When nonlethal becomes lethal
Wasn't taser gun made to temporarily incapacitate person that yields no firearms. How was this abuse of power justified on already incapacitated woman.
Wheelchair-Bound Woman Dies After Being Shocked With Taser 10 Times
http://news.yahoo.com/s/wkmg/20070919/lo_wkmg/14147512
Wed Sep 19, 9:38 AM ET
A Clay County woman's family said it's seeking justice after their loved one died shortly after being shocked 10 times with Taser guns during a confrontation with police.
The family of 56-year-old Emily Delafield said it would take the Green Cove Springs Police Department to court, according to a WJXT-TV report.
In April 2006, officers with the police department said they were called to a disturbance at a home in the 400 block of Harrison Street just before 5 p.m.
In a 911 call made to the Green Cove Springs, Delafield can be heard telling a dispatcher that she believed she was in danger:
Dispatcher: And what's the problem?
Delafield: My sister is waiting on my property.
Dispatcher: Your what?
Delafield: My sister (inaudible) is on my property trying to harm me.
Officers said they arrived to find Delafield in a wheelchair, armed with two knives and a hammer. Police said the woman was swinging the weapons at family members and police.
Within an hour of her call to 911, Delafield, a wheelchair-bound woman documented to have mental illness, was dead.
Family attorney Rick Alexander said Delafield's death could have been prevented and that there are four things that jump out at him about the case.
"One, she's in a wheelchair. Two, she's schizophrenic. Three, they're using a Taser on a person that's in a wheelchair, and then four is that they tasered her 10 times for a period of like two minutes," Alexander said.
According to a police report, one of the officers used her Taser gun nine times for a total of 160 seconds and the other officer discharged his Taser gun once for a total of no more than five seconds.
A medical examiner found Delafield died from hypertensive heart disease and cited the Taser gun shock as a contributing factor, the report said. On her death certificate, the medical examiner ruled Delafield's death a homicide.
The family said it plans to sue the Green Coves Springs Police Department now that it has all the reports regarding their loved one's death.
"We're going to try to compensate the estate and the family and try to get justice," Alexander said.
He said he believes the evidence weighs heavily in favor of Delafield's family and that justice will be served.
"I think that this evidence is going to show, along with some of the evidence we've collected outside of here, that there is no reason Emily Delafield should have died that day," Alexander said.
He said he plans to file a notice to sue sometime before the end of the year.
The article’s unclear about what a “taser” is.
Is it a gun that shoots electrode projectiles into you?
Or is it one of those hand-held electric shock devices?
Not that it matters. I think both should be outlawed immediately.
When I worked in the state prison system, we had tasers, but we never used them. They were too unpredictable, and did too much injury. We had pepper spray, and many other ways to subdue inmates.
I’m not saying this woman wasn’t dangerous. She was mentally ill, and was brandishing knives. My question is, “Are electronic devices the only way to subdue someone?”
What about a net? Couldn’t a couple of police offices have thrown a net over this person? Once the net is on, you don body armor and take away the knives.
This Meyer guy in Florida – a bunch of police had him subdued on the ground, and still they tasered him? A person with no history of criminal violence?
The false “non-lethal” label makes police far too eager to use them. Tasers are not “non-lethal.”
They must be outlawed.
I said it before..
Rapists can be very violent when apprehended, they don't get tasered.
Much worse are the domestic violence situations. Police regard these as the most dangerous and many officers have have been killed at the homes of these people with LONG HISTORIES - most of them.
No taser in sight.
Dr Linda L. Shelton
Tasers are deadly weapons and should be treated as such. Right now they are toys of police departments used when the officers are too lazy to properly address the issues.
Police in America are poorly trained and therefore at a great disadvantage and the public is in great danger from their poor training.
2 1/2 months in a Sheriff's academy in Cook County does not give them the knowledge or experience to recognize a mentally or physically ill person or to deal with the situation. Anyone who would taser someone in a wheelchair is a poorly trained robotic thug.
These unfortunate officers have been turned into thugs by their inappropriate and short training where they are brainwashed into thinking that tasers should be used like water and are harmless.
Taser use should be limited to highly trained officers who have extensive training in recognizing mental and physical illness and well-trained officers who know how to de-escalate a situation and who know martial arts and the use of batons should be used first.
Why didn't they simply leave this woman alone until she burned herself out in exhaustion or used their batons to knock the weapons away, etc. Any well trained martial artist or military officer could have advised the police in this situation.