[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: A case where the taser seems to have been truly beneficial,: Police shocked a woman with a stun gun as she was holding a knife to her own throat Saturday. They tried disarming her before using the taser, but there is no mention of trying to talk her into handing over the […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: An unnamed 26-yr-old man is tasered after he allegedly injured someone with a knife before attempting to turn the blade on himself. Insofar as police have access to tasers, this violence against another person followed by potential self-harm is a case of appropriate taser use.]] News Talk Radio Twenty-six-year-old allegedly injured someone […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Professor John McNeil was threatening to commit suicide. The Acottish Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) as satisfied that, despite the fact the behaviour of the man resulted in an injury, police were justified in using the less lethal weapon to control and disarm him. He was taken to hospital for treatment […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Wider rollout of tasers in Victoria: Officers in all 24-hour stations in country Victoria will get Tasers after police trialled the devices in six major regional centres, mostly in cases of people either on drugs or alcohol or with mental illness or a combination of factors trying to do harm to themselves […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: A case of two tasers malfunctioning – leading police to shooting a suicidal woman March 18 who was wielding a knife. The shooting is under investigation. As the chief explains: tasers don’t work if both barbs don’t penetrate clothing and lodge in the person’s skin. That is a major reason why police […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: The taser dysfunctioned twice in attempts by police to stop a suicidal act, holding a knife above his head. “Officer Stephen McGree then fired three shots at Harris, killing him.” A 5th Circuit 3-person panel found the officers reasonably feared for their safety at the moment of the fatal shooting and are […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Taser to prevent suicide – in this case it worked OK, but it could have been life-threatening … . A 51-yr-old man threatened to jump off a bridge over the Hudson River. As he approached the railing the police tasered him. He wasn’t injured but was sent for a mental health evaluation.]] […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Is it ever reasonable to taser an 8-yr-old? Yes! According to this story … A South Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation determined that a Pierre Police Department officer did not act unreasonably when he used his Taser on an 8-year-old girl in October. The girl was making “suicidal comments” and holding a […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Inquests in Toronto are focusing on how police deal with the seriously mentally ill. In 3 cases (2010-2012) people in a mental health crisis were holding “an edged weapon,” a knife or scissors, and shot by police. They all died. A police college trainer testified that a Taser would not be […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : OK to taser suicidal 8 yr-old girl? While her parents were with a babysitter, a reportedly suicidal 8 yr-old girl stabbed herself in the leg and was holding a 4½-inch knife to her chest when officers arrived, and she refused to put it down and turned the knife towards an officer […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : The Pierre police chief is defending an officer’s use of an electroshock weapon against an 8-year-old girl who was threatening to harm herself. She was tasered in her with with a babysitter present. Police chief doesn’t apologize: “we can’t control if the threat is eight or 80” and the officer who […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Will justice finally be done? In September 2008 Iman Morales, a mentally ill man, was Tasered by police on a building ledge, causing him to fall to his death. The police had claimed he was violent as he was hold a long neon light-tube. His family launched a liability lawsuit. A […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Activists and other local citizens – including from the mental health community, CCLA and the ex-mayor of Toronto, John Sewell – spoke out against plans to expand police use of conducted energy weapons, or tasers, in a public board meeting at Toronto’s City Hall on Sept. 24. Need to improive communication […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Putting tasers in the hands of more Toronto police officers “has the potential to save lives,” says Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, calling the weapons a “less lethal” option for officers whose alternative might be to reach for a gun. He also cites suicide prevention. And an officer simply displaying the […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Is the taser appropriate for suicide prevention? – Not in this case! On 14 July 2013 76-yr-old Zheng Diao, who didn’t speak English, was threatening to commit suicide, with a knife to his throat in a nursing home. Police used the Taser to try to prevent him from harming himself, he […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : A brief report: Police order 44-year-old Michael Angel Ruiz to come down from his roof. They try talking him down, then taser him. He jumped down and police dragged him handcuffed down the stairs. Video shows his unsupported head hitting the stairs repeatedly on the way down. Witnesses say at least […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : (Note this is a an edited google translation from Czech – the original appears in italics below.) Brno Riot Police respond to a call from a 23-yr-old’s mother about her son who was drunk and attempting suicide. The police copme and taser him on the balcony apartment. ]] Novinky.cz The dramatic […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Last weekend police used a Taser against a suicidal man now identified as Guy Guthrie, 55. He was armed, but only with a BB gun — and died about an hour later. Mr Guthrie had been making suicidal statements, and his brother thought he was under the influence of drugs, according […]
[[Summary / Comments : This is a rare case of a US police statement that the presentation of a taser – defined as “use” in the United Kingdom & New Zealand – may be sufficient to restrain a suspect – but still the taser was discharged in 32/68 times it was drawn last year.]] Augusta […]
[[Summary / Comments : Police used a taser last weekend to incapacitate an unnamed 15-year-old boy who had been threatening to harm himself with a knife in Bannockburn. The youth was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries believed to be self-inflicted.]] May 10 2013 by John Rowbotham, Stirling Observer Stirling MP Anne McGuire […]