SubscribeUN ‘Torture Committee’ Takes On Tasers
From the New York Times:
U.N. Torture Panel Singles Out Tasers
November 26, 2007
By Mike Nizza
All news reports about deaths that follow Taser shocks seem to come with two accompaniments: outrage over police brutality on the one hand, and a lack of definitive proof that the weapon was to blame on the other. A man’s death in Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday was no different. But it happened to come a day after a United Nations panel appeared to take a stand against Tasers.
The U.N. Committee Against Torture singled out Tasers at the end of a conference in Geneva, expressing concern that the most popular model caused so much pain that use of it “constituted a form of torture.”
The panel also strongly disagreed with Taser International, the weapon’s inventor, by saying that the shocks “could also cause death” in certain cases, citing “several reliable studies” that the company no doubt strongly disagrees with.
The company’s Web site appears to contain no mention of the loaded word “torture,” although it does concede in broad terms that the weapon, advertised as nonlethal, is not completely safe (emphasis added):
TASER technology is not risk free, but Independent medical and scientific experts have determined that when used properly, TASER technology is among the most effective use-of-force interventions available to law enforcement.
Amnesty International recently called for more intensive training programs, a position shared by Taser International but perhaps more easily said than done for busy law enforcement agencies.
The rights group was reacting to another Taser incident in Vancouver several weeks ago that was captured in a disturbing video clip. A Polish man, apparently in a volatile state, was subdued at a Vancouver airport using the weapon. Later, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Taser International analyzed the video of the “tragic incident” and said that the man’s “continuing struggle is proof that the TASER device was not the cause of his death.” The company has yet to admit that any death anywhere was caused by its products.
But that didn’t stop some 1,000 people from protesting on Saturday in Vancouver, just as the more recent death after a Taser shot was announced there — the third in Canada in six weeks.
Similar protests have yet to emerge in the United States, even as similar cases pile up here. The Associated Press counted six deadly incidents last week…
Clearly the New York Times, the UN and the other “human rights” groups like Amnesty International are merely responding to our earlier question as to how waterboarding (which has caused no deaths) is deemed torture, and tasering (which has caused hundreds to die) is not.
Of course they didn’t mention Mr. Kerry.
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13 Responses to “UN ‘Torture Committee’ Takes On Tasers”
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November 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
By these standards wouldn’t the use of any weapon be torture? If I threw spoons at someone and it caused enough pain would the use of spoons be considered torture?
November 26th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Better the Blunt trauma we know than the mysterious electricity that we don’t! This is the problem with all the U.N. efforts. They simply don’t compare the cost’s and benefits of the alternatives. Is one more or less likely to be killed or maimed by a club or a taser?
November 26th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
” Is one more or less likely to be killed or maimed by a club or a taser?” Or by the total ignorance, incompetence, corruption and greed of the United Nations?
November 26th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Don’t Taze Me Bro
November 26th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
“That the company no doubt strongly disagrees with”. No doubt disagrees with ? No doubt ??
This is what passes for reporting ? Why doesn’t the lazy arsehole pick up the phone, call the Taser rep and ask him whether the company agrees with it ? Oh…never mind. What was I thinking…
Could be the web site doesn’t use the word torture because tasers were never designed or intended for that purpose.
A hickory 26-inch baton is also meant to be non-lethal though they’re not completely safe either.
I dont know if any of you have been following this witch hunt in the Canadian media but what is underplayed or not mentioned at all is that the man who died was very large, mentally unbalanced, spoke not one word of English, was throwing furniture (though I read more than one article that took care to point out that it was small items of furniture), it was 1:30 in the morning and he was upset in the first place because the dumb shits at the airport stuck him in a secure waiting area by himself and then forgot him for 10 hours.
He wigs out, and as usual it’s up to the nearest cops to suddenly be the designated bouncer -all of which was filmed by some guy who is now being hailed as a hero- and as always it looks very bad on the video.
Add to that the fact that people just love to hate the RCMP (in fact they’ve been getting get shot and killed on a pretty routine basis the last few years) and the ever putrid, disgusting CBC (successfully)leading the charge to convict these cops before they’re even charged with anything and you’ve got another media perfect storm.
Some poor coppers, who were just doing their jobs, will get their heads stuck on poles out front of headquarters -in order to appease the Polish community. This guy’s mother will get reimbursed by the taxpayers. Canadian police will have even more regulations dumped on them making their jobs even more difficult and dangerous -and Canada will have to increase it’s quota of non-English-speaking, large, mentally unstable people who wish to emigrate here (which is what this guy was doing).
Forgive me if I seem callous about the whole affair - it was a real tragedy and as far as I know the guy wasn’t a bad person. But neither are the cops who were suddenly asked to subdue him.
The CBC and the UN -when no other emetic will do the job…(there’s an ad for you).
November 26th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
DW….sounds to me like it’s time for you to move to a place that has no issues or problems like that which you described in Vancouver, B.C. Someplace like…..oh….the U. S.?
November 26th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Naw WI, then it’d just be your country getting a large, mentally unstable, non-English-speaking immigrant (eh)…..somebody’d likely taser me !
(oh, yeah, and it’s snowing again…sigh)
November 26th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Bzzzzzzt, Heheheheh.
Sorry DW I just couldnt help myself.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
tasers are torture? Listening to anything emanating from the United Nations is torture. A taser was designed to incapacitate individuals so as to keep them alive, and arent torture devices.
Yes, there are those who would use them as torture devices. Muslims routinely use taser esqe stun guns on their victims….but tasers save more lives than they take. The other choice is to be shot. That isnt torture though, because it is quick and relatively painless according to the UN.
Literally anything can be called a torture device. I can use a blender to make you talk. I am positive that grandma’s antique lamp can help you remember as you are duct taped to the bulb….by your bulbs. Pencils are torture devices as well…….placed in an ear, and then struck with a book…..like happened so often in hamlets in Nam where the NVA didnt want people to learn….household bleach is a torture device….used in conjunction with a toothpick, and an eyedropper. A ten penny nail, a childs toy truck, a bic lighter, a coffee cup, panty hose, salt and pepper, a towel, a chair…the snag’s drawers….
ALL are torture devices. My point being made here is….it isnt the device so much as it is the person using it and for what purpose.
The UN picks on tasers this week because they are morons, and have an almost psychotic need to be important. Next week, it will be handcuffs. The week after, CNN.
I digress….torture by today’s standards is a laugh. It isnt torture at all, except in the minds of spineless weakling liberals who think that talk will solve everything. Well, at least until you disagree with them, then you are a legitimat target…but you know what I mean.
Items dont torture people….PEOPLE torture people.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
“If I threw spoons at someone and it caused enough pain would the use of spoons be considered torture”
Don’t spoon me bro!! LMAO, I used to carry a spork with my web gear as an inside joke (the hot pink fuzzy cuffs is a story for later)
Now as someone who has been tazered (school), I can tell you that it is not torture. It’s definately not playtime either. You know that cramp on your toe when you wake up and it feels like it is bending backwards and hurts like hell? Imagine your whole body like that.
The basic rule of law is when cops use force they are required to use the minimum amount required to stop the behavior which required its use. The taser does this well and is safe. Alot safer than Mr. Baton and his cousin Boomstick.
Best of all, the cop goes home safe. And of course we get youtube videos to chuckle at.
November 27th, 2007 at 1:00 am
I seem to remember the media crying about suspects dying when 4 or 5 cops sat on their chest when they were trying to subdue or arrest them. Now it Tazers. Well, why dont we just go back to good old fashioned bullets?
Tazers don’t kill people, not listening to the cops is what gets you killed. None of these stories say that the suspect was on drugs, failed to listed to repeated orders by the police, oh wait, I almost forgot the media doesn’t report the facts only their story line.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:52 am
First rule of survival in a foreign country. If you don’t understand the language and guys with guns are yelling at you, stop and make yourself appear to be very, very harmless.
Only caveat to this rule is war.
Works pretty well in nations where you do understand the language, too. Except for the Rodney King’s amongst us.
November 27th, 2007 at 5:41 am
The media and the left cry about police brutality form racist cops and how our soldiers are raping Iraqi girls for their oil. But these are the same people who should only be allowed to carry and use guns.