits suicide
Last Thursday, Iman Morales, a Brooklyn man was tasered by police. This resulted in a fatal fall from a building. Early this morning there are reports that the lieutenant who ordered the tasing, Michael Pigott, has killed himself. Last Thursday, Iman Morales, a Brooklyn man was tasered by police. This resulted in a fatal fall from a building. Early this morning t... more
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Police raid and detain indie journalists in the days leading up to the Repub Conve...
MINNEAPOLIS POLICE TARGET AND OBSTRUCT INDEPENDENT PRESS COVERAGE IN THE DAYS LEADING UP TO THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
Repeated attacks on the civil liberties of independent press and activists before and during the election process emerge as a pattern
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (August 30, 2008) – FBI and Minneapolis police continue attacks on independent journalists in the days leading up to the Republican National Convention, obstructing coverage of important concurrent events. On Saturday morning an FBI officer and a chief deputy from the Douglas County Sheriff’s dept. along with approximately 30 St. Paul police officers bearing firearms, tasers, pepper spray and at least one AR-15 surrounded a house where members of I-Witness Video Collective and journalist Elizabeth Press from Democracy Now were meeting. National Lawyer’s Guild Legal Observer Sarah Coffey was detained in handcuffs outside the building while acting as a liaison with the police. Occupants of the building did not consent to a search and were forced to lock themselves in the building. At approximately 3:00 p.m. (CDT) police officers tried to serve a warrant that had the wrong address. After being denied entry they stormed the building through the attic by gaining access to an adjacent property. The warrant covered all of journalistic equipment including privileged notes, computers, cameras, video tapes and communication devices. People inside were forcefully detained, photographed and police made a record of their names and addresses. After a 45 minute search the police released all detainees and left without seizing any of the equipment. Five other members of I-Witness video who were not present at the house were also simultaneously detained. Three of them detained as they were riding their bicycles a mile away from the scene of the search and the other two as they were driving in a car. The three-hour detainment stopped the media group from documenting three other raids happening simultaneously against activist groups in Minneapolis and St Paul.
This follows an incident from earlier this week when three members of Glass Bead Collective were illegally detained and had their equipment and notes confiscated by the Minneapolis police.
I-Witness Video is an independent media group using video to protect civil liberties. During the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC, video evidence provided by I-Witness Video exonerated 400 arrestees by exposing lies stated by the NYPD in sworn legal affidavits. MINNEAPOLIS POLICE TARGET AND OBSTRUCT INDEPENDENT PRESS COVERAGE IN THE DAYS LEADING UP TO THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION ... more -
Video:police punched teen 13 times in face, then taser him
GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. -- An 18-year-old was punched in the face 13 times by a deputy police officer, whose dashboard video camera caught the incident on tape, WYFF Channel 4 News reported.
The video shows undercover Deputy Brian Tollison pulling over a truck driven by a drug suspect and beating the teenage driver while what appears to be a back-up deputy held down him down.
Once back-up deputies arrived, 18-year-old Jeremy Rucker was pulled out of the truck and tasered and kicked while lying prone on the ground.
Sheriff Steve Loftis fired Tollison, who also faces criminal charges for the incident, which took place May 15.
"The fact that Deputy Tollison took his closed fist and struck the suspect in the face 13 times in my opinion was excessive," Loftis said.
The other deputies involved have not been charged.
The Greenville County Sheriff's Department said that Rucker had fled from police and resisted arrest, but had "calmed down" when Tollison started hitting him.
Rucker's attorney, Karl Allen, said his client was sitting in his truck talking on his phone when the undercover deputies approached him.
"Then they have the audacity, to treat this man as if he's a piece of meat and Taser him with electrical jolts to his body and then, that's not enough," Allen said. "They kick three times to the torso."
Police charged Rucker with drug possession and resisting arrest, though drugs were not found on him until he was taken into custody.
Rucker's beating is one of several recent examples of police brutality.
Police tasered an injured teen from Ozark, Missouri up to 19 times after he fell from a highway overpass in late July.
The 16-year-old had broken his back and heel when the officers began tasering him.
In another bizarre instance of police violence, a 66-year-old minister was tasered and beaten by hospital security guards for what he claims was a joke.
In that incident, hospital security cameras caught five officers kicking Rev. Al Poisson on the ground for at least five minutes. GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. -- An 18-year-old was punched in the face 13 times by a deputy police officer, whose dashboard video camera ca... more -
Netherlands to start testing tasers
Despite remarks from Amnesty International, the Dutch government is starting a test with the electronic stunners. One of the reasons to do so is it inflicts less damage than the currently used 'bean bags' or the good ol' dog bite.
The test will take one year, after which it will be decided whether all Dutch arrest squads will be permanently equipped with the new type of weapon. Despite remarks from Amnesty International, the Dutch government is starting a test with the electronic stunners. One of the reasons t... more -
Uniontown area school board considers using tasers in schools
The Uniontown Area School Board, as well as concerned citizens and parents, had an opportunity Wednesday to learn about Tasers that will be proposed in the school district and share their opinions on the subject.
Even before Don Homer, the director of security for the school district, could show the proposed Tasers to be used and explain how they operate, those attending a special meeting voiced opposition.
One resident, Mary Hackney, a teacher at Laurel Highlands School District for 35 years, said she had to break up many fights in her years but no incident required a Taser.
"This is not a safe idea," Hackney said.
Another resident, Thelma Lahue, was opposed to having Tasers in school, but offered questions: how would the Tasers make a difference in safety, would someone innocent get hurt in an incident, who would be using the Taser, would those carrying the Tasers be drug-tested and was there an incident in the school to cause the need for Tasers.
Don Homer, the director of security for the school district, said the school has tried to be pro-active over the years in terms of security, and his job is to look within and outside of the school to stay ahead of trends in society, citing there was no school security 20 years ago but the ways of the world have made it commonplace.
"We have to think of the future," Homer said, adding that there had been recent incidents outside of the school where police would need Tasers, and it's possible that similar incidents could make it into the schools. The Uniontown Area School Board, as well as concerned citizens and parents, had an opportunity Wednesday to learn about Tasers that wi... more -
allege police brutality in death of tasered man
A Pennsylvania man has died after being tasered by local police, and the Civil Rights section of the FBI's Pittsburgh office has now opened a preliminary investigation. Although the cause of death has not yet been determined, witnesses insist the man was kicked and beaten by police officers after he was forced to the ground and handcuffed.
Residents in Swissvale, PA had called police after they observed 37 year old Andre Thomas knocking on doors in the middle of the night and yelling that someone was trying to shoot him.
According to Allegheny County Police Assistant Supt. James Morton, when the officers arrived Thomas "was like yelling and screaming and acting really erratically, and they didn't know what the situation was. So they asked him just to calm down and so forth and he made a movement towards them. So they had to tase him."
However, witnesses insist that Thomas was then brutalized by police, with one telling KDKA News that "after he was tased and handcuffed, one officer used a football-type kick and stomped him in the head."
Another woman recounted to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette what she saw after four officers forced Thomas to the ground. "'They killed that man. They killed him. They killed him,' she added, her hands trembling. The woman said she saw one officer stomp on Mr. Thomas's upper back, holding his foot there while the subject lay on the sidewalk with his head hanging over the curb. Another officer 'reared back and punched him in the head with all his might,' she said."
Thomas vomited, then lay motionless. An ambulance arrived and he was was treated at the scene by emergency medical personnel. Police allege Thomas was conscious at the time, but he was pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital.
Andre Thomas's father, Dennis Thomas, now says, "I want to know what happened, what the particulars of the incident were that caused my son's death." A Pennsylvania man has died after being tasered by local police, and the Civil Rights section of the FBI's Pittsburgh office has ... more -
RNC Welcoming Committee orders tasers for every protestor
he RNC Welcoming Committee (RNC-WC), an anarchist and anti-authoritarian organizing body based in the Twin Cities, announced today that it has ordered tasers for each of its members and friends. The announcement comes on the heels of last month’s St. Paul City Council approval of a St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) request for 234 tasers. Due to a unique corporate-anarchist confidentiality agreement, the exact number of tasers or documentable evidence of this new order will not be disclosed.
Both the SPPD and RNC-WC taser orders are scheduled to arrive before the September 1 so-called Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul. However, “The RNC Welcoming Committee’s order of tasers has absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming Republican convention,” said Ann O’ Nymmity of the RNC-WC. “These deadly, yet humane, weapons are needed simply to protect the safety of members of our community on a day-to-day basis. The timing is purely a coincidence.”
Last month, St. Paul police spokesperson Tom Walsh made similar statements to the Associated Press, saying that in regards to the RNC, his department’s purchase is “in no way related [to the timing of the RNC in St. Paul]. It simply isn’t.” he RNC Welcoming Committee (RNC-WC), an anarchist and anti-authoritarian organizing body based in the Twin Cities, announced today tha... more -
Missouri Police taser injured boy 19 times
Enough with the tasering! How can they possibly get away with saying that a boy with a broken back was enough of a threat to warrant tasering 19 times?! Enough with the tasering! How can they possibly get away with saying that a boy with a broken back was enough of a threat to warrant ... more
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66-year-old minister claims hospital guards tased him over joke
A reverend claims security guards dragged him out of a Toledo, Ohio hospital and tasered and beat him because he told a joke, CBS reported Friday.
Rev. Al Poisson said he was visiting the hospital to see a man who had been injured while Poisson was shopping with his 6-year-old grandson. According to the reverend, an innocent joke about the lack of a smile on a guard's face led to a beating.
Security cameras caught the incident on camera and show at least five officers surrounding a man laying on the floor and beating him.
"It wound up being an atrocious, unbelievable situation, to say the least," the 66-year-old minister said.
"They've cut about five minutes of this video out," Poisson said, describing the length of time he was kicked on the ground by one of the younger guards.
St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center issued a statement defending the guards' actions which said "the response to the aggression was appropriate."
The hospital pressed charges against Poisson for assault that were eventually thrown out of court, Poisson said.
Poisson is filing a lawsuit with his lawyer Stevin Groth.
"We're going to use the American justice system, put this in front of a jury and let them decide what's appropriate," Groth said.
This video is from CBS Early Show, broadcast July 25, 2008. A reverend claims security guards dragged him out of a Toledo, Ohio hospital and tasered and beat him because he told a joke, CBS repo... more -
Man dies after cops tase him 9 times
A police officer shocked a handcuffed Baron "Scooter" Pikes nine times with a Taser after arresting him on a cocaine charge. Baron Pikes, 21, was Tasered nine times by a police officer in January in Winnfield, Louisiana.
Baron Pikes, 21, was Tasered nine times by a police officer in January in Winnfield, Louisiana.
He stopped twitching after seven, according to a coroner's report. Soon afterward, Pikes was dead.
Now the officer, since fired, could end up facing criminal charges in Pikes' January death after medical examiners ruled it a homicide.
Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, told CNN the 21-year-old sawmill worker was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt Taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered.
Williams ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study. A police officer shocked a handcuffed Baron "Scooter" Pikes nine times with a Taser after arresting him on a cocaine charge.... more -
Taser death ignites racial tensions
What happened in the 39 minutes in between--during which Pikes was handcuffed by local police and shocked nine times with a Taser device, while reportedly pleading for mercy--is now spawning fears of a political cover-up in this backwoods Louisiana lumber town infamous for backroom dealings.
Even more ominously, because Pikes was black and the officer who repeatedly Tasered him is white, racial tensions over the case are mounting in a place that's just 40 miles from Jena, La. Jena is the site of the racially explosive prosecution of six black teenagers charged with beating a white youth that last year triggered one of the largest American civil rights demonstrations in decades. And in a bizarre coincidence, Pikes turns out to have been a first cousin of Mychal Bell, the lead defendant in the Jena 6 case.
No novelist could have invented Winnfield, a place so steeped in corruption that they built a local museum to try to sanitize it all.
Here in the birthplace of two of Louisiana's most colorful and notorious governors—Huey and Earl Long—the police chief committed suicide three years ago after losing a close election marred by allegations of fraud and vote-buying.
Just four months later, the district attorney killed himself after allegedly skimming $200,000 from his office budget and extorting payments from criminal defendants to make their cases go away.
The current police chief is a convicted drug offender who got a pardon from Edwin Edwards, the former Louisiana governor who is serving time in federal prison for corruption convictions.
All of that tangled history is now wrapped up in the Pikes case, because Scott Nugent, the officer who Tasered him, is the well-connected son of the former police chief who killed himself—and the protégé of the current chief, who hired him onto the force.
"A lot happens in this town and it just gets swept under the rug," said Kayshon Collins, Pikes' stepmother, who has participated in several local protests over the case. "What the police did to Scooter just isn't right. They would never have Tasered a white kid like that." The official police version of what happened to Pikes on that brisk January afternoon reads like a sad but familiar story in Winnfield's local newspaper.
Nugent spotted Pikes walking along the street and attempted to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for drug possession, according to Police Chief Johnny Ray Carpenter. Pikes took off running, but another officer cornered him outside a nearby grocery store. Pikes resisted arrest and Nugent subdued him with a shock from a Taser.
Then on the way to the police station, Carpenter related to the newspaper, Pikes fell ill and told the officers he suffered from asthma and was high on crack cocaine and PCP. The officers called for an ambulance, but Pikes later died at the hospital.
Six months later, the Winnfield police are standing by that story. Meanwhile, the Louisiana State Police are investigating the case, and no charges have been filed against Nugent or two other Winnfield police officers who assisted him in arresting Pikes, although the City Council did decide to fire Nugent from the force in May.
Winn Parish District Atty. Chris Nevils says he expects to present the case to a grand jury after he receives the results of the state police investigation.
But there is already abundant evidence contradicting the official police version of the incident.
An autopsy determined there were no drugs in Pikes' system and that he did not have asthma, according to Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner.
Moreover, Pikes did not resist arrest, and he was handcuffed while lying on the ground, according to Nugent's police report of the incident. It was only after Pikes refused Nugent's command to stand up that the officer applied the first Taser shock in the middle of his back, Nugent wrote.
***story continues, click link to read*** What happened in the 39 minutes in between--during which Pikes was handcuffed by local police and shocked nine times with a Taser devi... more -
Parking skirmish leads to Taser duel
It wasn't exactly pistols at 30 paces, but police say a security company supervisor and a restaurateur shot each other with Tasers in a "bonehead" confrontation over parking. It wasn't exactly pistols at 30 paces, but police say a security company supervisor and a restaurateur shot each other with Taser... more
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Man with Asperger's said he pleaded with police to not use taser
JAMES CITY COUNTY -- A man tasered by James City County Police last week says he pleaded with them not to use the weapon.
Last Thursday, Marcus Morton, a man suffering from a form of autism known as Asperger's Syndrome, attempted to return a gift at Wilson’s Leather at the Williamsburg Prime Outlets.
When the cashier told the 25-year-old he could not get cash back for his credit card purchase, Morton was confused and refused to leave.
The police report says Morton raised his fist as if to hit the clerk after she made a nasty remark, but he denies that was his intentions.
“If I had done that, I apologize,” he said. “I know I should never raise a fist at a lady.”
Police say officers were forced to tase Marcus after he refused to leave the store and resisted arrest. Now, his mother is fuming over the incident which she says was a huge misunderstanding.
Barbara Morton believes if the officers would have checked her son’s medical bracelet, they would not have had to use such force.
“I think they were over-zealous in using that weapon,” she said.
James City County Police spokesperson Mike Spearman disagrees.
“All he had to do is comply with the officers,” Spearman said. “He resisted arrest. We use the tasers for the protection of officers and suspects.” JAMES CITY COUNTY -- A man tasered by James City County Police last week says he pleaded with them not to use the weapon. ... more -
Argument over wheel clamp ends in taser shooting
Two American men shot each other with Taser stun guns during a "bonehead" dispute over a wheel clamp.
Harvey Epstein, a restaurateur, and Casey Dane, a security supervisor, gave each other a simultaneous 50,000-volt jolt after an argument over the clamping of Epstein's van spiralled out of control.
Colorado state police said neither man needed medical attention, but Epstein was arrested on suspicion of menacing and using a stun gun.
The incident happened on Saturday night outside Mamacita's Restaurant in Boulder, Colorado after a van parked behind Epstein's restaurant was clamped by a guard working for a security firm of which Dane is a supervisor.
Dane said Epstein, whose mother was with him, had tried to remove the clamp with bolt cutters and threatened a guard that he would "kick his ass" while holding a pair of bolt cutters above the guard's head.
The 36-year-old restaurateur denied this, saying it all started when Dane put his hand on a holstered pistol and threatened to shoot him.
He claimed to have only drawn his Taser and fired after Dane aimed his own Taser at his mother's face.
"(The guard) pointed a stun gun at my mother's face and I immediately responded with my personal Taser," Epstein told his local paper, the Camera, on Sunday evening within an hour of being released from Boulder county jail. "We shot each other at the same moment."
Dane told police he reached for his Taser after Epstein refused to drop the bolt cutters, and only pointed the Taser at the woman after she picked up her son's stun gun, which still had its probes buried in his skin.
Pat Wyton, a Boulder police sergeant, told the paper: "It was just kind of a bonehead deal. They shot each other.
"The security guard was in the right - he felt threatened." Two American men shot each other with Taser stun guns during a "bonehead" dispute over a wheel clamp. ... more -
Two Colorado Men Exchange Taser Shots Over Parked Van
It wasn't exactly pistols at 30 paces, but police say a security company supervisor and a restaurateur shot each other with Tasers in a "bonehead" confrontation over parking. It wasn't exactly pistols at 30 paces, but police say a security company supervisor and a restaurateur shot each other with Taser... more
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Taser Tape Turns Anything into a Taser Like Riot Shields or Underpants
Every year, Taser demos their latest and greatest in a mock prison riot at an old penitentiary in West Virginia. This year's star is peel-and-stick taser tape, that'll turn any surface into a fully electrified no-no zappy zone. Every year, Taser demos their latest and greatest in a mock prison riot at an old penitentiary in West Virginia. This year's star... more
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'Peel and Stick' Tasers Electrify Riot Control
Pretty soon, cops won't just be packing stun guns. They'll be carrying electrically-charged riot shields, zapping their unruly without unholstering their weapons. That is, if the folks at Taser International have their way.
The company just introduced the "Taser Shield Conversion Kit featuring the Taser Repel Laminate Film Technology."
The kit "features a peel and stick perforated [f]ilm, power supply and necessary conversion equipment. This laminate becomes electrified providing a powerful deterrent to protect officers and keep suspects or rioters at bay." What could possibly go wrong?
Taser is demoing all kinds of gear this week -- from shock-inducing shotgun rounds to "area denial" zappers that can fry groups of people at once. It's all part of the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization's Mock Prison Riot, a showcase for new police and correctional tech, held annually at on the grounds of the former West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville. (David Axe covered the so-called "Rage in the Cage" for DANGER ROOM last year.) Pretty soon, cops won't just be packing stun guns. They'll be carrying electrically-charged riot shields, zapping their unr... more -
Tasers to be issued to every police officer in UK?
The title says it all...
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Tased and Confused
What does it feel like to be shot by a taser? Evan Engel finds out in the most painful pod ever.
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A Safe Alternative to the Taser?
Billed as a “safe” alternative to the taser, this weapon is designed to shoot a “soft” 20-gauge projectile at troublemakers, activists or anybody who dares question authority ... Billed as a “safe” alternative to the taser, this weapon is designed to shoot a “soft” 20-gauge projectile at troublemakers, activists... more
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