Officers told not to Taser 'extremely thin' (FL)

[struggle4progress]

PALM BAY — Palm Bay police officers are now under orders to avoid shooting "extremely thin" people in the chest with stun guns ... Michael Hughes II, a 6-foot-3, 140-pound teen, was shot with the electronic stun gun ... About an hour later, Hughes complained of chest pains. The teen .. was sent to the hospital and .. underwent surgery to re-inflate a collapsed lung. He remained hospitalized five days under police guard ... "The emergency room doctor stated he believes the Taser probe may .. have punctured the chest cavity allowing air to enter and causing the lung to collapse," .. police Chief .. Berger wrote ...

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050618/NEWS01/506180462/1075

[Richard Steele]

1. "the Taser probe may .. have punctured the chest cavity"

WTF, "MAY have"?

What are the other possibilities?
Was his lung PUNCTURED or wasn't it?
Did a puncture just SPONTANEOUSLY appear at the exact spot the probe imbedded?

I guess I better hold these questions until LiberalNurse can get here and fill me in.:popcorn:

[Occulus]

2. I just love the apologists.

They don't realize these are told demonstrated as less than lethal which are in fact less lethal. Big difference.

Also, they compare tasers to guns. Not a good comparison, since a taser probe doesn't do nearly the same damage a bullet does.

Then, they ask if we should just take all weapons away from police. No, and police have other weapons- mace, pepper spray, etc.

Then, they compare the size of the officer to the size of the taser victim- as if police aren't ever exposed to training, or the availability of training, for disabling persons larger than themselves.

Then, they go on about how people who are against tasers are against cops in general, which sound suspiciously like the "if you don't support the troops, you don't support the president" argument the Freepers use. Odd, that.

Did I leave anything out?

Edited a silly spelling error. The spellcheck, incidentally, considers 'hos' a correct spelling.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Bullets Usually Aren't Lethal Either

But they are enough of the time that we expect the cops not to fire
their guns unless they really have to. The same should be true of
Tasers.

They seem particularly fond of using Tasers on smaller people and
even children, and zapping them over and over again.

[Voltaire99]

4. Supermodels and other anorexics, relax.

Everybody else, prepare for right wing electro-shock torture.

[Wright Patman]

5. Question for Second Amendment fans

Do I have the right to keep and bear a Taser as well or is this Star Wars-type weaponry limited to officers of the police state?

[jody]

16. Taser laws below

ATF Rulings say if a taser projectile is launched by powder it is a firearm subject to federal law but if it is launched by compressed gas it is not a firearm subject to federal law.

Taser International reports in MS Word format are a useful starting point on the topic, see State Statue Summary and Memorandum of Law.

Stun Gun Taser Laws

States where stun devices are legal but with some restrictions:
Connecticut - Legal for home use, carrying prohibited.
Florida - Legal, subject to restrictions.
Illinois - Legal, subject to restrictions.
Indiana - Legal, subject to restrictions.
North Carolina - Legal, subject to restrictions.
North Dakota - Legal, subject to restrictions.
Ohio - Legal, subject to restrictions.
Washington - Legal, subject to restrictions.

States where stun devices are illegal:
Hawaii
Massachusetts
Michigan
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
Wisconsin

Cities where stun devices are illegal:
Annapolis, MD
Baltimore, MD
Howard County, MD
Chicago, IL
Denison / Crawford County, IA (*According to Sheriff Tom Hogan*)
District Of Columbia
Philadelphia, PA

[realcountrymusic]

6. I have to say it

No I don't.

rcm

[shockra]

7. Hmmm...

I guess that's why Taser International is going to prove Tasers don't kill people by doing tests on pigs.

[gorbal]

8. Stop calling the police "pigs"

Don't forget that the police union supported Kerry in the last election:)

[struggle4progress]

11. The poster was talking about ordinary (farm animal) pigs. eom

[truthisfreedom]

9. Tazers are deadly. there's no question anymore. first off, these devices

MUST be marked as 'DEADLY WEAPONS" with a silver warning sticker. this should be one of the laws the Democrats pursue this month. immediately!

[BiggJawn]

10. "Less lethal"...

A baseball bat is "less lethal" than a firearm, too, but would YOU want a good working-over with one? No, me neither.


Buy my Product?

[LiberalFighter]

12. What would happen if this guy was tasered up his nose?

[Maddy McCall]

14. Hahaha! That's a question I never considered.

Just the thought of it is funny, though.

[go west young man]

13. I read somewhere recently that the military had placed a

huge order for tasers for Iraq. It gives new meaning to the term "shock troops."

[Miss Chybil]

15. Stop Tasering anybody - except to preserve life. People are not to be

prodded like cattle because they won't do what they are told. The Taser is a deadly weapon.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

17. Sun Sentinal Report: Stun weapons face increasing opposition

The lives of Kerry O'Brien and Timothy Bolander ended in much the same way: Each was in a delusional rage and each struggled with police. And each died after being shocked with a Taser.

But autopsies didn't blame either death on the pistol-like stun guns, which incapacitate suspects with pulses of electricity.


O'Brien, 31, was zapped with a Taser by Pembroke Pines police in November 2003. A medical examiner said the Davie man succumbed to positional asphyxia, meaning he smothered, after experiencing excited delirium, a manic, adrenaline-charged condition that causes individuals to lapse into an irrational stupor. No narcotics was found in his body.

<snip>

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-staserissue19jun19,0,7730278.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

3 page article, lots of data. Worth the read no matter which side you're on.

[patdem]

18. The term 'excited delirium' is used to explain why people die in police

custody and ONLY that. It is NOT a real medical term...and most are full of drugs, but this guy had no drugs in his body!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

20. I posted the results in GD of a search for

" excited delirium "excited delirium" " in google news and all but one of the stories were taser related and the other was another person in custody.

Taser International actually claims that cocaine would reduce the chances of a heart attack. However, no testing of the taser has been done on humans doing coke.

[patdem]

21. Thanks, I googled too, but used 'medical term "excited delirium" and

found out it was NOT a medical term, but one invented by coroners to explain away why so many people die in police custody. I guess it is a way to white wash the deaths of people who die because of various reasons, but ONLY in police custody? :puke:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

22. It's a frikking epidemic, excited delirium.

Odd that it only seems to happen to people in police custody.

[Jamison]

19. I've always worried about tasering.

Not that I have many run-ins with the cops, but I am a bigger guy (bigger than most of the cops) & they seem to be intimidated by that, so I worry if this makes it more likely for me to be tasered.