(Toronto Sun) A Toronto cop who threatened to Taser two burglary suspects in the testicles to force them to surrender a cohort wept on the witness stand Tuesday as he apologized to his victims.

Const. Christopher Hominuk burst into tears at his sentencing hearing before Justice Hugh Fraser on Tuesday, while reading letters of apology.

He said his judgment and behaviour was affected by a hypoglycemic incident, which is characterized by dangerously low blood sugar levels.

Somebody get Betty a Snickers, quick, before she shocks someone's nuts!

Hypoglycemia, huh?  Yeah, that must be it.  It couldn’t be a police culture that sees the Taser not as a “non-lethal” tool to prevent injury to police and suspects, but rather as a tool of compliance to be brandished anytime a suspect commits “contempt of cop”, could it?

My good friend Pam Spaulding has been compiling “Taser Files” for years now if you’d like to read about the horrific misuse of these torture devices.

"Aren't you glad we're using non-lethal interrogation techniques?"

Yes… torture devices.  If the bad guys in “Rambo” hooking Stallone up to a bedspring frame hooked to a car battery are torturing, then so are cops using the same tactic packaged in a handheld unit.

As for “non-lethal”?  Judge for yourself.

“If you are lying to me, when I get back to the station, I’m Tasering you in the f—ing nuts,” Hominuk barked at Bolgan.

Bolgan had redness to the side of his face where he was struck, court heard.

Hominuk confronted his second victim, Roger William Bradshaw, 39, who was lying in a nearby cruiser’s backseat.

Hominuk pressed his Taser into Bradshaw’s neck and repeated his demand for the identity of the fugitive. When Bradshaw emphasized he didn’t know him, Hominuk snapped: “If I find out you’re lying, I’m going to f—ing Taser you in the nuts.”

Visit the Toronto Sun if you want to see the in-car video of how hypoglycemia affects handcuffed men’s family jewels…

"The fact is that finding a first-time. non-violent offender in prison for marijuana is like finding a unicorn." -- John Walters, former drug czar

Remember when John Walters said finding a first-time, non-violent offender behind bars for simple possession of marijuana was like finding a unicorn?  It’s a favorite tactic of drug warriors to claim that gee whiz, nobody really goes to jail for smoking a joint so it’s not like we really need to legalize marijuana.

The problem isn’t the incarceration for marijuana, it is the arrest.

February 8 – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU/SC) today condemned a recent brutal beating by two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies of a detainee at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, part of the county jail system.

The violent attack January 24 on James Parker, detained on a non-violent marijuana charge, was witnessed by ACLU/SC’s Esther Lim, who is assigned to monitor all county jails.

“We believe Mr. Parker’s beating is not an isolated incident,” said Hector Villagra, incoming Executive Director of the ACLU/SC. “Rather, it highlights the rampant violence that continues to plague the county’s jails, and demands court intervention to protect detainees from brutal attacks and retaliation. That the ACLU/SC monitor witnessed a brutal attack in plain sight is alarming and can only lead us to conclude detainees are subject to even greater cruelty when no one is looking.”

These two deputies were punching, kneeing, and tasering James Parker as he lay motionless on the jail floor in plain view of the court-appointed monitor who was there because of complaints about sadistic police abuse.

No prisoners deserve to be abused, but no cannabis consumers deserve to be prisoners, either.

It’s not a story that has anything to do with marijuana, but considering how many diabetics with peripheral neuropathy I know who use cannabis to treat the pain, this could have happened to one of ours.  Once again, police are misusing the taser as an instrument of compliance when it was originally meant to subdue a suspect who is a violent threat to the officer’s life.  I’ll say it again: if it wasn’t a situation where you could have legitimately used your firearm, officer, it’s not a situation where you should be using your taser.

(Courthouse News Service) A suburban Chicago police officer Tasered a man 11 times while he was having a diabetic seizure, and the 56 seconds of needlessly inflicted electric shock, “inflicted … while he was lying unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom, permanently scarred [him] and caused him neurological damage that has not abated,” the man claims in Chicago Federal Court.

TASER stands for 'exTra-judiciAl electrocution of SuspEct pResumed innocent'... I know, lousy acronym...

Prospero Lassi says he suffered a diabetes-induced seizure at home on April 9. His roommate called 911, and police from LaGrange Park and Brookfield responded, with EMTs from LaGrange Park.

Lassi says his roommate explained to police that he was having a diabetic seizure. Lassi “was not alert and could not move his body.”

When the EMTs asked the cops to help them move Lassi from where he was lying on the floor, Lassi says, one of his “arms flailed during his diabetes-induced seizure, striking one of the LaGrange and Brookfield defendants. At no time did Mr. Lassi intentionally strike or offensively touch any of the LaGrange or Brookfield defendants.”
Lassi says LaGrange Park Officer Darren Pedota responded by Tasering him 11 times, for nearly a minute, as he lay helpless.

He was hospitalized for 5 days, and was unable to work for 3 months because of the attack, “and his quality of life has suffered substantially,” Lassi says.

“At no time did Mr. Lassi do anything to warrant the use of force against him. Mr. Lassi was never cited, arrested, or charged with any crime,” according to the complaint.

He seeks punitive damages for battery, excessive force, and failure to intervene. He is represented by Arthur Loevy of Loevy & Loevy.

Officer Pedota must have really thought his life was in danger from the unarmed unresponsive spastic diabetic lying on the floor surrounded by EMTs and police.

(McClatchy) A federal appeals court on Monday issued one of the most comprehensive rulings yet limiting police use of Tasers against low-level offenders who seem to pose little threat and may be mentally ill.

In a case out of San Diego County, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals criticized an officer who, without warning, shot an emotionally troubled man with a Taser when he was unarmed, yards away, and neither fleeing nor advancing on the officer.

In the summer of 2005, Carl Bryan, 21, was pulled over for a seat-belt violation and did not follow an officer’s order to stay in the car.

Earlier, he had received a speeding ticket and had taken off his T-shirt to wipe away tears. He was wearing only the underwear he’d slept in because a woman had taken his keys, the court said without further explanation.

During his second traffic stop in Coronado, he got out of the car. He was “agitated … yelling gibberish and hitting his thighs, clad only in his boxer shorts and tennis shoes” but did not threaten the officer verbally or physically, the judges wrote.

That’s when Coronado Police Officer Brian McPherson, who was standing about 20 feet away watching Bryan’s “bizarre tantrum,” fired his Taser, the court said.

Without a word of warning, he hit Bryan in the arm with two metal darts, delivering a 1,200-volt jolt.

Temporarily paralyzed and in intense pain, Bryan fell face-first on the pavement. The fall shattered four of his front teeth and left him with facial abrasions and swelling. Later, a doctor had to use a scalpel to remove one of the darts.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit affirmed the trial judge’s ruling on Monday, concluding that the level of force used by the officer was excessive.

McPherson could have waited for backup or tried to talk the man down, the judges said. If Bryan was mentally ill, as the officer contended, then there was even more reason to use “less intrusive means,” the judges said.

“Officer McPherson’s desire to quickly and decisively end an unusual and tense situation is understandable,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the court. “His chosen method for doing so violated Bryan’s constitutional right to be free from excessive force.”

Remember, the use of a Taser is an extra-judicial electrocution of a suspect presumed to be innocent.  So many times I read comments in these stories where people say, “if he had just obeyed the police officer or not broken the law in the first place, he wouldn’t have gotten tased.”  While it is an irrefutably logical position to take, it ignores the crucial point of just how much force should we allow police to use when the person does break the law and disobey police?  I think reasonable people can agree that shooting a suspect with a gun is to be reserved only for situations where the officer’s life is threatened.  Given that Tasers have now been repeatedly proven to be lethal, they should have to meet the same standard of use as a gun.

Net Gun! If it's good enough for birds, why not people?

I also wonder, not facetiously, why police don’t use nets?  Big nets coated in Lester Hayes’ Stick-Um with weighted balls sewn into the corners and shot spinning out of an air launcher!  I know it sounds like a Thundercats cartoon, but I’m really wondering why this wouldn’t be a much easier way to subdue an unruly suspect?

Click here to view the embedded video.

But not because the marijuana itself caused the person to die… he choked to death trying to avoid the punishment required by the prohibition of marijuana.

PANAMA CITY BEACH (Panama City News Herald) — A man who was tased by Bay County Sheriff’s deputies choked to death on a “large bag of marijuana,” sheriff’s officials said Friday morning. Part of the incident was caught on video recordings.

Authorities said Andrew Grande, 23, was running away from deputies at the Executive Inn on Front Beach Road after they responded to a physical disturbance there about 2 a.m. Friday.

When deputies confronted Grande, they were able to place a handcuff on his wrist, and during the struggle they observed Grande attempting to place something in his mouth.

Deputies tell him to stop resisting or they will tase him, but he gets to his feet. They tase him and he immediately rips the stun gun’s prongs out of his chest. He falls to the ground. While seated, he puts his hand in his mouth and down his throat in what appears to be an attempt to vomit. When that does not succeed, Grande slaps his hand against the concrete and then both of his hands against his chest.

“I can’t breathe,” he says. “I can’t breathe.”

The deputies perform the Heimlich maneuver, but they cannot get the object out of his throat.

“Let us help you, man,” one of them shouts. “Hang in there.”

At a press conference Friday afternoon, Sheriff Frank McKeithen said the deputies did not realize at first that Grande was choking and they initially believed he was overdosing. McKeithen said Grande likely only faced misdemeanor charges if he had just complied with the deputies.

“It could have been handled by compliance,” McKeithen said. “It pretty much ended up with him taking his own life.”

Sure, Sheriff McKeithen, sure.  He should have just been compliant with his “large bag of marijuana”, which, if it were over 20 grams, would get him a five years and a felony conviction.  The sheriff said he would have just faced misdemeanor charges, but even those, in Florida, can get you a year in prison and a $1,000 fine, especially if you’re a guy with a prior criminal record, like this guy was (battery and trespassing convictions).  Plus that drug misdemeanor stays on your record and becomes part of the background check used to qualify you for loans, security clearances, government assistance, and employment.

It infuriates me when a suspect dies in police custody following the application of a taser and the police dodge responsibility by blaming the victim.  When tasers were introduced, we were told they would only be used to replace an officer’s firearm in situations that place the officer’s life and safety in danger.  I fail to understand how a young man already in police custody with one handcuff on is threatening the officers involved by swallowing a baggie of weed.  As I watch the video, as the man struggles, I see three officers – one laying on his back and holding his wrist, another holding his head, and another by his feet.

Tell me why three strong male officers can’t properly subdue one male suspect who’s already on the ground?  As the man rolls, the officer holding him maintains the hold, but the officer at the head and the one at the feet jump away!  If they grab the man’s other arm and legs, he’s not getting up!  But the officer at the head seemingly can’t wait to jump up and he’s already going for his taser before the choking man has even gotten off the pavement.

And is it possible that sending 50,000 volts through the man might have caused the choking situation to become worse?  Or would he have even run from the cops or in the first place if he’d been holding a six pack of beer?  I’m fairly sure he wouldn’t have tried to swallow a pack of cigarettes if he were holding them.

Tasers have devolved from a “non-lethal use of force” to an “instrument of compliance”.  Amnesty International has tracked 351 deaths due to police use of tasers since 2001.  Tasers have only been studied on healthy people and amount to a lethal force when used against people with certain heart or seizure conditions, people taking certain prescriptions, people with mental health disorders, and most of all, people using illicit drugs.  The sheriff said his officers believed the man was overdosing and still they went for their tasers?

(Miami Herald) BRADENTON, Fla. — Authorities say a Bradenton man died after being stunned by a Taser as he attempted to flee arrest.

Police say an officer tried to pull over 38-year-old Derrick Humbert in a residential area just after midnight Monday, but Humbert jumped out of his vehicle and started to run away through the yards. An officer chased Humbert and stunned him with a Taser.

Officials say paramedics took Humbert to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Humbert was wanted on a warrant for possession of marijuana.

I can just hear the law and order crowd saying, “Well, if he hadn’t have run, he never would have been tasered!”  Sure, because we can’t have someone wanted on a marijuana possession warrant eluding police.  Think of the danger he presents to the community!  Had he escaped from police, he might have, uh, smoked a bowl?

What motivated him to run from a mere possession charge?  In one of the thirteen decrim states, he would have only faced a ticket for his marijuana possession, something he probably wouldn’t have tried to run away from, but in Florida, he could face a year in prison for a joint and a felony conviction and five years for three-quarters of an ounce.  Even the federal government won’t give you a felony for possession unless it is your third strike.

Even then, what is the justification for electrocuting a guy over a little weed?  (Let’s not mince words: tasering is electrocution.)  Remember when tasers were introduced and we were told they would be a non-lethal way of subduing a dangerous criminal and protecting police lives?  We were told that tasers would reduce the number of shootings of suspects because police could use the non-lethal taser instead?

Amnesty International remembers that, too:

Because Tasers are often seen as completely safe and non-lethal, they are often used as a weapon of first rather than last resort. They have become less an alternative to deadly force than an alternative to less-intensive policing techniques. In the more than 351 cases Amnesty International has tracked where individuals died after being shocked, in only a small fraction –about 10 percent — of the incidents was the individual carrying any kind of weapon.

In Houston, for example, department policy has allowed for Tasers to be used when an officer feels he or she is going to be physically threatened — but without an imminent danger. Houston officers have shocked more than 1400 individuals since 2004. Hundreds of those individuals were not charged with a crime. An audit found that police shootings of suspects had not decreased after the introduction of Tasers in the city — which had been one of the primary stated goals of using the weapons.

My friend Pam Spaulding at Pam’s House Blend has been following these cases for years and there is also the excellent blog Electrocuted While Black that chronicles this horrendous abuse of police power.  This injudicious use of tasers must end!  The use of a taser should have to meet the same prerequisites as the use of a handgun in policing.  Police should not be allowed to use tasers on citizens merely because they are being argumentative, uncooperative, or fleeing, unless the citizen is armed or presents an imminent danger to the community.

Surely a guy wanted for smoking a little weed doesn’t fit those prerequisites.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t forget these Border Patrol thugs are now conducting operations within 100 miles of the border.  This is how our government is going to protect us from the scourge of Mexican trafficking of marijuana that Americans want to smoke and cheap labor that Americans want to hire.  Is this how President Obama plans to “crack down” on drug use in America?

Download today’s Daily Audio Stash at 4:20pm Pacific when I discuss the potential appointment of Chief Kerlikowske as Drug Czar with his predecessor, former Seattle Police Chief and current member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Norm Stamper.

(Seattle P-I) Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has accepted a job in the Obama administration, most likely overseeing the nation’s drug policies, according to sources familiar with the chief’s plans.

Kerlikowske, who has led the department for more than eight years, has told the department’s top commanders he expects to leave to take a top federal position, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t officially authorized to disclose the information.

Sources say Kerlikowske is expected to be named head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a Cabinet-level position otherwise known as the drug czar. The office, established in 1988, directs drug-control policy in the U.S. It’s subject to Senate confirmation.

Kerlikowske had also expressed an interest in the top job at the federal Drug Enforcement Administration but apparently has not been tapped for that post, one source said.

Kerlikowske won credit for stabilizing the police department after the stormy departure of Norm Stamper as chief in the wake of the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle, as well as the department’s initial failure to unearth a detective’s alleged theft of money at a crime scene. A genial Kerlikowske reached out to citizens. In addition, crime rates dipped during his time as chief, reaching historic lows in recent years.

Kerlikowske lists one of his accomplishments as the development of less-than-lethal force options for officers, equipping dozens of officers with Tasers. He also oversaw the installation of cameras in the department’s patrol cars.

He has been an advocate of gun control and fought to pass the assault-weapons ban and has championed closing the background-check loophole at gun shows.

Kerlikowske’s possible role in shaping drug policy for the Obama administration was applauded Tuesday by local medical-marijuana advocates.

In 2003, Kerlikowske opposed a city ballot measure, approved by voters, to make marijuana possession the lowest law-enforcement priority, saying it would create confusion. But in doing so, he noted that arresting people for possessing marijuana for personal use was already not a priority.

“Oh God bless us,” said Joanna McKee, co-founder and director of Green Cross Patient Co-Op, a medical-marijuana patient-advocacy group. “What a blessing — the karma gods are smiling on the whole country, man.”

McKee said Kerlikowske knows the difference between cracking down on the illegal abuse of drugs and allowing the responsible use of marijuana.

Douglas Hiatt, a Seattle attorney and advocate for medical-marijuana patients, said his first preference would be for a physician to oversee national drug policy.

But Kerlikowske would be a vast improvement over past drug czars, who have used the office to carry out the so-called “war on drugs,” Hiatt said.

Kerlikowske is a “very reasonable guy” who would likely bring more liberal policies to the job, Hiatt said.

Durango Herald Online
The Michigan wedding of Durango newlyweds Andy and Ania Somora came to an abrupt end last weekend after the bride and groom were tasered by local police and spent their wedding night in jail.

According to a news release from the Chikaming Township (Mich.) Police Department, Officer Jeff Enders responded Saturday to the Burnison Art Gallery in Lakeside, Mich., after gallery owner Judi Burnison asked for assistance with unruly guests at the Somoras’ wedding reception.

Burnison, who rented the gallery to the Somoras for the reception, told Enders the party had gotten out of hand, and there were broken glasses and spilled drinks.

Enders told the assembled guests to leave, but many became upset, police said. Enders called for backup, and 14 law-enforcement agencies responded to help clear the crowd. Police said that many of the 100 guests left peacefully, but several continued to be disorderly and to swear at the officers.

Skowron said the crowd got particularly unruly after police handcuffed Andy Somora’s father and put him in the back of a police cruiser. He said the elder Somora, whom he described as “a distinguished older gentleman,” was trying to talk to Enders to defuse the situation.

“I didn’t believe it, but I witnessed it. It was brutal, and that’s when Andy got really mad,” he said.

Skowron said Andy Somora had to be restrained by police and was tasered at least twice. His wife also received a shock because she was touching her husband during one of the incidents. Skowron said husband and wife were both arrested, but Chikaming police would not confirm that claim, and no mention of the use of a taser is included in the news release.

Snarky Observation #1:  unruly guests… broken glasses… spilled drinks… ah, so it was a room full of people intoxicated on the legal drug alcohol.  It’s good thing they weren’t all using some of that deadly potent “Pot 2.0 – Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed!™”, or it could’ve been mass hysteria!

Snarky Observation #2:  Elderly fathers of grooms can be so extremely dangerous. Thank god Officer Enders had backup!

Snarky Observation #3:  Officer Enders only had the backup of fourteen law-enforcement agencies.  If fifteen agencies had shown up, then he wouldn’t have had to resort to a taser.

Arrest raises questions about excessive force – NBC 15 Online
McINTOSH, Ala.) March 25 — Dramatic video caught by NBC15 News is forcing local police to answer some tough questions about proper procedure. The actions of a police officer captured on video are under review by the District Attorney for Washington County. Our news crew was in McIntosh for a different story when it caught the scene on camera. NBC 15′s Andrea Ramey witnessed the arrest.

McIntosh Police say the chase started as a routine traffic stop and quickly accelerated when Ronald Lee Reed would not stop his truck. When the police caught up with Reed, Officer Blaine Barnett fired a taser into Reed’s truck. Barnett then pulled Reed out, threw him to the ground, and punched him one time on the side of the head. The video also shows Barnett slamming Reed’s face into the asphalt street three times.

Reed didn’t spend the night in jail, though. He walked away with two misdemeanor citations for reckless driving and possession of marijuana.

Officers searched Reed’s truck, but according to a court clerk, the citation says only a “small amount of green substance (was found and) presumed to be marijuana.”

So, why use of the taser, the punch and the suspect’s head being slammed to the street when Reed was cited for minor offenses?

For more than a week, NBC15 News has been trying to get someone from the McIntosh Police to talk about the tape, to see if proper procedure was followed. The chief wouldn’t talk. The chief’s name is Michael Barnett… and he’s Officer Blaine Barnett’s father.

50,000 volts, a punch to the head, and slamming his head on concrete three times, all for a traffic violation and misdemeanor marijuana possession. We really need to get control over this increasing misuse of tasers by police – if your suspect doesn’t have a gun, a knife, or an overwhelming physical advantage, there is no excuse for the use of a taser!