Diabetic wants to see Taser tape

[struggle4progress]

Tom Gruver doesn't know what happened to him June 17, 2003.

Locked in a diabetic trance that afternoon, he says his only memory of a confrontation with Carlisle Police is the pain of being shot with a Taser three times when they mistook him for a drunk. <snip>

.. Steve Rinesmith .. says he was on his way home when he saw Gruver laying in the Sheetz parking lot. He stopped to assist, but instead stood by and watched as police activated Taser devices. <snip>

.. the Roanoke Times in Virginia reported lawsuit settlements in both that state and Connecticut after an Ultron II stun gun was used on an inmate in diabetic shock. Lawrence "Larry" Frazier, 50, went into a coma and died five days after guards at Wallens Ridge State Prison inflicted the shocks. <snip>

"I have nothing against the police force, but poor Tom was just lying there in the parking lot getting electrocuted because he was sick," he says. "They just held (the Taser) on him with the guy screaming for like 20 seconds. It was just terrible." <snip>

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2005/02/27/news/news05.txt

[Kire]

1. Is this the end of the Taser?`

It's getting a lot of negative press coverage lately. A lot.

[Poppyseedman]

6. This is really not about Tasers, per say

It's about moronic cops that are either poorly trained or out of control.

Why does it take a taser to control a supposedly "drunk" man laying incoherent in the street in shorts and a t-shirt, when three cops were on the scene?

The police dept should release the tapes of the incident and stop covering their asses for poor police work.

Are Tasers deadly? Time will tell. As for now, I'd rather see a cop shoot a taser at someone then a gun.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

2. I saw a good segment on a recent.................

Democracy Now! about tasers. Amy Goodman was talking to one of the directors of Amnesty Int'l about the brewing disaster that will come about when Taser starts selling to the public.

I'll see if I can find a link.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/25/1455244

edit: found link

[Yosie]

3. Big "Open and Shut" Law Suit

Diabetics almost always win when a cop mistakes a diabetic shock for intoxication or resisting arrest, and takes totally inappropriate action that makes things worse.

And there are some lawyers (themselves diabetics) who like nothing more then to bring such lawsuits. They have a "prophylactic" or "educational" effect.

:toast:

[Coastie for Truth]

4. Good --

I am a diabetic - and I do not Bush to cut off my right to recover for some cop's negligence.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Diabetics almost always win

There's not much the man described in this "tazing" can win any longer.