print“Baron ‘Scooter’ Pikes had been confined, cuffed, and was nonconfrontational. There was no need to kill him. Nevertheless, Scott Nugent, a Louisiana police officer, stunned Pikes repeatedly with a Taser. The man was dead ‘before the last two 50,000-volt shocks were delivered,’ surmised CNN. An autopsy revealed no evidence of drug use in Pikes’ system—he had been detained for possession. Nugent was indicted this month on a charge of manslaughter.”
The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily.com column, “Don’t Tase Me, Big Bro,” where I point out that “The Taser X26 has become a fixture in the increasingly fractious interactions between the police and the people.” And that, “Something has gotten into the country’s lymphatic system—and the infection becomes most apparent in these street-level scuffles between the State and its subjects.”
You can read the complete column, “Don’t Tase Me, Big Bro,” on WorldNetDaily.com.
Updated (August 18): This story about a couple tasered on their wedding day was sent by Sam Karnick, with the following fine comment:
“Note that the article does NOT say, nor do the police say, what the real or implied contract was between the couple and the art gallery owner. It seems the couple did nothing illegal but the owner called the cops on them because he was afraid they might break something, which is not a valid use of the police nor an excuse for their use of force.”
Gestapo, anyone?
The U.S. judicial system is ultimately responsible for the rise in police violence, with at least two reasons coming to mind:
1. Police are almost never held accountable for their crimes, whether the police use a Taser or a firearm. In most jurisdictions, when a policeman kills a person with a firearm, all the cop needs to do is to state “…I was afraid for my life…” or something similar for the judge to give the cop a pass. If a citizen used a similar excuse, in the vast majority of cases he or she would go to prison.
On top of this, I think many judges are gullible and believe the propaganda put out by the manufacturer (Taser), which maintains that the device is safe, when it is clearly not safe in a variety of circumstances.
2. Judges who authorize so-called “no-knock” search warrants are a significant problem. In a large number of cases, these warrants are conducted using paramilitary SWAT teams in the dead of night, an invitation to disaster. I think that the reason SWAT teams are used is two-fold: (a) the police department has trained its SWAT team and wants to give the members actual experience and (b) the police really want to show that they are our masters, and SWAT is viewed as a good way to remind us of that.
Of course, the fact that police have large amounts of money and equipment for SWAT teams is also a problem: simply cutting off the funding would probably provide significant relief in a relatively short time period.
Ad you no doubt know, Radley Balko and Will Grigg have followed these events for quite some time.
I am reminded of the words of friend who many years ago who said that the police are nothing but hired thugs for politicians.
Thank you for highlighting one of the most overlooked problems in our society. Actually such incidents are reported, but the focus is always the “racism” or the sensational aspects (“Don’t tase me bro!”), never the propriety of the action. The actual brutalities, eventual acquittals, and the contempt with which most average Americans now view the police, are rarely mentioned. If they do come up, it is only to counter the shrieking of the Melanie Morgans of the world.
I read somewhere that if 10,000 Jews had met the Gestapo at the door with a gun, the arrest of Jews would have been called off.
I intend to do my part.
When I was a young man in my early twenties, I lived a very hedonistic, wide open, rough and tumble life style. I had encounters time to time with the Los Angeles Police Dept. AKA LAPD.Back then, Tasers were something you saw on a science fiction movie. However, what they did have was a very deadly procedure back then that was known as the ” Carotid bar arm choke hold”. One evening I had got into a altercation with another man over a ex- girl friend, and to make a very long story short, the LAPD came and took me out of my ex girl friends house at gunpoint, and then promptly handcuffed me. I did nothing at all and could do nothing being handcuffed. The other man who was into it with me approached like a rabid dog into my face and I took one step and told him to get out of my face.
That is (all) I did, and I became the recipient of the Carotid choke hold. The officer who choked me out was a bodybuilder and he broke my neck. My vertebrae were crushed and my teeth were sticking into my tongue. It was confirmed by several paramedics I knew that I was clinically, physically dead, much like Lazarus. I didn’t get buried like Lazarus, but none the less I was dead. But by God’s Grace alone, I did not stay in that condition as you can tell because I am writing this comment. I agree that the Tazer is too easily employed. The LAPD back in the early 70s killed an untold number of people. That hold has now been banned after they had no way to explain it away to the public. I think there is a place for the tazer, and it can save lives in a violent encounter with a combative individual when employed in a proper manner. But what we have seen here lately with this is absolutely detestable. Many Police dept. have chosen to emulate the LAPD’s old motto what they had written on their patrol cars—“To protect & Serve”. They need to start understanding what those two words mean. Martin Berrow
[Thank you for bringing home to us what it means to be in the grip of the state.–IM]
Last time I checked (admittedly 7 or 8 years ago) the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department still uses the carotid choke hold