From Brownwood to Jerseyville: All Police Tasers are Local !

Police Stun Gun Kills Teen With Bible
Oct 31 8:42 AM US/Eastern

A teenager carrying a Bible and shouting "I want Jesus" was shot twice with a police stun gun and later died at a St. Louis hospital, authorities said.
In a statement obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, police in Jerseyville, about 40 miles north of St. Louis, said 17-year-old Roger Holyfield would not acknowledge officers who approached him and he continued yelling, "I want Jesus."
Police tried to calm the teen, but Holyfield became combative, according to the statement. Officers fired the stun gun at him after he ignored their warnings, then fired again when he continued struggling, police said.
Holyfield was flown to St. Louis' Cardinal Glennon Hospital after the confrontation Saturday; he died there Sunday, police said.
An autopsy was planned for Tuesday.
The statement expressed sympathy to Holyfield's family but said city and police officials would not discuss the matter further.
Calls Tuesday to Jerseyville Police Chief Brad Blackorby were not immediately returned. The department has been using stun guns for about five months, according to the statement.
In a report released in March, international human rights group Amnesty International said it had logged at least 156 deaths across the country in the previous five years related to police stun guns.
The rise in deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S. law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. About 1,000 of the nation's 18,000 police agencies used Tasers in 2001; more than 7,000 departments had them last year, according to a government study.
Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office said.
Amnesty International has urged police departments to suspend the use of Tasers pending more study. Taser International said the group's count was flawed and falsely linked deaths to Taser use when there has been no such official conclusion.
The city of St. Louis also drew unwanted attention for crime this week when it was named the most dangerous U.S. city by Morgan Quitno Press. The ranking looked only at crime within St. Louis city limits, not its metro area.
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On the Net:
Taser International, http://www.taser.com
source: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/31/D8L3L5G83.html
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Tasers add jolt to law officers’ capabilities
By Steve Nash — Brownwood Bulletin

The Taser projects two electrified barbs up to 25 feet, delivering a 50,000-volt jolt for five seconds. Photo by Steve Nash
Brown County Sheriff’s deputy Scott Bird and Brownwood police officer Bryan Keith both say that they’ve had confrontations with violent suspects in which Taser electroshock guns would have been beneficial for the officers.
The lawmen will soon have what they wished for, since the officers’ respective agencies have obtained Tasers — weapons that project two small, electrified probes that barely penetrate the skin and temporarily disable a person with a five-second, 50,000-volt jolt.
Keith, a certified Taser instructor, will conduct training classes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the police and sheriff’s departments, and officers will likely be carrying Tasers by the end of the week, Sheriff Bobby Grubbs and Police Chief Virgil Cowin said.
“It’s another tool to protect us,” Bird said. “This is an awesome tool.”
The Brownwood City Council put $15,000 in this year’s budget for the purchase of the Tasers for the police department, while the sheriff’s office’s Tasers were paid for with donations totaling $12,120 from local individuals and businesses.
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‘Way too many fights’
The devices will reduce injuries to officers because a Taser can prevent a violent confrontation with a suspect who is determined to fight, law enforcement officials said. And although the effects of a Taser are described in various literature as “extremely unpleasant” and “a full-body Charlie horse,” they will help prevent injuries to suspects because they won’t be subject to baton strikes, pepper spray and other police tactics, lawmen said.
“(There have been) way too many fights, way too many officers and suspects getting hurt,” Keith said. “There’s always a better way to do things coming out, and the Taser is the latest ‘better way.’ … It is instant compliance.”
Keith said agencies that use Tasers are finding that “people are starting to comply a whole lot sooner because they don’t want to get ‘tased.’”
“Every use of force I’ve had since I’ve been here, (if) I had a Taser, it would’ve been different,” Keith said.
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Department policies
Officers will carry Tasers in holsters on the opposite side of the waist from their firearms Both the police and sheriff’s departments have put together written policies related to and regulating Tasers’ use.
“Our hope is that we never have to ‘tase’ anyone, but it’s there as one of the use-of-force options that we have,” Cowin said.
A Taser is a “less-than-lethal weapon,” according to the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice, which defines a less-than-lethal weapon as one that is designed to “temporarily incapacitate or restrain an individual when lethal force is not appropriate.”
“This is not something that’s going to be used on a routine basis every day,” Grubbs said. “If it’s apparent we’re fixing to have to fight the man, I think we’re justified in using the Tasers. It’s going to be up to the offender whether it graduates to this or not.”
Each Taser has a small camera that will create a visual and audio record every time the device is used, Bird said. “We have to be justified in everything we do,” he said.
‘No ability to move’
Keith said he began studying information about Tasers about five years ago. He said a Taser interferes with a person’s nervous system by flooding the body with electrical impulses.
Keith said he voluntarily took a Taser jolt while going through instructor school recently. When asked to describe the effect, Keith said, “It’s a conscious knowing what’s going on and knowing you want to move, but (having) no ability to move.
“I’ve been hit harder than what the pain from that is. It’s just disabling. It’s a little bit painful but it’s not an unbearable pain.”
Taser controversy
The use of Tasers by law enforcement agencies has not been without controversy. Organizations including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union have been critical of Tasers, and press reports have documented cases in which suspects who were “tased” died in custody.
Keith said studies have shown there was “more to those deaths” than the use of Tasers.
Reports on deaths following Taser use have noted circumstances including cardiac arrest associated with the excitement of a police chase and the use of cocaine or other drugs by the suspect, according to ACLU reports posted on Web sites.
An ACLU Web site cited a British study that found that while “the use of Tasers may be generally safe in healthy adults, pre-existing heart disease, psychosis, PCP, amphetamines and alcohol may substantially increase the risk of fatality.”
An Associated Press news article in 2005 cited Amnesty International as saying that at least 103 people have died in custody after being shocked with Tasers.
Taser International president and co-founder Tom Smith said in the article that medical examiners listed Tasers as a contributing factor in only 15 of those deaths.
"The best they have out there is 15 possible scenarios where (Tasers) were part of a whole sequence of events, and yet we continue to get the headline," Smith was quoted as saying.
A Web site by the Suburban Emergency Management Project, which describes itself as a “knowledge exchange site for community-based learning,” posted comments from Amnesty International Executive Director William Schulz and Taser International co-founder Rick Smith — Tom Smith’s brother — on the use of Tasers.
The Web site quotes Schulz as saying Amnesty International “is calling for two simple things. First we’re asking that independent, comprehensive medical tests be conducted to determine whether there (are) certain populations like people with cardiac or neurological conditions or people on drugs who are more vulnerable to the user of Tasers, or perhaps whether there are certain applications of the Taser gun, say firing multiple times, that increase the danger of a subject dying.
“And second, we are simply asking that when those tests are completed, police departments adopt guidelines and protocols for the use of Tasers that are consistent with those recommendations, that minimize the risks that people will die or suffer severe injury after they have been Tased.’”
The site quotes Smith: “Over the past decade Amnesty (International) has continuously called for a ban of all electroshock weapons including Tasers. But we are very glad to see that over the last year we’ve see a migration in that position to a more reasonable one of pushing for research.”
Tests by government agencies have concluded that Tasers aren’t risk-free, Smith was quoted as saying. “Tasers cause stress… but anything the police do is going to be stressful when you’re taking someone into arrest, any use of force. And ours is less stressful and less dangerous than the alternatives …” Smith is quoted on the Web site.
“I can get you figures on how many people have been saved (by Tasers) from being shot,” Brown County Sheriff’s Lt. Ellis Johnson said. “It’s a life-saving thing. It’s another tool we can use rather than deadly force.”

source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2006/10/29/news/news02.txt