[Peace-discuss] Tasers

[Morton K. Brussel]

FYI.

Backlash Against Taser Company May Turn Tide on Shock Weapons
by Andrew Stelzer (bio)
As a number of police departments begin to concur with human rights  
and victims’ advocates, the heat is on Taser International to defend  
its controversial devices or begin paying up.


Jul 25 - As the number of people who die after being shocked by  
police Taser weapons continues to grow, the city of Dolton, Illinois  
has filed a lawsuit against the Arizona-based company that  
manufacturers the hand-held electrical shock devices. The suit  
alleges the weapon has not been adequately tested and was sold to  
police through faulty marketing.

Amnesty International reports that more than 114 people have died  
shortly after Tasers were used on them in the US and Canada since  
2001. The Securities and Exchange Commission is already looking into  
whether Taser International, which invented and manufactures and  
markets the weapons, misled its shareholders with safety claims.

Sean Howard, spokesperson for Mayor William Shaw of Dolton told The  
NewStandard that the mayor and police chief recently decided to pull  
Taser guns off the streets, and the lawsuit is to recoup the more  
than $8,000 the police department spent on the weapons.

"Taser spent a lot of money in advertising," Howard said, "not only  
with elected officials and police officials, but with communities at  
large." In Dolton, the police department decided to use the weapons,  
according to Howard, "under what now is the false pretense of it not  
doing any deadly harm to a suspect slash victim."

Doug Klint, a spokesperson for Taser, sent an email to the Arizona  
Republic defending the weapons. "The claims made in the lawsuit are  
based on inaccurate and incomplete news clippings rather than  
independent review and scientific fact," he wrote. "To date there  
have been dozens of independent studies conducted by leading medical  
and law-enforcement experts, the US Department of Defense, the United  
Kingdom Home Office and other countries each of which support Taser  
technology's safety and effectiveness relative to other use-of-force  
alternatives."

Though medical examiners have directly linked Tasers to only a  
handful of the deaths that have occurred after shocks from the  
weapon, victims' advocates and police watchdog groups have pointed  
out a lack of scientific study of the effects of the weapons on  
people of varying physical size and health condition.

Dolton town officials are hoping the suit, which was filed at the US  
District Court in Chicago, will be granted class-action status. Paul  
Geller, the attorney representing the Dolton Police Department in the  
suit, told the Arizona Republic that police departments in four  
states have retained his firm for the lawsuit, but would drop the  
suit if Taser would take back the guns.

A continuing stream of bad publicity and lawsuits from families of  
people who died after suffering Taser shocks seems to be taking its  
toll on the company, which in the second quarter of 2005 saw its  
sales decrease by $3.1 million and net income decrease by $4.0  
million compared to the second quarter of 2004.

"In the second quarter, we invested significant resources defending  
our product safety record against what we believe to be misleading  
information in the public domain," said Rick Smith, the Chief  
Executive Officer of TASER International, Inc. in a press release to  
investors. "Accordingly, sales, general and administrative expenses  
increased significantly, particularly in the areas of legal services  
and public education campaigns."

Law enforcement agencies are also beginning to discipline officers  
for inappropriate use of the weapons, which are marketed as "less  
than lethal."

The Asheville, North Carolina department fired an officer earlier  
this month after he gratuitously shocked a woman three times with a  
Taser while she was walking through her own neighborhood.

In Kansas City, two officers recently saw their pink slips upheld by  
a the city board of police commissioners for a August 2004 incident  
in which one officer shocked a man five times, four of which were  
when he was in handcuffs, and three of which were when the suspect  
was on the ground. The second officer encouraged the Tasings, saying,  
"Hit him again."

© 2005 The NewStandard. See our reprint policy.
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