TASERS HIT THE STREETS
BEFORE POLICE ARE READY

Electroshock weapons possibly linked to deaths elsewhere

M26 TASERs, small electro-shock devices which are supposedly "less lethal" alternatives to guns or pepper spray, disable their subject's motor nerve system with a five-second, 50,000 volt/26 watt* electric charge. Kroeker seems to have made the decision to test and deploy these weapons without seeking community input. It appears Kroeker did not consult the Chief's Forum, or the Independent Police Review Division (IPR).

To make matters worse, three days prior to the Chief's announcement, police tried the weapon out on an allegedly suicidal woman in North Portland. According to the woman, police at close quarters fired "beanbag" guns and pepper spray at her prior to using the TASER. Because the TASERs look like handguns, and since police hadn't announced their use of the weapon, the suspect had no way to know that the police were not about to shoot her--and she became an unwilling human test subject.

TASERs are at best an unknown danger and at worst, two-time killers, according to a 1998 Amnesty International report ("United States of America: Rights for All--Police Brutality and Prison Abuse in the USA"). The report states, "In July, 1996, a 29-year-old woman, Kimberly Lashon Watkins, died after being shot by police with a TASER in Pomona, California. Just five months later, Andrew Hunt, Jr. died when Pomona police reportedly shot him several times with a TASER after he had been handcuffed."

Not enough independent research has been done on the short-and long-term health effects of TASERs to be conclusive. However, the September 1, 2001 medical journal the Lancet reported that three of 218 people hit by TASERs died, possibly connected to the use of the devices. The Lancet also articulated the need to study "injury threshholds" and the effects on nerves, adding that two people with no history of cardiac disease went into cardiac arrest between five and fifteen minutes after being hit with TASERs.

In addition to possible physical dangers, there is the possibility that the new devices, once readily available, will be misused as compliance, crowd control, or torture devices. After all, the police have used pepper spray and "beanbag" guns numerous times against unarmed civilians, including peaceful demonstrators.

Other "less lethal" technologies have proven deadly. The 1998 deaths of both Brian Penton and Richard "Dickie" Dow were probably related to "less lethal" OC Pepper Spray (the manufacturer paid Dow's family $10,000 earlier this year--see PPR #26), and the use of lead-pellet bag ("beanbag") guns is being curtailed nationally in the wake of numerous deaths caused by those supposedly "non lethal" weapons (see article on "beanbags" this issue).