[Peace-discuss] Response to Sheriff Dan Walsh’s Report On Tasers

[Brian Dolinar]

No Weapon Can Replace Good Police Work: Response to Sheriff Dan
Walsh's Report On Tasers

Monday night, February 5, 2007, Sheriff Dan Walsh gave a report on
Tasers to the Justice Committee of the Champaign County Board.
Sheriff Walsh was on the defensive and at times indignant as he argued
that the Taser is a "humane" weapon, even in spite of the discovery
that 14-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department William Alan Myers
had abused inmates with a Taser in the jail.  In November 2003, the
Sheriff's Department purchased Tasers and they went into use a year
later.  He gave a previous report on Tasers in May 2004 and since his
tune has not changed: Tasers are a useful weapon to protect officers
and protect citizens.  He echoed the Taser manufacturer's own
advertisements, "Tasers Save Lives."

Several members of the community, organized by Chamaign-Urbana
Citizens for Peace and Justice, spoke during the period for public
comment at the beginning of the meeting.  They included: Belden
Fields, Professor Emeritus; Durl Kruse, member of AWARE; Giraldo
Rosales, Champaign City Council member; Martel Miller, co-founder of
VEYA; and myself.  Others opposing Tasers sat with them.

There was also a dozen of the Sheriff's Deputies who were present at
the hearing.

When I spoke I held up the copy of the News-Gazette article from
January 25, 2007 that featured a new experimental "non-lethal" weapon
produced by the military.  A large color photo showed a military jeep
with a large radar on top that fires a ray beam making anyone in its
range feel like their skin is on fire.  The bold headline read, "Feel
the Burn."  I attempted to make the case that the market for such 21st
century technology was laid by another "non-lethal" weapon – the
Taser.

Community members called for an immediate moratorium on Taser use in
Champaign County and the formation of an independent study into Tasers
and the conditions in the local jail.  I cited a precedent for such
intervention in Houston, Texas where Taser use has been hotly debated.
 There was outrage in November 2006, when a lineman for the Houstan
Texans was tased during a routine traffic stop.  It was also found
that 63 percent of Taser victims were African American (the number is
64 percent in Champaign County), and that in 95 percent of incidents,
suspects were unarmed.  Houston Mayor Bill White, who had previously
been a supporter of Tasers, called for an independent investigation.
Additionally, several city council members have called for a
moratorium on Taser use.  An independent investigation is long overdue
in Champaign County.  Over a two year period, five deaths have
occurred in the county jail and the abuse of inmates by Sgt. Myers has
been exposed.

The Sheriff then gave his presentation, complete with projected video
clips, show-and-tell products provided by the prison industrial
complex, and expert advice from Deputies who deal with training and
recording Taser usage.

Walsh began with an anecdotal story from Darlene Dallas, who had
spoken in May 2004 at Walsh's last report to the board.  Apparently,
no other such supporters of Tasers could be found among the public.
Dallas was there to tell her story again.  She said she was not a
professor, or an expert, she was "just a mom."  But she said she was
also there on behalf of officers in the field.  While she told her
story, she turned and gave angry stares at community members.  Dallas
was involved in the first incident when a Taser was used in Champaign
County.  Her ex-husband had come to her house intoxicated and trapped
himself in the bedroom with their two children, who were nine and two
years old.  He had told police, "If you want me you'll have to go
through me."  Police tried to talk to the man for twenty minutes, then
resorted to using the Taser, which they had to use twice to subdue the
man.  Dallas said they could have used guns or billy clubs.  Dallas
did not address that her ex-husband was unarmed and that the police
officers' lives were not in danger.  If her children would have been
shot, the cops would have been doing the shooting.  Her message was
the same as the Sheriff's: "Tasers save lives."

Sheriff Walsh submitted a 15 page report to the board stating updates
in Taser policy.  He said the new policy stipulated that Deputies not
use a Taser on pregnant women.  This was because of the harm that
could be caused during the fall – not, he specified because the Taser
causes harm to a fetus.

A cursory search on the internet suggests otherwise.  Most recently,
in Wichita, Kansas, a woman had a miscarriage that she says was linked
to her being tased.  She is suing the city.

Walsh gave his own anecdotal story of how he was in Las Vegas
vacationing last month and read about Tasers in the local newspaper.
A suicidal man had been shot to death by police and one Joe Public was
quoted as saying, "Why didn't the police use a Taser?"  Another
question might be, "Where have all the public monies gone for mental
health care?"

County Board members were then shown two video clips projected onto a
screen with the help of another Deputy.  One showed an defendant who
became violent in the courtroom and required several officers to
tackle him.  Another clip showed a man in a booking area without
handcuffs and began swinging at officers.  Walsh said a Taser would
bring these situations under control "without anybody getting hurt."

The dream is that with Tasers, officers will not even have to touch
criminals, that they will have a sanitary situation where they have to
do nothing but pull a trigger.  Of course, even with a Taser officers
are going to have to use some physical force and may have to take a
punch.  Yet this is what police are paid to do, it goes with the turf.
 Police are well paid, have benefits, job security, even a powerful
union, which is more than can be said of most of working class people,
the very same people who often pass through the criminal justice
system.

Then Walsh showed a video, which looked like it was provided from
Taser International, of a woman being shot with a Taser.  This was to
illustrate how the barbed hooks from a Taser did not significantly
penetrate the skin of their target.  When he was meeting with the
press, I asked Walsh whether the impact is the same at 15 feet or
point blank.  He did not answer my question.

In an interview with Michael Alexander, one of Sgt. Myers' victims, he
gives a bloody account of having the Taser barbs pulled from his skin:

"Officer Myers gives a direct order to [Officer] Thompson, take the
prongs out of him. Officer Thompson comes in and he's slowly picking,
trying to take the taser little thingys up out of my chest, but I was
so close range that it was like stuck. I mean, I mean, I felt like it
was stuck in my rib cage, man. I'm a little boy guy, so… he was just
that close to me and it's that powerful that it must have went in
pretty, pretty far where he couldn't just snatch them out….. So they
had, Officer Thompson couldn't do it because while he's trying do it
because while he's trying to pull them out, I'm yelling. I'm like,
ahhh, ahhh, that hurts, so Myers like, man, you just got to snatch
them out, man, you just got to snatch them. So I said, no, I prefer
for Officer Winters to take them out. I was like, Winters, man, I'm,
I'm just holding on to you, man. Just snatch them out, just snatch
them out. It hurts like fuck. Officer Winters snatches them out. I get
to bleeding all over the place."

This account is partially confirmed in a police report by Officer
Winters written on November 12, 2005:

"Resident Alexander took a step toward the door, Sgt. Myers opened the
door and fired the Taser into the cell 1A26 with out warning and
struck Resident Alexander in the torso area.  Once Resident Alexander
fell to the ground Sgt. Myers told him to put his hands behind his
back.  This R/O placed handcuffs on resident Alexander.  This R/O then
removed the probes from Resident Alexander, and escorted him to
booking […].  While in Cell H-1 I cleaned Resident Alexander and
bandaged up the marks on his torso."

Another one of Sgt. Myers' victims, Trina Fairley, was examined by a
nurse in a written report titled, "County Jail Medical Progress
Notes," and dated November 22, 2005.  Fairley was tasered on September
19, 2005, two months earlier.  The report includes drawings of an
infected scar one centimeter wide and reads:

"There is a scar left breast from when she was tasered.  There is no
pain at this time.  Scar seen on side of left breast the shape of a
circle.   Lump left scab present.  Sign of infection seen.  Appears to
be a scar from an injury."

The video shown by Sheriff Walsh claimed there was no deep penetration
from Tasers.

Next, Walsh brought up Sgt. Brian Mennenga, who is responsible for
Taser reports and records.  Mennenga explained how Deputies are
trained for a week, have experience firing Tasers, and learn how to
deal with mentally challenged.  He gave two more anecdotal stories
when a Taser was used and concluded, "Nobody's hurt.  Everybody goes
home safely."

Mennenga had checked out a Taser to Myers the night he abused Ray
Hsieh, the case for which he is being prosecuted.  Myers boasted of
using the Taser but Mennenga did not second guess if Myers used the
Taser unsafely.  Mennenga wrote in his report:

"At some point during our conversation Sgt. Myers also made a remark
similar to 'it seems like I am the only one with enough balls to use
the Taser.'  He also told me that they had to use the Taser on the
subject after he had been pepper sprayed.

"I did not ask Sgt. Myers the circumstances as to why the subject had
to have the Taser used on him and he did not offer that information."

Captain Tim Bogus gave two examples from incidents that occurred
before November 2004, when the Sheriff's Department started using
Tasers.  He ended by saying that Tasers make police work safe for
officers and citizens.

"We're not the cowboys," Walsh began his speech.  He downplayed
accounts that Tasers has caused deaths.  He pointed Amnesty
International who claims that 230 people have died from Tasers since
2001 and said that's "Nowhere near the number."

How many should die before Tasers are believed to be lethal weapons?

Walsh defended himself, eschewing community members who, he says,
don't like the way the investigation was done and thought he was
covering things up.  He said if this happened to him, apparently
talking about what Myers did to several inmates, he would go to
lawyers and doctors to file a law suit.

In fact, that's just what Michael Rich did.  Rich was Myers' first
Taser victim on November 6, 2004.  According to Rich, he filed a
complaint the day he was released and went to see a Dr. Goldstein in
northern Chicago.  He also had a conversation with local attorney
Michael McLellan.  Rich was considered a civil suit, but trusted that
the criminal prosecution would punish Sgt. Myers.  On August 25, 2005,
Rich finally received a response from his complaint to the Sheriff.  A
letter from Captain Young, in charge of the jails, determined the
force used on Rich was "justified."  Myers was fired four months
later.  But Rich was never called by the State's Attorney until
November 2006 when the statute of limitations on his civil suit ran
out.  Charges were never filed against Myers for his abuse of Rich.

Walsh reiterated his position on the jail suicides and two other deaths.
He also said Champaign County has the best mental health in all Illinois.

Although not saying her name, Sheriff Walsh alluded to Sandra Ahten
and his willingness to allow her Books to Prisoners project in the
County jail.  If he was hiding things, he said, he wouldn't let her in
the jail.  Of course, the Books to Prisoners library is a terrific
volunteer effort, but they provide a free service that should already
financially supported by the County.

Walsh said that Mr. Myers is "very troubling," but claimed he could
not speak on him because the case was pending.  Walsh alleged there
were no citizen complaints about Sgt. Myers.  This is flatly wrong.
Michael Rich, Trina Fairley, and Michael Alexander all filed citizen
complaints.

At one point when fielding questions from board members, he called me
out.  "Ask Brian.  Don't you have all the police reports," he said.
Of course, Walsh was not answering any questions from the public that
night, especially not from Brian Dolinar.

While he would prefer to build a new jail, Walsh said cameras
installed in the booking area would be a start.  Yet none of Myers'
abuses occurred in the booking area.  Walsh said he had ordered
cameras that can be attached to the Tasers.  The public must instead
insist that:

NO WEAPON CAN REPLACE GOOD POLICE WORK!

For more information see the Sheriff's investigation in the court file
on Myers, 05-CF-2105.
-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com