In 2004, police and sheriff deputies in Georgia were called to Frederick Williams' house because he was having a seizure. The police arrived before the ambulance, and they arrested him. They proceed to taser him over and over again ordering him to stop resisting while he's being held down by many officers until he dies. There's a video of the incident where you can hear him pleading for his life while they kill him.
You can read the summary and see the video here. I watched the video, and one of the most disgusting things about the video is how all of the officers stand around and leer when he's first brought in being tasered. They're enjoying this man's torture.
Wizbang has more information about the incident as well as the fact that the DA chose not to charge any of the deputies in the case. Read that article here.
Better yet, read what police officers and their sadistic groupies have to say over at the forums on Officer.com:
Absolutely he deserved it. He struggled and he wouldn't comply. If you do that, there's a good chance you'll get tased.Boohoo, he was black. He could have just as easily been white.
Or
You resist, you get tased, cuffed or not. What else should the officers have done? There were many officers present, and if that many officers could not get sufficient control of a combative suspect, there is a problem there that handcuffs will not solve. Step it up a level on the use on force continuum....presence didnt work, verbal didnt work, soft hands didnt work, whats next? Less lethal weapons. IMO, those officers were justified 100%....
Nothing did happen to the police officers involved, though one news story highlights that after the incident, the cop who administered the shocks was fired, but not for this. Instead he was fired for shooting the neighbor's dog.
Maybe it didn't listen well to commands either.
Maurice,
I’m curious. Why’d you feel the need to re-visit something which happened in 2004?? You’ve already made your point (several times now) about the potential evils of the dreaded “Taser” or EID (Electronic Incapacitation Device) in the hands of a group of abusive police. Currently being Taser certified, a law enforcement/police instructor and (I think) the only cop you know, I’m going to have to chime in here. Yes, there have been some deaths linked to Taser use by police and other law enforcement agencies. Yes, there are police departments and other agencies which use Tasers in an excessive manner or have become “Taser Dependant”. In a real world translation, a Taser dependant agency or department is one who either goes to the deployment of the Taser inappropriately or one who intentionally skips or foregoes other viable “use of force” options (verbal commands, hand to hand tactics, etc.) instead, opting for use of the Taser or another EID which clearly may not be the best choice in the given situation. Sadly, a Taser dependant agency is a genuine reality in many areas of the USA and it is in these types of environments in which many (if not all) of the most notable Taser cases have come about. Virtually all of the cases you’ve ever put forth have A LOT of other things wrong with them than just the extremely poor use of judgment and excessive use of a Taser. First off any officer coming to the aid of a citizen should have been clearly notified of why they were dispatched to the home of this individual in the first place. The information you gave said that the police were there in response to the family identifying that there was a man (Frederick Williams') at his home and he was having an epileptic episode and seizures. If the police were aware of the situation and the man’s epileptic condition, Tasers should never have been deployed. If the officers were there to assist the family (specifically Frederick Williams'), I fail to see how this went so wrong, so quickly. Again, if properly informed, (and based on what you’re saying) the officers should have been there to provide assistance to the family in question and not to harm them. Why was a weapon (even a less lethal one) deployed/engaged in the first place by the police if all they were there to do was provide help on an assistance call? This leads to another question. Were the officers involved actually told of why they were there? Failure to properly inform the officers on scene can lead to serious miscommunication or consequences and in this case, this man may have went to his death because of it. Training is never a waste of time but I guess it may have been a wasted effort on these officers as they either didn’t know/weren’t trained how to handle or identify an epileptic man or they didn’t have the common sense to recognize he may not have been able to respond to their commands and he wasn’t shaking and vibrating on the floor of his own volition (before they Tased him). Either way, they’re too stupid or to careless to be cops and thank goodness at least one of them is gone. I’m just sorry that it was too late for this poor man and his family. The link you have to the video also mentions that another man in police custody had died just months earlier after being tortured (their word) with a Taser by the same police agency. If this is true, it represents a chilling trend for this department that they would not only allow but repeat the same horrible mistake, twice.
It should be noted however, that Tasers don’t conclusively kill anyone on their own. However, it IS a weapon of the less-lethal (NOT non-lethal category as some would contend) variety and should be treated as such. In virtually all cases of a Taser related death, independent studies (usually requested by the families of the deceased, and rightfully so) have shown that there have been outside factor(s) which may have significantly contributed to the death of the individuals in question. I don’t remember the exact odds but it is generally considered common knowledge that a healthy individual will suffer no ill effects (short or long term) from a Taser even during some prolonged exposure (most Taser incidents result in the exposure of electric shocks to an individual for no more than 30 seconds in total). For example, there was a man in Illinois who was a career criminal and violent felon. He attacked a lone police officer in the very early morning and it was almost 60 minutes until the officer was able to get backup to aid in handling this criminal. During the wait for his backup, the officer issued verbal commands to the suspect and each time the felon attempted to attack him, he was Tased again. The criminal in question was Tased for nearly 30 minutes (in total) and suffered no ill effects after the exposure to the Taser and this extended duration of shocks. Now, is this example an everyday situation? I hope not, nor do I believe that it should ever become one, but it does stand as an example of how one individual (with a heart condition, epilepsy or other congenital defect) may be exposed to a Taser for 5 seconds and die yet another could be Tased for 30 minutes and walk away fine.
Finally, it is a sad, sad, state of affairs if/when police on the street (and hey, I’m one of them) get so wrapped up in the B.S. “us VS them” (Us=Police and Them=everyone else) mentality that they can’t even identify a man who is clearly in need of their help and medical assistance as opposed to a genuine threat. Law Enforcement is a customer service industry. These officers have clearly forgot that basic fact, and sadly a man died because of it.
I feel the need to comment on this because I am epileptic, and Heather has called the EMTs and police when I'm having a seizure, so I feel that the spate of police using the taser on people, LIKE ME, in medical need is extremely scary.
Imagine the local police trying to subdue me with tasers because I'm having a seizure. You're not supposed to try and restrain a person during a seizure period. Here there are 6 officers holding him and one zapping him.
It was bullshit. It is bullshit.