Amnesty International criticises NZ Police trial of Taser

Amnesty

Amnesty International has delivered a shock to New Zealand police, criticising their trial of 50,000-volt Tasers in an international human rights report. The human rights group opposes the trial in this country, and Tasers' use internationally. For example this woman was Tasered and killed by police for shouting at them. This man was in bed and Tasered when he called police for help - he is a diabetic.

More Taser hits in the news

More Taser madness

wjz.com - Man Dies After Police Officer Uses Taser On Him

Teen Tasered in 05

Testing Tasers

Alleged Racism in Taser use

Police shield use of Taser from public Man dies

If you read all the above, I think you will agree that law enforcement does not seem to be any better for the public due to Taser use.

Police need psych patient training

Police need psych patient training - Queensland - BrisbaneTimes

The way society cares for its most vulnerable is a reflection of now "civil" that society is.

The goal of "civilisation" is an assumption of progress. The banishment of such evil arts as slavery is progressive. We still hear of horrible shootings, enslavements, drug crimes and other forms of marginalisation of the human quality, but we let them pass by us as though they were mere fiction.

"Real" criminals make up a small percentage of the population.

People come in many shades of personality. If we draw a line and say one group of humans are "stable" and marginalise a few as "unstable" - it would seem to sort out the good from the bad, the stable from the unstable, the trustworthy from the fiend. It is not like that, however, and the skill it takes to identify and differentiate between a dangerous situation and one that can be easily controlled is a primary skill in the armory of a guardian.

TV cops have all the intellect of great writers to provide a fiction that makes us expect most police to be extremely intelligent, loyal and trustworthy individuals. Recent exposures of the fallibility and "corruption" of the police seem to point to a culture that is unable insensitive to the concerns of the community at large, let alone able to calm down a schizophrenic or even an average human being in a panic.

Real cops have a far greater responsibility to the weakest in our society. If they do not protect and serve, as their primary function, if they are only assessed on how many arrests they achieve, then they are being managed by bean counters.

Real police become able to rescue sleeping kittens from tall trees without waking them if required, or arrest a violent offender before he attacks a pedestrian. Measure makes it a force for the betterment of the community.

Tasers risk the life of the accused. Since they have not been found guilty by a court,

Tasers are effectively torture as they inflect severe pain upon "the accused", who instantly become "the victim". To do battle with violence, it is important not to admire it.

Lawyers ask how local judiciary got Bain case wrong

Radio New Zealand News : Latest News : 200705120915 : Lawyers ask how local judiciary got Bain case wrong

Lawyers are asking the same question we ask. If New Zealand is taking over Judiciary review from the Privy Council - when our courts go it wrong with reviewing the David Bain case allowing a miscarriage of justice - what are we going to do to separate ourselves from being a totalitarian state that locks up suspects without adequate trial?

Commercial Dispatch Online

Commercial Dispatch Online

Police in Columbus tasered a suspect fleeing from the scene of a shop lifting.

Tasers are being used in the States as a weapon to capture people. In New Zealand, will Tasers be used for routine police actions?

Bain wins last appeal

Sensational victory as Bain wins appeal - New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

Legal history in more ways than one. Yet another botched murder case that resulted in a long prison sentence for an accused who has not been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

In fact the Privy Council said :

"In the opinion of the board, the fresh evidence adduced in relation to the nine points summarised above, taken together, compels the conclusion that a substantial miscarriage of justice has actually occurred in this case."

It said the convictions should be set aside.

It is the last case to be reviewed by the Privy Council in London. The last strand of Colonial rule has now fallen and New Zealand now has a Supreme Court. We hope it brings better justice.

Lung damage caused by P lab explosion causes death

Radio New Zealand News : Latest News : 200705091754 : Lung damage cause of P lab explosion death

The police assert that people, chasing instant wealth, go to the internet to find recipes to manufacture methamphetamine - these people risk inhaling chemicals that are deadly. They risk shortening their lives, considerably.

Effects of Corporal Punishment

Effects of Corporal Punishment also: Save the Children - (PDF)

Smacking is is usually the result of a parent venting their anger - and rarely does it reflect calm control and predictability that provides the context for a child that prepares them for social interaction later.

Observation of a child who was beaten in the name of proper discipline (as a two year old) resulted in a dyslexic child who learned how to lie rather than face up to problems.

It indicates that a diabolical relationship exists between parents inflicting infants with violence as control and crime becoming a solution to life's problems as the child becomes an adult.

We are not "good hats" and "bad hats". We are complex creatures who learn primarily from experience and secondarily from information. Our experiences are more powerful influences than information. Love is our most powerful interaction.

Smacking children causes problems.

Children in Rudolf Steiner education are brought up gently, with a respect for them as individuals. Smacking is not necessary.

The kids I know who were brought up in this way are socially advanced adults.

The kids I know who were brought up with early parental violence are constantly in trouble with the police.

Mild smacking or if it is very rare may have a benefit, nobody is arguing against that. But parental violence is an intergenerational madness and it is the parent that can stop it, not the child.

Taser death explained

MySA.com: Metro | State A medical examiner gave "excited delirium" as the cause of death when Segio Galvin, 35 years of age, died shortly after the police fired a 50,000 volt shock to the man who was high on cocaine. The police Tasered him three times before he was subdued. There appears to be no level where legal protection kicks in for suspects with this weapon. All the police have to do is keep shocking a troublesome suspect until his heart rhythm breaks. Death seems to follow after the heart stops. One can not readily accept the argument that a bullet is less deadly if the weapon appears to affect a level of criminal behaviour by enforcement officers.

Taser death case (USA)

According to Frost, a condition known as excited delirium caused the death of Galvan, a 35-year-old man who died in March shortly after police stunned him three times with a Taser — a conducted energy device that fires up to 50,000 volts of electricity. Galvan was high on cocaine during the struggle, Frost said.

Smacking Law

Opinion

At last New Zealand has turned an important corner.

The law change will result in some impact as people will think twice and that time taken thinking will remove much reactive smacking from the picture.

Reactive smacking is more likely to be unjust and disproportional. Parents need better tools than showing their children that violence or chaos is the way to affect people.

Like earlier social law reforms the reduction of the acceptance of violence in general is a slow intergenerational process.

That this law can no longer be an issue, as National voted for it unanimously, brings New Zealand up a few notches on the international ladder of quality of life for our children.

The new law removes the defense of "reasonable force" in the discipling of children in cases of abuse. A smart intervention by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition brought together a massive landslide for the vote on this issue with every member of the National opposition voting for the bill. The amendment does not change the nature of the change, it does not legitimise smacking or seek to define behaviours but states that police should not investigate every inconsequential complaint about a smacking that children may bring in retaliation. Parents who are successfully bringing up their families are an outcome that pushes any smacking into a gray area where the police are very likely to overlook it. However, in a fully dysfunctional war where parents seek to control their children with violence, and people risk getting badly hurt, these may now be prosecuted. Is Simon Barnett (used to be a TV personae, now a parent advocating freedom to smack children) now worried about his freedoms that he has admitted smacking his children on the TV debate? If he is not arrested then perhaps parents have little to fear from the law change. But he should now carefully read and accept the new laws that now govern the limits of his behaviour toward other human beings, even if he considers them his private property.

LPD Faces Third Taser Related Lawsuit

KCBD - NewsChannel 11 / Lubbock, TX: LPD Faces Third Taser Related Lawsuit

We have been posting links to indiscriminate Taser use in parts of the USA. When an innocent is subjected to 50,000 volts of paralyzing current, in America they can at least try their luck in the courts at the multimillion dollar lottery of judgements that go with the plaintiff against the police. If any do.

One would imagine that if the police can prove resisting arrest, then the remainder of the burden of proof naturally relies upon the result of that arrest.

If the arrest involves intentional brutality then the Taser use also seems well outside the law. In cases where the arrest is not proper or even warranted the awards could be flowing. Society's little experiment with these dangerous weapons may be an advance in the USA over handguns and 9mm bullets.

New Zealand has had police using pepper spray, batons and body armour without conflating the pressure response. Increasingly we hear of police busting drug lords with significant weapon cachets. But we do not hear of a huge number of gang warfare shooting related deaths. Criminal militia are an undesirable consequence of poverty and despair, but the police trial of the Taser in New Zealand does not afford the innocent with the luxury of trial before punishment, and exposes them to unacceptable levels of risk.

Why can the police not come up with a better method of capturing their quarry before they start shocking jay-walkers or kids or simply the wrong person. What about a net gun, or some kind of harmless sedative dart? Even tear gas rarely injures people.

At least in America the innocent can sue. In New Zealand, no go. We are "protected" by a social contract - universal Accident Compensation. Its not adequate to merely compensate for the lost work time or embarrassment or pain. And ACC would defend their fund by saying that arrest is no accident.

So our Tasered become a disadvantaged underclass. The risks of their introduction outweigh the advantages.

When is it necessary to use a Taser and not a gun? What alternatives to electric shock are there to disable a violent person? Should this weapon be in the hands of the New Zealand Police?

Officer convicted for using taser in jaywalking arrest

globeandmail.com: Officer convicted for using taser in jaywalking arrest

Yahoo! 360° - Renee's Blog - Spankout Day

Yahoo! 360° - Renee's Blog - Spankout Day