Freedom in THE HOMELAND: School Cops Are Being Armed with 50,000-Volt Tasers

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Even as news outlets across the country report episode after episode where police officers tase and use stun guns on unlikely people -- the pregnant woman at a baptism in Virginia or the 72-year-old woman in a Texas traffic stop -- more and more police officers are being given tasers to carry into schools. And not just on college campuses; middle and high schools across the country are inviting Taser-toting cops on school grounds.

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Is Breaking School Rules a Crime?

Last September, police officers in Hawthorne, Calif., tased an autistic 12-year-old boy at his middle school after he became "violent," launching a misconduct investigation by the police department. In June, at Penn Hills High School in Pennsylvania, a student was tased in the hallway after ignoring a police officer's orders to put away his cell phone. ("The kid refused to listen," Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton explained, saying the student then "pushed the officer.")

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'Our Premier Law Enforcement Electronic Control Device'

Last fall, police officers patrolling Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, Fla., joined the ranks of school security officers who carry Tasers. The decision followed years of controversy over the measure, which was announced in 2005.

That January, local press reports said the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office had signed a $1.8 million contract with Taser International to buy 1,800 Taser guns for city police officers over the next two years, some of which would be used by school security officers. The timing was at least partly motivated by Superbowl XXXIX, which was held at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium that February.

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http://www.alternet.org/rights/142652/a_recipe_for_disa...

[BlooInBloo]

1. Yep. Now the state-sponsored domestic terrorists can get a BUNCH of citiizens at once!

But it's for our safety, dontchaknow.

[Selatius]

2. Why are police officers serving as hall monitors?

Honestly, a taser for refusing to put a cell phone away? Really?

[Indy Lurker]

6. You nailed it,

Police should not be hall monitors.

That's the whole problem.

No matter what else a cop is doing, a cop is still a cop.

And no matter what your doing, your required to follow the lawful (non-criminal, non-hazardous)orders of a cop, such as "stay in the car", "put your hands on your head". or even "put away your cell phone"

Failure to follow orders makes you subject to arrest, if you fail to surrender for arrest, you are subject to physical restraint, including the taser.

The police should only be addressing violations of law, and NOT school rules.

That way, the police are only confronting students over criminal acts.

[derby378]

16. We must be skeptical of any move to give cops more control over their lives

If a cop attempts to give me an order, he or she must have probable cause, or I will probably challenge the cop.

Don't get me wrong. I've had my share of traffic stops, and I've never been stopped by a cop who acted like a jerk. I always hand over my license and proof of insurance, answer any non-invasive questions about my business, and listen patiently to why I've been stopped in the first place. If I'm issued a ticket, I either pay it or take the Driver's Ed route.

But if I'm filming cops who are brutalizing a suspect without any apparent cause, and one of them orders me to turn the camera off, it is my right and duty to tell him that he has given an unlawful order that I have no duty to obey. How it plays out is another matter entirely, but cops are not above the law any more than I am.

And I do want to get along with cops. Without law enforcement, modern society would tear itself asunder. But there have to be limits for cops and civilians alike.

[Beer on a stick]

3. All tasers carried by cops are 50K volts.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Comforting

[Selatius]

7. I've been hit with a 30,000 volt charge once in the university science lab.

It wasn't fun. Just one jolt made my body twitch. I could guess what 50,000 volts feels like repeatedly being zapped into you.

[Beer on a stick]

8. I've had the full 5 second, 50K 'street ride'.

Absolutely foreign feeling of no control and something approaching pain but still, somehow, not pain, and once the juice is off it's like it never happened.

Scares the shit out of somebody the first time it happens, though.

[Selatius]

10. Did they test a taser on you?

Did you also make sure to empty your bowels into the toilet before being zapped?

[Beer on a stick]

13. Newp. Anyone who carries one on duty must take 'the ride'

so as to be able to accurately testify in court about the experience.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

14. People are different

It will affect different people to varying degrees as we have seen.

It's also fucking disgusting to have such a flip phrase, "street ride", to describe such a heinous act. But hey authoritarian military mindset cretins get off on inflicting pain.

[Beer on a stick]

15. No, it's not disgusting, it's simply what it's called in regards to use....

on the streets by LEO's. There are a lot of phrases they use you might not like, but hey, if you want to babble about people getting off on pain, you go right ahead.

Grow up.

[Ian David]

5. Only because we wouldn't give them the sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. n/t

[fascisthunter]

9. holy shit... police state

[Swamp Rat]

11. k&r

[wroberts189]

12. We never needed this ever.. Why do we suddenly need it????

I do not have kids but if you do.. Do you want them ELECTROCUTED by some hall monitor lackey ?



God ..whatever happened to the Land of the "Free" and home of the "Brave"?