Police Officers Are Being Turned Into Shock Troops

In 1998, police departments across the United States began using tasers. They were deployed as a way to deal with violent suspects, without having to resort to the deadly force of a gun. However, tasers are now being used more and more in a pre-emptive manner to subdue non-violent individuals.

Today, there are more than 11,500 U.S. police departments armed with tasers.

On Nov. 15, 2008, Gladwyn Taft Russ III along with other pallbearers, was pushing his father´s casket into the hearse when two undercover North Carolina sheriff´s deputies grabbed and tasered him.

Relatives began screaming and some fled the chaotic scene. Russ´ brother-in-law, Ronnie Simmons told reporters afterwards: "We almost dropped the casket."

Altogether, there were five New Hanover County deputies involved in the incident. They chose to arrest Russ at his father´s funeral because he had failed to turn himself in after his ex-wife filed charges against him, in which she claimed he had threatened her.

Once the ugly episode made national news, New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey told the Wilmington Star-News that the deputies would be disciplined for their actions. Causey said: "I apologize to anyone that was there. Family, friends, relatives…That was a bad decision."

On Oct. 11, 2008, Norfolk, Va. Police Officer Nick Parks shocked Pamela Brown three times with his department-issued taser. Brown who is affectionately known as the "Hula Hoop Lady," is a slight woman in her late 40´s who suffers from brain damage and several orthopedic injuries she received in a car crash, a few days before her high school graduation.

Officer Parks was responding to a noise complaint, supposedly coming from Brown´s transistor radio she plays while Hula-Hooping on the median of a very busy six lane street.

Recently, the Norfolk Police Department released a video of the incident in which Brown can be seen pleading with Officer Parks as she tries to explain that she is physically unable to put her hands behind her back. Parks then is seen shooting Brown with his taser and screaming at her to comply. Even as she lie on the ground, Parks continued to shock her.

Though Brown is never seen taking any aggressive action towards the officer, she was taken to jail and charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and excessive noise.

After spending nearly three days in jail, Brown was arraigned in court, at which time the judge set aside all of the charges and released her.

Also on Oct. 11, Margaret Hiebing, 54, was attending a University of Wisconsin football game when police tasered her for sitting in the wrong seat.

Hiebing attends all of the Wisconsin Badgers´ home games, and had simply taken an unoccupied seat, as someone else was sitting in her regular seat. Though she explained the situation to the police, they threatened her with the use of pepper spray.

The officers then forced Hiebing to the ground and tasered her in the leg. Unable to walk after being shocked, she was placed in a wheelchair and removed from the stadium.

Though police originally claimed that Hiebing was obstructing the aisle, they dropped that claim after a cell phone camera video of the incident was given to WKOW Channel 27. That video can now be seen on Youtube.

Dozens of witnesses have signed a petition claiming police misconduct in Margaret Hiebing´s case.

The aforementioned cases not only demonstrate a disregard for the publics´ safety, but just how easy it is for any of us to fall victim to this torturous method now being used by those sworn to "serve and protect."

While police departments maintain that tasers are a very safe weapon, there are many others who disagree.

In 2007, the United Nations´ Committee Against Torture released the following statement on the use of tasers: "The use of TaserX26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture, and that in certain cases it could also cause death, as shown by several reliable studies and by certain cases that happened after practical use."

In 2005, Dr. Zian Tseng, a cardiologist at the University of California spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle on the dangers of taser devices. He believes that tasers are potentially deadly because a jolt at the right moment in the heartbeat cycle, can easily cause ventricular fibrilation.

Tseng said: "There are vulnerable periods in the cardiac cycle, when shocks can cause dangerous arrhythmias."

He went on to say: "I think they are dangerous. If you are shocking someone repeatedly, it becomes a bit like Russian roulette. At some point, you may hit that vulnerable period."

According to Amnesty International, there have been more than 320 people killed by the use of tasers in the U.S. alone.