He’s on something of a wanderjahr through Greater Cascadia, northern Aztlan and nearby regions, hitchhiking and walking. Tonight I asked him, again through SMS, was had happened. Here is his story, with minimal editing, straight off my phone:

They were good people and could do what they want.

I’m sure the foot soldiers of the Khmer Rouge thought the same thing.

And people ask me why I left America… Ha!

From Seacoast Media, Portsmouth, NH, USA:

Police use Taser on man reported carrying rifle on street

1 September 2008

SEABROOK — Police say they arrested an armed man at his house on Friday, Aug. 29, after receiving a report of a man walking around Pine Street carrying a rifle.

According to police who responded to the home at approximately 7:44 a.m. Friday, Dennis Merrill, 48, 60 Pine St., Seabrook, barricaded himself in his bedroom and, when he came out, resisted arrest.

“He resisted (arrest), he was Tased,” said Officer John Mounsey, who assisted at the scene.

Merrill was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Ratted out by a neighbormember of the state’s spy network for exactly nothing.

I wonder who the people in Richland County, South Carolina ought to call when they see people with this sort of equipment tooling around the neighborhood:

To Serve and Protect... Whom?

Hat tip to Radley Balko.

You didn’t really believe them, did you?

The headline here is wrong…

From WTVY News 4, Dothan, Alabama:

Taser Hit Leaves Drug Suspect in Critical Condition

Taser Hit Leaves Seat Belt Suspect in Critical Condition

There, fixed that for you.

A routine traffic stop for a seatbelt infraction on Sunday evening turned into so much more for Houston County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Reichert and the suspect, 27-year-old Nicholas Cody.

Deputy Reichert noticed a small bag with a white substance; Cody attempted to flee when the taser was first fired.

“Deputy Reichert asked him about the bag; as a struggle ensued with the subject in the cab of the pickup truck, Deputy Reichert activated his taser at which time only one probe struck the suspect,” said Sheriff Andy Hughes with Houston County.

At that point, Cody dove out of the truck and ran toward the Dollar General on Highway 231 with Deputy Reichert in pursuit. He then jumped a fence into the Tanglewood Apartments, and then the deputy redeployed the taser, this time both, prongs striking. During the struggle, Cody was hit with an additional charge.

After Cody went into respiratory arrest, Deputy Reichert , who is trained in CPR, along with another bystander, attempted to resuscitate the suspect with paramedics en route.

As of Monday, he is in critical condition in a Dothan hospital according to the sheriff.

Sheriff Hughes said, “I’m not satisfied that this came as a result of the taser. There have been deaths involving tasers across the country and most of the time, it’s been shown to be from a pre existing medical condition or due to the fact that the subject had previously ingested cocaine.”

From The Globe and Mail:

No charges called for in report on taser death

17 June 2008

Vancouver — Police have finished their investigation into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski and forwarded a report to the Crown that does not call for any criminal charges in the matter, said a spokesman for the integrated homicide investigation team that conducted the probe.

Mr. Dziekanski died last October after being tasered by Mounties when he began acting erratically in the international arrivals area of Vancouver airport. Corporal Dale Carr said it will be up to the Crown to decide whether charges are warranted. Such charges might be laid against the officers involved in the confrontation, police have suggested.

“It’s the full, entire investigation. It’s completed, done,” said Cpl. Carr. A Crown spokesman said the office is reviewing the report.

Related, with video: Justice, truth and accountability for Robert Dziekański

Even so, holding the company responsible for the actions of its customers who use its products to kill is as ridiculous as holding knife manufacturers responsible for stab wounds. One doesn’t need scientific studies or product warning labels to learn that electrocuting someone might be dangerous to their health. In America, at least, children learn this from their parents almost as soon as they can understand speech.

The real criminals, once again, get away scot free, with their boss praising his murderous underlings as “heroes”.

If a family member is in trouble, do you really want to call the police?

From The Monterey County Herald:

Taser held responsible in Salinas death

Jury awards family $6 million, exonerates Salinas police

7 June 2008

A federal jury has held Taser International responsible for the death of a Salinas man in U.S. District Court in San Jose on Friday, and awarded his family more than $6 million in punitive and compensatory damages.

An attorney for the family called the verdict a “landmark decision,” and indicated that it was the first time Taser International had been held responsible for a death or injury linked to its product.

Taser Tester

But the jury exonerated Salinas police, including four officers, in the death of 40-year-old Robert Heston Jr. on Feb. 20, 2005. Heston died a day after being shocked repeatedly by officers using Tasers. An autopsy found that Heston died from a combination of methamphetamine intoxication, an enlarged heart due to long-term drug abuse, and Taser shocks.

Heston’s parents, Betty Lou and Robert Sr., and their daughter sued Taser International. They alleged the company failed to properly warn users that its product could be dangerous, and even lethal, when used repeatedly in conjunction with chest compressions and on people under the influence of drugs.

The family alleged wrongful death, assault and battery, and negligence in their suit against the Salinas Police Department and officers Juan Ruiz, James Godwin, Lek Livingston and Michael Dominici.

The six-person jury found that Arizona-based stun-gun manufacturer Taser International should have more effectively warned police that Taser shocks were potentially dangerous. Salinas police testified during the trial that they were not warned that the shocks could be dangerous.

A possible precedent

Plaintiffs attorney John Burton said the verdict is precedent setting, noting that this was the first time a jury found Tasers are dangerous when used too often.

“We’re overjoyed,” Burton said.

According to Burton, the verdict included $5.2 million in punitive damages, and $1.021 million in compensatory damages. The jury found that the victim was 85 percent at fault, resulting in an apportioned final damages award.

Co-counsel Peter Williamson said the Heston family was “absolutely overwhelmed and extremely proud that they stood up for their son and brother.”

Williamson said he spoke to three jurors, including the jury foreman, after the decision. He said the jury agreed with the “crux of our case,” that Taser International should have made more of an effort to warn people about their product once they realized it was potentially dangerous, perhaps even e-mailing all its customers.

“They should have sent out a warning and they didn’t,” he said.

Burton said he still believes Salinas police should have been held accountable, but understood the jury’s rationale.

“Taser continued to say their product was safe,” he said.

City Attorney Vanessa Vallarta said in a statement, “We are pleased and relieved by the verdict. This is a sad and tragic case. The jury affirmed that our officers did exactly what they were trained to do in the course of a very violent episode.”

Contacted later by phone, Vallarta said the verdict “certainly raises questions” about the use of Tasers and the city would be evaluating their use.

The decision “does put the state of the law somewhat in flux on this,” she said. “In light of current scientific evidence, there may be a need for a change in procedures.”

No big changes planned

Salinas Police Chief Daniel Ortega said his department wouldn’t make any major changes in its Taser use and training procedures, despite the verdict finding that Tasers can be dangerous. Ortega said he was “elated” that his department was exonerated and called his officers “heroes” in the incident. He expressed doubt about the verdict against Taser International and said he expected the company to appeal the decision.

“I have absolutely no intention of not using Tasers,” Ortega said. “It’s not going to change a whole lot.”

Ortega said he would keep trying to purchase Taser cams, which videotape incidents when Tasers are used, and suggested that if the officers had been equipped with the Taser cams the trial never would have occurred.

Salinas police responded to Heston Sr.’s Rodeo Avenue home in 2005 after a friend called 911 to report that Heston Jr. was behaving violently.

In an attempt to subdue agitated Heston Jr., who was later found to have high levels of methamphetamine in his system, officers shocked him repeatedly with Tasers. Some shocks were administered after Heston Jr. was held down by several officers.

When Heston Jr. began turning blue, the officers started CPR and he was raced to Natividad Medical Center. But he never regained consciousness and died the next day.

Burton contended that Heston Jr. was shocked 30 times.

Taser International representatives did not offer comment on the decision.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg quotes Taser attorney Doug Klint:

Use of the Taser on Heston didn’t cause his death, Klint said. Heston fit “the well established symptom pattern for methamphetamine intoxication and associated excited delirium,” a condition linked to sudden death in custody, Klint said.

The company went on to issue a press release, saying:

“We are disappointed that the jury awarded compensatory and punitive damages in this case given the many world renowned experts that testified to the fact that the TASER ECD was not a causal factor in this death, which fit the well established symptom pattern for methamphetamine intoxication and associated excited delirium,” said Doug Klint, Vice President and General Counsel of TASER International. “TASER International intends to pursue appropriate legal channels, including a motion for a new trial, judgment notwithstanding the verdict and filing an appeal in this matter,” stated Klint.

“Certainly, this was a tragedy for the Heston family as well as for the officers involved. We however do not feel that the verdict is supported by the facts including the testimony of the world class experts who testified on our behalf with scientific and medical evidence. Our commitment to continue to defend our life-saving products and to support law enforcement remains unchanged,” concluded Klint.

TASER International’s products protect life.

And the New York City Police Department is dramatically increasing taser deployment.

Instead, some commentary and some links.

Despite that the taser’s manufacturer, Taser International, claims with all sorts of paid experts and government shills to back them up that the device isn’t dangerous, people keep dying after being hit with tasers. The site Truth … Not Tasers is keeping a list, which currently runs to 345 in the US and Canada alone.

In the cases where internal police inquiry or survivors’ lawsuits force the issue, it’s now verboten to talk about the taser as having been a cause of death. The manufacturer has begun pursuing lawsuits against medical examiners who issue reports stating that the electric shocks delivered by the devices were contributory factors. Chilling effect, anyone?

Taser X26, jasonesbain @ flickr

The new term for the condition that kills people in police custody who have been subjected to 50,000-volt “non-lethal” discharges is “excited delirium“. One will note that the postmortem diagnosis of “excited delirium” seems to occur only in victimsthose who died after being shocked.

Apparently the theory that jolting a person with an electrical discharge might affect their cardiopulmonary performance just doesn’t matter when the jolts are being administered by the State’s clown-suited agents.

The deaths are really only the smallest portion of the abuse that’s going on here, though. Police are being encouraged to use the taser to “get control” of situations in which a suspect is being less than cooperative. Those I’ve read about include ones in which suspects failed to immediately respond to an order, struggled while being held in painful (and sometimes dangerous) restraint positions and holds, or simply seemed to be acting a bit “off”. And the rapid escalation from things like not behaving “properly” at traffic stops to the application of electroshock control seems to be increasing rapidly.

I have no faith whatsoever in the United Nations, but it’s worth quoting that its Committee Against Torture in 1997 “was worried that the use of TaserX26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture, and that in certain cases it could also cause death, as shown by several reliable studies and by certain cases that had happened after practical use.”

And now the links. These are a few of the sites that are chronicling the taser story on a day-to-day basis, and quite instructive.

• Truth … Not Tasers
• Taser Times
• Excited-Delirium.com

From the Nanaimo Daily News:

Judge says Mountie created confrontation

26 May 2008

A Nanaimo provincial court judge, in dropping a charge against a local man of assaulting police, instead blamed a Nanaimo Mountie for creating the violent confrontation.

The decision was handed by Judge Allan Gould on Monday in staying charges of assault police and uttering threats against Shane Owen, 48.

RCMP in riot gear, courtesy of Rob Maguire @ flickr

On Nov. 25, 2005, Owen was walking down the street when the officer, who told the court that Owen had committed no offence but didn’t look right, decided to question him.

Owen told the officer to leave him alone, gave a Nazi salute and swore at him. Gould said that a more experienced officer would have “spoken in kind” to Owen and gone on his way. A Supreme Court of Canada decision states that only when there is reasonable suspicion of a crime can police force someone to comply with their requests.

Gould said the officer then “hounded” Owen into the behaviour that led to the charges. The officer’s actions were “akin to Chinese water torture” and his actions escalated the situation, said Gould, though he also said that Owen’s actions in part brought the unwanted attention on himself. Other officers attended what became a brawl and Owen was subdued with a Taser, batons and pepper spray.

Owen was then held in custody, “to which he should not have been subjected in my opinion,” said Gould.

The editors of the Daily News chimed in with a ponies-and-kittens puff piece on behalf of the cops, which after stating “The constant focus on the death of Dziekanski, tragic as it was, distracts the police from doing their jobs.”, concludes with appropriate obeisance and genuflections:

But the cops are such an easy scapegoat that many people forget to check their facts.

Of course there are the few misguided and even criminal police officers, similar to workers any profession.

But these are the vast minority.

In reality, keeping everyone safe is a tough job.

The least we can do is show these people some respect.

Well Mr. Owen’s own personal stormtroopers didn’t seem too distracted now, did they?“Sieg Heil!” isn’t respectful enough, I suppose.

From The Mississippi Press:

Taser incident being probed

23 May 2008

Otis Ashford in his hospital bed

MOSS POINT — The Moss Point Police Department is investigating an incident in which a Moss Point police officer allegedly subdued Otis Ashford in the home of his sister last month with volts of electricity from a Taser gun, Interim Police Chief Frederick Gaston confirmed Thursday.

[...]

Ashford was arrested for interfering with police duties and resisting arrest on April 18. He said his court date has been set for June 10.

[...]

Curley Clark, president of the Jackson County chapter of the NAACP, said the organization is conducting its own investigation.

[...]

According to Ashford, he was watching television with his sister Dell Jones at her house on Westpine Street when they heard a disturbance in the front yard.

“We went out to see what was going on and this man started yelling to get back in the house,” Ashford explained. “At that point, I was just on the screened-in porch. So, we were really still in the house.”

Ashford said he and his sister were concerned their younger brother was being attacked and started calling his name.

“The man on top of the other man never said he was a police officer,” Jones said. “We didn’t know that until he picked the other guy up and took him away. When he stepped into the light, we could see he was an officer. He then started screaming he was coming back to get us.”

Ashford said as the officer disappeared into the night and they thought the incident was over.

“Then he came back, he busted through the screen door and just came at us,” Ashford said. “He was like a mad man. We never even left the porch. He kept saying he was getting me for interfering, but I never got off the porch. How could we interfere?”

Ashford said the officer, who he identified as Johnny Vaughn, pushed him against the wall and doused him and Jones with pepper spray.

“It was everywhere,” Jones said “All over us and all in the house. There was no sense in it.”

According to Ashford, another Moss Point officer arrived and Vaughn ordered him to use the Taser gun.

“He hit me with it probably eight times,” Ashford said as he raised his shirt and showed scars from the Taser’s barbs.

“And that right there,” Jones said as she pointed to a large white scar about the size of a half-dollar on her brother’s back, “that was where they held it on him.”

Ashford and Jones claimed the officer took a barb that wasn’t attached to Ashford and held it in one spot for several seconds, shocking him until he was unconscious.

“I don’t remember nothing after that,” Ashford said.

Jones said she called the police to come and direct the “out-of-control officers.”

“They were killing him,” Jones said, “and they would not stop.”

Their mother, Lillie Ashford, entered the house and watched her son being subdued by police and her daughter passing out.

Lillie Ashford said her son was dragged out of the house by the officers and thrown into a patrol car.

“There was an ambulance right there,” she said. “I begged them to take him to the hospital. I thought they had killed him.”

Lillie Ashford said the officers refused and took her son to jail.

Otis Ashford’s wife, Rosa, said it was at least three hours before her husband received medical treatment.

“When they finally let me see him, he was on a stretcher in the police station,” she said. “They said his heart rate was 179 and his pupils were dilated. They kept asking me what he was on and I told them he doesn’t do drugs.”

Otis Ashford said that when he awoke hospital technicians performed a drug screen test on him and it came back clean. He said he bonded out from the hospital after being kept for two days.

Otis Ashford said FBI Agent Robert Lambert told him the FBI has launched an investigation, but Gaston could not confirm his comments.

See also the SunHerald story.

Hat tip: The Spook at The Brown Watch

From The Daily Mirror:

Schoolgirl killed by ‘speeding police patrol car’

Sixteen-year-old killed by ’100 mph patrol car’, then police Taser distraught boyfriend.

A witness yesterday claimed a police car that killed 16-year-old Hayley Adamson as she crossed the road was doing up to 100mph.

Chris Broatch, 23, said the patrol car that ploughed into the schoolgirl was one of two that sped along a 30mph street with no sirens sounding or blue lights flashing. He added: “I estimate they were both doing 100mph. I don’t know why they were going so fast. They were going too fast to see her.”

An angry crowd gathered at the crash scene in Newcastle. As police were pelted with stones, officers subdued Hayley’s boyfriend with a Taser stun gun and arrested him. An official inquiry is taking place.

Furious friends of 16-year-old Hayley Adamson yesterday blasted police who subdued her distressed boyfriend with a Taser stun gun after she was killed by a patrol car.

Witnesses say the car that ploughed into Hayley as she crossed a residential street was one of a pair that were speeding with no flashing lights or sirens. It was not responding to a 999 call.

There were angry scenes when Hayley’s distraught boyfriend George Oliver and other friends confronted officers as her body lay in the road.

George, 23, was allegedly Tasered and arrested on a public order offence after yelling: “You should have seen her!”

Witness Chris Broatch said: “George was beside himself with grief. He was shouting at the police – but they went too far by Tasering him. He should have been grieving for Hayley but instead he was stuck in a police cell.”

Chris, 23, told how he watched in horror from his living room window as the marked patrol car hit Hayley, of Fenham, Newcastle.

He added: “I could see the police cars approaching at high speed.

“I don’t know why they were going so fast, without blue lights or sirens on.

Hayley stepped in the road and the car came over the brow of the hill and hit her.

I ran outside in my boxer shorts. The driver of the police car had got out and was saying ‘It’s my fault’ and holding his hands up in the air.

“He was shaking violently and was very upset. He was taken away in a police van.

“It’s amazing he didn’t see her as she was dressed all in white She was thrown into the air as high as the lamppost.“

David Forrest, 20, was one of six friends with Hayley when she was hit on Monday at 11.20pm – on a road with a 30mph limit.

He said: “I was at the front of the group and as I crossed I looked both ways but could not see any vehicles coming.

“Hayley was right behind me but as I reached the kerb I heard an almighty bang. I turned round to look and a police car had hit Hayley and thrown her about 50ft down the road. It came out of nowhere. There were two patrol cars and neither had flashing lights on or sirens going.

“The car that hit Hayley didn’t even have headlights on. I knew straight away that she was dead.”

David added: “After the crash loads of Hayley’s friends came to the scene and when they heard what had happened they were going mad at the police.

“The police called in backup and a bit of trouble started.

“Hayley’s boyfriend George, who is heartbroken, was Tasered by the police and arrested. It was out of order for the police to do that to a grieving man.”

Shannon Thorpe, 13, also claimed the car that hit Hayley had no headlights on. She said: “I didn’t have time to shout for Hayley to get out of the way.

She let out a terrible scream.” Hayley, who lived with her mum, died a few hours before she was due to sit her GCSE English exam.

Police were pelted with bricks in the wake of the accident.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission yesterday launched an investigation into the crash and George’s arrest. He was yesterday released without charge.

The officer in the crash has been sent off duty. Police said the cars were not responding to a 999 call. They said the crash officer’s Number Plate Recognition System had identified a suspicious car.

Chief Superintendent Paul Weir, of Northumbria Police, said: “There were a number of incidents following the collision and understandably emotions were running high.

“However, we cannot tolerate that emotion spilling over into violence and disorder.”

He appealed for calm and said the officer in the crash would be “investigated in due course”.

After waiting around in immigration and customs hell for some ten hours, unable to speak or understand English and clearly disturbed, Dziekański was tasered to death within a minute of police arriving on the scene.

Yesterday, Dziekański’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, appeared at the public inquiry into taser use across Canada and specifically into the death of her son.

From the Toronto Star:

Tearful mom urges end to police Taser use

“Mr. Commissioner, my confidence and faith in the RCMP and Canadian authorities are shattered,” she said, dabbing at tears with a handkerchief.

“I was shocked and distressed to learn how my son died after the tape held by police was released to the public, and the story was very different than I was told by the authorities.”

She said her son would still be alive had he not been hit twice with an RCMP Taser, when, appearing confused and agitated after spending many hours at the airport, he was confronted by four officers.

“I know that he did not deserve the treatment he encountered at the Vancouver airport,” Cisowski said.

The current phase of the inquiry is looking into Taser use by law enforcement in general. Later, the commission will look specifically into Dziekanski’s death.

Cisowski said she is eagerly awaiting that second phase.

“I want justice, truth and accountability,” she said in a halting voice in the crowded hearing room.

In her final plea to the inquiry before her tears returned, Cisowski said she hoped the recommendations that emerge from the inquiry are such “that another mother will not experience so much suffering like I do.”

She’s not likely to get justice, truth, or accountability, though at least the latter pair should be fairly simple.

One need only watch the video to see the truth of how Mr. Dziekański died: he was killed by four uniformed thugs armed with electroshock weapons.

If the inquiry leads to criminal charges against the four officers involved, which seems highly unlikely, we might discover which of the uniformed thugs actually pulled the taser triggers, making them directly responsible for this crime. It won’t matter, though, since they’ll have the clown suit defense on their side.

Justice is another matter entirely, and no amount of it is going to bring a grieving mother’s dead son back to life.