Monday, August 17, 2009

Taser safety issues - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Taser safety issues - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- Police Abuse: Texas police and DA accused of highway robberies!

- Police Abuse: Texas police and DA accused of highway robberies!

Police Brutality: 14 yr old girl Tasered in the Head NM

14 yr old girl Tasered in the Head NM

Taser sues Canadian government

Taser sues Canadian government

Taser International Inc. filed a lawsuit Friday in Canada blasting a government report that prompted severe limitations on how and when law-enforcement officers in British Columbia can use stun guns.

Officials with the Scottsdale-based manufacturer called the Braidwood Inquiry biased and asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to quash all of its findings and declare those involved in compiling evidence derelict.

"We provided . . . more than 170 studies, periodicals (and) reports with respect to the safety of the device and use-of-force questions," David Neave, an attorney for Taser in Canada, said Friday. "All of that information clearly indicates that when the device is used properly there is not cardiac effect. For reasons unknown to us, that information did not wind its way into the report."


The 18-month-long Braidwood Inquiry, headed by retired Judge Thomas Braidwood, concluded in July that Tasers can cause death.

In his 556-page report, Braidwood criticized law enforcement for putting the stun gun on the street with little or no independent testing and recommended restricting use of Tasers. Within hours, the head of public safety in British Columbia adopted all 19 of Braidwood's recommendations, including a ban on Tasers in non-criminal situations or where there is not an imminent threat of bodily harm.

A spokesman for the Braidwood Inquiry.....

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How California’s prisons became make-work projects for jailers

How California’s prisons became make-work projects for jailers

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Sullivan singles out California's Three Strikes You're Out law, which imprisons anyone convicted of a third felony, even non-violent offenders, for life. And behind the effort to make that law happen was one influential union: The California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

NPR reports:

In three decades, it has become one of the most powerful political forces in California. It has contributed millions of dollars to support Three Strikes and other laws that lengthen sentences. It donated a million dollars alone to Governor [Pete] Wilson after he backed Three Strikes. And the result for the union has been dramatic. Since the laws went into effect and the inmate population boomed, the union grew from 2,600 officers to 45,000 officers. Salaries jumped from 15,000 in 1980 to today, where one in every 10 officers makes more than $100,000 a year.
The state's huge prison officers payroll is at least in part to blame for the fact that California now spends as much on imprisoning its criminals as it does on educating its children, Sullivan points out.

"The notion that we are some prison industrial complex, or that we're recruiting felons or trying to change laws, is a misnomer," a union spokesman told Sullivan.

But Sullivan reported that "much of the funding to promote and push for the passage of the laws came from a political action committee the union created. It's run out of a group called Crime Victims United of California. Its director, Harriet Salarno, says they are independent from the union. But a review of the PAC's financial records show the PAC has not received a donation from another group besides the union since 2004."

Audio of NPR's report can be downloaded here (MP3).

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

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