DEATH PENALTY WITHOUT TRIAL

News item:

"Sultan man dies after being tased by Snohomish Co. deputies." You can read the details here: http://www.nwcn.com/news/washington/Sultan-man-dies-after-being-tased-by-Snohomish-Co-deputies-102220414.html

The statistics involving police use of the Taser device resulting in deaths, continue to rise.

In the past, I have seen televised demonstrations of the Taser, where police deploy the Taser on one of their own. Such demos are an attempt to provide proof that the Taser is harmless. Luckily, the volunteer survives.

However, I wonder what would have happened if at such a demonstration, the police officer experienced full cardiac arrest and could not be revived…

How many Tasers would that police department buy after such an incident?

The incident in the tiny community of Sultan in western Washington yesterday, is yet another grim statistic laid at the door of law enforcement.

In the U.S. last year, there were about 94 police related uses of Taser equipment resulting in death of the suspects. The statistics are higher when one adds other countries.

The human body runs on a very delicate electrically balanced system. Whenever that delicate balance has a severe disruption, it can increase the human heartbeat by as much as 200 to 300 beats per minute. This can result in immediate cardiac arrest. Or, the disruption can stop the heart immediately.

Some of the reports of police deployment of the Taser indicate more than one application of electricity to the suspect. In some cases, there were several shocks from the Taser before the suspect collapsed, in death.

Yeppp, Taser deployment can result in an execution by electrocution, so to speak, and that is without the benefit of trial, jury, judge, reviews, appeals, etc. In some cases, Taser use is just some “street justice by cop” – all in the line of duty, of course; and the Taser use carefully defended by the police.

More than likely, police agencies will have to reconsider the use of the Taser as part of their equipment. Eventually, there will be lawsuits decided in favor of very large monetary awards to the dead suspect’s family or relatives.

I find it very troubling that after realizing there have been hundreds of deaths resulting from police deployment of the Taser on suspects, the police continue to use the device.

If this were several hundred rupturing gas tanks on a car over a period of three or four years, the public would be in an uproar. Yet, because it is police related, there is nary a whimper.