Taser Death Ruled a Homicide (OH)

[struggle4progress]

Today, the Lucas County coroner ruled the death of Jeffrey Turner a homicide. Turner was the man who died after being stunned by a taser approximately nine times in January ... He attributed .. <death> .. to Turner's pre-existing heart condition, specifically hypertension, coupled with the taser shocks and use of force by the employees at the jail ...

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/news/0412_turnerdeath.html

[liberalnurse]

1. OOPS!

:blush:

[DulceDecorum]

2. The coroner says more research needs to be done

on the link between taser use and sudden death.

Any volunteers?

[NashVegas]

3. link isn't working for me

help! help!

[Blue Diadem]

4. Here's another link:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050412/BREAKINGNEWS/50412010

Ruling issue in Taser-related death

BLADE STAFF


Multiple shocks from a Taser contributed to the Jan. 31 death of Jeffrey Turner, who was shocked by Lucas County sheriff’s deputies and Toledo police after he was arrested outside the Toledo Museum of Art, according to Lucas County Coroner Dr. James Patrick.

His ruling on the death was released during a news conference this morning. Dr. Patrick said Turner suffered from pre-existing heart disease that was most likely due to high blood pressure.

“However, since his death closely coincided with the application of multiple Taser shocks, this also contributed to his death,” Dr. Patrick said in a news release.

Because the use of force contributed to the death — Turner was shocked nine times by Tasers and struggled with officers — the manner of death was ruled a homicide. A toxicology analysis was positive only for recent marijuana use, the coroner ruled.

[collin]

5. Remember...Homicide isn't equal to murder.

Homicide means that the actions of people contributed, and is only sometimes murder. Pretty much all murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murders.

[liberalnurse]

6. Excellent point.

The Taser gets a bad rap wherein the "bad criminal" get lucky with the opportunity to defocus off their behavior.

Everyone who gets a taste of the lightening has surely earned it. Tasing is never the first choice of an officer.

[Trillo]

7. Not the first choice?

What about the guy strapped down in the hospital bed who was tasered because he refused to give a urine sample?

One reasonable conclusion from the many news reports is that tasering is the first choice of 'some' officers, who perhaps wish to mete out a little 'street justice.'

[Richard Steele]

8. "Everyone who gets a taste of the lightning has surely earned it".

That's quite a statement!

It's also simply NOT true.

That Marine in Fla. certainly hadn't 'earned' it; and the cop who Tased him just resigned because of the incident.

[liberalnurse]

10. The Taser is an essential and practical

tool of safe restraint. I have never, ever seen it misused. I believe it has possibly been misused on occasion, somewhere at sometime....people are not perfect.... The Taser whining threads make us liberals look like cry babies. Folks have to realize there are really nasty, mean, frightening folks out there and the Taser can save many, many more lives that a 9 mm.

[Blue Diadem]

15. I can only guess that you work with law enforcement in some way

then I'm sure you must hear them brag about their take downs or maybe their welcoming committees. I've known numerous law enforcement people my entire life and I've heard it. Sure, they have to write reports on their taser use, a little different than black jack days, so yeah, it's not as easy to use it and get away with it.

In this particular case, 9 times is excessive.

[anitar1]

21. Sounds as if you have traveled the country

watching people being tased. Wow.There are bad apples in every barrel. I am sure some are a bit too enthusiastic with a taser gun.Human nature.

[tblue37]

18. The 6-year-old boy,

the 12-year-old girl, the elderly woman in the nursing home who was asking for information on her friend. Liberalnurse, I am amazed at how often you defend police brutality!

[liberalnurse]

23. Then be amazed.

Please note, I do not support police brutality but effective restraint. There is a great difference.


You know how I feel about the out of control nursing home lady. We won't even go there...just agree to disagree.

[sendero]

9. You are kidding, right..

.... because if you are serious, you couldn't be more wrong.

[liberalnurse]

11. I am serious......

I love the Taser as a tool for effective restraint...

[sendero]

13. Well lots...

.. of people have died because the police think they can just taser their way out of a difficult situation rather than deal with it.

My personal opinion is that tasers have a short time on this planet as law enforcement tools. Soon, some police department is going to get their ass sued off (and deservedly so) and that will be the end of the taser.

It couldn't come too soon. Law enforcement has a job. People who are out of control need to be restrained, not killed. It's not that fucking hard to understand, or to do.

[liberalnurse]

16. I disagree.

Like I said, it is truely a valuable tool. I have never wittnessed misuse and am grateful for it's availabilty. In several close incidents where descaltion options were fruitless, I can vouche that lives were saved.

[BiggJawn]

14. Who are you, and what have you done with liberalnurse?

If you love Bernie Kerik's Cattle Prod so much, why don't you apply one to your naughty bits until they're beyond tingling, then get back to us?

The Cosh and Sap are "Tools of Effective Restraint", too. Indeed, they were favourites of the KGB and Stasi.

[liberalnurse]

20. No matter what you say,

I highly respect the Taser. If you have not been confronted by the "beastly type" then you can't appreciate the intervention. I can say, I have.

[Blue Diadem]

12. This is the guy they tasered 9 times,

The county has stopped using tasers until more research is done. They also have charged 5 officers with procedure violations related to handcuffing.

[liberalnurse]

17. It really pisses me off when there are

reported incidents of poor judgement with the use of Tasers. I would feel distressed if such "cowboy actions" resulted in the ceasation of Taser restraint. When used appropriately, they are terrific.


There should never be a need for 9 tasing.

[tblue37]

19. And yet you said that the man must have deserved it.

[liberalnurse]

22. It appears some intervention was necessary.

Following orders/commands issued by the officers were not respected ....A 9 mm would also cease the assult but was not the intent.

[TheWraith]

25. What assault, pray tell? The guy was handcuffed.

He'd already been electroshocked five times, and was placed in a holding cell. You want to explain to me how a man who's already been electrocuted, cuffed, and locked up can be such a danger that there's no way to restrain him other than to electrocute him four more times?

And oh, yeah: since you seem to believe that everyone who gets shocked is a criminal, do you want to know what this guy did to get the portable electric chair? He was on the grounds of the local museum, and he refused to allow the police to search him without probable cause. That's when they shot him. He had done nothing wrong, assaulted no one, and had nothing illegal on him. They summarily executed an innocent man.

[TheWraith]

24. Does that include the five year old boy they tasered in Florida?

Or the eight year old boy in Arizona? Or the nine year old girl? Are all the kids who have been electroshocked by over-eager cops also criminals who've earned it? There's a laundry list of these stories, and you can't tell me that any cop worth their badge can't subdue a preteen without using electocution weaponry.

I take it you haven't heard about the incident where an officer used a taser to torture a man into giving a urine sample?

Or the incident wherein police officers, summoned to the home of a teenage boy by a friend's 911 call indicating that the boy was choking, decided that the boy was acting strangely and refusing to respond to their orders, at which point they tasered him sixteen times. It was later determined that his 'strange behavior' was a result of oxygen deprivation caused by choking. The boy, for his part, was unable to recognize his own mother until a day later, and has some permanent memory loss.

There were 13 taser related deaths in just the first three months of this year. Far, far greater than this is the number of incidents of police misusing tasers. I'm sure they're a wonderful tool for taking down some people who would otherwise be dangerous, but to claim that they're never misused is simply ludicrous. There are stacks of incidents that can only be described as cowboys with badges wanting to try out their new toy at the first opportunity. It's not criminals that give tasers a bad name, it's the self-important authoritarian types who love the uniform for the power it gives them, and love the taser for the ability to inflict their will on others.