I fear these new deadly toys for the boys (mostly) are all over the place--and here to stay!!
WKBBronx@aol.com wrote:
> Taser time on America's public lands
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> The U.S. Forest Service 'is experiencing confusion and drift in its central identity and direction, and ambiguity in the way it allocates power and responsibility,' a recent survey of Forest Service workers found
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> Bill Berkowitz, Media Transparency, October 29, 2007
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http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=217>
> At about the same time University of Florida student Andrew Meyer was getting tasered by overly heated campus security guards during an appearance by Sen. John Kerry, TASER International Inc. announced that it had received an order from the United States Forest Service for 700 TASER (r) X26 electronic control devices and related accessories.
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> "We are excited about this new additional federal agency purchasing TASER technology to protect life," said Tom Smith, Chairman and Founder of TASER international, a market leader in advanced electronic control devices. "Traditionally, we have focused law enforcement sales at the local and state level, but we are now seeing acceptance of TASER technology at various federal law enforcement agencies."
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> John C. Twiss, director of the service's law-enforcement branch, said that after years of studying the devices, it would give its 700 officers, who police 153 national forests, "an option other than deadly force in certain law-enforcement situations."
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> Is the Forest Service expecting an influx of anti-war protesters? Will the tasers be used against environmentalists protesting excessive logging? Are the animals in the wild in for some stunning surprises?
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> "The Forest Service will likely justify this order by saying that the forests are a dangerous place filled with marijuana growers, meth lab workers and illegal aliens," Scott Silver, the executive director of Wild Wilderness, an Oregon-based grassroots environmental organization, said in an e-mail interview.
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> "I'd say that the Forest Service is simply looking to further build up its police capabilities and to be better positioned to act violently, albeit non-lethally, when it feels justified in so doing," Silver pointed out.
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http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=217>