AlterNet / By Liliana Segura
comments_imageCOMMENTS: 172

A Recipe for Disaster: School Cops Are Being Armed with 50,000-Volt Tasers

Tasers aren't 'nonlethal'; they've killed hundreds. With younger people being especially vulnerable to the Taser's shock, the risks could be very deadly.
September 16, 2009  |  
 
 
 
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One spring day this April, at the Franklin Correctional Institution on Florida's Highway 67, Sgt. Walter Schmidt pulled out his electronic immobilization device -- EID in correctional officer parlance -- and zapped two people, who immediately "yelped in pain, fell to the ground and grabbed red burn marks on their arms," according to the St. Petersburg Times.

The two were not inmates at the prison, however. They were students visiting as part of "Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day."

The move cost Schmidt his job, despite his claim that he merely intended to demonstrate how the devices worked. He had even asked the children's parents (who were also employees at the prison) permission first. "When they said 'sure,' I went ahead and did it," he told the Times.

"It wasn't intended to be malicious, but educational. The big shock came when I got fired."

Schmidt wasn't alone in his job-costing blunder. In fact, it came just one day after other children, visiting different prisons were similarly shocked.

"A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day events gone wrong at three state prisons last month," the St. Petersburg Times reported on May 16. "One was a warden's daughter."

Their ages ranged from 8 to 17. Fourteen of the kids were "directly shocked." The other 29 were "indirectly exposed when they held hands with a person who was shocked. With the kids circled together, the electricity could flow from one child's hands to the next."

Walt McNeil, secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections told the Times, "I can't imagine what these officers were thinking to administer this device to children, nor can I imagine why any parent would allow them to do so. This must not happen again."

The bizarre rash of student electrocutions might have been an aberration on Florida prison grounds, but the guards -- three of whom were fired and two of who resigned -- might be forgiven for assuming that such devices are somehow safe for kids.

Even as news outlets across the country report episode after episode where police officers tase and use stun guns on unlikely people -- the pregnant woman at a baptism in Virginia or the 72-year-old woman in a Texas traffic stop -- more and more police officers are being given tasers to carry into schools.

And not just on college campuses; middle and high schools across the country are inviting Taser-toting cops on school grounds.

This comes at a time when Tasers have claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including three teenagers this year.

While heightened security might be a necessity in an age where kids smuggle deadly weapons to school, this fact alone should give parents and school officials pause. Even as school administrators and local law enforcement accept and incorporate Tasers as disciplinary measures, deploying them on school grounds is putting students at risk.

Is Breaking School Rules a Crime?

Last September, police officers in Hawthorne, Calif., tased an autistic 12-year-old boy at his middle school after he became "violent," launching a misconduct investigation by the police department.

In June, at Penn Hills High School in Pennsylvania, a student was tased in the hallway after ignoring a police officer's orders to put away his cell phone. ("The kid refused to listen," Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton explained, saying the student then "pushed the officer.")


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Liliana Segura is an AlterNet staff writer and editor of Rights & Liberties and World Special Coverage. http://twitter.com/LilianaSegura
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» RE: People who kill pig mothefuckers are heroes, period! Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» Here, Here Posted by: Hiroak
» RE: Here, Here Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» PSYCHOTIC OINKERCERS Posted by: americansheep
» RE: PSYCHOTIC OINKERCERS Posted by: madregal

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Between the economic
[Report this comment]
Posted by: login@bugmenot.com on Sep 16, 2009 1:35 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Between the economic "crisis", the wars and social issues such as this one, I get the sense that this country is on the verge of collapse.

How the heck did this happen?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Between the economic Posted by: richholland
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: colinmeister
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: DavidMac
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: bornxeyed
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: Libsrule
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: VZEQICVA

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police officers demonstrate cowardice rather than courage
[Report this comment]
Posted by: jonodavidson on Sep 16, 2009 3:14 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
According to Army Field Manual 22-5 on military leadership, Courage comes in two forms. Physical courage is performing your duty regardless of any physical consequences you may suffer as a result. Moral courage is doing what you believe to be is right regardless of any consequences, other than physical, you may suffer as a result.

Courage is considered to be a virtue, and cowardice a vice. A coward would allow fear to overcome his sense of duty in the presence of danger. If you want to foster cowardice in our law enforcement community, first, disarm the population. Then organize men into units, train them to arms, arm them and equip them with the latest technology for weapons, communications, transportation, and surveillence equipment. Finally, give them power and authority over the rest of the people by law. Now you have created a cowardly law enforcement community that deals with the potential threats they imagine to themselves before any dangerous situation has an opportunity to present itself. They are not suitable for protecting anyone other than themselves, because their self-preservation is their priority.

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» GLOBAL POLICE TRAINING Posted by: americansheep

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Sue them out of business
[Report this comment]
Posted by: LeonBNJ on Sep 16, 2009 3:23 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Perhaps the makers of these tazers ought to be sued out of business by victims. I am surprised that some big time products liablity plaintiff's lawyer hasn't rounded up recent victims to file a lawsuit like for other dangerous products against their makers. There is no doubt that they are not suitable to use on many people from children to those with certain existing and possibly unknown medical problems. I know the police want something other than guns and clubs to control people, problem is that all so-called non-lethal products are not so and may have serious civil rights or health issues with them.
Better would be improvement in training of officers that would reduce the need for any weapon to be used.

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Doubt Not
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Posted by: When In Doubt on Sep 16, 2009 4:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I step closer to acceptable public torture
inchworm, anyone?

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» RE: Doubt Not Posted by: laoma
» Right? Posted by: CRaPWHiSPeReR

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morgan1
[Report this comment]
Posted by: morgan1 on Sep 16, 2009 4:33 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't believe the comment regarding "courage" applies to police officers as a whole--Self-preservation applies,but knowing too many over the years, it is about power, the badge and the wall of blue behind them. All of the instances I have read where children or others were tasered showed a lock of common sense on the cop. Many who wear the badge are sadistic who get off on the power they have and the pain they can inflict. As criteria have been lowered for joining the service to levels never considered before Bush/Cheney, there has also been a lowering of standards for those wanting to be police officers across the board. The military now has serious problems as a result of this but this has been going on a lot longer in the police force (In all cities). You get what you pay for. Like in the military who protect their own (Even murder), the Blue Wall is no different.

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waynep
[Report this comment]
Posted by: waynep on Sep 16, 2009 4:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I find this very frightening. Many years of working in and around schools has not left me with a high regard for the overall quality of "school security" personal. To claim that they are all under trained, or lacking in competency to be a "real" police officer would be a horrible stereotyping indicting many good and honorable people....but a statement that a great many of these individuals fit that description would simply be a statement of fact. I would not want my child put in that situation, and my (now fortunately all grown) children were never in trouble with anyone at school.

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» RE: waynep Posted by: ecl1958
» RE: waynep Posted by: bornxeyed
» RE: Careful Bornx Posted by: marid

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It sickens me...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ecl1958 on Sep 16, 2009 4:51 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I originally trained to be an educator, but it's been many years since I've set foot in a school building, and reading this article makes me glad of that. It absolutely sickens me to know that schoolchildren of this era think it's "normal" to go through metal detectors (or more) to enter their schools. It angers me that they spend every school day under armed surveillance, that they are more or less prisoners in those buildings. It enrages me that our schoolchildren are under the constant threat of harrassment and intimidation by these power-hungry sadistic brutes. What an unhealthy atmosphere, not just for the children, but for the adults as well. It also occurs to me that under such repressive conditions it is pretty well nigh impossible for free thinking to take place. Maybe that's part of the reason why the schools operate in near-lockdown conditions.

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» RE: It sickens me... Posted by: DavidMac
» RE: It sickens me... Posted by: MT512

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YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS !!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: dave1616 on Sep 16, 2009 5:49 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
P L E A S E .... this mentality 'must' be altered ... Children of Color are being targeted here ... 'white people' , who have been historically mis - informed , by the european colonizer , in-order to coalesce 'white society' ... to rally the ignorant and oppressed white settlers , fomenting the slaughter of millions of 'native americans' , the creation of the 'race myth' , which resulted in , very conservatively , a SIX FIGURE LOSS OF BLACK AFRICAN LIFE ... Oh YES ... your good 'ol TRUSTY American History textbooks have VERY CONVENIENTLY , left OUT some Important DETAILS ....

That is euphemistically 'labeled' as EUROCENTRIFICATION ... the 'victor' , writing the HIS-tory books ...

Oh ... and my 'white' jewish friends - no , I've not 'forgotten' you ... we'll have 'much' more to discuss at another sitting ... one-step-at-a-time-here , KIDS .

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» RE: YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS !! Posted by: Lara1967

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Let's give the kids tasers
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sliver on Sep 16, 2009 6:03 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If the kids are armed with tasers, then the school security will think twice about tasering them.

I can't imagine anything going wrong if all the kids were carrying tasers around.

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» RE: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE BELT AS A DISCIPLINE TOOL Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line

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The Death Toll
[Report this comment]
Posted by: realitychick on Sep 16, 2009 6:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Amnesty International ... found that 334 people had died after being tased since 2001. (This figure is already obsolete.)"

Yes, that number is obsolete. The total number of North American victims of the taser now stands at 443. Seven American men died last month alone. So far this month, one American has been tasered to death.

Please see my TRUTHNOTTASERS website at: http://tinyurl.com/nqszlr for more information.
To see the list of victims, go here: http://tinyurl.com/mvfwuc

realitychick (Canada)

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Disarm the populace, then disarm the police.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Jkid4x on Sep 16, 2009 6:20 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand has unarmed police officers, and if they need armed support they can have armed units.

Despite the fact that American police forces are armed, they still get killed anyway.

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More of that "you asked for it, you got it . . ."
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on Sep 16, 2009 6:33 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Folks, you demanded police forces degraded by women and obese people. The constabulary had to "celebrate diversity," and all the liberal-feminist rest, in other words. You really didn't anticipate that these incompetent people - meaning incapable of fighting anyone bigger than a small child with anything but weapons (the higher "tech," the better) - would resort to their weapon at the first demand that they draw a deep breath.

Mirabile dictu!

You wanted it, you're getting it.

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The lady cop in the picture . . .
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on Sep 16, 2009 6:45 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I somehow lost this sentence in my last comment:

The female "officer" in the photo accompanying this essay is (typically) fifty pounds overweight. What did you expect that she would do when faced with any kind of resistance?

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» RE: The lady cop in the picture . . . Posted by: Walks-in-Storms

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Tough Sh*t
[Report this comment]
Posted by: jaglover on Sep 16, 2009 7:48 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You know what, I say make your sorry assed disrespectful kids act right! Discipline them AT HOME where it's supposed to be done and there won't be an issue. I can't stand disrespectful, unruly, out of control children, I don't care how old they are. Act like you have some damn sense and it's all good...act a fool and you just might end up on the ground twitching around. The bottom line is that we NEED to be policed to some extent because human beings simply cannot be left to our own devices and expected to peacefully exist. Asshole cops don't deserve to be cops needless to say but just remember they have a job to do and that job is to KEEP THE PEACE so if your snot-nosed little brat gets out of hand and gets lit up by a tazer to EFFING BAD!!! Keep his/her little ass at home from now on because he/she does NOT have the right to impose himself/herself on the rest of us and I'd just as soon have the cops taze the little fucker and get them them hell out away from the rest of us!!!

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» RE: Tough Sh*t Posted by: wtfo
» RE: Tough Sh*t Posted by: jaglover
» Lying again, "prophit(0)"? Posted by: GuitarBill
» "prophit(0)", that's not proof. Posted by: GuitarBill
» Jaglover, Posted by: sirios
» RE: Tough Sh*t Posted by: Lara1967

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Americans in law enforcement are afraid of children?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: luzmejor on Sep 16, 2009 8:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'd say that our whole system of laws and their enforcement needs to be examined. Begin with bugging even minor officials. Somehow, higher levels of government service seems to lead to craziness.

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Here, Here, I agree, no respect for the brutes
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Godzilla1916 on Sep 16, 2009 8:13 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I agree with Here, Here and P. Oinkers, this obsessive hero worshipping of cops because they wear a uniform and pretend to a public service is embarrassing. Too often cops will shoot, kill, and trample a citizen first and ask questions later; as if any questioning of their authority is the most severe breach of the law. I will never give respect to a cop, and if I found one tasering my kids or family, I would jump in swinging, regardless of the consequences; knowing what I do to protect my child is right and as usual the law is wrong.
The oligarchy have their cops, me? I have my friends and family to fight their brutality!

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» RE: Here, Here, I agree, no respect for the brutes Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line

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Were these bastards wearing their badges??
[Report this comment]
Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Sep 16, 2009 8:33 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"In a study carried out by a team of doctors and scientists at Chicago's Cook County hospital in 2006, 11 unfortunate pigs were shocked with Taser guns".

Where are the black panthers when ALL OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC REALLY NEEDS THEM??!!

I am a white, adult business/home owner with NO type of felony record, et al.
I say it is well past time that these butchers are STOPPED and their abusive ways come to a sudden end.

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Taser App ?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sirios on Sep 16, 2009 8:33 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Almost all students have a cell phone, Yes?

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» RE: cellphone possession Posted by: DaBear

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LASERS ARE NOT LETHAL?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Sep 16, 2009 8:40 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That depends on which end of it you're on. To my mind they serve no purpose. Every time I see an incident involving a taser it seems that they cause the situation to escalate. Until there were countless ways to control crowds and individuals, not that many people got out of control. Still, people gather in huge numbers without harming anyone. One year when the NY Yankees won the series there were 2 million people gathered at the intersection of Wall and Broad Sts. I was on the train to the city that day and it was packed with fans who were just celebrating. I'll bet if one cop had flashed a taser gun there would have been bedlam. They serve to frighten people and that's when the problem starts. If police can't diffuse a situation without harming people, maybe they're in the wrong line of work. The sight of a police officer used to mean that things would soon be under control. Not anyore. That's when the real trouble starts. They are clearly part of the problem. ANNA

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FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH CHILDREN
[Report this comment]
Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Sep 16, 2009 8:44 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is this what YOU want for YOUR children?
Do YOU want YOUR children in danger of this being done to them?

Do YOU realize that these ,monsters are OUT OF CONTROL and a danger to ALL children?
Is your worship of authority so deeply neurotic that YOU cannot see the very real danger to even YOUR INNOCENT CHILDREN?

Not all of us who are against these butchers are "felons" or any other sort of criminal.
The MAJORITY of us are decent human beings who see what they are doing to other human beings as being the same as the medieval torture practices and, THEY ARE ENJOYING IT!!

So, if you have the objectivity to see how evil and randomly barbaric their use of these torture devices is, then STAND UP AND BE COUNTED AS MOMMY AND/OR DADDY AND SAY, STOP THIS NOW!!

Maybe YOU just don't have the courage to stand up for YOU children.
If that is true, then what sort of parent are YOU??

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» RE: FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH CHILDREN Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN

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I will promise you this
[Report this comment]
Posted by: joebanana on Sep 16, 2009 9:29 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The adult MF that tases my daughter, is going to get the business end of a sniper rifle, guaranteed.

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I want to add to all off my other comments
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line on Sep 16, 2009 10:29 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
By stating that I am not defending the use of tasers on school grounds... I just happen to think that we have gotten to this place by having kids shooting up schools, intimidation of teachers and general poor behavior. The solution lies in parents doing their job and discipling their kids. Be a positive role model.....and furthermore this is probably also a result of school districts being apprehensive about potential lawsuits from parents who refuse to discipline their kids and get all riled up about the school admins disciplining their progeny. Someone who I know has a kid that was litterally pushing kids down the stairs and his dad was called into the school principal... when told that this was happening the father started to scream and yell bloody murder and left the school grounds.. the principal called the police(not sure if dad was ever apprehended) Point being the blame for your childrens behavior issues is usually looking right back at you in the mirror...Thus the reason that athorities may think tasers are ok lies in that mirror as well.. again. I do not think its right or good. We never heard of schools being shot up when I was going to school...NEVER.

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All public und private police must join mit das military und electrocute anyone who may speak to
[Report this comment]
Posted by: JohnTruth2001 on Sep 16, 2009 10:31 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
embarrass our glorious leaders!!!

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Um, yeah, if that happens at my kids' schools, I'm homeschooling.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: DaBear on Sep 16, 2009 10:47 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This would be the straw that breaks me of my public school habit.

I thought this line was neat:
("The kid refused to listen," Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton explained, saying the student then "pushed the officer.")

Of course the student pushed back after being manhandled or otherwise physically threatened by the cop. SOP for "law enforcement": provoke a violent reaction, this guarantees probable cause and thus justifies the arrest.

Paramilitaries are not here to serve or protect, they're there to bust our heads, and "make the bust" and they see us as the enemy.

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Pigs shouldn't have tasers...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Sep 16, 2009 11:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... because they demonstrate over and over that they can't handle them like sane adults. Maybe they shouldn't have guns, either. It would put their lives in danger? It puts OUR lives in danger for them to have them.. because they can't use them as mature and sane adults.

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What a wonderful learning experience...for everyone.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Prinzowhales on Sep 16, 2009 12:05 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
America has raised a generation of children who need armed police to maintain order in 'their' public schools. What is wrong with Americans? More Americans are in jail...more than in the jails of nations four times their size.

Violent, stupid, entertainment-addled, ego-centric...On the average these children leave school with an eighth-grade reading level-- after the taxpayers have paid to put them through twelve grades. The clockwork educationalists call for more money...every year...

And here, we have parents who would actually grant permission to have a fellow worker zap their children with a deadly and dangerous weapon...little wonder that they grant permission to allow their children to be injected with dangerous vaccines with neurotoxins like mercury--despite the fact that the poison control manuals in laboratories tell you to call a trained clean up crew to handle a spill. Clearly, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.

"America is an insane asylum," said the poet and political prisoner Ezra Pound as he boarded the steamer that was to take him back to Italy after being released from St. Elizabeth's in Washington. And, it is getting worse...far worse...and like frogs in a slowly warming Corporatist pot, Americans refuse to budge from the comfortable security of their frightful ignorance and societal incompetence and challenge the authorities who have put them in this predicament.

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I hope child protective services is looking into it.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: g on Sep 16, 2009 12:11 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What kind of dumbass parent gives permission to taser his or her kid? Yeah, the officers were unconscionable, whoever trained them should be fired too, and the company should be fired out of existence. But let's not forget the parents here. Their kids should sue their sorry asses and make them regret the day they did not use a condom. Some people are just too f****ing dumb to be allowed to reproduce.

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lunacy as usual
[Report this comment]
Posted by: tazdelaney on Sep 16, 2009 1:17 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
hey, bottleofrum below... you'd best have a militia with you when the law comes to your door. and they won't just be armed with tasers and none of em ever even heard of the bill of rights...

of relevance... in 1989, i read of a study done by SFSU which lookedd into what the serious schoolyard bullies later select as their careers. 1. policeman; 2. lifer in the military; 3. prison guard; 4. mental hospital attendant; 5. nursing home attendant. in other words, young bullies grow up to be adult bullies and specialize in jobs which allow them to beat, kill, torment and torture the defenseless with impunity and immunity.

under adolph ghouliani here in new york city, while he was falsifying the violent crime stats citywide to make it look as if he was reducing that on the streets of the city... he was setting his thugs loose on the poor and 'high crime districts' (aka black and hispanic neighborhoods.) he and his chief of police created the gang who tattoed themselves with the line 'we own the night.' that team and just the general NYPD had overe 800 people die under 'suspicious' circumstances under giuliani's admin. most famously was the case of amadouu diallo, the notorious '41 shots heard round the world.' diallo had not committed any crime; had no criminal record; was a ugandan immigrant with a job; was unarmed. his 'crime' was in walking out of his building. 4 of the gang of cops mentioned above were there. one odered him to put up his hands. another ordered him to show identification. when he reached for his ID, they started shooting. according to the lady upstairs wathing and listening, after about 20 shots, the officers burst out laughing and one asked, "what's holding him up anyway?" and they resumed firing. it turned out that what was holding him up was bulets pinning his dead body to the wall. then they figured there might be a problem with this murder, so they went up to his apartment where they beat and terrorized his roommate and tried to build a case that diallo was a drug dealer. that failed.

all four of these gestapo were totally acquitted of all charges and given their back pay, probably promoted. when i read the verdict, despite everything i've known about america since hersh's photos exposing my lai... i was stunned, literally fell to my knees at 13th street. for the first time since i was an antiwar kid, i went to town shouting. i went to 14th street to the big record store and started making a speech to the largely young black kids milling around. these promptly advised me that i would only get myself killed if i didn't cool it.

one of the four cops had developed a taste for murder and instead of going back on the force, he joined the service and went to iraq where presumably he got his fill of murder, maybe even torture. weirdly enough, he was related to my wife and his family of liberal old hippie types like us, were totally stunned by what had become of their son...

police in america kill more people a year than the total number of murders in the EU which has almost 3x the US population. cops figure it is open season on citizens just like our troops think it is open season on moslems and civilians.

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» all that data is verifiable Posted by: tazdelaney
» RE: lunacy as usual Posted by: Prinzowhales

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secession and liberation
[Report this comment]
Posted by: tazdelaney on Sep 16, 2009 1:52 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
i just went to find out if we can buy tasers to protect ourselves from the cops or anyone else who is attacking us. i found several such sites.

i don't know about yall, but i can't really coexist with nazi trash. i repudiate the age-old empire of state&church and the militarism they employ for profit by genocide and resource theft worldwide in their endless wars, torture, exploitation and oppression. flush the police state down the toilet. free all those in prison who weren't in for a crime of violence.

while the rightwing talks about seceding; i too am thinking that way from the other end of the spectrum. they don't want to pay for abortions and i can understand that. me, i don't want to pay for endless wars, torture, corporatist-communism/fascism, suppression of sexual liberty, dismantling of the bill of rights as in the drug war or super-surveilance or the vicious tasering and shooting of citizens by thug goons.

i live in new york city which houses the largest artist's ghetto on earth; a betrayed black public with 30% unemployment (i happen to be white on the outside); NYC has always been a beat-hippie-punk-druggie-queer-artist center and i'd like to establish it as a homeland for our demonized minions. let us seize our homeland, drive the corporatists out and proclaim a land of our own as those treasonous terrorists jefferson and franklin once did. let us create a true socialist democracy at the grassroots level and expunge the corporate-communist capitalist-fascist element from our midst. let us create a new level of human and civil rights which give meaning to the word 'freedom' as something other than a life under the tasers, guns and prisons of a brutal police state.

the best and brightest of young and old will decidedly flock to our homeland and we will generate a creative rennaisance of unprecedented magnitude. hey, we might even grow to a global movement capable of salvaging what's left of mother nature. we might pick up where abbie hoffman left off and succeed at levitating the pentagon and tossing it like a frisbee... CIA at langley? just seal it up like a time-capsule.

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» RE: secession and liberation Posted by: alicelillie

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When Will Students Demand Their Rights?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: alicelillie on Sep 16, 2009 3:36 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
How many more of these asinine minor status rules, zero tolerance policies and spying do there need to be before students have said "enough is enough is enough?"

In fact, enough is too much.

And now school police are tasing.

I advocate a nationwide school walkout, and an ultimatum that unless and until students are treated like the law-abiding citizens that the vast, vast majority are (ignoring minor laws and hairsplitting rules that the rest of us are not subject to), a *stand-down* will continue.

Education can continue online by sympathetic teachers in the meantime, but it is high time young people rebelled again.

I don't see how real education can even take place under the current circumstances.

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I used to believe that tasers were safer than guns but thank God I found out otherwise !
[Report this comment]
Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Sep 16, 2009 3:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That said, if they can do tasers in schools and mess up, think of how many other types of places these things could show up in? Using a taser to control an out of control student is just plain lame and especially if the officer is obese. I take it that police training is getting weaker these days. What happened to skillful officers who knew how to communicate first before using their muscles?

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ANYONE WITH A BRAIN IN THIS COUNTRY...?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: gbissias on Sep 16, 2009 5:02 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What kind of irresponsible society would accept the use of tasers, just for behavioral issues at the schools...next is to electrocutε all infants when crying.....why not accepting that one, too...!

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All BS aside, Tasers KILL
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Posted by: marid on Sep 16, 2009 6:27 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
No other fact pertains. What a sick device.

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leftbank
[Report this comment]
Posted by: markw4786 on Sep 16, 2009 7:16 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
They call them pigs for a reason...they are MOTHER FUCKING COCK SUCKING PIECE OF SHIT
P I G S ! ! !

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i dont know if koom bi yah will stop all vilonece
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sthomper on Sep 16, 2009 8:53 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when i was in junior high school over 20 years ago there were a few students where were as big and as strong as many men. i wonder if they are bigger and stronger now?
i dont know what tactics in schools are used to stop unarmed violence in progress. i would think that a singly directed stun weapon to individuals rather than bullets flying around to end the worst of cases would be a sad but necessary method for protecting others - without any 'collateral damage'.
misbehavior, cutting up etc. shouldnt be dealt with with a tazer and i doubt those claims are true, deliberate falshoods probobly.

as for kids..many arent responsible with a pencil in school...as dangerous as anything.
but if a stun weapon of low voltage could ward of say...a biting stray dog from a child walking home from school...i wouldnt have so much a problemn with it.

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$5,000 A YEAR IS HOW MUCH MORE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PAID THE CAMPUS COPS THAN THE
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Raymond Emerson on Sep 16, 2009 9:56 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
highest paid teacher. I quit. They never did care about learning, the student, or the teacher.

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In self defense
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Posted by: phindrup on Sep 16, 2009 11:51 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
How long until people arm themselves to protect themselves from the threat of assault by tasser armed cops?
Are you really prepared to stand by and be tassered without retaliation on the basis that these people are police officers?

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Tasers send a charge for as long as you hold the trigger
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Posted by: jonodavidson on Sep 17, 2009 12:41 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I wonder if the tests they conduct consider the variable of the amount of time that a person is subjected to an electric charge. How long does it take to kill an average sized adult man with a taser when the trigger is never released?

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sad but...
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Posted by: Blackpool Hotels on Oct 11, 2009 1:16 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This story is very informative and very well written but has a sad meaning by Blackpool Hotels.

britannia hotel
hotels in blackpool
Britannia Hotels
norbreck castle hotel
britannia hotels

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Alternet Comments:

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» RE: People who kill pig mothefuckers are heroes, period! Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» Here, Here Posted by: Hiroak
» RE: Here, Here Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» PSYCHOTIC OINKERCERS Posted by: americansheep
» RE: PSYCHOTIC OINKERCERS Posted by: madregal

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Between the economic
[Report this comment]
Posted by: login@bugmenot.com on Sep 16, 2009 1:35 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Between the economic "crisis", the wars and social issues such as this one, I get the sense that this country is on the verge of collapse.

How the heck did this happen?

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» RE: Between the economic Posted by: richholland
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: colinmeister
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: DavidMac
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: bornxeyed
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: Libsrule
» RE: Between the economic Posted by: VZEQICVA

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police officers demonstrate cowardice rather than courage
[Report this comment]
Posted by: jonodavidson on Sep 16, 2009 3:14 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
According to Army Field Manual 22-5 on military leadership, Courage comes in two forms. Physical courage is performing your duty regardless of any physical consequences you may suffer as a result. Moral courage is doing what you believe to be is right regardless of any consequences, other than physical, you may suffer as a result.

Courage is considered to be a virtue, and cowardice a vice. A coward would allow fear to overcome his sense of duty in the presence of danger. If you want to foster cowardice in our law enforcement community, first, disarm the population. Then organize men into units, train them to arms, arm them and equip them with the latest technology for weapons, communications, transportation, and surveillence equipment. Finally, give them power and authority over the rest of the people by law. Now you have created a cowardly law enforcement community that deals with the potential threats they imagine to themselves before any dangerous situation has an opportunity to present itself. They are not suitable for protecting anyone other than themselves, because their self-preservation is their priority.

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» GLOBAL POLICE TRAINING Posted by: americansheep

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Sue them out of business
[Report this comment]
Posted by: LeonBNJ on Sep 16, 2009 3:23 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Perhaps the makers of these tazers ought to be sued out of business by victims. I am surprised that some big time products liablity plaintiff's lawyer hasn't rounded up recent victims to file a lawsuit like for other dangerous products against their makers. There is no doubt that they are not suitable to use on many people from children to those with certain existing and possibly unknown medical problems. I know the police want something other than guns and clubs to control people, problem is that all so-called non-lethal products are not so and may have serious civil rights or health issues with them.
Better would be improvement in training of officers that would reduce the need for any weapon to be used.

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Doubt Not
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Posted by: When In Doubt on Sep 16, 2009 4:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I step closer to acceptable public torture
inchworm, anyone?

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» RE: Doubt Not Posted by: laoma
» Right? Posted by: CRaPWHiSPeReR

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morgan1
[Report this comment]
Posted by: morgan1 on Sep 16, 2009 4:33 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't believe the comment regarding "courage" applies to police officers as a whole--Self-preservation applies,but knowing too many over the years, it is about power, the badge and the wall of blue behind them. All of the instances I have read where children or others were tasered showed a lock of common sense on the cop. Many who wear the badge are sadistic who get off on the power they have and the pain they can inflict. As criteria have been lowered for joining the service to levels never considered before Bush/Cheney, there has also been a lowering of standards for those wanting to be police officers across the board. The military now has serious problems as a result of this but this has been going on a lot longer in the police force (In all cities). You get what you pay for. Like in the military who protect their own (Even murder), the Blue Wall is no different.

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waynep
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Posted by: waynep on Sep 16, 2009 4:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I find this very frightening. Many years of working in and around schools has not left me with a high regard for the overall quality of "school security" personal. To claim that they are all under trained, or lacking in competency to be a "real" police officer would be a horrible stereotyping indicting many good and honorable people....but a statement that a great many of these individuals fit that description would simply be a statement of fact. I would not want my child put in that situation, and my (now fortunately all grown) children were never in trouble with anyone at school.

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» RE: waynep Posted by: ecl1958
» RE: waynep Posted by: bornxeyed
» RE: Careful Bornx Posted by: marid

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It sickens me...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ecl1958 on Sep 16, 2009 4:51 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I originally trained to be an educator, but it's been many years since I've set foot in a school building, and reading this article makes me glad of that. It absolutely sickens me to know that schoolchildren of this era think it's "normal" to go through metal detectors (or more) to enter their schools. It angers me that they spend every school day under armed surveillance, that they are more or less prisoners in those buildings. It enrages me that our schoolchildren are under the constant threat of harrassment and intimidation by these power-hungry sadistic brutes. What an unhealthy atmosphere, not just for the children, but for the adults as well. It also occurs to me that under such repressive conditions it is pretty well nigh impossible for free thinking to take place. Maybe that's part of the reason why the schools operate in near-lockdown conditions.

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» RE: It sickens me... Posted by: DavidMac
» RE: It sickens me... Posted by: MT512

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YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS !!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: dave1616 on Sep 16, 2009 5:49 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
P L E A S E .... this mentality 'must' be altered ... Children of Color are being targeted here ... 'white people' , who have been historically mis - informed , by the european colonizer , in-order to coalesce 'white society' ... to rally the ignorant and oppressed white settlers , fomenting the slaughter of millions of 'native americans' , the creation of the 'race myth' , which resulted in , very conservatively , a SIX FIGURE LOSS OF BLACK AFRICAN LIFE ... Oh YES ... your good 'ol TRUSTY American History textbooks have VERY CONVENIENTLY , left OUT some Important DETAILS ....

That is euphemistically 'labeled' as EUROCENTRIFICATION ... the 'victor' , writing the HIS-tory books ...

Oh ... and my 'white' jewish friends - no , I've not 'forgotten' you ... we'll have 'much' more to discuss at another sitting ... one-step-at-a-time-here , KIDS .

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» RE: YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS !! Posted by: Lara1967

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Let's give the kids tasers
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sliver on Sep 16, 2009 6:03 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If the kids are armed with tasers, then the school security will think twice about tasering them.

I can't imagine anything going wrong if all the kids were carrying tasers around.

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» RE: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE BELT AS A DISCIPLINE TOOL Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line

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The Death Toll
[Report this comment]
Posted by: realitychick on Sep 16, 2009 6:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Amnesty International ... found that 334 people had died after being tased since 2001. (This figure is already obsolete.)"

Yes, that number is obsolete. The total number of North American victims of the taser now stands at 443. Seven American men died last month alone. So far this month, one American has been tasered to death.

Please see my TRUTHNOTTASERS website at: http://tinyurl.com/nqszlr for more information.
To see the list of victims, go here: http://tinyurl.com/mvfwuc

realitychick (Canada)

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Disarm the populace, then disarm the police.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Jkid4x on Sep 16, 2009 6:20 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand has unarmed police officers, and if they need armed support they can have armed units.

Despite the fact that American police forces are armed, they still get killed anyway.

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More of that "you asked for it, you got it . . ."
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on Sep 16, 2009 6:33 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Folks, you demanded police forces degraded by women and obese people. The constabulary had to "celebrate diversity," and all the liberal-feminist rest, in other words. You really didn't anticipate that these incompetent people - meaning incapable of fighting anyone bigger than a small child with anything but weapons (the higher "tech," the better) - would resort to their weapon at the first demand that they draw a deep breath.

Mirabile dictu!

You wanted it, you're getting it.

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The lady cop in the picture . . .
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on Sep 16, 2009 6:45 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I somehow lost this sentence in my last comment:

The female "officer" in the photo accompanying this essay is (typically) fifty pounds overweight. What did you expect that she would do when faced with any kind of resistance?

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» RE: The lady cop in the picture . . . Posted by: Walks-in-Storms

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Tough Sh*t
[Report this comment]
Posted by: jaglover on Sep 16, 2009 7:48 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You know what, I say make your sorry assed disrespectful kids act right! Discipline them AT HOME where it's supposed to be done and there won't be an issue. I can't stand disrespectful, unruly, out of control children, I don't care how old they are. Act like you have some damn sense and it's all good...act a fool and you just might end up on the ground twitching around. The bottom line is that we NEED to be policed to some extent because human beings simply cannot be left to our own devices and expected to peacefully exist. Asshole cops don't deserve to be cops needless to say but just remember they have a job to do and that job is to KEEP THE PEACE so if your snot-nosed little brat gets out of hand and gets lit up by a tazer to EFFING BAD!!! Keep his/her little ass at home from now on because he/she does NOT have the right to impose himself/herself on the rest of us and I'd just as soon have the cops taze the little fucker and get them them hell out away from the rest of us!!!

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» RE: Tough Sh*t Posted by: wtfo
» RE: Tough Sh*t Posted by: jaglover
» Lying again, "prophit(0)"? Posted by: GuitarBill
» "prophit(0)", that's not proof. Posted by: GuitarBill
» Jaglover, Posted by: sirios
» RE: Tough Sh*t Posted by: Lara1967

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Americans in law enforcement are afraid of children?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: luzmejor on Sep 16, 2009 8:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'd say that our whole system of laws and their enforcement needs to be examined. Begin with bugging even minor officials. Somehow, higher levels of government service seems to lead to craziness.

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Here, Here, I agree, no respect for the brutes
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Godzilla1916 on Sep 16, 2009 8:13 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I agree with Here, Here and P. Oinkers, this obsessive hero worshipping of cops because they wear a uniform and pretend to a public service is embarrassing. Too often cops will shoot, kill, and trample a citizen first and ask questions later; as if any questioning of their authority is the most severe breach of the law. I will never give respect to a cop, and if I found one tasering my kids or family, I would jump in swinging, regardless of the consequences; knowing what I do to protect my child is right and as usual the law is wrong.
The oligarchy have their cops, me? I have my friends and family to fight their brutality!

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» RE: Here, Here, I agree, no respect for the brutes Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line

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Were these bastards wearing their badges??
[Report this comment]
Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Sep 16, 2009 8:33 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"In a study carried out by a team of doctors and scientists at Chicago's Cook County hospital in 2006, 11 unfortunate pigs were shocked with Taser guns".

Where are the black panthers when ALL OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC REALLY NEEDS THEM??!!

I am a white, adult business/home owner with NO type of felony record, et al.
I say it is well past time that these butchers are STOPPED and their abusive ways come to a sudden end.

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Taser App ?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sirios on Sep 16, 2009 8:33 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Almost all students have a cell phone, Yes?

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» RE: cellphone possession Posted by: DaBear

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LASERS ARE NOT LETHAL?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Sep 16, 2009 8:40 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That depends on which end of it you're on. To my mind they serve no purpose. Every time I see an incident involving a taser it seems that they cause the situation to escalate. Until there were countless ways to control crowds and individuals, not that many people got out of control. Still, people gather in huge numbers without harming anyone. One year when the NY Yankees won the series there were 2 million people gathered at the intersection of Wall and Broad Sts. I was on the train to the city that day and it was packed with fans who were just celebrating. I'll bet if one cop had flashed a taser gun there would have been bedlam. They serve to frighten people and that's when the problem starts. If police can't diffuse a situation without harming people, maybe they're in the wrong line of work. The sight of a police officer used to mean that things would soon be under control. Not anyore. That's when the real trouble starts. They are clearly part of the problem. ANNA

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FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH CHILDREN
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Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Sep 16, 2009 8:44 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is this what YOU want for YOUR children?
Do YOU want YOUR children in danger of this being done to them?

Do YOU realize that these ,monsters are OUT OF CONTROL and a danger to ALL children?
Is your worship of authority so deeply neurotic that YOU cannot see the very real danger to even YOUR INNOCENT CHILDREN?

Not all of us who are against these butchers are "felons" or any other sort of criminal.
The MAJORITY of us are decent human beings who see what they are doing to other human beings as being the same as the medieval torture practices and, THEY ARE ENJOYING IT!!

So, if you have the objectivity to see how evil and randomly barbaric their use of these torture devices is, then STAND UP AND BE COUNTED AS MOMMY AND/OR DADDY AND SAY, STOP THIS NOW!!

Maybe YOU just don't have the courage to stand up for YOU children.
If that is true, then what sort of parent are YOU??

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» RE: FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH CHILDREN Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN

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I will promise you this
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Posted by: joebanana on Sep 16, 2009 9:29 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The adult MF that tases my daughter, is going to get the business end of a sniper rifle, guaranteed.

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I want to add to all off my other comments
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Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line on Sep 16, 2009 10:29 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
By stating that I am not defending the use of tasers on school grounds... I just happen to think that we have gotten to this place by having kids shooting up schools, intimidation of teachers and general poor behavior. The solution lies in parents doing their job and discipling their kids. Be a positive role model.....and furthermore this is probably also a result of school districts being apprehensive about potential lawsuits from parents who refuse to discipline their kids and get all riled up about the school admins disciplining their progeny. Someone who I know has a kid that was litterally pushing kids down the stairs and his dad was called into the school principal... when told that this was happening the father started to scream and yell bloody murder and left the school grounds.. the principal called the police(not sure if dad was ever apprehended) Point being the blame for your childrens behavior issues is usually looking right back at you in the mirror...Thus the reason that athorities may think tasers are ok lies in that mirror as well.. again. I do not think its right or good. We never heard of schools being shot up when I was going to school...NEVER.

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All public und private police must join mit das military und electrocute anyone who may speak to
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Posted by: JohnTruth2001 on Sep 16, 2009 10:31 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
embarrass our glorious leaders!!!

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Um, yeah, if that happens at my kids' schools, I'm homeschooling.
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Posted by: DaBear on Sep 16, 2009 10:47 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This would be the straw that breaks me of my public school habit.

I thought this line was neat:
("The kid refused to listen," Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton explained, saying the student then "pushed the officer.")

Of course the student pushed back after being manhandled or otherwise physically threatened by the cop. SOP for "law enforcement": provoke a violent reaction, this guarantees probable cause and thus justifies the arrest.

Paramilitaries are not here to serve or protect, they're there to bust our heads, and "make the bust" and they see us as the enemy.

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Pigs shouldn't have tasers...
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Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Sep 16, 2009 11:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... because they demonstrate over and over that they can't handle them like sane adults. Maybe they shouldn't have guns, either. It would put their lives in danger? It puts OUR lives in danger for them to have them.. because they can't use them as mature and sane adults.

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What a wonderful learning experience...for everyone.
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Posted by: Prinzowhales on Sep 16, 2009 12:05 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
America has raised a generation of children who need armed police to maintain order in 'their' public schools. What is wrong with Americans? More Americans are in jail...more than in the jails of nations four times their size.

Violent, stupid, entertainment-addled, ego-centric...On the average these children leave school with an eighth-grade reading level-- after the taxpayers have paid to put them through twelve grades. The clockwork educationalists call for more money...every year...

And here, we have parents who would actually grant permission to have a fellow worker zap their children with a deadly and dangerous weapon...little wonder that they grant permission to allow their children to be injected with dangerous vaccines with neurotoxins like mercury--despite the fact that the poison control manuals in laboratories tell you to call a trained clean up crew to handle a spill. Clearly, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.

"America is an insane asylum," said the poet and political prisoner Ezra Pound as he boarded the steamer that was to take him back to Italy after being released from St. Elizabeth's in Washington. And, it is getting worse...far worse...and like frogs in a slowly warming Corporatist pot, Americans refuse to budge from the comfortable security of their frightful ignorance and societal incompetence and challenge the authorities who have put them in this predicament.

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I hope child protective services is looking into it.
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Posted by: g on Sep 16, 2009 12:11 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What kind of dumbass parent gives permission to taser his or her kid? Yeah, the officers were unconscionable, whoever trained them should be fired too, and the company should be fired out of existence. But let's not forget the parents here. Their kids should sue their sorry asses and make them regret the day they did not use a condom. Some people are just too f****ing dumb to be allowed to reproduce.

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lunacy as usual
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Posted by: tazdelaney on Sep 16, 2009 1:17 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
hey, bottleofrum below... you'd best have a militia with you when the law comes to your door. and they won't just be armed with tasers and none of em ever even heard of the bill of rights...

of relevance... in 1989, i read of a study done by SFSU which lookedd into what the serious schoolyard bullies later select as their careers. 1. policeman; 2. lifer in the military; 3. prison guard; 4. mental hospital attendant; 5. nursing home attendant. in other words, young bullies grow up to be adult bullies and specialize in jobs which allow them to beat, kill, torment and torture the defenseless with impunity and immunity.

under adolph ghouliani here in new york city, while he was falsifying the violent crime stats citywide to make it look as if he was reducing that on the streets of the city... he was setting his thugs loose on the poor and 'high crime districts' (aka black and hispanic neighborhoods.) he and his chief of police created the gang who tattoed themselves with the line 'we own the night.' that team and just the general NYPD had overe 800 people die under 'suspicious' circumstances under giuliani's admin. most famously was the case of amadouu diallo, the notorious '41 shots heard round the world.' diallo had not committed any crime; had no criminal record; was a ugandan immigrant with a job; was unarmed. his 'crime' was in walking out of his building. 4 of the gang of cops mentioned above were there. one odered him to put up his hands. another ordered him to show identification. when he reached for his ID, they started shooting. according to the lady upstairs wathing and listening, after about 20 shots, the officers burst out laughing and one asked, "what's holding him up anyway?" and they resumed firing. it turned out that what was holding him up was bulets pinning his dead body to the wall. then they figured there might be a problem with this murder, so they went up to his apartment where they beat and terrorized his roommate and tried to build a case that diallo was a drug dealer. that failed.

all four of these gestapo were totally acquitted of all charges and given their back pay, probably promoted. when i read the verdict, despite everything i've known about america since hersh's photos exposing my lai... i was stunned, literally fell to my knees at 13th street. for the first time since i was an antiwar kid, i went to town shouting. i went to 14th street to the big record store and started making a speech to the largely young black kids milling around. these promptly advised me that i would only get myself killed if i didn't cool it.

one of the four cops had developed a taste for murder and instead of going back on the force, he joined the service and went to iraq where presumably he got his fill of murder, maybe even torture. weirdly enough, he was related to my wife and his family of liberal old hippie types like us, were totally stunned by what had become of their son...

police in america kill more people a year than the total number of murders in the EU which has almost 3x the US population. cops figure it is open season on citizens just like our troops think it is open season on moslems and civilians.

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» all that data is verifiable Posted by: tazdelaney
» RE: lunacy as usual Posted by: Prinzowhales

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secession and liberation
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Posted by: tazdelaney on Sep 16, 2009 1:52 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
i just went to find out if we can buy tasers to protect ourselves from the cops or anyone else who is attacking us. i found several such sites.

i don't know about yall, but i can't really coexist with nazi trash. i repudiate the age-old empire of state&church and the militarism they employ for profit by genocide and resource theft worldwide in their endless wars, torture, exploitation and oppression. flush the police state down the toilet. free all those in prison who weren't in for a crime of violence.

while the rightwing talks about seceding; i too am thinking that way from the other end of the spectrum. they don't want to pay for abortions and i can understand that. me, i don't want to pay for endless wars, torture, corporatist-communism/fascism, suppression of sexual liberty, dismantling of the bill of rights as in the drug war or super-surveilance or the vicious tasering and shooting of citizens by thug goons.

i live in new york city which houses the largest artist's ghetto on earth; a betrayed black public with 30% unemployment (i happen to be white on the outside); NYC has always been a beat-hippie-punk-druggie-queer-artist center and i'd like to establish it as a homeland for our demonized minions. let us seize our homeland, drive the corporatists out and proclaim a land of our own as those treasonous terrorists jefferson and franklin once did. let us create a true socialist democracy at the grassroots level and expunge the corporate-communist capitalist-fascist element from our midst. let us create a new level of human and civil rights which give meaning to the word 'freedom' as something other than a life under the tasers, guns and prisons of a brutal police state.

the best and brightest of young and old will decidedly flock to our homeland and we will generate a creative rennaisance of unprecedented magnitude. hey, we might even grow to a global movement capable of salvaging what's left of mother nature. we might pick up where abbie hoffman left off and succeed at levitating the pentagon and tossing it like a frisbee... CIA at langley? just seal it up like a time-capsule.

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» RE: secession and liberation Posted by: alicelillie

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When Will Students Demand Their Rights?
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Posted by: alicelillie on Sep 16, 2009 3:36 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
How many more of these asinine minor status rules, zero tolerance policies and spying do there need to be before students have said "enough is enough is enough?"

In fact, enough is too much.

And now school police are tasing.

I advocate a nationwide school walkout, and an ultimatum that unless and until students are treated like the law-abiding citizens that the vast, vast majority are (ignoring minor laws and hairsplitting rules that the rest of us are not subject to), a *stand-down* will continue.

Education can continue online by sympathetic teachers in the meantime, but it is high time young people rebelled again.

I don't see how real education can even take place under the current circumstances.

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I used to believe that tasers were safer than guns but thank God I found out otherwise !
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Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Sep 16, 2009 3:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That said, if they can do tasers in schools and mess up, think of how many other types of places these things could show up in? Using a taser to control an out of control student is just plain lame and especially if the officer is obese. I take it that police training is getting weaker these days. What happened to skillful officers who knew how to communicate first before using their muscles?

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ANYONE WITH A BRAIN IN THIS COUNTRY...?
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Posted by: gbissias on Sep 16, 2009 5:02 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What kind of irresponsible society would accept the use of tasers, just for behavioral issues at the schools...next is to electrocutε all infants when crying.....why not accepting that one, too...!

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All BS aside, Tasers KILL
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Posted by: marid on Sep 16, 2009 6:27 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
No other fact pertains. What a sick device.

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leftbank
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Posted by: markw4786 on Sep 16, 2009 7:16 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
They call them pigs for a reason...they are MOTHER FUCKING COCK SUCKING PIECE OF SHIT
P I G S ! ! !

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i dont know if koom bi yah will stop all vilonece
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Posted by: sthomper on Sep 16, 2009 8:53 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when i was in junior high school over 20 years ago there were a few students where were as big and as strong as many men. i wonder if they are bigger and stronger now?
i dont know what tactics in schools are used to stop unarmed violence in progress. i would think that a singly directed stun weapon to individuals rather than bullets flying around to end the worst of cases would be a sad but necessary method for protecting others - without any 'collateral damage'.
misbehavior, cutting up etc. shouldnt be dealt with with a tazer and i doubt those claims are true, deliberate falshoods probobly.

as for kids..many arent responsible with a pencil in school...as dangerous as anything.
but if a stun weapon of low voltage could ward of say...a biting stray dog from a child walking home from school...i wouldnt have so much a problemn with it.

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$5,000 A YEAR IS HOW MUCH MORE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PAID THE CAMPUS COPS THAN THE
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Posted by: Raymond Emerson on Sep 16, 2009 9:56 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
highest paid teacher. I quit. They never did care about learning, the student, or the teacher.

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In self defense
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Posted by: phindrup on Sep 16, 2009 11:51 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
How long until people arm themselves to protect themselves from the threat of assault by tasser armed cops?
Are you really prepared to stand by and be tassered without retaliation on the basis that these people are police officers?

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Tasers send a charge for as long as you hold the trigger
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Posted by: jonodavidson on Sep 17, 2009 12:41 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I wonder if the tests they conduct consider the variable of the amount of time that a person is subjected to an electric charge. How long does it take to kill an average sized adult man with a taser when the trigger is never released?

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sad but...
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Posted by: Blackpool Hotels on Oct 11, 2009 1:16 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This story is very informative and very well written but has a sad meaning by Blackpool Hotels.

britannia hotel
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