Outlaw Law Enforcement Use of Tasers
- al: Concerned People Everywhere
- destinatario: Every government in which a taser is used by law enforcement.
If you think law enforcement use of tasers isn't a problem, you have not been paying attention.
This petition was created by Digits (http://digits.newsvine.com) if you would like to drop by and see the latest taser articles she's found. She also writes on unrelated subjects but enjoys promoting awareness of taserings as well as other human rights issues.
Please visit http://taserwatch.newsvine.com which is a repository of information, articles, and videos on real live taser incidents. Incidents, most would agree, should have never happened. People have died due to taser use, been damaged due to taser use, and law enforcement accountability is nowhere to be found.
One could argue that perhaps police need "better instruction" on when using a taser is a feasible endeavor but we disagree. At the heart of the matter belies people who think that by donning a uniform you must do what he says or else.
The Civil Rights Movement could never have happened in 2008 due to this new widespread taser use. If you have read the news accounts or stories you will see that even acts of "going too slow" have incited police to taser the citizen; Much less could an act of passive resistance be sustained without being tasered.
In short, although police will maintain that taser use is a better alternative to using guns, we ask you to ponder these real stories of taser use.
- Would the police really have shot the man they found asleep on his own couch in his own home?
- Would they have really shot the 17 year girl who was in her own room?
- How about the guy they found distraught in a Canadian airport who did not speak english? [Rest in Peace Robert Dziekanski]
- Or the [black] diabetic man they found passed out in his car due to a seizure?
- Or the [black] man who didn't pull out his license fast enough?
- Or the woman who was already handcuffed?
- Or the man at the Kerry speech [aka "the "Don't tase me bro!" guy]
- Or the kid who forgot his ID in the school library?
- Or the [black] man on the phone outside an establishment who was tasered for seemingly just being black. This abusive officer had waited until his comrades had walked ahead before doing a "walk by" tasering of this citizen.
- Or the man who was tasered for filming a warrantless police search?
Would the police *really* have shot these people with their guns?
Or, is it more likely that they want complete submission? Or because they are psychologically imbalanced? Or are human and subject to the same emotions, fear, or prejudices non-police humans are subject to? Or, as heinous as this sounds, they get their kicks?
Innocent people are dying. Innocent people are being hurt. And yes, there may be appropriate times to taser, but the police - in general - have proven they do not know when that appropriate time ends and begins.
As a governing body of our free society we, the undersigned, have an important request: Outlaw taser use by law enforcement!
We did not sign up to be citizens of a police-state and yet this is what is becoming of us. The people meant to uphold our laws and constitution are harming and killing the very citizens who believed we were living in a free and just society.
Read just some of the taser abuse incidents by law enforcement and ask yourself if one incident is enough. We, the undersigned, think that one incident of a non-threatening citizen tasering is too many.
Although police will use the justification for arming themselves with tasers that taser use is a better alternative to firing their guns, we ask you to ponder these real stories of taser use.
- Would the police really have shot the man they found asleep on his own couch in his own home?
- Would they have really shot the 17 year girl who was in her own room?
- How about the guy they found distraught in a Canadian airport? [Rest in Peace Robert Dziekanski]
- Or the [black] diabetic man they found passed out in his car due to a seizure?
- Or the [black] man who didn't pull out his license fast enough?
- Or the woman who was already handcuffed?
- Or the man at the Kerry speech [aka "the "Don't tase me bro!" guy]
- Or the kid who forgot his ID in the school library?
- Or the [black] man on the phone outside an establishment who was tasered for seemingly just being black. This abusive officer had waited until his comrades had walked ahead before doing a "walk by" tasering of this citizen.
- Or the man who was tasered for filming a warrantless police search?
These, and others found at TaserWatch are just the ones we and the traditional media know about. How about the many taser abuses that happen that we never get wind of? Many of the undersigned know people who have been abused by the police in some fashion - taserings included - that have been too scared to speak out.
That some police taserings result in death is a simple outrage and we do not think that *that* is a "necessary casualty" as we are not in a warring society. Or are we?
The Civil Rights Movement was a movement that invoked passive resistance. If that same resistance were to be employed in 2008 or for years to come until there is a moratorium on taser use by law enforcement, we wonder how many citizens would get tasered for doing so. And further, how many deaths of these same people, would it take?
Please use the power that you have to initiate a moratorium on taser use by law enforcement.
Thank you for your time and attention to this impendingly grave situation.
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