Tasers a form of torture, says UNArticle from: Agence France-Presse

[go west young man]

Source: The Daily Telegraph AU

TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared after several recent deaths in North America.

"The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,'' the UN's Committee against Torture said.

"In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events,'' the committee of 10 experts said.

Three men, all in their early 20s, were reported to have died in the United States this week, days after a Polish man died at Vancouver airport after being Tasered by Canadian police.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22814674-5001028,00.html?from=public_rss

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As America becomes more of a police state it's important to curb taser use now before more innocent people die.

[Joanne98]

1. YAY! Now make them illegal and watch the US police state bitch!

[killbotfactory]

2. They are clearly abused

*zap*
Get up!
*zap*
Get up!
*zap*
He's getting up, he must be on drugs, shoot him!

[razorman]

3. As bad as Tasers are, what is a better alternative?

Should the police go back to using strictly billy clubs and firearms? After all, criminals don't usually respond to simply asking "please".

[Fool_Me_Once]

4. They use pepper spray...

and if that isn't enough, they usually outnumber the suspect by at least 4 men. And in most cases, the suspect is NOT armed and poses no threat!
Like this man:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3899692&page=1
More cops need to be held accountable for this fiasco. Then maybe they will think twice before they pull that trigger. It's not just a fact of are they dangerous, it's also a matter of illegal usage.

[boricua79]

6. Yeah, it works everywhere else

Use clubs...at least you have the human option to subdue a person with one or two well placed strikes that can be measured and control. With a taser, you have no control...electricity has control and can kill the subject whether or not the weapon user intended that.

Or use pepper spray...

Or develop "approach" techniques that require multiple officers, to limit the risk of danger.

Whatever needs to be developed...just no more tazers.

[MnFats]

8. it is, on the scale of use of force, a point short of shooting a suspect BUT

many cops are not properly trained and many go to the taser too soon, before other measures of force. Some use it when simply talking someone down would work. it can cause death.
still, i'd rather get tasered than shot....
ok, flame me.

[boricua79]

5. thank you for this ruling

Let's see what the nativists here at home now say about the U.N.'s "meddling" in their affairs.

[athena]

7. It's definitely a form of torture; I'm glad people are finally waking up to this.

One just has to watch videos of regular people getting tasered by cops to realize this. The screams are those of people getting tortured.


from http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12455 :

You might think Tasers would fit somewhere near the “lethal force” end of that list, right before a gun. Instead, however, many police agencies place Tasers immediately after the “issuing commands” force level — which suggests to officers that using a Taser is less serious even than a push or pepper spray. Which also means that if an officer asks you to produce your driver’s license and you ask “Why?” rather than immediately complying with the order, there’s a chance, in some jurisdictions, that you could, within their rules, be hit with a Taser for refusing the command. That’s in part how Tasers have begun to be used, not as serious, life-threatening weapons, but as a bully’s tool of compliance, something to get people in line — with sometimes egregious consequences.

[sarcasmo]

9. What will it take for the Fascist's to quit using them?

After seeing some of these videos, I think I would rather get shot in the leg than tasered.