from AlterNet's PEEK:
Ohio Judge: Bro Wasn't Tased
Posted by Pam Spaulding,
Pam's House Blend at 6:13 AM on May 5, 2008.
A Summit County judge ordered the county medical examiner to delete any reference that Tasers contributed to the deaths of three Ohio men.Need I say more? Now it's come down to official scrubbing the use and abuse of Tasers by law enforcement. From Ohio, a look at where the police state is going.
A Summit County Common Pleas judge ordered the county medical examiner to delete any reference that Tasers contributed to the deaths of three Ohio men.
All three men were in an 'agitated' state and 'on drugs' when police officers shot them with Tasers, and the judge ordered their deaths be ruled 'accidental' also that any reference to "homicide or "electrical pulse stimulation" should be deleted from death certificates and autopsy reports."
Five sheriff's deputies had been indicted on charges related to the death of one of the men, who also had a history of mental illness. The judge further ordered that man's death be ruled as "undetermined" and to "delete any references to homicide and the death possibly being caused by asphyxia, beatings or other factors."
Wow. Not only the Taser reference is scrubbed, but all the other kinds of abuses common in police brutality cases! My, my. And yes, someone from Taser International had something to say about the ruling. It's after the jump.
As of mid-April, 68 wrongful-death or injury lawsuits have been dismissed or judgments entered in favor of Taser, according to the company. The company has not lost any product-liability lawsuits.
Expect the deaths and misuse to continue - and we'll hear less about it if they circle the wagons. Soon we won't have to worry about humans shooting humans with the release of this weapon of nervous system assault from Taser (it was pulled from its web site once word got out about its portrayal of "the most dangerous subjects" as a big black man).
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/84395/